Anna Pavlova
In 1912 the great
Russian dancer did two stints at the New Theatre, Cardiff.
Sarah Bernhardt
In 1908, for one
afternoon only, she performed La Dame Aux
Camelias at the New Theatre, Cardiff.
Sarah Vaughan
In 1953 iconic jazz
and blues singer "Sassy" Sarah Vaughan did a show at
the Sophia Gardens Pavilion, Cardiff - she wore a scarlet dress.
Emma Goldman
World famous
anarchist Emma Goldman was in South Wales in 1933 on a lecture
tour. She delivered papers on Crime and
Punishment and The
Spirit of Destruction and Construction. In
1926 Goldman had married elderly Welsh miner James Colton in
order to obtain a British passport.
Gloria Swanson
Rather bizarrely in
1950 Gloria Swanson and another Hollywood icon Montgomery Clift
turned up for a film premiere at the Empire Theatre, Cardiff.
Afterwards they attended a dance at the Park Hotel.
Marion Davies
The great Hollywood
actress was also mistress of American newspaper tycoon William
Randolph Hearst. When he bought St Donat's Castle they would
occasionally use it as a love nest.
Elizabeth Taylor
Richard Burton
brought la Taylor to Wales to meet the folks and to generally
demonstrate to everyone that he had
actually pulled the most gorgeous woman on the planet.
Marlene Dietrich
In 1973, the
Hollywood diva performed a week of solo shows at the New Theatre,
Cardiff. On one particular evening she was regaled with a Welsh
male voice choir but, to her enormous credit, she didn't hold it
against us. Appropriately she stayed at the Angel Hotel.
Hilary Creek
Angry Brigade
bomber Hilary Creek completed a degree at Swansea University in
the late seventies after serving a prison sentence in Holloway
for her 'terrorist' crimes.
Courtney Love
You know the score:
she performed with Hole at TJs in Newport and her boyfriend Kurt
Cobain proposed marriage to her blah blah blah.
Also: Bette Davis; Ella Fitzgerald; ;Tallulah Bankhead; and Annie Sprinkle.