Egyptian Nights
(Recalled by Edna Wayne and Jean Peterson)


Violinist and saxophonist Edna Wayne was asked out by a rich Egyptian.

"He invited me to go to his beautiful villa right by the pyramids and I thought yes but not on my own. Vi said "Yes of course I'll come." She was game for anything. So he sent a car for us and we went off. It was absolutely fabulous, the moon was shining, we walked in and he plied us with drink. I was worried; in those days, I was quite young and thought what's in this drink I wonder? I'm looking at Vi thinking don't drink too much Vi, and she was drinking and drinking. Then he said "Come into my bedroom and look at the view from the balcony". His balcony looked straight out on to the pyramids and it was fabulous.

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But I thought let's get out of here quick, so we got down the stairs and by this time I was saying to Vi "I think we should go" and she said "Oh no, it's fine". After along time we managed to get outside and into this enormous car which he was going to drive us back to Cairo in. I sat so near that door I could have fallen out."

Some of the time the girls slept under canvass as vocalist Jean Peterson remembers "I used to share with Edna a lot but when Edna didn't come on one of the Middle East tours, I shared with Ivy. We had a tent in the dessert with oil lamps - that was fun. I remember sitting outside the tent one day and said 'look at those cats over there'. They weren't cats; they were huge rats.