Evelyn Laye

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:27

Our castaway this week, ladies and gentlemen, is A Star of the Theatre.

Presenter0:31

Ebelin Lay.

Presenter0:33

Or Evelyn, or Boo, to use your famous nickname. I've never known the origin.

Evelyn Laye0:37

Region of that name.

Evelyn Laye0:40

Oh, well, it's a very easy one. It's rather a silly one, I think. My father, uh when I was, oh, just at a muttering age, put his face in my pram and said, What's your name, my little darling? and I said, Boo boo.

Evelyn Laye0:55

And boo-boo, it has been ever since it's now abbreviated to boo, of course, and everybody calls me by that name. Right.

Speaker 10:58

Okay.

Evelyn Laye1:01

Could you endure loneliness?

Evelyn Laye1:03

Oh, I don't know, Roy. I like to be alone part of the day. I think it's important to be. But to have.

Evelyn Laye1:09

Unending loneliness.

Evelyn Laye1:11

No, I don't think I'd be very good at that. Do you play records a lot?

Evelyn Laye1:15

Oh, yes, lots, lots. I mean, uh, oh, I don't know what I'd do without my my records. God bless Edison, I always say.

Presenter1:22

What was your plan in choosing your eight records for the Desert Island?

Evelyn Laye1:26

Well, it's so difficult, Roy. There's such an enormous collection of records that I have. Music has always affected me enormously.

Evelyn Laye1:33

I don't know.

Evelyn Laye1:34

I think probably the plan I would like to uh

Evelyn Laye1:38

Choice is this one.

Evelyn Laye1:40

I'd like to take records with me of my friends, people who have made records.

Evelyn Laye1:46

So I'd kind of a way be taking them with me. And something that they have achieved and done.

Presenter1:52

Yeah.

Evelyn Laye1:52

Watch the first one.

Evelyn Laye1:54

I am a great admirer of Sir John Barbaroli.

Evelyn Laye1:58

He's my favorite conductor.

Evelyn Laye2:00

I first met him in New York when he went over to take the place of Toscanini.

Evelyn Laye2:05

And I was there at his first performance at Carnegie Hall, and what an ovation he had. I had a box just on the side of the platform.

Evelyn Laye2:14

And this evasion went on for a very long time. And

Evelyn Laye2:19

He suddenly turned round to the box and

Evelyn Laye2:22

looked up at me and smiled. He knew I was mad about Delius.

Evelyn Laye2:25

And he played a walk to a paradise garden.

Presenter3:26

Sir John Barbaroli conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, The Walk to the Paradise Garden by Delius. What's your second choice?

Evelyn Laye3:35

Well

Evelyn Laye3:36

I'd like to take something of Benu Morzevich. He came to our flat and he used to play the piano to us.

Evelyn Laye3:43

His rendering of Claire de Loud is out of this world.

Evelyn Laye3:47

I'd like take

Evelyn Laye3:49

Claire to load him with me.

Presenter3:55

Uh

Evelyn Laye4:08

Uh

Presenter4:18

Okay.

Presenter4:19

Uh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Presenter4:48

Beno Moisaevich.

Presenter4:50

Well your parents were in the theatre, weren't they? Yes, they were. Did they encourage you to go on the stage? No.

Evelyn Laye4:55

No, they didn't they.

Evelyn Laye4:57

They did everything they could to possibly keep me away from it, but how could I keep away from it? I'd know nothing else. I used to dream and think of the theatre all the time I was in school. I mean, if I heard an interesting history lesson, I was always playing the part of whoever it was, Mary, Queen of Scots or whatever, you know. You were a leading lady, weren't you?

Presenter5:19

We were still in your teens.

Evelyn Laye5:20

Yes, I was. Simon Hicks made me a leading lady.

Presenter5:23

Catagati?

Evelyn Laye5:23

Yes. I was about eighteen, I suppose.

Presenter5:26

Mm-hmm. You had done a number of shows at the Gaiety.

Evelyn Laye5:28

Yes, I did. I did about three or four.

Presenter5:31

And then you worked for Charles P. Cochrane.

Evelyn Laye5:34

Yes, I did. Charles gave me my first big contract, for three years it was, as a twenty-first birthday present.

Evelyn Laye5:43

And of course he became

Evelyn Laye5:46

A sort of father figure in my life, as far as my career was concerned, because.

Evelyn Laye5:52

Yeah.

Evelyn Laye5:53

gave me discipline.

Evelyn Laye5:55

He made me sing.

Evelyn Laye5:58

Using proper diction, he'd come round and say to me, Very nice tone, dear, but I can't hear a word you're singing.

Evelyn Laye6:04

And then he'd he also taught me a very great deal about my appearance, which he considered was.

Evelyn Laye6:11

Terribly important. I mean, he'd never allow any of his girls to go into the theatre in their practice costumes. They had to change inside the theatre.

