In the mid-twentieth century, The Bluebell Girls-dancers known particularly for their height and glamorous appearance-were recognized and admired throughout much of the world. At any one time, troupes appeared on several continents in a multitude of venues: theaters, clubs, on TV, at the Lido in Paris and the Stardust in Las Vegas.

In Have Chignon-Will Travel: Touring Italy with the Bluebell Girls 1960-61, Elizabeth Dale Phillips takes you with her on an incredible odyssey, starting out as a shorthand-typist in London who had never danced professionally, and metamorphosing into an elegant Bluebell Girl. She begins in Milan as a rookie dancer on a bare stage with seventeen other dancers, a pianist, a drummer and a choreographer. Over the next five exhausting weeks of rehearsals, she witnesses the creation of a polished show-a show in which, as a member of the company, over the next seven months she would tour every inch of Italy and Sicily.

Elizabeth, now in her eighties, tells her story with both candor and humor. It’s a tale of camaraderie and occasional strife, lots of glamour, even more hard work, and sometimes boredom, all while taking an excursion that most twenty-year-old women in 1960 could have only dreamed of.