Remembering ladies of theatre Elizabeth Larner, Margaret Lockwood, Evelyn Laye and Vivien Leigh who all starred in Blackpool

Today we credit several true ladies of the theatre who appeared in the resort.

Elizabeth Larner was born in Wigan in 1931 but her family came to Blackpool in WW2 and she attended the old Tyldesley secondary school.

She gained experience with the Tower Children's Ballet and hoped for a stage career.

In 1951 a lucky star twinkled when she was in the chorus of the West End production of Kiss Me Kate. The American leading lady fell ill, the understudy was indisposed, and Elizabeth stepped into a matinee performance.

Her success won her a five-year contract with producer Jack Hylton and she starred in the tour of the musical, visiting the Blackpool Opera House for two weeks in October, 1952.

Her strong soprano voice gained her starring roles in several West End musicals and two television series in the 1950s.

But I've noted only one other Blackpool appearance, in the 1968 CADS charity concert at the Opera House.

Tellyviewers with long memories will place her as Ammonia in the 1980s Frankie Howerd comedy series, Up Pompeii.

Previously profiled on this page, Evelyn Laye (1900-96) had a 40-year span of Blackpool appearances, starting with her role of Sonia in Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, at the Grand Theatre in 1923.

Her career revived when she starred in the musical play Wedding In Paris, which did two weeks at the Grand in March, 1954, prior to opening in London.

The Gazette noted: "Evelyn Laye's return to the musical stage is a triumph."

She replied: "I shall never forget that Blackpool was the first to applaud. You gave me the confidence to face the West End."

Her later visits to the Grand were in plays; The Marquise in 1959, The Amorous Prawn in 1962 and Black Chiffon in 1963.

Also previously profiled here was Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) who came to the Grand in October, 1941, after her success as Scarlett O'Hara in Hollywood's Gone With the Wind

She starred in Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma, at the Grand, returning four months later, and in May, 1945, she came to the Grand in an American comedy, The Skin of Our Teeth.

When Margaret Lockwood (1916-1992), Britain's favourite screen actress of the 1940s, made her Blackpool stage debut in Noel Coward's Private Lives, at the Grand in May, 1949, the Gazette wrote: "Margaret Lockwood performed a public duty. She helped to dispel the notion that film stars cannot act."

She was Peter Pan at the Grand in February, 1950, and another highlight was her March, 1961, visit in Philip King's comedy Milk and Honey, in which her bumbling husband, played by Derek Farr, stupidly invited an old school chum (Patrick Cargill) and his vacuous girl friend (Sheila Steafel).

The Gazette noted: "An uncommonly large audience for a Monday night bore witness to the magnetism of Margaret Lockwood, a star for whom the public has an an abiding affection."