Why was Hollywood singing star Dick Haymes in Blackpool?

The Gazette's Looking Back photograph showed Norman Wisdom and Dick Haymes with some of the finalists of the 1970 Miss UK Bathing Beauty Competition at the Open Air Baths, South Shore. The two showbiz personalities were on the judging panel. Norman was in a summer season show at the Winter Gardens Pavilion but what was a Hollywood singing star doing in Blackpool?

It was 50 years ago but there are still some ladies among us who remember Dick Haymes for his romantic roles in films like State Fair, Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Up In Central Park and Diamond Horseshoe, and also his 1940s ballads such as Long Ago and Far Away, It Might As Well Be Spring, Laura, and Little White Lies. Female fans of those days probably thought they would never have the chance to see him in a Blackpool summer show - and certainly not in a smaller venue like the Central Pier theatre.

It would never have happened if there had not been a punch-up between St Annes comedian Al Read and Irish tenor Josef Locke. Al was the star of the 1970 show and Joe didn't like it. In a confrontation a few days after the opening, Al put in the first punch. Joe went down and hurt his back. He left the show, probably with a more severely bruised ago, and his Blackpool-based countryman Phil Kelly deputised until Dick Haymes was engaged to see out the season. Readers may wonder how a Hollywood star came to be available for a pier show.

Well, Dick's golden career as vocalist with top bandleaders Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Harry James, followed by his own radio show and roles in Hollywood musicals, had waned. A measure of his status in American popular music was seen in his 1947 recording of There's No Business Like Show Business, with Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. In 1951 he duetted with Ethel Merman in You're Just In Love, from Ethel's Broadway musical, Call Me Madam. But his colourful lifestyle - five times married, including Rita Hayworth - and an alcohol problem, led to his bankruptcy.

There was also the problem of his nationality. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1918, to an Irish mother and English father. When his parents split he moved with his mother to the United States in the mid-1930s. After his bankruptcy he moved in the early 60s to Ireland and was granted Irish citizenship through his mother's nationality. He did concerts and cabaret work and in 1966 he married wife number six, British model Wendy Smith. His arrival in Blackpool for the 1970 summer season, joining Al Read, comedian Nat Jackley and singer Lena Martel, certainly revived memories of his golden 1940s songbook. Dick Haymes resumed his American acting career in the 1970s but was only 62 when he died from lung cancer in Los Angeles, in 1980.