Description
Billy Cotton (6 May 1899 – 25 March 1969) and his team of glamorous showgirls, The Silhouettes. Billy Cotton was a Bandleader, although he could not write music or play a musical instrument . He had an extraordinary life that during that included work as a Bus driver, a welterweight boxer, footballer for Brentford, and flew for the RAF but crashed his plane and nearly died on the same day that the RAF was formed. Billy Cotton had a twenty-year career in show business after the war. His Sunday lunchtime radio show – which transferred to television in 1956 – was heralded with his trademark catchphrase “Wakey wakey” and became a staple for millions of households between 1949 and 1968. photograph by George Douglas