Shirley Bassey, singer, at family home, Tiger Bay, Cardiff
May 05, 1989 - Shirley Bassey becomes a star: Shirley makes up using the mirror in the living room of the family home in Cardiff's Tiger Bay. The girl from Cardiff Tiger Bay for Las Vegas and Hollywood Shirley Bassey on the skyway to success in the States: Britain's recently risen black 18-year- old blues singer from the slum dock area of Cardiff (Wales) is soon to star in Las Vegas. She leaves for America in mid-January and after starring in las Vegas will go on for film tests in Hollywood. Shirley not long ago was a factory worker and one of seven children of a poor family of a West Indian seaman in the district known as Tiger Bay'. Then she earned 12 dollars a week. But She got a job in a touring revue as a singer, and was soon noticed and signed up for a lush night spot in London. After her first night she was signed up by TV, and contracts followed for stage shows. She's England's Lena Horne, but insists that she is Shirley Bassey, and no imitator. These pictures shows Shirley in her home background in Wales, already a far cry from her fabulous life, but not too far for her to remember and use every opportunity to get back there and to help her family
