Faith - Lesley Pearse [64]
Back in London, Laura stayed with Jackie for some weeks in Muswell Hill, and it was while working for an agency as office temps that they heard about promotional work. Girls were needed for exhibitions, trade fairs and in-store promotions, and although the hours were usually longer than in office work, the pay was better and there was a lot of variety, as they could be selling tractors one week at an agricultural show, and promoting a new perfume the next. They saw some glossy photographs of a team of girls working at the Motor Show in Earl’s Court who were all as glamorous as models, wearing evening dresses. They heard on the grapevine that these girls got offered work all over the country; they were put up in nice hotels and had a great time while being paid for it. Jackie and Laura just looked at each other and knew it was for them.
As bells rang out for the New Year of 1965, Jackie clinked her glass of champagne with Laura’s. ‘We’ve arrived,’ she whispered.
They were in Scott’s, a very select night club in Mayfair, the guests of Colin Trueman, a businessman they’d met back in October while working at the Toy Fair in Earl’s Court. They were both in evening dresses, Laura’s cream chiffon, Jackie’s pale blue, and when they looked around them they felt equal and even superior to any of the other women in the club, for their dresses, hair, nails and makeup were perfect, evidence of their new-found elegance and sophistication.
Gone for them were the days of the teetering beehive. It might still reign in places like Peckham or Shepherds Bush, but the models in Vogue wore their hair long, loose and shiny. Jackie had an unfair advantage as hers was thick and curly and such a glorious natural colour, but Laura wasn’t far behind. She had dyed hers a rich dark brown, with a thick, straight fringe which accentuated her dark brown eyes.
In a few days’ time it would be her twenty-first birthday, and when she looked in the mirror, she liked what she saw. Her skin glowed, her hair shone, and she was blessed with a perfect size 10 body and long, slender legs. Men often told her she was beautiful but it was only in the last year that she’d finally realized it was true, and that the sad little girl from Shepherds Bush was gone for ever.
She and Jackie considered themselves seasoned promotion girls now; whether they had the glamour jobs draped across a gleaming car at the Motor Show, demonstrating oven cleaner at the Ideal Home Exhibition, or merely handing out advertising leaflets on the street, they were good at it. Sometimes Jackie joked they were born for it, a pair of life’s butterflies who hated being in one place for too long.
They had their own flat too, in Eardley Crescent, Earl’s Court. They had started out in a double bedsitter, and luckily they were on the spot when their landlord decided to let out his own flat on the top floor. The two bedrooms were tiny, but after being cramped up in one room for so long, to the girls it was paradise to have a separate kitchen, their own bathroom and a real sitting room.
They’d furnished it with junk-shop finds, something Jackie had a nose for, painted it all white, and got masses of cord carpeting from one of the exhibitions they were working at. Laura had even managed to sweet-talk one of the exhibition men into fitting it for them.
Life was really good. They worked long hours, often away from London, but the pay and expenses were excellent and in the last year they’d made lots of new friends, gone to parties, dinners and clubs, and they’d had countless dates and a great deal of fun.
Most of the men they went out with were married, and they didn’t care as long as they were prepared to show them a good time. Jackie often hankered for another Roger, someone to love and be loved by, but Laura much preferred the thrill of illicit dinners and nights away in a hotel. Married men were invariably better lovers, they gave presents, and they were easy to get rid of once she got bored.