All the stars were out for the Royal Variety Show at Auckland’s St James Theatre on October 18, 1981. What a night. There was Billy T James and Sir Howard Morrison, John Rowles and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. And then there was the late addition of Ginette McDonald’s comic character, Lyn of Tawa, stepping in for female impersonator Marcus Craig. The guests of honour, the Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrived at the St James in a black Rolls-Royce, greeted by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and his wife, Thea, as an expectant New Zealand tuned in for the live broadcast.