BACK in 1976, when I spent a delightful evening with Sadie Terry Wood ­— a lady with boundless energy and enthusiasm ­— to talk about old Island theatres, she recalled a day in 1927, when she almost fell out with her husband, Horace.

He was in the army at the time and had sent her a message, via a friend, to say that he’d purchased the derelict and fire ravaged Shanklin Pier Theatre.

It had burnt down in 1918.

Initially, she was speechless and angry, but quickly mellowed and rose to the challenge of building a new theatre which was known as the Casino for many years.

Prior to the 1918 fire, the original theatre, built in 1909, had provided holidaymakers with dazzling summer season shows.

Eventually, Powis Pinder, a London singer and actor, came to appear for a season and then took it over and presented his Burlesque concert party.

Huge stars of the era performed at the new Casino Theatre.

The legendary Paul Robeson appeared there eight times, and others included Richard Tauber, top ballet dancer Pavlova, Elsie and Doris Waters, Sophie Tucker, Flotsam and Jetsam and Tommy Trinder.

In 1930, Clarkson Rose appeared at the venue with his famous Twinkle company.

In the late ‘30s, the fast-rising comedian, Tommy Trinder, spent three summers at the Casino.

Barney Powell, who stayed on to live in Shanklin and eventually opened Barney’s Emporium, was a regular in their summer season shows.

For a while, two stars-elect were appearing within 100 yards of each other on Shanklin seafront.

Tommy Trinder was on the pier and Arthur Askey at the Summer Theatre, now an amusement arcade.

Powis Pinder, who had returned to the Shanklin entertainment scene, had built the Summer Theatre by transporting a seaplane hangar from Bembridge.

Rumours suggest both theatres spied on each other, via binoculars, to see how many were going into the shows.

Horace Terry Wood brought many top bands who were the pop stars of the time.

These included Jack Payne, Harry Gold and Billy Cotton.

There is an amazing story that developed after the Cotton concert.

Sadie remembered it with great delight and was laughing before she recalled it.

Apparently, after the Billy Cotton show they had to rush back to the mainland, via a special launch, to get back to London for a radio broadcast the next day.

As they boarded the boat, one band member realised he had left something in the dressing room.

He rushed to leave the launch and his false teeth fell into the sea.

Two years later, a diver found them and Sadie presented them, amidst great laughter, to Billy Cotton when his band appeared at the Dorchester Hotel, London.

You could never miss Sadie in Shanklin.

She had a unique style of dress for those days, including a sailor’s hat and trousers.

She also had a few escapades in her speedboat.

During the Terry Wood era, on the pier they had a smaller dance hall built on the very end, and Terry’s Bar also became a major attraction.

In 1938, Anthony Eden, who went on the become Britain’s foreign minister and then prime minister, was a welcome visitor to Terry’s Bar.

No selfies in those days but, luckily, he was spotted and photographed.

Terry Wood’s sold the Shanklin Pier in 1964.

Summer shows did continue for several years, and in one of them ‘50s pop star Anne Shelton topped the bill.

The Temperance Seven, who had many chart hits, also came for a summer season.

In that company were magic act, Sy and Isa Lyn.

They virtually never went home and soon opened a magic shop in Shanklin.

For me, the summer of 1971 was rather special and this was down to a show promoter called Don Duval.

He presented the summer show and imported some top stars to front it for a week or so.

These included Ruby Murray, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, and top crooner Ronnie Carroll.

Cabaret was popular in the ‘70s and the theatre seats were sold to the Trinity Theatre, Cowes, and replaced by tables and chairs.

With the sad decline of resident summer seasons, eventually the theatre was used as a ballroom.

Then it became the haunt of heavy metal head-bangers, bikers and mods, as well as holidaymakers.

The venue’s DJ gran, Joan Yule, became quite famous.

Once her audience had got over the shock of seeing her playing the records they loved the music.

One day, Joan went into the Shanklin’s Acorn Records shop to purchase some records.

The young assistant said: “They tell me an old gal plays all the records down there.”

For once, Joan kept very quiet.

On a still night you could hear her Status Quo, T Rex and Small Faces records all across the bay.

In 1987, her sad story went all around the world.

When the hurricane blew the theatre into the sea, Joan lost her 2,000 records, deck, speakers and lighting gear.

She once told me: “Albert the pier ghost got all those records that took me 30 years to collect.

“He must have had a hell of a rave-up.”

In her younger days, Joan had been the DJ at the Towers Holiday Camp, Thorness.

People came to her aid and gave her many records to continue her joy of being a DJ.

She carried on for several more years at other local venues.