Presenter6:23

You had an enormous success in New York in Bittersweet for the great Siegfeld. What what sort of man was he?

Evelyn Laye6:29

Well, it was rented. Charles B. Cochrane show, as well as Igfields, they were in in sort of combined management.

Evelyn Laye6:36

Six yield?

Evelyn Laye6:37

Well, he always reminded me of an elephant. I don't know why. His nose did. He had periwinkle blue eyes and white hair, and he seemed to be always dressed in a in a grey suit. Uh he was a very kindly man.

Evelyn Laye6:52

He had the art of making ladies look their very, very best.

Evelyn Laye6:57

And he talked to me a very great deal about my soda and dress sense.

Evelyn Laye7:02

I mean, he told me, for instance, I must never wear a large pattern. Well, I haven't.

Evelyn Laye7:07

To this day, worn a large hat, and since he told me that, I know I can't. He told me I had a a very small face.

Evelyn Laye7:14

and that uh if I put anything large on my body, it took away from my face. I must always be plainly dressed.

Presenter7:21

Out of all the musicals you did, which was the most beautifully presented?

Evelyn Laye7:25

I suppose coquets la belle alaine. It was the most extravagant. I had the most wonderful clothes again. Oliver Messel did them and I

Evelyn Laye7:34

I think I look my best that I've ever looked on stage. I said, Oliver, dress me as you wish.

Evelyn Laye7:40

Dress me in what you want.

Evelyn Laye7:42

I I won't choose anything. I'll just leave it all to you.

Presenter7:45

That version was called Helen, wasn't it?

Evelyn Laye7:46

Yes.

Presenter7:47

Yeah.

Evelyn Laye7:48

Well, let's break for record number three, whatnot.

Evelyn Laye7:50

Well, we were talking about that is sweet, weren't we?

Evelyn Laye7:53

Well, that makes me think of Noel Card, because he directed it, and I couldn't possibly go to this island without a record of Noel Card.

Evelyn Laye8:01

For with it would go so many memories.

Evelyn Laye8:04

He's always been a great inspiration to me, a hard taskmaster in the theatre, of course. He's a perfectionist of the highest.

Evelyn Laye8:10

Standards

Evelyn Laye8:12

His voice, either speaking or singing, can uplift my morale in the most extraordinary way.

Evelyn Laye8:18

I choose to take something of his to give me a laugh.

Presenter8:21

Hooray, hooray, hooray! Misery's on the way! There are bad times just around the corner! There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky, and it's no good whining about a silver lining, for we know from experience that they won't roll by. With a scowl and a frown, we'll keep our peckers down and prepare for depression and doom and dread. We're going to unpack our

Presenter8:51

Nerr Card's 1952 song There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner.

Presenter8:56

You had quite a long spell of

Evelyn Laye8:57

Uh

Presenter8:58

In Hollywood in the thirties.

Evelyn Laye8:59

Yeah. Did you enjoy that? Oh, I did enormously. I love being out there. But you see,

Evelyn Laye9:04

I suppose, I don't know, I got homesick. I I I had big contracts offered me there. Sam Goldwyn wanted me to stay, MGM wanted me to stay.

Evelyn Laye9:14

When I I had to come home, I love my country, there's no arguing about that.

Presenter9:18

Yes, what's another great producer you've worked for, Goldwyn? Oh, well, Stevenson.

Evelyn Laye9:21

He was absolutely marvellous. He used to uh say the most extraordinary things. He'd always get things backwards if he could. I mean you've heard some of his famous quotes, haven't you? One I like is

Evelyn Laye9:32

I have a mucus of an idea instead of a nucleus of an idea.

Evelyn Laye9:36

I'll give you the answer in two words, impossible, which I think's defiant, don't you?

Evelyn Laye9:42

Then one day he was discussing with his entourage a plot about a film. He said, I like it.

Evelyn Laye9:48

I like it.

Evelyn Laye9:49

It's all about Austrians, they told him. Well, never mind, he replied, we'll make it lesbians.

Presenter9:56

It was during those Hollywood days that you married your husband, Frank Lawrence.

Evelyn Laye10:00

Yes, it was a very quick thing. I I was having lunch with

Evelyn Laye10:05

Him and Doris Wantson had Marshall.

Evelyn Laye10:08

Uh down in the desert. And uh

Evelyn Laye10:11

At Bach's House.

Evelyn Laye10:13

And they both both Gloria and Bart disappeared and flanked.

Evelyn Laye10:17

asked me to marry him and uh

Evelyn Laye10:20

Oh, it'd been about six years he'd been asking me to marry him, and I

Evelyn Laye10:23

I found, to my surprise, I said yes, and to his too, he said, by God, you shall marry me tomorrow. And I did, too.

Presenter10:31

Let's go on to another highlight in your career. You you start with Richard Taubert, didn't you?

Evelyn Laye10:37

Oh yes, I did. Yes, I did.

