Queen Elizabeth
by Hedy Bass
Like her namesake, Altamonte’s Elizabeth Taylor has entertained local audiences for decades, and even in retirement, the matriarch of the Fab Follies dance troupe continues to shine like a diamond.
When you meet Elizabeth Taylor of Fab Follies fame, it’s hard to imagine she’ll soon be 94. With bright red hair and piercing blue eyes, she moves with stunning grace and the elegance of a woman who still knows how to captivate an audience.
Born Elizabeth Pollock in 1926, her parents ran a popular pub on Petticoat Lane in London. The bar was open 364 days a year, closing only for Yom Kippur. There were nine children in the Pollock family, including three sets of twins, of which Elizabeth and her twin brother George were the youngest. Of all her children, Elizabeth’s mom Sophia saw talent in her youngest daughter and sent her to study at the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London.
Elizabeth remembers her first major acting gig in the British capital. The production was Peter Pan starring famed Scottish actor Alastair Sim.
“They wanted a boy of seven – I was 16 and very petite, so my agent sent me to audition, and I got the part,” she smiles. “My mother always wanted to be on stage, but now she had a daughter who could act and dance. Sometimes at night, she would wake me up and ask me to go downstairs to the pub and perform for the patrons. I’d dance on the counter, and they loved it.”
Memories weren’t always so sweet in those early days. It was wartime, and London was enduring the ravaging blitz of the German bombing campaign. Even then, Elizabeth used her talents to help others through traumatic times.
“I remember those days as a teenager,” she says. “We’d go down to the air-raid shelter at 6:00 p.m., and there was a boy I knew who would dance with me, so we’d entertain everyone while the bombs dropped. Then, the next morning, we’d come out to see the damage.”
Despite the nightly bombardments, the family pub still stands today. When the war was over, Elizabeth continued to perform, this time spending two years in Germany entertaining troops in the British zone.
By the early ‘60s, Elizabeth ventured with her young son Simon across the pond, saying she wanted to see “how the other half lives.” She took a job with Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Toronto, where she met Bill Taylor, a man whose passion for dance equaled her own. They fell in love and married, and that, she says, is how she became the other Elizabeth Taylor. Eventually, a job offer to run an Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Jacksonville brought the couple to Florida, where Elizabeth’s second son, Chris, was born.
Bill passed 30 years ago, just as Elizabeth was reaching an age when some people would think of retirement. But Elizabeth needed to do what she loved. In 1988, with a passion for performance that never subsided, she formed a volunteer troupe called the Fab Follies. Comprised of performers 55 and older, some with stage experience, some not, the Fab Follies quickly built a loyal following throughout Central Florida, all under Elizabeth’s leadership. Their shows filled up local theaters with musical productions like Ain’t We Got Fun and All That Jazz to the delight of their audiences.
Though the Fab Follies retired after 15 years and hundreds of performances, several members still gather for monthly luncheons with Elizabeth. They share fun memories and talk with great fondness about the talented friends they have lost.
Since her days as a child performer in London to her years bringing smiles and laughter to thousands with Fab Follies extravaganzas, Elizabeth says she has lived a full life.
Fabulous, indeed.