Adelaide Hall

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Presenter0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety one.

Presenter0:12

And the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:29

My Castaway this week is a jazz singer. Born in Brooklyn of a Red Indian mother and a Negro father, she had music in her blood. By the time she was seventeen she was playing on Broadway alongside Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker. But her reputation as a great original talent came with the invention of scat and her recording of Creole Love Call with Duke Ellington in nineteen twenty seven.

Presenter0:53

International success followed with the popular song I Can't Give You Anything But Love. From the Cotton Club in New York to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, she's delighted audiences wherever she's sung, and her popularity has endured with the years. Although she's lived in England since before the war, her roots are firmly in America and the jazz age. She is Adelaide Hall.

Presenter1:15

I suppose, Adelaide, when you were growing up, jazz was simply the the popular music of the time, really. I mean, you would never have guessed that it would become some kind of art form. No, no. And you see, that's the thing. And to think that you're in surrounded with all the greats as uh a young person, you you never realize. Who were they, those greats? Oh, there was um Earl Hines, for instance. There was uh Fats Waller.

Presenter1:39

Arctatum

Presenter1:41

Joe Turner?

Presenter1:42

Duke Ellington, of course.

Presenter1:44

Cab Calloway?

Presenter1:46

I can't tell you the the amount of real artists there at that particular time. You never realized it was you were too young to But how young were you when you became aware of the music all around you? Well in my teens, I should say.

Adelaide Hall1:55

How do you

Adelaide Hall1:56

Betty

Presenter2:01

And did it all come entirely naturally to you? I mean, you never had any formal training, did you?

Adelaide Hall2:03

Ever had it?

Presenter2:05

No, only my father. My father was um played various inst instruments, but he loved piano and harp.

Presenter2:13

And uh

Presenter2:15

He was a very great musician. But did he teach you? Did he give you formal lessons? No no.

Adelaide Hall2:18

Didn't give you formal lessons.

Presenter2:21

Here and there he would say, you know, I like this little strain or would you like this? And and I or I'd ask him, I see you modulate into you put this one into that and you put this

Presenter2:32

That's all. Nothing other than that. And I've never had a teacher or or anything. But there has to be a natural talent there all the same. Yeah, there must have been, yes. How much do you sing these days?

Adelaide Hall2:38

See ya.

Presenter2:42

Oh. Uh I I'm forever humming something, but I'm not rehearsing during the day unless it's very s serious and I know there's an engagement coming along.

Presenter2:52

Then I'll get all inspired and

Presenter2:55

And down to rehearsal, serious rehearsals. So would you sing to yourself on a desert island, do you think?

Adelaide Hall2:57

Simple.

Presenter3:01

Yes.

Presenter3:02

Nothing particular, just

Presenter3:04

harmonize and humming to myself, I'm sure.

Presenter3:08

So who's going to sing to you? What sort of records have you chosen? All old friends. I'd love to have had one of um Joyce Granfell, but uh unfortunately we couldn't have it today. She would have become the ninth. What's the first one?

Adelaide Hall3:19

She would have

Adelaide Hall3:20

What's the

Presenter3:22

The first one today is Duke Ellington.

Presenter3:24

A sophisticated lady. Because I I've heard him play it so many times and uh and people sort of uh ask for it, ask me to s keep that in my programme. And uh I I did adore Duke Ellington very much. He was a very fine man.

Speaker 24:05

Yeah.

Presenter4:46

Duke Ellington's sophisticated lady.

Presenter4:48

It was because of of the Duke that you discovered Scat, actually, wasn't it, Adelaide? Can you tell me what happened?

Presenter4:55

This particular time I was in Cleveland, Ohio.

Presenter4:58

Duke and myself

Presenter4:59

We were the top of the bill.

Presenter5:02

I closed the first half and Duke Ellington opened the second and I scrambled downstairs downstairs to listen to his his uh routine in his programme.

Presenter5:14

And I was sit standing in the wing and I heard this beautiful

Presenter5:19

Melody of Creole of Call

Presenter5:22

And I said, Oh, my goodness, isn't it beautiful? And I kept humming around the various notes.

Presenter5:29

And I didn't realize that Duke was carrying on listening.

