1 As Strictly Come Dancing gets underway for another glitter-filled series, Times Past is remembering the woman who brought glamour to Glasgow and made stars of many young dancers in Scottish variety’s heyday. Euphemia MacDonald was a Scottish showbiz legend – better known as dancer and choreographer May Moxon. “I thought it better to be May Moxon than wee Phemie MacDonald,’’ she would laughingly explain. Her stage name came from her grandmother May and uncle Harold Moxon, who was an acrobat.

Glasgow Times: Showbiz legend May Moxon was queen of the dance

2 Born in Townhead in October 1906, May had to give up dancing when, aged 27, she sustained severe injuries in a car accident while returning to Glasgow from a theatre show. Her leg was so badly crushed she was told it would have to be amputated, but she argued with doctors she would rather die than lose her leg, and she got her way.

3 Even though she could no longer dance, May was determined to teach and her troupes of dancers – the May Moxon Dancers, or the May Moxon Lovelies as they were sometimes billed – became legendary across the UK, appearing in variety shows, revue, cabaret and pantomimes in Glasgow, Blackpool and beyond.

Glasgow Times: Showbiz legend May Moxon was queen of the dance

4 After she retired aged 70, she received cards regularly from retired Moxon dancers scattered around the world, many of them now grandmothers. She was dubbed the Madame Bluebell of the Scottish theatre, being a contemporary of Liverpool-born Margaret Kelly who produced the Bluebell Girls at The Lido in Paris and Las Vegas. May spent hours at her sewing machine, making all the glittering costumes for her dancers.

5 Dozens of young women trained by her went on to successful stage careers. One troupe danced in a season of 100 weeks, at the Metropole in Glasgow. May died in 1996, aged 91, in Clydebank.