The day a Leeds factory welcomed a Hollywood actress

Actress Patricia Medina was the star attraction when she visited John Collier clothing factory in the early 1960s.

This photo shows some of the female workforce as they cluster around the celebrity and glamorous film star who has dressed for her visit in a silk headscarf and fur coat.

Standing to the left of her is Emily Bean, wearing a patterned knitted waistcoat. The actress expressed a liking for Emily's waistcoat and chose to be seated at her sewing machine station while signing autographs. Another smiling member of staff in the foreground, wearing a floral pinafore, awaits her turn and is holding a photograph of Miss Medina.

Patricia Medina was best known for lead roles in Orson Welles’ Mr. Arkadin and a variety of adventure films of the 1950s.

Medina played Kitty in the 1948 version of The Three Musketeers that starred Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, starred opposite Donald O’Connor in 1950’s Francis, the first in the talking mule comedy film series, and starred with Karl Malden in the Edgar Allan Poe-based mystery horror film Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954).

During the 1960s she guested on TV series including Rawhide, Have Gun - Will Travel, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

She was married twice, to actor, Richard Greene (of Robin Hood fame) from 1941 to 1951, and to actor, Joseph Cotten in 1960.

Born in Liverpool her memoir Laid Back in Hollywood was published in 1998. She died in 2012.

The John Collier factory was a well-known local landmark located off Kirkstall Road and will be remembered by many Leeds residents as Prices Tailors Ltd. The site is now the Cardigan Fields leisure and entertainment complex.

The photo is published courtesy of photographic archive Leodis, which is run by Leeds Library & Information Service. They also run heritage blog The Secret Library Leeds, which provides a behind the scenes look at the Central Library and highlights from its special collections, including rare books hidden away in the stacks.

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