ASICS GEL TREADMILL

"GIVE ME the moonlight, give me the girl, and leave the rest to me" - the song that became Frankie Vaughan's signature tune and gave him the public nickname of "Mr Moonlight", would hardly have trademarked the young pop singer as perhaps variety's last great all- round entertainer without the devoted coaching in style and the technique of top-hat twirling and patent-leather high-kicking given him by an old lady, still top of the bill in Vaughan's early years, Miss Hetty King.
Hetty, born in 1883, gracing the music halls since 1897, became a male impersonator in 1905. The switch made her a star, and, dressed as a merchant seaman for "All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor", during which she carefully ignited her pipe, or strutting the stage in top hat and tails singing the praises of Piccadilly, "the playground of the gay", she sang her immaculate act almost to her end, which came in 1972 at the age of 89.
Frankie Vaughan met her during a run of New Stars and Old Favourites - he was new, Hetty was, frankly, old - and became utterly captivated by her performance. Certainly without her interest in him and constant coaching in her top- hat-and-tails technique, he would never have become that star so well remembered.
Born Frank Abelson in Liverpool in 1928, the son of an upholsterer, he was clearly a smart lad. He won a scholarship to the Lancaster College of Art and a place at Leeds University. Called up towards the end of the Second World War, he joined the RAMC, where he spent some of his three- and-a-half-year enlistment taking his first steps into the world of entertainment, singing in a number of camp concerts backed by station dance bands.
Demobbed in 1949, he enrolled at Leeds College of Art as a student teacher. Every year the students presented their own revue at the Empire Theatre, and Frankie, remembering how he had enjoyed his odd spot of singing whilst in the Army, volunteered to take part. The theatre manager was much impressed and advised him to seek out Billy Marsh, who handled such newcomers to show business as Norman Wisdom and Joan Regan. Vaughan said thanks but no thanks, preferring the somewhat safer world of commercial art. He left the art college and took a freelance job designing a stand for the Furniture Exhibition at Earls Court. He was paid 30 guineas, a more than fair fee for those days. Unfortunately, further well-paid commissions were not forthcoming.
Remembering the enthusiasm of the Empire manager, Vaughan got him to write a letter of introduction to Billy Marsh. The reply was for him to come to London in one month when auditions would be held. Too impatient to wait, Vaughan took a train to town and marched into Marsh's office singing at the top of his voice. Marsh was less than amused: he was holding a business conference at the time.
However, sensing something in the young man's voice, he advised him to hire a pianist and a rehearsal room and he would come and listen. One hour in a room containing nothing else than a piano and a stool cost Vaughan all of half-a-crown (121/2 pence), but it was well worth it. He sang the Donald Peers hit "Powder Your Face With Sunshine" and Marsh enjoyed it, promptly booking him into the Kingston Empire for a week. Top of the bill was the cockney comedian Jimmy Wheeler ("Aye-aye! That's yer lot!"). The day after his debut, the Tuesday, Vaughan was shifted from opening turn to closing the first half of the bill. Frankie Vaughan had arrived.
By the end of his first year touring the variety halls, Vaughan was earning pounds 150 a week. He had also met Hetty King, whilst appearing as one of the new stars in New Stars and Old Favourites. The encounter would change Vaughan's style for the rest of his career, beginning with the single old-style top-hat-and-tails high- kicking number as a kind of encore and finally virtually taking over his entire act.
It was while singing in Glasgow that he found an old sheet music of "Give Me the Moonlight", a Victorian song sung by the old-time comedian Fred Barnes, who had died in 1938. Vaughan made the song his own, eventually performing it around the world from the London Palladium to New York and Las Vegas.
Vaughan entered the recording side of show business in 1950, singing "The Old Piano Roll Blues" for Decca, a cover version of the hit recording by Hoagy Carmichael, Al Jolson and the Andrews Sisters. Many other hits would follow once he had switched to HMV. First came "Look at That Girl" (1953) with Ken Mackintosh and his orchestra. This was a cover for Guy Mitchell, top man of his time. Later there were "The Cuff of My Shirt" (1954) with the Kordites, "Happy Days and Lonely Nights" (1955), the extraordinary "Green Door" (1956), "The Garden of Eden" (1957) and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (1958) with which he was up against that folksy group, the Weavers.
Vaughan's film career was

A very rare sight indeed.

I don't remember the last time I saw Ember sitting up there. She usually snoozes on the Ottoman in front of the armchair. Sam, the half-Labrador dog, must have been snoozing in her usual spot or something.

And, I really don't remember the last time at all that Ember and Luke were sleeping this close to each other, at least when they aren't both sleeping on the carpet.