The woman who became known as "The girl with the laugh in her voice" after a critic`s commnt in the 1950s, was born on 19 May 1932 in Stepney, London.
By the late fifties, Alma was a huge star, dazzling audiences with her perfect black bofaant harido, Hollywood smile, bouncy novelty songs and huge glittery dresses. She became legendary for these dresses and would make as many as eleven dress changes during one show. Many of her flamboyant costumes had been designed by Alma herself, including a dress that required over 250 yards of material in it`s petticoat to achieve the shape she requires, and a dress especially for a song about the birth of twins called Twenty Tiny Fingers, which featured twin dolls in a pocket. She had more hits than any other female singer in Britain and even gained a hit in iceland with "Never Do a Tango with an Eskimo" and a number one in Japan with with Just Couldn`t Resist Her And Her Pocket Transistor.
As well as the comedy records she covered more serious songs from the US, and her music ranged through country, showtunes, 60`s pop and jazz standards. Alma was a very popular personality apparing in a variety of mediums to the British public. She featured in many radio programmes, being a regular with Jimmy Edwards and June Whitfield on "Take It From Here", and went on to guest with Benny Hill and Billy Cotton on television before and starring at the London Palladium in her own right.
Despite her fame and fortune, Alma remained living at home with her mother and sister Sandra who shared a flat in Kensington High Street, number 44 Stafford Court. The flat became an open house for the theatrical side of the showbix crowd and was frequently visited by Michael Caine, Frankie Vaughan, Tommy Steele, Danny Kaye, Ethel Merman, Sammy Davis Junior and Cary Grant. The lounge was set up as a room for entertaining, being a large room full of Italian leather furniture with red lampshades bathing the room in a soft rosey light that meant that the seemingly endless supply of wine arrived in red glasses and the napkins were always pink. Books didn`t feature hevily in the house, and the only ones to be seen in the lounge were an un-opened set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Records on the other hand filled the shelves in the hundreds, all neatly arranged. The walls not filled with shelves of records were covered with her mother`s proudly displayed framed portraits of Alma including a slightly kitch portrait of her by Fred Wood. Flamenco dancing dolls were scattered her and there amngst an array of glass vases and ornaments, and there was of course the large silver tray full of bottles of various spirits.
Alma met up with a young and upcoming musical group called The Beatles during rehearsals for Sunday Night at the London Palladium on January 12th of 1964, and instantly became friends with the young lads who shared her sense of humour. As their bassist Paul McCartney remembers: "We`d sometimes get booked on variety bills... we were still in showbiz. It wasn`t rock - as it`s now offensively named. It wasn`t that, it wasn`t an industry, it was very small time and we were playing cabarets. It was crossover with the old-time showbiz and one of the people who we`d met doing it was Alma Cogan." After the show, Alma invited the band back to the family flat she shared with her mother and sister at 44 Stafford Court in Kensington, but due to them being in danger of getting mobbed by their adoring fans on the way

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