Arthur Askey  -  comedian
He used to say “Hello playmates, how do you do”. His signature tune was “Big hearted Arthur they call me” He also used to sing the “busy bee” song. He started in 38 with “Stinker Murdoc” on the radio in “Bandwagon” in an imaginary flat at the top of the BBC. He was born in Liverpool.

Teddy Brown  -  xylophonist
He was 18 stone plus, huge guy and he had a xylophone. He had black hair parted in the middle, huge face but he was brilliant on the xylophone. I saw him three or four times.

Max Bygraves  -  singer
I saw him, he was very good in his younger days. I saw him at Brighton when he was up and coming.

Eddie Calvert  -  trumpet player
I remember him, he played the trumpet, “Oh My Papa” and things like that.

Big Bill Campbell  -  singer
He was a singer. On the stage would be a campfire and around it would be several cowboys. His catch phrase was “Mighty fine, mighty fine” and his act was called “The singing cowboys”.

Billy Carlyle and Hilda Mundy  - comedy act
They were a husband and wife act, domestic on the stage, they were very funny. They would be having a cup of tea and would have arguments. He was a thin guy and small, they always had arguments, a proper man and wife comedy act, very, very good.

Charlie Chaplin - film star
He appeared at Wolverhampton in 1903 before he went to America. He was in Fred Carno’s Circus, they were all youngsters. He came from a very poor part of London.

Chris Charlton  -  magician
I saw him in Dudley when I was 14, but he did go to Wolverhampton. I saw him at Dudley Hippodrome because we had a free pass because we had two grocer’s shops and we had a bill poster for the Hippodrome every week. For putting it on display we had one free pass. It was like a book and you had to go at quarter past five during the war, so we could all be home by nine o’clock. Chris Charlton was a magician. I went on with him the first time, he would always pick a young lad from the audience to come up onto the stage. I did it a second time and he would stop you one step before the last as you went up onto the stage and say “Have you ever been on the stage before my son?” I said “yes I have” and his face lit up. He said “Who was that with?”, I said “with you last year” He said “Oh”. He didn’t like that, they thought that I was a plant. It was an embarrassing moment. It embarrassed him anyway.

Billy Cotton  -  band leader
Billy Cotton and his band came quite a few times doing the Billy Cotton Band show, like they did on the radio. Different members did their own acts and bits of comedy and they all finished on the edge of the stage throwing cotton wool snowballs at the audience who would throw them back. It always started with his catchphrase “Wakey Wakey” and then you would hear the familiar theme tune that he used on the radio.