Presenter5:33

And he heard this countermelody. How could he hear you? Through his little, um, intercom of that he was had over his uh

Presenter5:41

You see in front, and he could hear my countermelody. And he came right up to the wing where I was standing and he said, Adelaide, you must keep that in. He says, That's what we want. And we're going to record it tomorrow morning. I says, Record it? I says, I don't know what I'm doing. I says, Oh no, that's all just sort of ad lib. He says, That's all right, that's what we want. And that's how it was born. That's improvisation, that's jazz, isn't it? That's jazz. Is that how you define it? I mean, w what makes a good jazz singer? Is it somebody who can just suddenly hear something like that? Suddenly hear something and bring a countermelody all around the various notes.

Presenter6:22

You see? But it's very difficult to do, really. It's very difficult to do without destroying the original melodies. That's right.

Adelaide Hall6:23

But this is

Adelaide Hall6:24

Maybe.

Presenter6:29

It is, really. Because some people, you know, you hear

Presenter6:33

Sing La The Lady is a Tramp, for example. It's the classic song that jazz singers sing, and it sounds nothing like the original score at all.

Adelaide Hall6:36

It's a classic song of jazz singers sing

Presenter6:41

No. But if they know m well, if they know music well enough and they know how to um

Presenter6:48

Arrange their catamelody.

Presenter6:50

without music or anything, and you do it sort of perfectly natural. You just swing all around the notes, you see. This is the way I sing uh Lady's a Tramp today.

Presenter6:59

I could sing it about five different ways. I was going to ask, do you sing every song differently every time you sing it? Well, no, not every time, but you can.

Adelaide Hall7:02

I was gonna

Presenter7:08

You know, especially if you're putting scattered

Presenter7:11

But is that what true enjoyment in singing for you is? I that kind of improvisation in the moment? Yes, it is, really. It's inspiring, you know, makes you feel good. Shall we have your second record?

Presenter7:25

The second one is the Piggy Lee, singing fever.

Speaker 37:43

Never know how much I love you.

Speaker 37:46

Never know how much I came

Speaker 37:50

When you put your arms around me

Speaker 37:53

I get a fever that's so hard to blame, you give me fever.

Speaker 37:59

When you kiss me, fever, when you hold me tight

Speaker 38:04

Nina?

Speaker 38:06

In the morning

Speaker 38:07

A fever all through the night

Speaker 38:11

Sun lights up the daytime

Speaker 38:14

Moonlights are the night

Speaker 38:18

I light up when you call my name And you know I'm gonna treat you right

Presenter8:24

You givin' me fever.

Presenter8:26

Peggy Lee, Ann Fever. Now there's a lady who can sing jazz, huh?

Speaker 28:30

Mm-hmm. Uh

Presenter8:31

Let's go back to your beginnings, Adelaide, um in Brooklyn, as we were saying, in the early part of this century, and for someone with your natural talent it was absolutely the right place to be born at the right time. But if your family had had their way, you wouldn't have gone into show business, would you?

Adelaide Hall8:47

Joe

Presenter8:48

No, no, I wouldn't have. Why didn't they want you to? For young girls. It was sort of like a

Presenter8:55

too free a life and it wasn't just right.

Presenter8:58

How did it happen, then? How how were you spotted?

Presenter9:02

during the uh rehearsals at the end of term in school.

Presenter9:08

and my sister played a little piano, and I had this little squeaky voice that they enjoyed very much.

Presenter9:15

Then uh Lou Leslie came to listen to this uh concert.

Presenter9:20

And for some unknown reason he kept that in mind. He was deciding then, I think, about his next show.

Presenter9:27

And uh he kept me in mind.

Presenter9:31

Very much so. Yes. Mother didn't wasn't keen on uh show business for me. But in the end she gave in.

Presenter9:37

And then after she saw that uh the papers and heard all the excitement around town, she began to say, Well, it might be give her a chance. So you ended up, aged about seventeen, on Broadway in a show called Shuffle Along. Didn't you get married about then as well?

Presenter9:56

But I was married in the twenties.

Presenter9:59

This was this was Bert Hicks. That's right. A Trinidadian merchant seaman. Well no. That's right. How did all that come about? How did you meet him?

Adelaide Hall9:59

This was

Adelaide Hall10:01

The Trinity

Presenter10:08

one of my mother's uh pals, brother.

Presenter10:13

brought him to the house, to make a long story short, and I met him that way. What did he look like? Oh, he was tall, fine looking man.

Presenter10:23

If you remember Hutch here, he was that type, you know. Looked very nice in this merchant navy uniform. I think it was the uniform more than anything else.

