Gladys Morgan (Chippy resident) becomes Lisa Daniels (Hollywood Star)

Brill Brummie woman who appeared in one of my fave films Dodie Smith’s ‘101 Dalmations’…..a Disney classic of course!

Women in Brum

To my huge delight, my daughter decided to go in to her Y7 school history day dressed as one of our Brimmin.  Gladys Morgan grew up in a Fish n Chip shop and died a Hollywood film star.  The Birmingham Mail wrote an obituary with some great photos.

The text below is the fact sheet my daughter prepared as part of her homework for the day.  Thanks Pippa, you are now officially a blogger…

Gladys Morgan Pageant Profile:

Name/s: Gladys Morgan/ Lisa Daniels/ Lizbeth Keen.

Experience: Fish and chip assistant. The official Miss Birmingham. Dancer in Cinderella, Walt Disney Production ‘101 Dalmatians Hollywood movie star.’

Biography: The star to be, who was crowned Miss Birmingham in 1944, lived the American dream becoming a TV and movie star!

Lisa Daniels was born Gladys Morgan in the backroom of the fish and chip shop, which her mother May had rented in…

View original post 324 more words

Advertisement

I too live in Birmingham and have Irish heritage…..did your parents know the late Mike Nangle, former Lord Mayor of Birmingham and prominent Birmingham Irish Labour politician, who knew that many Brummies were openly hostile to the Birmingham Irish communityon Council estates in Erdington and Kingstanding in the wake of the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974.

Romance Fiction

I took my parents out today. My retired, slightly eccentric Irish parents. We went to Birmingham where they lived for forty years after leaving Ireland. They only came for one year, you know, to get a bit of money to go home with. Every year they still say they’re going back. They still listen to the local radio from home, get sent their local papers and know more people there, despite being in their teens when they left, than they do here.

But to be fair they have grown to love England too. The great roads “They’re far more sensible than the madness over there. Two hours to go ten miles only to find you’re back at the same auld place you started at.”, the NHS “Jesus you couldn’t afford to be sick in Ireland. Never mind paying to get well, it’d be cheaper to pay to die quick.” and…

View original post 407 more words

nisse the nomad

I’ve joined the Harare International School’s football (aka soccer) team as the Junior Varsity coach of the defending ISSEA champions. The girls’ train on Tuesdays & Fridays from 3:15-5:15pm & at 6am Thursday mornings. This is more time than I’ve had in past coaching positions at other international schools. I imagine the additional training time has made a significant difference in their success. It’s great to be a part of a competitive team & developmental program. Here are the girls training one morning:

We’re not allowed on the field until the second week of September in order to have pristine conditions when we host the ISSEA (International Schools of Southern and Eastern Africa) football tournament the first weekend in November. We will host visitors from ISSEA member schools including: American International School of Johannesburg (South Africa), American International School of Lusaka (Zambia), International Community School of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), International…

View original post 18 more words

The Wrong'un at Long On

Athers to Nasser via Stewart; from hopeless misery to miserable hope.

The first England captain I can remember watching was Michael Atherton. Uninspiring to a tee, there was still something comforting in his dour & stubborn approach to leadership, which was an unruffleable tussle with the mediocre-at-best period English cricket found itself slumped in. Athers solidity and defiance was certainly heroic, yet he was obviously no hero. Best remembered for dodging Allan Donald propelled leather missiles and the occasional match-saving vigil, Atherton never came close to giving the impression that he was capable of transforming England’s woes. In fact his team were collectively rather useless, and although I enjoy his mutterings as a commentator and nostalgia wants me to remember him as a captain who showed grace, grit and humility under intense pressures, I just can’t ignore the stats: England won less than 27% of the Tests in which he played.

Whilst Atherton was often crabby and cantankerous, there won’t be many…

View original post 218 more words

The Iron Room

Birmingham Town Hall – the focus of an engaging and handsome hardback to be launched on 16th September – by Anthony Peers:

Having started searching in the Library’s Archives and Heritage department way back in 1999 – my new book now brings to light a wealth of new facts about the Town Hall; its origins, design, and historic evolution. For instance the study of Joseph Moore’s papers (MS 1292/8/6) alerted me to this philanthropist’s lofty goal of securing for Birmingham a public concert hall equal to any in Europe. Further broader research has enabled me to establish the fact that at the time of the Town Hall’s construction (1832-34) there did exist a handful of public concert halls elsewhere in Britain. However, the largest of these had capacity for a maximum of only 800 concertgoers. Designed to seat 3,000 and capable of accommodating 10-12,000, the book confirms Birmingham Town Hall’s standing as the country’s first…

View original post 270 more words

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com! This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.

Happy blogging!