Overview

In the mid-twentieth century, The Bluebell Girls-dancers known particularly for their height and glamorous appearance-were recognized and admired throughout much of the world. At any one time, troupes appeared on several continents in a multitude of venues: theaters, clubs, on TV, at the Lido in Paris and the Stardust in Las Vegas. In Have Chignon-Will Travel: Touring Italy with the Bluebell Girls 1960-61, Elizabeth Dale Phillips takes you with her on an incredible odyssey, starting out as a shorthand-typist in London who had never danced professionally, and metamorphosing into an elegant Bluebell Girl. She begins in Milan as a rookie dancer on a bare stage with seventeen other dancers, a pianist, a drummer and a choreographer. Over the next five exhausting weeks of rehearsals, she witnesses the creation of a polished show-a show in which over the next seven months, as a member of the company, she would tour every inch of Italy and Sicily. Elizabeth, now in her eighties, tells her story with both candor and humor. It's a tale of camaraderie and occasional strife, lots of glamour, even more hard work, and sometimes boredom, all while taking an excursion that most twenty-year-old women in 1960 could have only dreamed of.

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9781950385638

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Elizabeth lives with her husband, Bill, outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, close by the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Born in England, she emigrated to Canada in her early twenties and moved to the States a few years later, settling in California. The next twenty years were spent raising two children and getting the education she'd so carefully avoided when she was a teenager. With those endeavors behind her, her career options were either social work or accounting. She chose the latter and for the next twenty years worked as a financial auditor with the State of California. Once retired, she devoted her time to music, the piano in particular, all styles of music, both solo and ensemble. She has since dabbled in the banjo and Scottish Dancing and still dabbles in Silver Swans and any exercise class that appeals to her. Retirement was ticking along quite nicely when, after fifteen years, she dug out a hoard of letters she'd written many years ago. Discovering that not only could she write, but she enjoyed it, she wrote a story about once upon a time when she was a dancer.

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