Presenter10:32

But how come you decided to get married so young?

Presenter10:36

Oh, I don't know. It was something about him, you know, I said, well.

Presenter10:42

And man of experience. And he became your manager, didn't he? Yes, shortly after. But did he know anything about music? No, he didn't know very much about music. But he knew how to look after you.

Adelaide Hall10:53

But he knew how to

Presenter10:55

Yes. Oh, yes. And how to read a contract in

Presenter11:01

to be careful so that I wouldn't get into the wrong hands, you see.

Presenter11:06

He was very clever that way. But Bert managed you then for the next forty years, really, didn't he? Until he died in nineteen sixty three. Sixty three, yeah.

Adelaide Hall11:13

Yeah.

Presenter11:15

Um I suppose that having married so young

Presenter11:19

When he died and you became a widow in what, your late fifties, that must have been the first time in your life that you'd been on your own. That's right. First time that I'd ever been alone. Yes. And then I lost my mother shortly after that, you see. But uh you sort of look at life in a different way, carry on.

Presenter11:39

I'm still sorta on my own. I don't think I'll ever marry again.

Presenter11:45

Do you still miss him, Bert? Oh yes, I do. Definitely.

Presenter11:49

But you haven't totally ruled out remarriage uh in your late eighties?

Presenter11:55

Well, in a way I have. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever marry again.

Adelaide Hall11:57

Yeah.

Presenter11:59

Well

Presenter12:00

too old fashioned in mine, you know.

Presenter12:02

and independent.

Presenter12:04

Let's have record number three.

Presenter12:07

Oh, that's Pearl Bailey sitting in a house is not a home.

Presenter12:10

We were always quite close. We always had a sort of a close a friendship together, you know. There was something about Pearl that I could see was very

Presenter12:21

Sincere and true.

Presenter12:23

and we always kept in touch.

Speaker 312:25

A chair.

Speaker 312:27

Huh?

Speaker 312:28

A chair.

Speaker 312:30

It's still a change.

Adelaide Hall12:31

Uh

Adelaide Hall12:34

Even when there's no one

Presenter12:37

Uh

Adelaide Hall12:37

Sitting there.

Adelaide Hall12:42

For a chair is not a house.

Adelaide Hall12:46

And a house is not a home.

Adelaide Hall12:49

When there's no one there.

Adelaide Hall12:52

To hold you tight.

Adelaide Hall12:55

And no one there.

Adelaide Hall12:58

Uh

Presenter12:58

You can.

Adelaide Hall13:00

The Qs

Presenter13:00

I would not

Adelaide Hall13:00

Yeah.

Presenter13:00

Yeah.

Adelaide Hall13:00

Yeah.

Presenter13:00

Pearl Bailey: A house is not a home.

Presenter13:04

You toured Europe, Adelaide, when you were about twenty one, I think, in something called Chocolate Kiddies. That's right. What sort of show was that?

Adelaide Hall13:11

What sort of

Presenter13:13

It was a beautiful reveal.

Presenter13:15

And there is about uh

Presenter13:18

Oh, I think nearly fifty people in it.

Presenter13:21

Tap dancers and singers and uh uh Snake Hip Johnson and all those many. Fantastic. And all black cast. All black cast, yeah. And that was the Snake Hips of America, not the Snake Hips Johnson of the West End.

Presenter13:36

But uh uh the girls tap dancers and oh they were all beautiful.

Presenter13:42

And then later on came Blackbirds of nineteen twenty eight, and and you and I think a whole chorus of girls, or an all black chorus had a big show stopping number, didn't you? Yes. What was that called? Called Digga Diggadoo. What happened?

Adelaide Hall13:55

What was

Presenter13:59

It was uh uh sort of an African scene. I had to come down off of a big, huge trunk of tree down to the stage.

Presenter14:08

to start this number.

Presenter14:10

There was feathers and there was trees and leaves and oh, it was just beautiful. What were you dressed in? Nothing hardly.

Presenter14:19

And just beads and feathers, really. That's about all. No wonder it stopped the show. And that's why my mother was worried.

Presenter14:26

On top of it all. Of course, there are distinct racist overtones to all these shows, really calling you black birds and chocolate kiddies and so on. Did did that ever worry you at all?

Presenter14:38

No, no, not really.

