[3] After sleeping rough in Brewer Street in Soho, she joined a travelling fair, where she got the idea for her act after seeing a professional strongman at work.

It was in the latter that, on stage in Iceland on 27 December 1955, Rhodes lifted, then accidentally dropped, Bob Hope, while entertaining troops for the USO.

She appeared as herself performing some of her strength feats in the Vernon Sewell-directed crime caper Johnny, You're Wanted (1956).

In her later years, she ran a small café in Crouch Hill just down the road from the Mountview Theatre School (now moved) and she was popular with its students.

[6] On 11 June 2010, BBC Radio 4 in its "Last Word" programme covered her life with anecdotes by Roy Hudd, who had known her well.