Having been born and bred in Llandudno, my father introduced me to the showbiz side of it by taking me to Happy Valley in the early 1950s.

We used to sit on Aberdeen Hill overlooking the enclosure and were usually made to cough up for the entertainment that good old Waldini and his gypsy band supplied. And quite right too!

There were talented kids who did their bit on stage and the encouragement they got from Wally was marvellous.

For a while Alex Munroe took over as summer entertainer. Then some bureaucratic clowns decided to close the Valley some years later and turned it into ...... nothing.

It was in the 1960s that I first came across Alex and the daily summer bus trippers when a mate and I would watch his matinee act along with his guests on a Wednesday afternoon.

They were real troupers, especially as when the sun came out day trippers would turn their deckchairs around to face the sun, with their backs to the stage whilst in the enclosure. And Alex still did the biz. The show must go on!

There was one period when Alex would interview married couples who were in showbiz during the 1930s and 40s who had been in the chorus line, plus well known stars such as Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, who eventually retired to Llandudno.

My father used to sell programmes in the Pier Pavilion in the 1920s and it was he and my late mother who introduced me to its joys. There were Saturday morning concerts at the end of the pier, and I always remember the melodies of those far off days.

I once sat next to Tommy Trinder at the Pier Cafe when he was well into his 70s. I saw the late Billy Dainty in the 1980s doing a really energetic act at the Pier Pavilion when he was no youngster - we were really concerned about his health at the time. Of course, Doddy [Ken Dodd] packed them in over the years too.

As for the Catlin's Theatre, our family had many a laugh at so many different comedians.

How many remember the Llandudno Rep? It is now, sadly, a nightclub.

After the war my parents would take me for a spin on the promenade and a visit to the midday Codman Punch and Judy show. How we kids loved it.

Looking back, it was very un-PC! Mr Punch would, as we used to say in the Royal Navy, knock seven bells out of Judy and was a bit of a thug on the quiet. But then 'old bill' came along and drew Mr Punch's attention to his unsocial behaviour and I think he received a severe bruising too, or has memory faded that bit?

And as we watched the performance, the Lady of the Tin would shake it in front of us and you coughed up. After all, we were watching a highly-skilled man perform for donations.

Then, of course, there was the crocodile, a fearsome looking thing to us kids, a coffin and the gibbet where a hanging took place.

We returned to Llandudno last year and guess what? Yes, we watched Prof Codman Junior, the late Prof's grandson! He was as polished as his grandfather and he was using the same dolls which he had obviously cherished.

So what's all this reminiscing about? My suggestion is to have a museum of entertainment, for the stars that had visited and were not afraid to do a gig away from the smart places where reputations were made or broken.