Alton Douglas has been well known in the Midlands for many years as a radio entertainer and a television presenter of such shows as "Know Your Place". In recent years his carefully planned researched pictorial books on Midland themes have generated sales of over 300,000 copies, and earned him a loyal following. Each book contains between 350 and 400 illustrations, carefully captioned, and presented in a standard A4 format.

After spending my National Service as a trombonist, with the band of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, I played in local bands for some time before forming my own group. In order to present something different from the average dance band I began to break up the sets by telling the occasional joke. In time it became a natural progression for me to become a full-time comedian. Over the years I played Dame in panto, Principal Boy opposite Helen Shapiro, appeared in summer shows (including a spell as Principal Comic with the world famous 'Fol de Rols') and played most of the major cabaret venues and theatres in the U.K. (appearing with Paul Daniels, Vera Lynn, Roy Hudd, Frankie Vaughan, Edmund Hockridge and many more). I also acted as warm-up comic for over 1,000 TV shows including 'The Golden Shot', 'The Peggy Lee Show', 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em', 'Terry and June', 'New Faces', 'Lunchtime with Wogan', 'Up the workers' and "Are you being served?". Over the years I have acted in training videos, recorded voice-overs for hundreds of radio commercials, been the voice behind several cartoons and children's toys, written showbiz columns and reviewed jazz records and shows and appeared in such TV programmes as 'Angels', 'Seconds Out', 'Crossroads', 'A Soft Touch', 'Muck and Brass', 'The Golden Shot', 'The Knockers', 'The Original Alton Douglas', 'Nights at the Swan', 'Watch This Space', 'The Barmaid's Arms', 'Open University', 'Property Rites', 'Big Deal', 'Newshound', 'Murder of a Moderate Man' and 'The Bretts'. In 1979 I was asked to host the BBC Midlands TV inter-town quiz series 'Know Your Place' and, on finding that they had not yet hired a scriptwriter, I offered my services as writer as well as quizmaster. By the time I'd finished my third series I had discovered a hole in the market - there did not appear to be any books concentrating on the Midlands during the 2nd World War. 'Birmingham at War Vol 1' (published by the Evening Mail) came out in 1982 and was an immediate success. This was followed by another three war books and the idea was then developed to cover a longer span of time. Most of the following books show events over a 100 years or more and they are mainly pictorial, with lots of ads, newspaper cuttings and posters. We cram as many items into each book as possible but, at the same time, we insist that they remain inexpensive to buy. Right from the start we have used high quality paper so that the items are reproduced with excellent clarity and the emphasis throughout is on nostalgia. My wife Jo and I, along with our friend Dennis Moore (ex-RAF/retired Bank Manager) do all our own distribution. In fact, we have carried out so many boxes of books into shops - over 300,000 to date - that Jo and I have had to have osteopathic treatment for neck and back injuries!

Memories Of Alton Douglas pt2

I had my first sex change in 1969 - especially for Christmas. Following my years as a bandleader, I had spent a great deal of the previous year appearing, as a principal Comic, in various West End night clubs, and then decided that pantomime would offer a sharp contrast. With no experience at all, and the enthusiasm of the ignorant, I approached one of the leading impresarios, Bunny Baron. Surprisingly, he expressed no interest in the attractive idea of putting a novice performer into one of his shows and almost threw me out of his office. With nothing except my cap to lose, I threw down the gauntlet, 'I'd heard you gave a chance to new artists and I'm very disappointed with you'. Before exploding he took a deep breath, referred to my dubious ancestry, and then barked out, 'Sit there!'. He produced a tatty red wig (which I later found out has been worn by Clarkson Rose, possibly the most famous pantomime dame of all) plonked it on my head and said, 'Go on - do a dame's voice'. From somewhere I produced a sound that seemed to be a cross between Mr Punch and Donald Duck. He looked aghast at me, shook his head, and then said, 'Right, you're playing Mrs Crusoe, topping the bill at Hastings, this Christmas. I don't want to see you again 'till then'. And that was that. I played dame for two consecutive years at Hastings, until another change of direction found me marrying Helen Shapiro twice nightly - but that's another story for another edition of our newsletter, 'The Presenter'.