‘My Christmas as a Tiller Girl’

Elaine Piesse recalls dressing room antics as a teenager during a season in professional Panto

‘I belatedly remembered to give the pianist the nod that I was ready and began…’

An Emile Littler Production, the hoardings shouted. Here I was in pantomime at the Ardwick Hippodrome, Manchester – 16 years old and raring to go. True, it wasn’t where I had intended to be when I so bravely told my headmistress ‘I don’t need to take School Cert., I’m going to be an opera singer’. My mother accompanied me to meetings with singing masters and agencies at first, but soon I was alone and loving it. There was such a thrill in walking into a professional studio and hearing different instruments as well as voices from behind the doors along the corridor. I was simply bursting with pride at being with all the other singers and musicians, who all had one goal… to be on stage. My singing master was also my agent and arranged my first audition when he deemed I was ready. Long after I thought I was ready, of course! With Mother as my guardian escort, I entered my first real theatre through the stage door. Mother sat in the stalls and after giving my name and passing my music to the pianist, I waited my turn in the wings. All those before me sounded so good and had such confidence I was certain I would fail. Then a voice from the pitch black stalls called: ‘Elaine Singfield come forward’. Trembling, I walked onto the stage and every word of Waltz of my Heart vanished from memory. Taking a deep breath and fixing my eyes on the back wall, as instructed by my tutor, I belatedly remembered to give the pianist the nod that I was ready and began. I was surprised that I was allowed to sing a verse and chorus without interruption. Then the disembodied voice called, “Can you waltz Miss Singfield?”. Yes, I quavered, and did a few steps and twirls, finishing with a curtsy. It must have worked, because three days after this fantastic experience came a letter from the John Tiller Schools of Dancing Ltd. ‘Enclosed please find confirmation of contract for Manchester Pantomime. Remember we like black pants or shorts with white blouse or jumper as practice kit. The definite rehearsal call will be sent to you nearer the time. Signed, Doris Alloway’. The Tiller contract confirmed my first professional salary as a ‘special chorister’ at £5.10.0d per week for performances twice daily following three weeks rehearsal. This sum had to cover living expenses and cost of digs. It was now my mother who began to get cold feet. Digs were the problem. She insisted on having personal contact with the landlady and I was lodged away from the other girls with a middle-aged widow and her son. It was here I had my first (and last) taste of venison, and goose for Christmas. After the excitement of the journey from London there was so much new to experience, the trying on of costumes, lighting rehearsals and working out the best way to change costumes at the side of the stage without showing too much to the stage hands. The Tiller Girls didn’t seem to mind a bit but I was very shy and more than a little nervous of these blackclad figures who seemed to glide about and appear from nowhere. Soon it was time to meet the stars. Comic Nat Jackley, who was famous for his long, thin neck and funny walks, and Little Jimmy Clitheroe. Nat Jackley playing Dame took great delight in changing routines and ad-libbing as the fancy took him, which threw the cast and made the audience

howl with laughter. I wonder now if he simply couldn’t remember his lines. Being the youngest member of the cast I shared the dressing room with more senior Tiller Girls who taught me useful things, such as how to shave my legs using talcum powder and apply my false eyelashes. I also learned to accept nudity as the girls quickly stripped off to change costumes. I was shocked at first and tried to avert my eyes, difficult in a dressing room with a mirror to each girl and lights all round. I later realised the skimpy costumes didn’t allow for underwear and quick changes demanded ‘bare’ essentials. The older girls taught me some of their routines and I was soon able to kick my height as they did, all 5ft 2in of me. But that lack of inches meant I would never be a ‘proper’ Tiller Girl. I did get homesick and telephoned home, reversing the charges. My mother asked why I didn’t write to her. ‘I can’t afford the stamps,’ I replied. The next post brought six postage stamps and the comment ‘a nod is as good wink to a blind man’. She always could see through me! All too soon the Pantomime season was over. I was offered a place touring with an Ice Cavalcade but this was vetoed on account of mother being unable to vet the digs. The beginning and end of my professional career in three short months! I never achieved the dizzying heights of professional theatre again but I have wonderful memories of my time in my local Operatic Society performing in musicals, operas and Music Hall.

‘I also learned to accept nudity as the girls quickly stripped off to change costumes!’