“ I was born on a mountain in South Wales in 1941. I was a war baby and I come from a pretty dysfunctional family. I have a very good memory and I remember being circumcised. It was 1946 and I was 5 years old. Doctors were scarce back then with the war happening but they came into our home to do the operation. I hadn’t long started school. The last thing I remember before the chloroform on my face knocked me out, was my 3 brothers looking in through the lounge window. The very next day I had to go to school. It was so painful. That memory sticks in my head. I can also remember Mum and us kids getting under the kitchen table. We lived in the coal fields and the planes were flying over trying to bomb the fields.
I grew up being very shy but my sister and I started dance lessons in our little village and that helped me get over my shyness. The 2 ladies that ran the dance school had been show girls during the 40s and landed in a town called Newport which was near us. My sister didn’t last but I stuck with it. When the kids at school found out I was taking dance lessons they called me fairy and other names and they used to punch me and bash me up. I hated school and I hated Cricket and Football Day. I hated going to the gym but now I love the gym to keep fit.
When I was 13 my dance teacher saw an ad in a showbiz paper looking for young male singers to join this choir that was making a movie in Twickenham Studios in London. Mum took me up to London and left me with the choir master. I met the other boys and we were living in this dingy boarding house near Clapham Junction. We would be ferried to the studio every day and we were the school kids in the classroom. It was like a male version of St Trinians. It was a dreadful movie, I saw it later. It was called Fun at St Fanny’s (laughs). Ronnie Corbett was in it.
I won’t go into details what happened to me with the choir master. He was a paedophile you see. I questioned some of the other boys and they said, well this is how we got the job. That was my first introduction to sex and I was only 13. It had nothing to do with me growing up Gay. That didn’t turn me Gay, it was obviously in me anyway. You’re not made Gay, you’re born Gay. I had to go back to school which I hated. I left at 15 and I received a 6 month Grant to go to the College of Music and Drama and I learnt a lot.
I was performing in a dancing school concert when I was 16 and in the audience was an Australian chap who had come to the UK with an act from Sydney. The trio he was in had broken up so he asked if I’d be interested in starting a double act to travel around all the music halls which were rife in the UK at the time. It was the late 50s. We rehearsed for quite a while and ended up an acrobatic, dance duo. His name was Munro so I called myself Stan Munro. We called ourselves The Two Munro’s. Our first big show in London was with the original Andrew Sisters. I knew of them from listening to their records on our old gramophone at home and had seen their movies they did in the 40s. We worked with them for a week and they were just fabulous. I have a photo I took on my Box Brownie of two of the Andrew Sisters, Patti and Maxine outside our dressing room.
We had a 6 week season working with Petula Clark in South Hampton for a Pantomime. She was fabulous to me. I think it was just before she made it big with ‘Downtown’. She is still singing at 91. She is amazing. We toured with Max Bygraves, Anthony Newley, Cilla Black and Adam Faith. We worked around the American bases in Germany doing our act to entertain the American troops but we were stationed in Germany.
My work partner wanted to return to Australia to get married, so I thought to myself that I also would also like to go to Australia. We travelled for 6 weeks on the ship with lots of immigrants and a good time was had by all. We arrived in Sydney where we did some shows around the clubs. I got a day job in a Dairy Farmers milk factory in Lidcombe. We worked at a place called The Latin Quarter in Sydney which was owned by Sammy Lee. It was a brilliant nightclub. The Choreographer who worked with the girls at the club was a lady called Sheila Cruze. She asked me if I wanted a job as a male dancer at Les Girls. Prior to this I had gone to a Drag club in Kings Cross called the Jewel Box and also a place at Kensington called The Purple Onion which only opened on Sundays. Sheila took me up to see The Les Girls show and I was amazed how fabulous it was. In those days everyone got dressed up to go out. The women would be dressed to the nines and the men would have bow ties, nowadays that’s all gone, people go to nightclubs in sneakers and shorts.
I got the job at Les Girls and I was there the same time as Carlotta. At that time in 1963 Carlotta was still a boy called Ricky and the other kids in the show were so glamorous. After a few months I started doing comedy drag and after a couple of years I started glamour Drag. I ended up being the Compere and star of Les Girls. I’ve always kept my name Stan Munro because at the time Danny La Rue who was my idol, he kept his name. I asked Sammy Lee for a raise and he refused. I’d heard there was a show in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Carlotta was about to leave there after a 6 month stint and I wanted to spread my wings so I did a runner. Les Girls job was Monday to Saturday and my Agent would get me other jobs on a Sunday. I did the runner on the Saturday night so it didn’t look weird me taking my stuff out as they were used to seeing me do that for my Sunday show. I approached Col Joy’s brother Kevin Jacobsen who was the agent for the club in Hong Kong. They offered me a great deal and I worked there for 6 months.
My Dad died and I had to go back to the UK and I had no work. I saw a job going in Beirut. I contacted the agent, took all my gear and my portfolio, looking very glam I might add. Those days are gone of course. I arrived in the Middle East in Summer. It was so hot. It was a big job, compering, dancing and singing. The audience were all in their white robes and head dress and no one really spoke English. They still enjoyed it though. I was about 26 at that time. I left there and went back to Hong Kong and I got offered a job to star and compere a Les Girls in Melbourne. I worked in that position for 8 years, 6 nights a week. When the club closed I went over to WA and I toured with a show called Les Coquettes for 4 months finishing in Launceston.
To be continued tomorrow.`
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