WILSON, KEPPEL AND BETTY / MUSIC HALL INTEREST, AN ARCHIVE O...

Estimate

£2,000 - £3,000

WILSON, KEPPEL AND BETTY / MUSIC HALL INTEREST, AN ARCHIVE OF STAGE COSTUMES, PHOTOGRAPHS, PROGRAMMES, NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS AND PERSONAL EFFECTS RELATING TO JEAN MACKINNON (NEE CURLEY), THE FINAL 'BETTY' OF WILSON, KEPPEL & BETTY, including a painted papier mâché and leather mask worn by Betty, a three piece blue rhinestone bejewelled and sequinned costume comprising of head dress, bra and skirt, a two piece white rhinestone bejewelled and sequinned costume comprising of head dress and bra, the costumes were made and sewn by Joe Keppel, two pairs of Jean’s pointe ballet shoes, nine finger cymbals, a white plastic recorder, a programme for the trios final season of shows at Wellington Pier, Great Yarmouth in 1962 with Harry Secombe top of the bill, they had to pull out mid-season due to Jack’s ill-health and they would never perform together again, a programme for the Royal Festival Hall ‘London Reunion’ on 3rd October 1959 with Wilson, Keppel and Betty taking top billing after a performance by The Larry Gordon Girls and followed by Davy Kaye and Mary Martel (programme in poor condition), a quantity of black and white photographs of Jean in a variety of acts and costumes throughout her career as a professional dancer, newspaper cuttings relating to her career before, during and after her time as ‘Betty’, letters from BBC, Anglia Television, Central Television, BRMB radio and others relating to shows and interviews with Jean, a book titled ‘Wilson, Keppel and Betty Too Naked for the Nazis’ by Alan Stafford, published 2015, a small quantity of late 1990’s early 2000 Equity cards for Jean, and a colllection of Cunard White Star Line ephemera comprising two unused postcards of RMS Scythia and The New 'Mauretania' and four menu cards for the Aquitania Scythia Queen Mary and Britannic, etc Following her time as Betty, Jean went on to become a high-flying act circus performer The Flying Croneras in Germany before returning to Birmingham to marry Andrew MacKinnon in 1964 and going on to run the Victoria public house. Two years later, Jeanne was managing The Windmill Lounge in Hurst Street, Birmingham - a ‘terrific coincidence’, she said in a 1966 newspaper interview. In later life she contributed to various shows about Wilson, Keppel and Betty, speaking fondly of her time with the world’s greatest slapstick variety dance act. Letters from the BBC, Anglia Television, Central Television, BRMB radio and others relating to interviews with her are included in the archive. After the act retired, Joe Keppel returned to his native Cork, dying in 1977 aged 83. Jack Wilson moved into Brinsworth House, a retirement home for showbiz personalities, in 1967 and died in 1970 aged 76. Jeanie died in Birmingham in December 2018 aged 86. She had no children and her archive was gifted to a close friend from the entertainment business. (2 boxes and loose, please note mannequin is for display purposes only and does not form part of the lot)