“It could have happened for me. I’m not saying that I could have been as good as Diana Dors but I could have been well on the way in a different manner. I would never have made a good actress but I was a natural entertainer and I had the right connections. I had so many opportunities and I didn’t take them. I got stage photographs taken, but I couldn’t pay for them. I wouldn’t sleep with the photographer, so he wouldn’t let me have them.
“I was ready for the limelight but it’s not true what they say, opportunity doesn’t just knock twice, it knocks many times, you just have to be able to see it and I never could. I knew all the right people.
“I met Dennis Price, one of the actors from Kind Hearts and Coronets. He said I was the girl he’d been waiting for all his life. Vincent Price I met once or twice. Tony Curtis came round to see Candy, my dolly friend. She had a collection of about 200 or so antique dolls. He was making a film with her. One day he was being driven along the Brompton Road and saw her outside The Zetlin, a pub just round the corner. The chauffeur stopped and he came over. He was a big disappointment but he was crazy about me.
“Candy was a little actress who pretended to be 25 when she was 45. She was in The Persuaders. We used to dance together. I used to go to a jazz club in the West End where Dick Katz was the pianist. I’d go alone and dance because I liked the music so much. George Melly became a good friend. I went to one of his recordings and got so carried away I was humming and singing along. I suppose I was a bit pissed. Humphrey Littleton was furious, “If you don’t shut up I’ll…” I had to leave. Afterward, I met George outside my bank in Sloane Square and he told me of all the takes they’d done the one they’d chosen to use was the one with me humming over the introduction. George was a lovely friend.
“I still saw Diana Dors now and again. She was making a film with Anthony Newley who played the Artful Dodger… he used to come out with us most nights.
I suppose he was her boyfriend but I liked Tony very much… I think I adored him. Tony came out with the Chelsea Set almost every night. He wasn’t tall but he was very handsome. One day Diana said, “I’ll tell you what, Sheila, I’m going out with one of your ex-boyfriends, you can have Tony.” She went through all my boyfriends like a dose of salts. She said, “I don’t want him anyway. If you go to the Connoisseur Club at six, you’ll find him waiting for me, but I’m not going. Say hello and take it from there.” I said, “Alright Di, thanks”. I turned up and sure enough there he was. I had a drink and everything was going fine, just as she said. We were just about to take off and go somewhere else when a horrible boyfriend of mine who was a greengrocer or something turned up and started to cause a scene. He was shouting, “What are you doing with my girl?” I wasn’t his girl but he was crazy about me. He dragged me outside and punched me silly. I had concussion for a month. I never got my Tony after all. It was a real pity. He must have thought his luck was in that night but it was all over so quickly he must have been disappointed.”
Epic