Presenter14:40

Never worried me. I just was uh well, at the mo time, being young, you know, you you just take everything that uh except the all this beautiful excitement and everything you see. But in the States, of course, you were playing to a kind of whiter than white audiences in the cotton clubs. Oh, yes.

Adelaide Hall14:55

Oh yes

Adelaide Hall14:57

Oh yeah.

Presenter14:58

White audience. And at the Cotton Club as well. But all black performers. All black performers. What was it like backstage?

Presenter15:06

The unit was run by the underworld, of course.

Presenter15:09

You know that. We hadn't very much bother. So you didn't ever it didn't ever strike you that it was a kind of hypocrisy that th this was an all-white audience out front there with not a black face in it to appreciate you? No, we didn't like the idea, of course, but uh it was an en we just took it as an engagement and it was an opportunity.

Presenter15:29

For us to have uh

Presenter15:31

the uh pleasure of working.

Presenter15:34

At a place where we could get good salaries. What about when you went to France? Was it different there?

Presenter15:39

At the Moulin Rouge.

Presenter15:41

Well, that was the theatre.

Presenter15:43

It wasn't a cabaret. It was a sort of a theatre come restaurant, you know, that sort of thing.

Presenter15:49

Entirely different. But how did the audiences differ? Oh, the audience was beautiful.

Presenter15:55

but altogether different.

Presenter15:57

With a mixed audience, you could have there was no prejudice of any kind in Paris.

Presenter16:02

None whatsoever. Did you find that refreshing? Yes, very.

Presenter16:07

Very.

Presenter16:08

And uh the show was a success every night.

Presenter16:11

Big success.

Presenter16:13

And I should never forget we had the shock of our life when we found out that uh they had painted I was painted on the building, from the s roof to the sidewalk.

Presenter16:23

My husband wasn't too keen on it. I mean, the box office I was standing with my hands on my hip.

Presenter16:29

And my legs stretched out, you know. Your legs are striped to form the entrance of the Moulin Rouge.

Adelaide Hall16:32

You let

Speaker 316:32

Exists

Adelaide Hall16:32

Dried blood.

Presenter16:36

And that was the box office. You had to go through to the box office and he wasn't too keen on that.

Presenter16:41

I bet you weren't either, would you? No, no, I was a bit embarrassed. He said, if this is show business, you can count me out.

Presenter16:50

Too keen. Shall we have your next record? Yes. Fat Swallow singing Your Feet's Too Big. Now, why do you want that?

Presenter16:59

Well, I love to have I love to hear him sing.

Presenter17:02

So in this particular number.

Presenter17:04

Yeah.

Speaker 317:04

Yeah.

Presenter17:04

Makes you.

Speaker 317:05

Make

Speaker 217:05

Yeah.

Speaker 217:10

Up in Harlem who's at a table for two.

Speaker 217:14

There were four of us. Me, your big feet, and you.

Speaker 217:19

From your ankle up, I'll say you sure are sweet.

Adelaide Hall17:20

Uh

Presenter17:20

Show us?

Speaker 217:22

From that down, there's just too much feet. Yeah, it's your feet.

Adelaide Hall17:26

Please

Speaker 217:27

Okay.

Speaker 217:29

Don't want your cousin, please do.

Speaker 217:33

Can't use you cause your feet's too big.

Speaker 217:37

I really hate ya, cause your feet's too big. Yeah.

Speaker 217:42

Na di wuda.

Speaker 217:45

Mom's out of, where'd you get em?

Speaker 217:49

Yada yada.

Speaker 217:51

Your girl, she likes you. She thinks you're nice.

Speaker 217:55

God what it takes to be in paradise.

Speaker 217:58

She said she likes your face.

Speaker 218:00

She likes your ring.

Speaker 218:03

Man, old man, them things are too big. Yo, your feet

Presenter18:07

That was Fat Swalla and Your Feet's Too Big. Big Yet. And then later on I met him here for I Can't Give You Anything But Love.

Speaker 218:08

That's walla.

Adelaide Hall18:09

Uh

Speaker 218:10

Yeah.

Presenter18:14

And old feeling. We made the record here. That's later on. So he was a great mate, wasn't he?

Adelaide Hall18:19

Yeah.

Presenter18:21

Wonderful. Well, now you and your husband, as we were saying, moved to France in the thirties and and there you were with your legs astride the entrance of the Moulin Rue. That's right. Yes. But you love Paris. You stayed there for some years, didn't you?

