FOR three nights in 1931, children of Keighley’s former Upper Green Congregational Sunday School performed an operetta called Princess Chrysanthemum, which proved so popular that they repeated it the following month.
Its cast of Japanese courtiers and sprites was aged between five and 14. Here is its exotic cast representing the princess, an emperor and court chamberlain, a fairy queen and two princes. The little creature in the middle was Saucer-Eyes, the wizard cat, played by a very young Mollie Sugden, who “caused much amusement by her antics”.
The Keighley News of 1931 showed remarkable prescience by singling her out as “from the standpoint of the audience the best performance”.
Mollie was to gain further stage experience as “recitalist” in a local wartime concert party, the Good Companions, which gave 500 shows in a three-year period. Years in repertory theatre were to follow before her television roles in The Liver Birds and Are You Being Served?
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