Biography

The Vernons Girls is known for The Arthur Haynes Show (1956), New Look (1958) and Just for Fun (1963).

Formed in 1953 as part of the social activities of Vernons Pools, a Liverpool-based football pools company. Originally made up of 30 girls from the Vernons workforce, when they decided to turn professional they reduced to 16 members. These included Barbara Mitchell, Maggie Stredder, Lyn Cornell, Joyce Smith and Sheila Prytherch. In 1961 the group reduced further to a trio, adding Maureen Kennedy and, for a time, a pre-stardom Samantha Jones, and appearing in films and the high-profile Beatles TV special 'Around the Beatles (1964) (TV)'. Several groups spun-off from the Vernons, including The Ladybirds. By the late 60s the original Vernons Girls had disbanded. The group reformed in 1990 as a trio with two of the original girls, Maggie and Sheila (now known as Sheila Bruce) and former Ladybirds member Penny Lister.