Eliot, Valerie Patricia, 1936-

Valerie Patricia Georgina Chapman Eliot was a showgirl and dancer born in Isleworth, Middlesex, England. The family moved to Folkestone, England when she was a child. Her mother managed a bed and breakfast and her father was a factory worker and died when she was thirteen, leaving her mother to support her and her family. Around age eleven, Valerie started taking dancing lessons. At age fourteen, she left formal education and worked to help support her family after a short stint in art school. In 1953, she auditioned for Margaret Kelly, also know as "Miss Bluebell", and got a job dancing at the Paris Lido. This launched her career as a Bluebell Girl. Eliot would go on to dance not only in France but in Argentina and Las Vegas, Nevada as well.

In the late 1960s, she met and married her husband, an orchestra player, while working at the Lido. They got married in 1970 and went on to have two children, Richard (1971) and Karen (1973). After ten years of marriage, the couple divorced and Valerie moved back to the United Kingdom with her two children.

Source:

Valerie Chapman Eliot oral history interview, 2013 January 30. OH-02435. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.