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Margaret Kelly - Miss Bluebell

Michael Parkinson's castaway is dancer Margaret Kelly.

This week’s castaway is the dancer and founder of the Bluebell Girls dance troupe, Margaret Kelly. An orphan born in Dublin, she started a career as a dancer at the age of twelve. As a teenager she worked in Germany in the late 1920s and 30s before moving to France. It was there that she formed The Bluebell Girls, a dance troupe which became synonymous with the high life of Paris. She spent the war working with them in Nazi-occupied Paris, hiding her Jewish husband in an attic. In conversation with Michael Parkinson she looks back over her eventful life and career, and chooses her eight favourite records.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: There's No Business Like Show Business by Ethel Merman
Book: History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Sir Winston Churchill
Luxury: Her first dress worn on stage

Available now

40 minutes

Last on

Fri 12 Feb 1988 09:05

Music Played

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Ethel Merman

      There's No Business Like Show Business

  • The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

  • John Kander

    Cabaret

    Performer: Liza Minnelli. Lyricist: Fred Ebb.
  • Maurice Chevalier

    Gigi

  • The Beatles

    Yesterday

    • Help!.
  • The Beatles

    Yellow Submarine

    • Yellow Submarine.
  • Nacio Herb Brown

    Singin' in the Rain

    Singer: Gene Kelly.
  • Maurice Chevalier

    Valentine

  • Book Choice

    • History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Sir Winston Churchill

  • Luxury Choice

    • Her first dress worn on stage

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Michael Parkinson
Interviewed Guest Margaret Kelly - Miss Bluebell

Broadcasts

  • Sun 7 Feb 1988 12:15
  • Fri 12 Feb 1988 09:05

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