You are in Variety Quiz
Variety Quiz
Test your knowledge
1. Which Variety artiste holds the record for the most stage appearances at the Grand Theatre since 1894?
2. Roy Barraclough was one half of a famous ‘drag’ comedy-duo. Which Fylde funny man played his tittle-tattling confidant?
3. In what year was the first Royal Variety Performance staged?
4. In what year was the Royal Variety Performance staged at Blackpool?
5. The Performer, organ of the Variety Artistes’ Federation, reported in 1934 that Gracie Fields had made a great find, ‘over the garden wall’. Who was this famous Variety artiste?
6. I do like to be beside the seaside. Who was the Sheffield-born organist of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom from 1930?
7. The ‘Captive Flying Machine’ at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was built by, and named after, a knight. Who was he?
8. Which of Blackpool’s three piers was called the Victoria Pier?
9. Which female impersonator spent much of his time on Mother Kelly’s Doorstep?
10. Which remaining Blackpool theatre, also built by architect Frank Matcham, is a popular home for the variety arts?
11. Which seasoned Grand Theatre ventriloquist has a duck and a monkey? Can you name her/his dummies?
12. Which Spice Girl appeared at the Grand Theatre in a summer season show?
13. What is the name of the Fylde Coast-born keyboard player who is one half of Pet Shop Boys?
14. What was the name of Blackpool’s first Variety theatre, where black-faced minstrelsy boomed in the late nineteenth-century?
15. Which two Blackpool Variety theatres stood in succession, on the present site of Woolworths?
16. Which famous television host had an impeccable background as a Blackpool favourite, famed for his cheeky charm and dimples?
17. Which comedienne was born in Bolton, worked in ‘a pickle factory’, starred at the Grand in many summer season shows and was famed for her malapropisms?
18. Which Milanese performer starred at the Blackpool Tower Circus for 39 seasons?
19. Whose famous act, Animals in the Box, was recreated at the National Theatre of Variety inauguration performance at the Grand Theatre?
20. Which heavyweights were frequent co-stars with Les Dawson at the Grand Theatre?
21. Which Irish singing dynasty made Blackpool their home?
22. Which ‘daft’ Lancashire comedian and ukulele player had an eponymous music-hall star father?
23. Which comedian sang Tears for Souvenirs?
24. Which Lancashire comedian was a midget, not a dwarf?
25. How long has the Grand Theatre been operated by its present owners?
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