Adelaide Hall18:25

Yeah.

Adelaide Hall18:30

That's

Presenter18:35

Four years opened a club.

Adelaide Hall18:36

And you stayed there.

Presenter18:37

And we opened a club called the um Big Apple. It's called Grosse Pume, we called it in Paris, the Grosse Pume.

Presenter18:45

And not knowing that it would go all over the world. Do you think that's where the phrase starts? And that's where you first, yes, there was never a big apple.

Adelaide Hall18:52

So that's where we're going to be able to do that

Presenter18:55

until between my husband and uh the uh young Frenchman that he was in partnership with.

Presenter19:04

Uh they both decided, Oh, uh it's all right with that lady? Yes, we'll call it the Gross Pum. And you used to sing there? Yes, every night. That's when uh Django Reinhart, the the gypsy uh guitarist, was uh very popular in uh in France and he would come to our place twice a week.

Presenter19:27

to play and bring all his brothers with him.

Presenter19:29

And of course we had sold out nights all the time.

Presenter19:33

Because he was so popular, too. So you were obviously very happy there. You never went back to live in America after that, did you? No.

Adelaide Hall19:34

Yeah.

Adelaide Hall19:39

Uh

Presenter19:41

Because next, after the four years in Paris, I think the call came from London, didn't it, to come here? Yes. Who did that call come from?

Presenter19:49

The call came from CB Cochrane. To do what? To join the Drury Lane American play. That was The Sun Never Sets. The Sun Never Sets. So you came here, that was nineteen thirty eight, more than fifty years ago. Oh, yeah. And you've been here ever since?

Adelaide Hall20:00

So you

Speaker 220:03

More than

Speaker 220:04

Oh yeah.

Presenter20:06

Ever since. Well, now how do you explain that? What was the attraction?

Presenter20:12

I think the mentality of the English people at that time was so calm and collective. Here at my husband, of course my husband's home.

Presenter20:22

'Cause this is where my husband went my husband went to school here, you see.

Presenter20:26

From the West Indies, he came here. So you both knew you could be happy here. And we knew that we'd be happy here, yes.

Adelaide Hall20:28

So you're a little bit more.

Presenter20:33

And uh

Presenter20:35

didn't know that we were gonna stay this long, but uh that's how that was life, you see.

Presenter20:41

Let's have your fifth record. Yes. Now, I think it's Morcom and Wise. Here's something else. Morcommon and Wise was very small children.

Presenter20:50

And now the war is on at this time.

Presenter20:53

And um I was playing all the seaside theatres.

Presenter20:59

Brighton, Blackpool,

Presenter21:02

Eastbourne

Presenter21:03

and everywhere, and there was Morgan and Wise,

Presenter21:07

as a youngsters

Presenter21:09

I'm

Presenter21:11

During this time

Presenter21:12

Yeah, I think it was in Morecambe or just after Morecambe.

Presenter21:16

My husband said uh

Presenter21:18

I I think you're all thinking about changing your name. I think you should really

Presenter21:23

Leave it as it is.

Presenter21:24

Because you've come from Morecambe.

Presenter21:27

and said, I think you should

Presenter21:30

Leave it Morcombe and Wise.

Presenter21:33

And that's in the autobiography to day.

Presenter21:36

That it was your husband who told the motherfucker.

Adelaide Hall21:37

Yeah.

Presenter21:40

So you'd like to take a little bit of Morecambe and Wise to your island, yes? I'd like them to sing.

Adelaide Hall21:43

Yeah.

Presenter21:45

Uh I I would like to hear them sing uh Bring Me Sunshine.

Presenter21:49

And bring me love.

Speaker 321:51

Oh, make me happy. Uh

Presenter21:52

Uh Uh

Speaker 321:54

Through the years

Speaker 321:57

Never bring me

Speaker 322:00

And it is.

Speaker 322:03

Let your arms be as warm as the sun from up above.

Adelaide Hall22:08

Uh Uh

Speaker 322:09

Bring me found. Bring me

Speaker 222:11

Bring me sunshine, bring me love, sweet love, bring me fun, bring me sunshine, bring me love.

Presenter22:21

Memories of Morecombe and Wise and Bring Me Sunshine.

Presenter22:24

What did you do in the war, Adelaide? Oh, the war. I joined up with Ensa and went all the way through. I met through Michael Benteen, who was had the garrison theatres then. And you you wore a uniform, didn't you? Yes. You liked it. And they made me a lieutenant.

