IN 1952 Keighley’s “super-cinema” the Ritz organised a promotional stunt the week before screening the film Texas Carnival, a comedy musical about a fairground showman turned millionaire, starring Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Red Skelton and Ann Miller. By way of advertisement, this horse and cowboy appeared on stage!

The horse was supplied by the late Frank Yardley, who also drove a wagon-load of “cowgirls” round Keighley, both midweek and Saturday. The “cowboy” seen her was a Co-op grocer and a member of the Alice Street youth club. The cinema’s enterprise seems to have paid off, as Mr Yardley remembered the Ritz being “packed” for what the critics have since dubbed a rather inconsequential film.

Mr Yardley spent his working life with horses, recalling that the last heavy horses used in Keighley belonged to coal hauliers Foster and Manning, who also undertook foundry and other hauling work.