I remember seeing her on stage,and realising what a vision of sexuality she was - a diffident but clear delivery of patter, a skimpy costume, and tearing up telephone directories like there was no tomorrow.Later I was told that directories were easy to tear up if they had been baked in the oven.

I could not believe this if Joan. She set to with their great bulk, bent the volume till there was a chamfered edge, and ripped the thing into bits. It is significant that her publicity in ther magazines concentrated on her ability to throw men about, grabbing them by their intimate parts (unusual for the Fifties) and with a beatific smile, upsetting their dignity and sense of superiority. A Valkirie site on the WWW shows her lifting Bob Hope,another Hero.

Her costume was that of a Tiller Girl, a Show girl, but had a sort of piecrust round the top of the legs. It was rock hard like an iron corset and contained her body against the muscular exertion.

Looking at Peter Duncan's hair (right), you get some idea of how much Bryllcream men used at the time. Observe the sodden flaps.