Frankie Vaughan, singer and entertainer _320
He was able to reach the intermediate stage of his course before he was called up for service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt and Malta.
On returning to Civvy Street, Frankie realised teaching wouldn’t make him rich, but singing might. He made his debut at the Leeds Empire during the university rag week in 1951, but nothing much came from it, until a letter of introduction to Bernard Delfont, the impresario, led to his career’s first big break at the Kingston Empire, near London.
His theme song, Give Me the Moonlight, the hits, shows and movies followed. Soon, he had adopted and modified the sartorial style of his friend Hetty King (1883-1972), the music-hall turn famed for her male impersonations, with whom he toured in the early days.
Oh, and that name? His old grandmother had called him her “number one grandson”. But in her Russian accent, the “one” sounded like “vorn” or Vaughan.
To Stella, of course, all the honours and the popularity were very welcome, but more than any of that he was a loving husband and father of their three children, David, Susan and Andrew.
“He was a good dad, Frank,” says Stella. “Oh, he loved his children. He idolised them. He spoilt them. I was the one who had to discipline them because, when he was first on tour in variety, he would be away a week. He didn’t want to chastise the children if they had been naughty, because he was only there for the day.”
Frank’s upbringing fired his ambition. “It wasn’t so much tough as very working-class,” says Stella, who still lives in their home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the county where Frankie became a deputy lieutenant. “I have still got the furniture that his father made us, two big settees and two big armchairs. He was a wonderful, wonderful craftsman.”
Frankie and Stella Shock, who is shy about her age in the old-fashioned way, met immediately after he left the Army in 1949. His younger sister, Myra, had fixed up a date at the local Locarno, in Leeds. Frankie and Stella danced real close, and on the penny tram-ride home, they fell for each other. Later that night, he asked her to be his girlfriend “for ever”.
“I think this DVD and CD set are much needed,” Stella says. “I don’t know why, but after he passed away, there was not a great deal of mention of him. When people talk about pop artists and singers and so on, you get all the others mentioned. You don’t hear Frank mentioned much.
“Frank was a real stage entertainer. Some years ago, they were doing a tribute to Sammy Davis at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Sacha Distel, Tony Martin and others. When it was Frank’s turn, they all came to the side of the stage to watch him. They had never seen anyone work a stage like Frank.
“He was always very smart and never wore jeans or anything like that. Hetty King used to tell him that he must dress as though he was going to Buckingham Palace. You must afford the very best. He never, ever sat down in his stage clothes because they would crease.
“Frank left such a lovely legacy. I am not talking about possessions, but everybody loved him,” Stella continues. “As I speak to you now, I am looking at a wonderful photograph of him, looking quizzical. I talk to it regularly and give him things to do. If I have got any problems, I ask him to sort them out for me. Sometimes it works. I know he hears me. I know he helps the children. I think he is all around us, looking after us.”
And then she can listen to Stella by Starlight, as sung by Mr Moonlight.
THE new 90-minute DVD features tributes from Gloria Hunniford, Jimmy Tarbuck, Sir Tim Rice, Bert Weedon, Val Doonican, Rick Wakeman and Jess Conrad.
Moonlight, music and romance
FRANKIE VAUGHAN’S first film was These Dangerous Years (1957), about a soldier, who deserts and returns to Liverpool. Some of it was set on the Cast Iron shore, Dingle, which he had visited with his grandmother.
Wonderful Things (1958) was about a romantic fisherman in Gibraltar.
The Lady is a Square (1958) had a great cast of Frankie, Anna Neagle, Anthony Newley, Janette Scott and Wilfred Hyde-White, but it was not a great film.
In 1961, he went to Hollywood, as the hottest name in the UK, to appear in Let’s Make Love – now largely remembered for co-star Marilyn Monroe’s crush on Frankie. Her feelings were not reciprocated. “I’m a very happily married man. My wife is my lady,” he is reported to have said to her.
His final film, The Right Approach (also 1961), was about an opportunist trying to be a star.
But the hits kept rolling. They had begun in 1954 with Istanbul (number 11, 1954). Others included Green Door (2, 1956), Garden of Eden (1, 1957), Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (8, 1857), Kewpie Doll (10, 1958), Tower of Strength (1, 1961), Loop-de-Loop (5, 1963) and There Must Be A Way (7, 1967).
In 1997, Frankie was appointed CBE for his services to boys’ clubs, having been an OBE since 1965.
