Moonbeam dream that came true for Alice

But there are still some people who remember the Moonbeams. Alice Harland is among them because she joined the ranks of Florrie Forde's troupe in 1925.

She now lives in Pennsylvania, USA, but stays in touch with her niece, June Frear, who lives in Tong, and told her the story.

The Australian-born music hall star Florrie Forde first came to Bradford just 100 years ago next year to appear at the Empire. She popularised such imperishable songs as Tipperary, Down at the Old Bull and Bush and Goodbyee. And, in panto, she had played principal boy several times for Francis Laidler, owner and director of the Alhambra.

This brought her into contact with the Sunbeams and, struck with the idea, she decided she too wanted a chorus line of youngsters in her shows. They would have to be a couple of years older than Laidler's troupe, because she wanted them to tour Britain with her.

So the Moonbeams were born.

Alice Harland, from Arthur Street, off Bolton Road, had been impressed by the Alhambra's domes on her visits to the city. In 1925, when she had just turned 14, she saw an advert in the Bradford Daily Telegraph (forerunner of the T&A) for auditions at the theatre for girls over four foot two inches.

She pleaded with her mother to let her have a go, applied, sang California Here I Come, passed the audition and thus went straight from school on to the stage.

"We went straight into rehearsals in London for two weeks because Florrie Forde was down there. We went by train and on the Underground and always had two people to take care of us," recalls Alice.

"The first year we had two people we called Madame and Aunt Dolly - I think they were sisters - and they took care of us in a hotel."

The young Alice was soon in love with showbusiness. Her new aunts took the girls to London Zoo, and this was a first for a lot of them. So were Florrie Forde's treats - meals at big restaurants. It's hard to understand the novelty of this these days when very, very few people have never set foot in a restaurant.

In 1925, very, very few people actually had.

That Christmas the Moonbeams were in Glasgow and Edinburgh, playing in pantomime. They moved on to Blackpool and another first for Alice - the sea, which she had never seen.

On this tour Alice met two men who were to become one of the best-loved comedy duos of all time. Chesney Allen performed in a comedy naval drill with the Moonbeams. Also in the cast was a young Bud Flanagan.

Although they were on the same bill, Flanagan and Allen were yet to team up - though they did join forces to entertain the girls with a comedy magic act.

The tour eventually brought the Moonbeams to Bradford, for a fortnight at the Alhambra - but apart from one night at home with their families, the girls stayed in digs near Chester Street, handy for the theatre.

"We weren't given any money on tour," Alice recalls. "They used to send it home to my mother. I know my family were always waiting for it to arrive because - according to my brother - when it did, my mother would say: 'Alice's money's come. Go out and get a loaf'."

Apart from money for home, the girls enjoyed some perks - free seats at the cinema among them. "We only had to go to the box office and say: 'We're Florrie Forde's Moonbeams' and they let us in.

"The trouble was we always had to leave before the film ended, to get back for the show."

Dedicated professionals, even at the age of 14...

l The Flanagan and Allen combination may possibly have been inspired in Bradford.

Ben Popplewell, a Bradford stockbroker, had left the city in 1913 to manage entertainments in Scotland.

Early in 1923, Florrie Forde asked Ben if he could find her a comic to partner Ches Allen. Bud Flanagan was appearing at the Kilmarnock Palace at the time.

The two comics clicked at once. Not long after their first meeting, they appeared in a revue called Flo and Go at the Keighley Hippodrome.

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