Frequent contributor Dave Williams has turned out to be son of Albert Williams the tenor sax player who ran a music shop named Box & Co. (formerly Box & Stansfield) at 14 Water Street, Rhyl - a forerunner of Price Evans Music Shop.
Dave has supplied the following rarity, a copy of a 1951 programme of entertainment at Golden Sands holiday camp in Kinmel Bay. His father Albert is bottom left in the green picture:
Click on the image to see small print.
Also mentioned in the programme are Joe Holroyd of Manchester Rep & Little Theatre, and Angela Day who was the subject of a recent quiz question. Interestingly, Angela is listed as a BBC artiste - thereby must hang a tale as yet untold.
The following references are added here for indexing purposes: James Clark bandleader, Gordon Jones (later known as Gordon Jay), Madame Jones, Uncle Jack childrens entertainer, Punch and Judy, Jimmy the talking doll, Raymond Thornley.
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Here is another tasty item from Dave Williams, a photo taken circa 1970 at Golden Sands:
Left to right: Billy or Bill Roberts (trumpet), Albert Williams again (tenor sax, bandleader), 'Uncle Vic' Dodd (double bass), George Bazeley pronounced Bazley (clarinet), Benny Humphries (drums), and Rod Williams at the piano.
Bill Roberts taught Vic Dodd to play bass. Vic was son-in-law of Arthur Jones who owned Golden Sands and the Robin Hood camp in Rhyl. Vic ended up as General Manager of the camps.
The musicians in the photo had day jobs; they were semi-pro musicians but were players of very high calibre according to my contact, Morgan Borthwick ex-Secretary of the local Musicians' Union branch.
In agreement is Brian Pendleton who was Entertainments Manager at Golden Sands in the 1950s and then Robin Hood until 1975. Brian lives in St. Asaph; I hope to go and visit him soon and run barefoot through his treasure trove of memories.
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TUE 26th JUL 2016 UPDATE: Re: day jobs, the trumpeter Bill Roberts was a gas fitter / pianist Rod Williams had a grocer's shop in Mostyn / George Bazeley was manager of the abattoir in Ffordd Las, Rhyl / Benny Humphries lived in Rhyl and was a rep for Callard & Bowser confectionery.
This info comes from Brian Pendleton. Thanks, Brian.
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TUE 20th SEP 2016 UPDATE: To add flavour here is an old postcard of Golden Sands camp:
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