Plot:
Sally Starling starts work as a salesgirl at her father’s department store. But finding the right department is proving elusive because each one seems to end in disaster for her.
Notes:
Appeared:
- Sally at Your Service – Debbie: #74 (13 July 1974) – #85 (28 September 1974) [No episode in issue #84]
- Sally at Your Service – Debbie: #98 (28 December 1974) – #107 (1 March 1975)
The series seems to end with #83 (14 Sept. 1974) of Debbie, although the last page announces a new episode the week after.
“Sally At Your Service” ends in DEBBIE 85 (September 28 1974), the subtitle being ‘Who is the phony photographer?’ The probable reason the final instalment did not appear in issue 84, despite its having been trailered in issue 83, and therefore anticipated by DEBBIE’s young readers, is because “Willa Will Dance” was given six sides in 84, rather than the usual three, and then got six more in in 85. Even at that point Willa’s story hadn’t ended. When “Karin The Queen” ended in 84, the comment underneath that serial’s last page is ‘Watch out for the return of “Sally At Your Service” NEXT WEEK’, without any explanation as to why she had even been away at all.
Where above I wrote “Karin The Queen”, I should have written “Karin For Queen”. Sorry, I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.
Thank you for the info, Derek.
I trust it ended with Sally finally finding a place in the store where she could hold down a job. Er, that wouldn’t be store detective by any chance?
We need to bear in mind that Sally Starling’s father owns the store, so the other assistants are likely to be critical (bitchy) if Sally is shown any leniency. To be fair to Sally, she just wants to be a working girl, and to be treated just like any other sales girl. This proves difficult because the other sales girls know exactly who she is, and due largely to Sally’s attempts to adjust her language to match that of the assistants she is to work with, and the subsequent resignations of the other two girls responsible for the sales on her stall because they believe that Sally is mocking them, chaos ensues with shoppers going off with goods they haven’t paid for.
Eventually the staff training manager decides to create a job where Sally can just sit around looking attractive, so she gets a job as a receptionist in the Photographic Studio, which she loses almost as soon as she gets it. Essentially her ultimate lesson is the realisation that there is no such thing in business as real gratitude or friendship. There is no indication in the final instalment as to whether she will stay in the store or leave, but reading between the lines, because of her refusal to give in, she will stay, and make a decent fist of the job, thus proving that there is quite a lot more to her than just a pretty face and a rich father. A worthy addition therefore to the store’s directors, and a fair boss when her father finally steps down.
Thank you again Derek for this wealth of information.