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Description: | A quantity of photographs, press cuttings and programmes realting to the career of the ventriloquist, pantomime and variety performer, Sandra Wells.
Born Ruth Lilian Clarke in 1906, Wells started doing repertory at the Theatre Royal, Margate, where she played mostly comedy and character parts. She eventually went into variety, and became the flamenco dancer Janita. In 1934 she married Mark Bennett, director of the Bennett Brothers Variety Show, and she toured with them in England and abroad with a song and dance act until 1940, during which time she was known as Joy Wilby. She joined ENSA during the Second World War, and entertained troops at home and in Western Europe. In 1946 she assumed her final stage name of Sandra Wells, and became a ventriloquist, one of the very few female ventriloquists of this time. In 1953, she took over Bobby Vernon's cat costume and spent the rest of her stage career in pantomime, starring alongside comedians including Richard Hearne, Bud Flannagan, and Tommy Trinder.
Archive reference number: THM/242. (1 box) | Format: | Written / typed ephemera Press cuttings Photographs (miscellaneous) Puppets Books Audio tapes (cassette) Props Photographs (production) Programmes Photographs (portrait) Song sheets | Subjects: | Ventriloquists; Music-halls (Variety-theaters etc.); Pantomime (Christmas entertainment); Flamenco dancers cabarets | Temporal: | 1930-1969 20th century | Source: | Backstage | Address: | Blythe House, 23 Blythe Road, London,
W14 0QX | Creator: | Wells, Sandra, 1906-1992 | Identifier: | www.backstage.ac.uk/records/collection/c | Language: | en | Format: | Written / typed ephemera Press cuttings Photographs (miscellaneous) Puppets Books Audio tapes (cassette) Props Photographs (production) Programmes Photographs (portrait) Song sheets | Go to resource |
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