Walter with the Beverley Sisters
Walter with Liberace
Our very own Walter Walsh took us on a whistle stop tour of his time as a floor manager in the theatre. Starting in London’s west end after being ‘demobbed’, he met a whole host of stars, remembering the genuinely caring Harry Secombe, the modest Liberace, the irrepressible Frankie Vaughan, the bubbly Beverley Sisters and Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Bruce Forsyth. But with long hours, short term contracts and working more than one job, Walter explained that it was a tough life in those days. Amusingly, he informed his fellow Club members, he had even spent time in Jersey as a trapeze artist for a season after just one month’s training, having been coerced into filling in for an unwell acrobat!
Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Spot Walter
Walter and stage hands with Frankie Vaughan
Then said Walter, an offer from the Popplewell Family to manage the successful Ayr Gaiety in the late 60’s was not difficult to accept. Thereafter, he started Walsh Travel which became a well known Ayr business and only retired in the 90’s.
