Alan Vines

Alan Vines’ who has largely sllipped from the history books, was considered one of 1950s”Young Meteors.”

His work includes a series of never seen before images exploring a day in the life of the oldest all male revue : ‘This was The Army’, which ran for nine years, after it was founded in WWII.

The idea began with comedian (and soldier) Jack Lewis in the army where entertainment was improvised and men made fun of, and made up for, the shortage of women by dressing up. Back in civvy street he set out with his wife Hazel to turn the joke into a commercial proposition. Jack provided the raw knockout army sketches and Hazel (a former dancer) trained the chorus ‘girls’. The 1950s equivalent to « Everyone’s Talking about Jamie » or « RuPaul’s Drag Race» both of which came more than 60 years later, the popularity of the drag show was high and audiences were treated to an evening’s entertainment where, as the poster said, ‘Every Lady is a Perfect Gentleman’.