Sabrina in Print
The Age, 2004
From "What I've Learnt" by Ron Blaskett, vintage ventriloquist and the companion of wooden Gerry Gee.
The Mail on Sunday 2002
September
1, 2002: the famous article in 'The Mail on
Sunday' bringing us sadly up to date with Sabrina today.
Stockport Express 2002
A
"me-too" article from the Stockport
Express, 4 September 2002.
Most of it is ripped from the Mail on Sunday article (see below),
with a few references to Stockport added.
It says:
Fifties pin-up star now living in squalor
IN her hey-day she was described as Marilyn Monroe, Diana Dors and Jayne Mansfield, all rolled into one. Stockport-born superstar Sabrina was the sex kitten of the 1950s and lived a dream lifestyle envied by millions across the world.
But it seems that the dream has finally come to an end. According to a national newspaper report, Sabrina, whose real name is Norma Sykes, has become a tragic recluse in Beverly Hills.
Her story is now one of unfulfilled dreams as she lives a hermit-style existence in semi-squalor in a Californian suburb, rarely venturing out of her Spanish-style house at the intersections of three ten-lane motorways, and under the flightpath of LA's Burbank Airport.
The house has been left to go to rack and ruin through years of neglect on a street nicknamed 'Smog Central'.
Sabrina, born Norma Ann Sykes in 1936, lived on Buckingham Street, Heaviley, for about 13 years. The blonde bombshell, who was a pin-up of the fifties, founded her showbiz career on the twin assets of her 41-inch bust.
Sabrina, who attended St George's School on Buxton Road, and was once a school champion breast stroke swimmer, bounced onto the showbusiness stage at the age of 18 on an Arthur Askey TV programme - 'Before Your Very Eyes'.
But stardom did not come easily. After spending four years in hospital with rheumatic fever, she spent all the money she had saved on a trip to London when she was 16, where she quickly made her mark as a model.
Sabrina's big break came in 1955 when she was spotted by a BBC producer. It was then she appeared on the Arthur Askey show, where she picked up the dumb blonde tag, which has followed her ever since.
At the height of her career, she was considered the epitome of femininity and appeared on the cover and centrefold of Britain's largest selling magazine at the time - the Picture Post. She was offered roles in a handful of movies and found fame as Virginia in Blue Murder at St Trinian's in 1959, despite the fact she was not given a single line.
Sabrina was a star of dynamic proportions, her 41-17-36 figure drew attention wherever she went. She insured her breasts for £100,000 and was wined and dined by European royalty. Frank Sinatra wanted to date her and 10,000 fans would turn out just to catch a glimpse of her.
Intent on carving out a career in Hollywood, Sabrina made several attempts to break into Tinseltown, before giving up and quitting showbiz after she married a wealthy Hollywood gynaecologist in 1967.
But according to reports this weekend the voluptuous Stockport beauty and darling of post-war Britain, is now broken and alone living in squalor.
Melbourne Herald-Sun, 2000
Sabrina
was big in Australia - as she was wherever she went. On June 2, 2000
then Melbourne Herald-Sun finally gave Sabrina the coverage
she so magnificently deserved.
Stockport Local News
|
FORTY YEARS AGO STOCKPORT glamour girl, Sabrina, caused confusion
to her relatives in Shaw Heath. She announced her engagement to
American comedian Sonny King was on, but he was just as adamant
it was off. |
Sorry - don't know the source or date of this snippet.
Storm in a D-cup when
Sabrina sang at Nelson
Looking Back, with Eric Leaver
SHE
was the glamour-puss of black and white TV - the sweater-girl, dumb blonde
who stunned 1950s viewers with her own 3-D effect. But back in 1956,
Sabrina (real name Norma Sykes, of Blackpool [though born in Stockport
- ed.]) was looking for a career change a move up from the silent
sex-symbol character she played in comedian Arthur Askey's "Before Your
Very Eyes" show.
