Vera Day, Britain’s answer to Marilyn Monroe, she was born in Forest Gate in 1933. Her acting career started when she was 19 years of age when she was auditioned for the musical Wish You Were Here but she admits she was hired less for her musical talent than for the way she filled out a bikini.
Val Guest spotted her in the musical and cast her in an uncredited role in Dance, Little Lady but from here things took off and she appeared in Shop Spoiled (1954), A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), The Prince and the Showgirl, Quatermass11: Enemy from Space and many many more including television appearances with her latest film The Riddle (2007).
But what has she to do with Laindon/Langdon Hills, well at the request of Alan Henbest, well known local business man and a member of Langdon Hills Cricket Club she attended the opening of the Cricket Clubs Fete in May 1956. At the time she was appearing with the Crazy Gang in Jokers Wild at the Victoria Palace, London.
After opening the fete she was presented with a bouquet by three year old Philip Smith, son of the Club Captain, before she toured the sideshows.
She presented prizes to the winners of the baby show before being whisked away in a car to Victoria Palace but before she went she told the spectators that she was no stranger to Laindon as she had spent a few months here as an evacuee during the war and went to Laindon High Road School.
Who remembers her time in Laindon?
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