{"product_id":"pat-kirkwood-16864","title":"Pat Kirkwood - 16864","description":"British singer and actress.\n\nFor more than twenty years, Pat Kirkwood was the undisputed queen of West End musicals. Beautiful and dynamic, she was the only British star to rival Broadway's Ethel Merman for vocal power. Her fabulous legs were acclaimed by Kenneth Tynan as \"the eighth wonder of the world\" and Noël Coward wrote a musical, Ace of Clubs, for her in 1951.\n\nWhen Kirkwood was 14, an amateur night performance at an Isle of Man summer resort led to her first professional appearance on a BBC children's radio show. Five months later, in April 1936, she made her first stage appearance in Salford, billed as \"The Schoolgirl Songstress.\" Her London debut, Christmas 1937, was as Dandini in Cinderella with Stanley Lupino (she became one of the greatest Principal Boys in pantomime in the 1940s.)\n\nIn 1938, she made two films, Save A Little Sunshine in which she had two\n\nmusical numbers and Me And My Gal. The following year she starred in the George Formby vehicle Come On George (a furiously jealous Beryl Formby insisted that the lovely18 year-old have her long hair cropped, her glamorous makeup subdued and her wardrobe confined to “country jumble sale rejects”)\n\nHer last film performance was as the great Vesta Tilley in After The Ball (opposite Laurence Harvey, 1957)\n\nKirkwood's life was tainted by malicious gossip. One evening in 1948 she was introduced to and danced with Prince Philip. A week later, her mother overheard two women gossiping about how Pat Kirkwood was the Prince's mistress! The rumour persisted for decades and even appeared as fact in a 1996 biography of the Queen.\n\nThis is a stunning black and white photograph (8\" x 10\") of the beautiful young Pat Kirkwood, nicely signed in ink across the image. In mint condition.","brand":"Clickautographs","offers":[{"title":"1colour \/ 1size \/ Authentic","offer_id":57853618520396,"sku":"220","price":50.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1067\/9222\/3052\/files\/pat_kirkwood_8_x_10.jpg?v=1785520224","url":"https:\/\/midsussexcollectibles.com\/en-gb\/products\/pat-kirkwood-16864","provider":"Mid Sussex Collectibles","version":"1.0","type":"link"}