A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the organiser of a street party who turned down an offer to play free from Phil Collins.

Which prompted this story from Michael Woolf of Leeds: "My cousin and his wife were on a cruise in the 1960s when they met Sammy Davis Jnr and his manager and became friendly," he recalled.

"My cousin was on a JNF committee in Leeds which held a dinner dance every year. They thought it would be wonderful if they could get Sammy Davis to perform there, so they approached him and he agreed to do it.

"So they telegraphed the man in charge of the committee in Leeds to get permission to book him. He was an old Yiddisher fellow. 'Who is this Sammy Davis?,' he asked. 'We're not having him. Cancel him.' My cousin and his wife were dumbfounded."