Pat Kirkwood - 12255

British singer and actress. For 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. When 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.) In 1938, she made two films, Save A Little Sunshine in which she had two musical 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”) Her last film performance was as the great Vesta Tilley in After The Ball (opposite Laurence Harvey, 1957) Kirkwood'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. This is a rare black and white National Film Archive reproduction (8.75" x 7.5") of Kirkwood as Vesta Tilley in After the Ball (1957). There's a bold signature and inscription ("To Alan, Pat Kirkwood") in blue ink across the image. There are three light handling dings on the right edge and a small area of scuffing visible to the right of her top hat but overall condition is good.