Adelaide Hall22:40

You like that?

Presenter22:42

Well, did that mean the boys had to salute you? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And I had my own Jeep.

Presenter22:49

So you had a drive. Good time. Lovely. My pianist with me. But you you and Bert had opened well, had taken over the Florida Club in Mayfair, and that was that was bombed, wasn't it? That was bombed, yeah. We lost our home and everything.

Adelaide Hall22:56

Yeah, it may be.

Presenter23:02

And then you opened another club. And then we opened another club called the um

Adelaide Hall23:02

And then you

Presenter23:07

Calypso Club. That was on Regent Street. That was on Regent Street. So when you had no other offers of work, you could always sing in your own clubs. Oh, yes. Do you miss all that? Do you miss having your own club? Because that must have been really good fun. Well, it was at that particular time. But now it's an entirely different uh

Adelaide Hall23:09

Yeah.

Presenter23:26

Thing now.

Presenter23:27

The clubs is not as nice, I don't think. You don't get the lovely, smart, nice peop all the nice people. That's one thing which makes a difference. But they appreciate your music.

Adelaide Hall23:40

They appreciate

Adelaide Hall23:43

No yes.

Presenter23:45

But now a a few months ago you fell off a bus because you were leaping off when it was moving around.

Adelaide Hall23:50

Yeah.

Presenter23:52

Don't make a hustle. Did some damage to your knee. So I mean, can you stand up to perform now? Oh, I can stand up and perform, but it's wise and much better for me to sit down.

Adelaide Hall23:53

Did some

Presenter24:03

Hmm.

Speaker 224:03

Yeah.

Presenter24:03

So in the last uh few months I've been sitting down

Presenter24:07

and trying to do just what I could do. I don't want to give up yet. Does that inh inhibit you at all? I mean, do you feel you can't move with the rhythm? I still move and move my feet and

Speaker 224:10

I don't want

Adelaide Hall24:10

Uh

Adelaide Hall24:14

No

Presenter24:18

My hands, you know. Wave your arms about. And nobody minds that it's Adelaide Hall sitting down to sing. That's right.

Speaker 224:20

Yeah.

Presenter24:28

Next record.

Presenter24:30

The other one is at um Taton, playing Teeth for Two.

Presenter24:34

You discovered Arctatum, didn't you? And I I discovered Arctatum. Yes. We were in Cleveland, Ohio.

Adelaide Hall24:36

And I

Presenter24:41

And uh we heard about this uh beautiful pianist that was playing in uh Cleveland.

Presenter24:47

In one of the nightclubs. So my husband said, Well, should I go over? I said, Go over if you can and get him to come here tomorrow morning so we can hear.

Presenter24:57

hear his style and see if he's uh suitable for our, you know, and if he'd be interested in traveling with us.

Presenter25:04

And uh

Presenter25:06

My husband drove over and brought him back.

Presenter25:09

And of course we had this little quick rehearsal one early morning.

Presenter25:14

As soon as he touched the piano,

Presenter25:16

Everything stopped. All the hammering and the wiring and everything stopped, and everybody came to listen.

Presenter25:23

because he was so beautiful.

Presenter25:25

Such a different style

Presenter25:28

you know, different style of playing, and that's how it started.

Presenter26:16

Artatum and tea for two. Well, now, Adelaide, how are you going to manage on our desert island? Do you have any practical talents at all?

Presenter26:24

Well, I like gardening.

Presenter26:26

And I thought if I had a huge bag of seeds for a garden, so that I could have my salads, my and my nice little patch of herbs on one side, and my vegetables on the other side, you see, that I'd be and I could catch fish, and I love fish.

Presenter26:48

or seafood of any kind. And uh

Presenter26:52

I think if I could have that I'd be thankful for that. But that's your luxury, is it? A box of sleep? Yes, my luxury.

Adelaide Hall26:56

Box of seeds.

Presenter26:58

And when you sit down and and reflect on old times, who do you do that with? Do you do it with old friends? Yeah, with old friends. Like who? Of course Pearl is gone. I can't uh if I if she came to town I'd be able to discuss things with her. But what about people who are here, like Bertice Redding and Elizabeth?

Speaker 227:17

Is it a little bit more?

Presenter27:19

Uh in touch with the Batisse and uh with the Elizabeth.

