How the one night only shows saw chart topping American arists flood to Blackpool

Thirty years from now, someone will research a “100 years ago” page and may wonder how so many American entertainers came to appear at the Opera House on Sundays in the 1950s?

Even in this year of 2020 hardly anyone knows the fascinating story of how the big Blackpool theatre got the chart-toppers.

The Americans certainly didn’t travel 3,000 miles to appear here and, with one exception, they didn’t do concerts.

This is the story. At the end of WW2, Val Parnell became managing director of the London Palladium and began to revive it as a big name variety theatre. He looked to America for headliners.

Upcoming classical promoter Harold Fielding was starting to present Sunday shows in British resorts and did a smart deal to engage the Palladium’s American stars “for one night only.”

Harold also had a deal with the Blackpool Tower Company, owners of the Opera House, to present Sunday shows there during the summer season. The agreement was to last until 1982.

In 1946 he brought Hollywood musical stars Jeanette MacDonald and Grace Moore to the Opera House for classical recitals but his American signings soon moved to popular music, as exampled by Frank Sinatra’s 1950 Sunday concerts.

But whereas Frank had only one supporting artist, in the future Fielding Sunday shows the American artists gave short acts, headlining bills of four or five artists. There would be two shows each Sunday.

The artists would arrive at Blackpool Airport on Sunday mornings in chartered aircraft and return to London after the shows. The flights were joked about in showbiz as Fielding Airlines.

Last week’s article mentioned the first appearance of Frankie Laine in 1952, but six other Sundays also starred Americans.

In 1953 the tempo stepped up and American acts topped the bills on 11 of the 18 Sundays. In 1954 it was 12.

Having promised a list of more than 20 American stars who appeared in the 1950s, my research has come up with 30! Here they are, with the numbers of their Opera House Sunday visits.

Guy Mitchell 8, Al Martino 6, Billy Daniels 6, Frankie Laine 5, Johnnie Ray 3, Billy Eckstine 3, the Deep River Boys 3, Frank Sinatra 2, the Andrews Sisters 2, Connie Francis 2, Vic Damone 2, Charlie Gracie 2, Les Paul and Mary Ford 2, the Merry Macs 2.

Single visits were made by Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Dolores Gray, Slim Whitman, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Hoagy Carmichael, Marlene Dietrich, the Platters, Sophie Tucker, Rose Murphy, Sugar Chile Robinson, Larry Parkes and Betty Garrett, Allan Jones, the Four Lads.

Eddie Fisher also appeared in the 1995 Royal Variety Performance at the Opera House. Lena Horne and Tony Bennett also starred in the later CADS shows.

By 1960 the a new generation of British stars, aided by their TV exposure, were replacing the American bill-toppers at the Opera House. Shirley Bassey, Cliff Richard, Max Bygraves, Tommy Steele and David Whitfield to name a few.