Wilson, Keppel and Betty: Too Naked for the Nazis

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Soft Lights and Sweet Music (UK 1936) – Wilson, Keppel and Betty Knox – an outstanding performance with more lavish sets than usual The 1920s, the world watches expectantly, as the aged archaeologist emerges from the Great Pyramid, blinking into the harsh unrelenting glare of the desert sun. His bearers carry three bandaged figures; are these the legendary pharaohs of old? Slowly, painstakingly, he unravels the delicate strips of white linen; could this be Ptolemy, Xerxes or even the mighty Tutankhamun?" (..... screech of scratched record needle) - Voice of Barbara Windsor - "No, better than that, it's Wilson Keppel and Betty!" The refreshed BBC iPlayer image for the tribute which is still available here 2020 - R.I.P. Dame Barbara Windsor some skillful steps. Can you imagine touring without having to take cumbersome props or a troupe of dogs or performing

Another find by Alan Stafford who's rating of this goes something like this ' Great for posture and attitude but not quite spot-on for synchronisation. (Mind you, Wilson and Keppel spent a good few decades perfecting it.)' I like this version because it is part of a ballet and dancers are always so light on their feet. From l to r Celebrities Hayley Tamaddon, Suzanne Shaw and Beth Tweddle strike typical Wilson Keppel and Betty poses during their team competition on Dancing On Ice on 16.02.2014 Wilson Keppel and Betty are among the stars of my younger life, because theirs was one of the greatest gifts that one human being can bestow on another – the Gift of Laughter. In the post-war years when the hard bite of austerity had not loosed its iron grip on the throats of the British people, a Jig Dancing is peculiarly an American institution and had its origins among the slaves of the southern plantations. No white man taught the original darkies the arts of Jig or Clog Dancing... It was original with them and has been copied by those who, in the early days of minstrelsy, made that a feature of their business...," Ed. James, Jig, Clog and Breakdown Dancing Made Easy…, (New York: Ed. James, 1873). A 6-week run at the Victoria Palace for the 'Wonderful Life' Revue - image sourced from Over the Footlights Wilson, Keppel and Betty

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Duncan Gardham, 'MI5's hunt for the 'peripatetic' Nazi Martin Bormann' – The Telegraph 1 September 2009 Voice of Jean Kent - "It was just so different from everybody else. I mean, there was just absolutely nobody else doing that kind of act. It was absolutely original. My grandmother took me to meet him at Brinsworth House and I could see that he was very very ill at that time but again there was his humour, that's what I remember, I remember him very fondly." Watching television from France over the Christmas period I was delighted to see quite a few 'Speciality' type of acts featured in a Theatre/Restaurant setting. Most of the acts appearing were of outstanding quality i.e. Las Vegas standard and were breathtaking to watch and all were of extremely high standard. - compelling viewing. The triad presented pallid mask-like unblinking and expressionless expressions that gave the impression that they couldn’t care where they were or who was there, and gave off an aura of pathological boredom marinated in indifference such as is common to month old corpses..

While her efforts certainly went down well with the audience judging from the loud cheers she commanded, the judges were also impressed. In 1920 the duo travelled to Canada where they toured in a comedy tap dancing act, later also performing in vaudeville venues in the United States. By 1928 they were performing as 'The Bus Boys' [4] and in this year Kansas-born chorus girl Betty Knox (Alice Elizabeth Peden, 10 May 1906 – 25 January 1963) joined the act at Des Moines, Iowa. She is said to have married mechanic Donald Knox in 1923 and to have divorced him after a brief marriage, but there are no records to confirm either event. Their daughter Jean Patricia Knox was born in 1923 in Salina, Kansas. [5] She was brought up by her grandparents for the next 14 years while her mother worked firstly in a chorus line and then with Wilson and Keppel. [6] International celebrity [ edit ] Betty Knox (third from right) in 1944 as a war correspondent for the London Evening StandardWilson, Keppel and Betty formed a popular British music hall and vaudeville act in the middle decades of the 20th century. They capitalised on the fashion for Ancient Egyptian imagery following the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The " sand dance" that formed the highlight of their act was a parody of postures from Egyptian tomb paintings, combined with references to Arabic costume. The lithe and extremely lanky Wilson and Keppel, who wore long moustaches and make-up to emphasise the sharp angularity of their features and make them appear almost identical, demonstrated their impressive suppleness in adopting wild gestures and dancing in identical "stereo" movements, while Betty joined their antics. The act included a soft-shoe routine performed on a layer of sand spread on the stage to create a rhythmic scratching with their shuffling feet and was usually performed to the familiar Egyptian Ballet (1875), by Alexandre Luigini. Contents While I was doing a search for Alan's Book Award - I found these gorgeous sculptures by Stephen Dee 2016 - Stephen Dixon (Dee) Some Action shots for you to enjoy in the meantime - I have tried to capture the essence of Wilson, Keppel and the energy of Betty in this 21st century representation. Knox's daughter, Patsy Knox, took over as 'Betty' in 1942, staying with the act until 1950. The trio, in its various line-ups, appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in 1933, [11] 1945 and 1947. Wilson, Keppel and Betty Knox in a clip from the otherwise lost British film On the Air (1934). The clip survives in a Danish compilation film København, Kalundborg og – ? (1934)

Further proof of how this music hall act still captures the imagination is seen in a commission for a costume interpretation by the Victoria and Albert Museum details of which can be found hereStephen describes himself as 'an experienced feature writer and critic, who with his wife Deirdre Falvey (also a journalist) wrote what has been called "the definitive book on modern Irish stand-up comedy", Gift of the Gag. He also regularly broadcasts on Irish radio, doing spots based around his collection of Variety and Novelty records, and writing and presenting his own series for RTE Lyric.' More can be found here Coming in a strong third place was Mark Kirwan-Hayhoe’s Transvestite Vampire Biker Nuns from Outer Space: A Consideration of Cult Film (MKH) with 20.7% of the vote. Christopher Herwig’s Soviet Bus Stops (Fuel) came in fourth at 14.9%. In July 1944, Knox filed her first story from Normandy, as a US war correspondent working for the London Evening Standard. In common with most female war correspondents, she was expected to cover the war from a woman’s angle – with on-the-spot reports from military hospitals and articles on food shortages. However, she often bent the rules, and on one occasion, hitched a ride with the French Resistance and went Nazi hunting. [13] During this period, she worked closely with fellow war correspondent Erika Mann (the eldest child of novelist Thomas Mann) and the couple were briefly romantically involved. [14] In Town Tonight (UK 1934) – lost film, but Stafford reports that the section with the act is spliced into in one of the prints of Soft Lights and Sweet Music held by the BFI