And it was in January that year that she chose East Lancashire as the place to make the switch - breaking her silence to appear as a solo vocalist at Nelson's Imperial Ballroom. Sabrina was also rapping out publicity for her "saucy" Sunday newspaper story, seen billed on the wall behind her with the headline "I'm not dumb!"
She never made the big-time as a songstress and had a hard time making herself heard at the outset when she took the stage at Nelson. For as the Northern Daily Telegraph reported, male admirers crowded round the bandstand carried on whistling and shouting for so long that she could hardly get in a note in edgeways.
Among her fans was 32-year-old Nelson singer Terry Dale who, that night, rushed from a concert at Burnley to croon the special "Sabrina Samba" number that local photographer Albert Morris and butcher Alan Ashworth composed in her honour and later presented a copy of the score to her backstage.
(From http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk)
Sabrina in the 'Evening Star' 2000
| COFFEE SHOP QUEEN: 21-year-old TV star Sabrina was everything the 1950s man could dream of: dumb, blonde and stacked with talent |
|
Sabrina
bewitched us with her silence
November
14, 2000
MEMORIES of the Gondolier coffee bar in Ipswich and its grand opening by Fifties television star Sabrina, referred to on this page recently, sent me digging through the Star Library. Now girls don't dive for the telephone or write to the editor, I am quoting from a report in the Evening Star written in October, 1956 when political correctness was an accurate speech by Prime Minister Anthony Eden! "Crowds broke through police cordons and tore down a canvas canopy in Ipswich yesterday in their effort to get a closer look at Sabrina - Britain's number one dumb blonde. Sabrina (vital statistics 39-19-36) was guest of honour at the opening of Ipswich's first Espresso coffee bar, the Gondolier in Upper Brook Street. She wore a tight black suit with a plunging sequined neckline and carried a mink stole slung casually over one arm. Pulling the lever for the first cup of Espresso coffee she said, "I am known as the dumb blonde. If I say too much I will lose my reputation." Everybody, I am sure, will wince at the wording of this report from 44 years ago - attitudes have changed for the better. Some of the magic in the grey days of 1956 would have gone if folks knew Sabrina, before being promoted as a "TV star", was just a regular 21-year-old Londoner named Norma Sykes. John Sparks of East Bergholt (with his own 60s terminology) recalls: "Ah, the Gondolier! Officially opened, by Sabrina, in 1956. Phil Bowen who now works at Mark's hairdressers
in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, was a ten-year-old in the crowd the
day the Gondolier opened and got close enough to make contact
with Sabrina through the car window. The exact details will have
to remain unpublished, but I gather he grew up quite a bit that
day! Write to David Kindred at the Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email david.kindred@dtn.ntl.com |
http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/Content/columns/kindred/htm/001116sabrina.htm
Sabrina Articles in Magazines
Be sure to check out the SabrinaMags to find substantial articles about Sabrina.
Sabrina in books
Sabrina
- Toast of Australia. An
account of Sabrina's Australian tour by Betty Stewart, from her autobiography.
"Bombshells"
- Glamour Girls of a Lifetime
Betty
Stewart's account of Sabrina in Australia
From
"Box of Delights: The Golden Age of Television": Sabrina
drove men to distraction in the fifties with her version of the fuller
figure. With vital statistics of 42-19-36, Sabrina (real name Norma Sykes)
was an enormous hit on Arthur Askey's television series 'Before Your Very
Eyes'. Aged just seventeen and the daughter of a Blackpool landlady, she
was the original dumb blonde. Indeed, part of her gimmick was that she
never said a word on screen.
In 1965 she tired of her image and went to the States with the intention of becoming a serious actress. Instead she married a successful young Beverly Hills surgeon, Dr Harold Melsheimer, who had never heard of her. This, she said, was part of the attraction. However, they were subsequently divorced. Now fifty [in 1989] , Sabrina still lives in California and only rarely visits England.
From "Box of Delights: The Golden Age of Television" by Hilary Kingsley & Geoff Tibballs. Published by Macmillan, 1989. Thanks to Simon Vaughan of the APTS for finding this Sabrina Snippet.