The showgirl sisterhood: five former variety stars look back at their wild careers – in pictures

The ‘Golden girls of Eastbourne’ first crossed paths more than 50 years ago. They recall flammable feather head-dresses, wardrobe malfunctions and topping the bill over the Beatles I hear the Golden Girls of Eastbourne before I see them – hooting laughter leaking out of a house in the East Sussex seaside town. Inside, I find five energetic women in their 80s and 90s, sitting in a knick-knack-filled living room and talking over one another like teenagers. “Oh nooo. We didn’t have rotating tassels!” Friends for more than half a century, the women met in rehearsals and aftershow parties while working as dancers, singers and comedy stooges in the 1960s and 70s. Their careers took them from cruise ships and panto to British seaside theatres, where they performed in sequin dresses, high-cut leotards and huge feather headdresses, sharing bills with the biggest stars of the day. Over the decades, Eastbourne became one of the places where they made their names. In later life, they have gathered here again – this time not for work, but for friendship. It was this sisterhood that caught the eye of photographer David Pickens. A retired circus performer, he was once part of a doub