Hello folks.

Sorry to 'mither' you....but I wonder if anyone on here could possibly help?

I have a strange memory of an incident that occured at Blackpool Tower Ballroom way back in the year 2000 (Fri. 15th September to be precise!).

My friend and I were showing an American lady around Blackpool and I mentioned that 'a trip to the resort would be incomplete without a visit to the World-famous ballroom'
Although not 'dancers' ourselves, we spent a fine couple of hours being entertained by the music, dancing and general ambiance of the venue.

Then it all became a tad 'surreal' when for no apparent reason, two gentlemen in overalls appeared on stage and placed a large desk at it's centre.....then the lights were dimmed and a powerful spotlight went stage-left to mark the entrance of a chap dressed not unlike 'Abe Lincoln' (complete with Stove-pipe hat and Dress-coat!)
He then strode to the desk and delivered a garbled speech of which he mentioned how he was the person who 'brought Elephants to Blackpool beach'.....he then said he 'felt under-thanked'.
Thanking the audience for listening, he then fell quiet and just stood there!
The somewhat bemused 'audience' understandably had no idea on how to react......so I decided to applaud (to this day I have no idea why...it just seemed right to break the tension!)....and everybody, slowly at first, joined in.
With this, he nodded his head in satisfaction and abruptly left the stage where the curtain came down on the desk, the lights were turned back on and everything went back to normal!!!

Now I realise that this sounds like some sort of fevered dream/nightmare....but I promise you it happened!......I assumed that the chap in question was perhaps the 'eccentric' owner of the place but when I perused the records, it turns out thet Blackpool Tower was owned by a 'reclusive' race-horse owner, so you would think that he'd 'avoid' dressing-up and making 'strange' speeches!!

I know it's a 'long shot' but can anybody in the Ballroom-dancing fraternity cast any light on this 'more than strange' event?

Thank you for your time.

Phil Robinson.