Presenter27:24

Dear Elizabeth, my two dear friends. Because of course Elizabeth Welsh and you have a background not dissimilar from each other, don't you? And you you've got a nickname for yourselves, haven't you? Yes. Well I would always say to her, I said you're the gut not I'm the gut not letting you go. I said first and foremost where have you been? What have you been doing? I haven't heard from you. You haven't telephoned me. I said you know we're the last of the Moheans and we have to stick together.

Presenter27:54

Let's have record number seven. Oh, yes. Flanagan and Alan singing Strolling. I've been in the show with them at the Victoria Palace. And I love him I love them singing that together.

Presenter28:09

Every night I go out strolling and I know my

Speaker 228:14

My love is rolling when I'm strolling

Presenter28:29

Flannagan and Alan strolling. Yes. Did you ever dream, Adelaide, that your voice would last as long as it has? No. And I only say that I the only way I can sort of uh

Presenter28:41

Uh unless it's because I I've never smoked, if that really

Presenter28:46

has uh anything to do with it. But look the people that smoke and they're still singing. Perhaps it's just'cause you've used it a lot and ninety so. It could be that. I mean, I was looking at at your dates and everything, and it's true, isn't it, that you first set foot on the professional stage seventy years ago.

Presenter29:06

You don't want me to remind you of that. But you're still performing. I don't mind. Is is your professional is your professional diary full for nineteen ninety one?

Adelaide Hall29:08

But you still performing?

Adelaide Hall29:11

Is is your professional

Presenter29:16

Have you got lots of engagements? Well, uh yeah, I have a few coming up.

Speaker 229:18

Yeah.

Presenter29:22

And uh if I'm uh well enough I shall sit down and uh

Presenter29:26

try and do my best, as usual. It's not really work to you, is it? No, it isn't really. If I have that beautiful audience and I feel that atmosphere, you know, I forget about the work and take it just as uh

Presenter29:41

Enjoyment.

Presenter29:43

So it's enjoyment for you. Obviously, you hope it's enjoyment for your audience.

Adelaide Hall29:46

The

Presenter29:48

What else do you hope you're giving them? What what is your aim when you walk out onto the stage?

Adelaide Hall29:51

What is your aim?

Presenter29:55

That a

Presenter29:56

Thought

Presenter29:57

That's a feeling in and those that are not well that I've I've helped them to forget their illness and their troubles with their family and

Presenter30:08

I just hope that it brings happiness.

Presenter30:12

you know, in every way.

Presenter30:14

And so far they have told me that uh at least you don't know what you have brought forth in for many people.

Presenter30:24

to help them forget their troubles and their worries.

Presenter30:27

So I hope that is true.

Presenter30:28

Is there any one song that you love singing more than any other? I can't give you anything but love.

Presenter30:35

That's that remains the favourite, does it? So you'll sing it to yourself on your desert island, because I see your last record is um from Ella Fitzgerald, isn't it? Yes. Not singing I Can't Give You Anything But Love, but singing

Adelaide Hall30:47

But singing

Presenter30:49

But Lady Begood I love her singing back.

Presenter30:53

Because I think that was one of her favorite songs.

Presenter30:57

And uh I enjoy her singing that.

Adelaide Hall30:59

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Presenter31:22

A basket.

Presenter31:24

Ella Fitzgerald and Lady Be Good. That's it. Well, now, which of those eight records, Adelaide, would you have to have with you more than any other? Which is your favorite?

Speaker 231:24

Ella Fitzgerald and Lady Biger.

Adelaide Hall31:27

Well

Presenter31:35

Oh dear. That's very hard, isn't it? Very difficult.

Presenter31:41

Sophisticated lady.

Presenter31:43

Sophisticated Lady It Is by Duke Ellington.

Presenter31:46

We know what your luxury is. It's that big bag of seeds. Yes. What about your book? You've got the Bible and the complete works of Shakspere already there. What other book would you like to have?

Adelaide Hall31:50

What a

Presenter31:58

The book would be uh The History of uh America because I've been away so long.

Presenter32:05

I've lost s touch.

Presenter32:07

So you feel you'd like to catch up with your roots. Yes, I would, really.

Adelaide Hall32:09

With your roots.

Presenter32:13

Oh, thank you so much, Sue. Not at all. Let me say, Adelaide Hall, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island dissolve. God bless you.

Adelaide Hall32:20

Yeah.

Presenter32:29

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.