May Moxon, dance-troupe producer; born October 9, 1905, died November 26, 1996

MAY Moxon, who became a legend in Scottish show-business as producer of hundreds of dancing girls for theatre chorus lines, has died in St Margaret's Hospice, Clydebank, at the age of 91. Her troupes of dancers added glamour to resident variety shows, revue, cabaret and pantomime from Aberdeen to Blackpool and Belfast for well over half a century.

She had lived for the past five decades in the West-End of Glasgow, launching hundreds of girls - English as well as Scottish - into the world of show-business.

She began her career as a stage dancer, but at the age of 27 had to give up the active work she loved, after suffering severe injuries in a car accident while returning to Glasgow from a theatre show in north-east Scotland. Her leg was so badly crushed she was told it would have to be amputated, but she argued with doctors that she would rather die than lose her leg, and she got her way.

As she learned to hobble around on crutches, she resolved that, although her own dancing days were over, she could still teach others. The result was first one, then many troupes of the May Moxon Dancers, or The May Moxon Young Ladies, or - as they were sometimes billed - the May Moxon Lovelies. Seated in a wheelchair, May coached her girls relentlessly. She spent her evenings at the sewing machine, making the glamorous costumes for her young dancers. Dozens of girls trained by her went on to successful stage careers. One troupe danced in a season of 100 weeks, at the former Metropole Theatre in Glasgow.

Even after she retired aged 70, she received cards regularly from retired Moxon dancers scattered around the world, many of them now grandmothers. She was dubbed the Madame Bluebell of the Scottish theatre, being a contemporary of Liverpool-born Margaret Kelly who produced the Bluebell Girls at The Lido in Paris and in Las Vegas.

Originally one of a family act, The Four McLeans, Moxon had been born into a show-business family in Townhead, Glasgow, and was christened Euphemia MacDonald (her real name) before taking the stage name of Moxon from her uncle, an acrobat named Harold Moxon.

``I thought it better to be May Moxon than wee Phemie MacDonald,'' she would laughingly explain.

In a long career in popular Scottish variety and music-hall, she could recall with relish the early days when her girls were happy to be paid a weekly wage of #2 to #3 (then the going rate) for dancing twice-a-night for six nights, and often with a midnight matinee thrown in to entertain the ``Doon the Watter'' holidaymaking families of the 1920s and 1930s.

All the glittering costumes worn by her ``girls'' were made by herself and an assistant, regularly burning the midnight oil. It was hard work, she used to say, but my wee girls were thrifty, they loved the life and they were happy. They all thought and dreamt that they were going to be big stars one day.

Among her dancers were Mary Elliot, from Glasgow, who became a Bluebell dancer in Las Vegas, and Billie Anthony, also from Glasgow, who went on to be a pop singer.

Moxon was married to the late Ted Davison, a Londoner and former amateur boxing champion, who worked in hotel-catering management. She is survived by her son, Tommy, daughter-in-law Liz and two grand-children.

She was a busy, ever-smiling lady, a personality with a boundless memory recall of the heyday of Scottish variety and seaside shows, and with a lively mind, knowledgeable to the end about the light entertainment world of which she was so much a part for most of this century.