It was very interesting to read the article (February 9) about the landmark Sliema hotel which is now due to be converted into a residence for the elderly.

The hotel opened in 1865 and has seen a good slice of recent history. Sliema is one of the most recent cities to have developed naturally rather than by official decree.

The article highlights many aspects of the hotel and its clientele, which has changed over time, including some of its more distinguished and regular clients.

I would also like to mention a phase, however, when the hotel was used for rehearsals by the Banks Sports Association’s production of the musical The belle of New York in 1952. This was a very ambitious project including a cast of well over 100. Except for a few professionals or semi-professionals like Mimi Sleep, Harry Cachia, Valerie Wilkins, Terry Bencini and Henry Frendo, the rest were raw recruits and it needed all the patience and perseverance of maestro Bellizzi over several months to forge a chorus of four score amateurs into something reasonably kind on the ears.

I am not quite sure how I came to be in it. In Gozo, I had sung the lead in The Barber’s Shop in 1942 (when I was 12) as part of the war effort, my sisters worked at one of the banks, a lot of my friends were in it and we had a whale of a time during rehearsals. These lasted some four months – not surprising seeing the crudeness of the raw material – and we had a party at the Imperial Hotel every day.

Eventually, we made it to the Radio City and we played to full houses. We then had follow-up parties and, in due course, something like 10 weddings.

Some of us are no longer here – we had a funeral last week – but it would be great if some of the survivors would now spend their twilight years in the padded Imperial Hotel.

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