Charting the A-Z of famous seaside stars who made their names in Blackpool

Appropriately, my 2002 limited edition book, charting who appeared in the resort, was titled Blackpool's Century of Stars.

The focus was - with few exceptions - on artists whose name appeared "above the title" of a show.

By following an A to Z format, different generations of stars appear in the same article. They will have appeared in summer season shows, on weekly bills in the days of variety theatres, in concerts and in plays. Let's get the show on the road with the first and last names in the book, Russ Abbot and Anne Ziegler.

Blackpool figured in Russ Abbot's rise to the top and his seven summer seasons here will be within the memories of many readers.

Born Russell Roberts in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 1947, he came to notice as the drummer with the Black Abbots comedy showband, who were multi-winners of ITV's Opportunity Knocks in 1970.

It was the group's two smash hit summer seasons at the resort's South Pier theatre, in 1976 and 77, that won them a recording contract.

In 1979 they starred for the season at the larger North Pier, after which Russ went solo with a gallery of daft characters like the orange-haired Scottish hardman "See You"Jimmy, the gangster Fatman and the intrepid aviator Basildon Bond, in several ITV series of Russ Abbot's Madhouse.

ITV viewers voted him Funniest Man on TV for three years, he was named Show Business Personality of 1987 and he topped four Blackpool North Pier summer seasons between 1983 and 92.

As a comic actor Russ starred in West End runs of Neil Simon's Little Me (1984) and Willy Russell's One for the Road (1989).

His 1992 romantic series September Song for ITV was partly filmed in Blackpool before he played Fagin in Lionel Bart's Oliver on the London stage.

His last Blackpool visit seems to have been at the Opera House in November, 2000, touring as Dr. Dolittle in the Leslie Bricusse musical.

For several years the "class act" in Blackpool summer shows were the duettists Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.

They were soprano Irene Eastwood (1910-2003) and lyric tenor Leslie Booth (1901-1984) who met while filming Faust in 1934 and married in 1938.

North Pier producer Lawrence Wright booked them for his 1940 summer season of On With the Show but it was the Opera House that saw their future Blackpool visits.

After summer seasons in 1941 and 42 and the 1942 pantomime Sleeping Beauty the couple toured to the theatre in The Vagabond King in 1943 and did several concerts during that decade.

They made a nostalgic Blackpool visit to appear in the Royal Performance before Prince Charles, at the Grand Theatre on May 29, 1981.

Also at the Z end of our list is Lena Zavaroni (1964-1999) the girl from the Isle of Bute who, at the age of 10, won on ITV's Opportunity Knocks and starred in Easter Sunday concerts at the Opera House when her debut disc, Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me, was in the Top 10.

Next week: The A list.

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