Presenter10:37

Oh yes, I did.

Evelyn Laye10:39

I am. Now, this is one of the things that I'm very proud of to think that I sang with Richard. You know, he was a.

Evelyn Laye10:46

A great ox of a person.

Evelyn Laye10:49

He he had such strength.

Evelyn Laye10:52

He would sing a matinee, then have a bar of chocolate and sing an evening performance, and I would be lying out prone in my dressing room, having eaten a steak.

Evelyn Laye11:04

And not speaking to anybody and wondering how I was going to get through the evening performance. He often used to say to me,

Evelyn Laye11:10

Darling, I don't know how you stand up to me and well, I did. It wouldn't be complete my life out on that desert island if I didn't take his voice with me.

Evelyn Laye11:20

I'd like Richard singing Il Mio Tessoro.

Presenter11:25

Miote.

Presenter11:32

Uh

Presenter11:33

Anda, and the homes of love.

Presenter12:25

Richard Tauber singing Il Mio Tessoro from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Presenter12:30

The period just after the war was rather a rough one for you, wasn't it, Boohan? Your career seemed to go into reverse.

Evelyn Laye12:35

Yes, I had rather a nasty time. A blank sort of patch. Nobody ever thought of poor little Boozy.

Presenter12:41

What was the show that put you back into light?

Evelyn Laye12:43

Lovely wedding in Paris.

Evelyn Laye12:46

I adored playing it. Anton Warbrooke was so divine to work with. And we worked together as though we'd worked together all our lives. And it was quite extraordinary. And then of course I was lucky. I had Charles Hickman as my director, and he happened to be an old friend of mine. And I was under management to the blacks there.

Presenter13:00

Yeah.

Evelyn Laye13:02

They were my management, and they were wonderful, George and Alfred.

Presenter13:05

And then you did quite a lot of straight plays opposite Frank.

Evelyn Laye13:08

Yes, I did. I found it very difficult to make the bridge between the musical play and the straight play. I don't know what it is. It's...

Evelyn Laye13:15

I don't know whether the public don't want you to make the change. The critics certainly don't. They tear you to pieces.

Evelyn Laye13:21

Far time

Evelyn Laye13:22

I think

Evelyn Laye13:23

Really and truly, if I'm honest, Frank helped me an enormous amount in making the change eventually, and I

Evelyn Laye13:29

And help me to get rid of all the

Evelyn Laye13:31

uh well, the tricks that one has in musical

Presenter13:34

Yeah.

Presenter13:35

Well recently you've been back in the musical theater when you took over Anna Neagle's part in Charlie Girl.

Evelyn Laye13:40

Yes, and I reached back for all those tricks. I don't mind tricking.

Presenter13:44

I bet it's strange to spot.

Evelyn Laye13:45

Oh, yes. I cut out Anna's big dance because that belonged to Anna and I didn't feel it belonged to me. Besides, I'm not a dancer like she, but I did have fun. I did enjoy it and oh, I did love hearing the orchestra.

Speaker 113:55

Yeah.

Evelyn Laye13:58

He had a wonderful choreographer.

Evelyn Laye14:00

Who was um

Evelyn Laye14:03

Such a friend and a help. And he made me realize that the one thing that I had to do and I must do.

Evelyn Laye14:08

is to go and learn about modern movement.

Presenter14:10

Mhm. Do you think a lot of the glamour has gone out of the theatre?

Evelyn Laye14:13

Oh

Evelyn Laye14:14

Oh, boy, oh boy, and how it's gone out. I think it's such a mistake. I

Evelyn Laye14:20

I don't like all these realistic plays. I I get um I get shocked, you know.

Evelyn Laye14:26

I'm a woman of the world. I'm not an old square really. But I get shocked when I go to the theatre now. I wish they wouldn't do it. I think glamour will come back. I think entertainment will come back. I want to go to the theatre to be entertained.

Presenter14:40

What would you like to happen next if the telephone were to ring this evening, offer offering you

Presenter14:46

An engagement. What would you like that to be? Something that you've always wanted to play.

Presenter14:52

Some part, some theatre.

Evelyn Laye14:55

I'd like a nice offer.

Evelyn Laye14:58

With a lot of money attached to it, huh?

Evelyn Laye15:02

No, Roy, I've been in the theatre in the world of entertainment all my life.

Evelyn Laye15:08

I don't mind what it is, as long as it's first class.

Presenter15:11

Let's have record number five.

Evelyn Laye15:13

Yeah.

Evelyn Laye15:13

Record number five. Well.

Evelyn Laye15:16

I'd like Dershpin's concerto in S.

Evelyn Laye15:20

Ah, the third movement appeals to me most. I love that. Its sharp attack on the piano and that jazz rhythm. That appeals to me. And the broad melody at the climax.

Presenter16:01

The last movement of Gershwin's concerto in F with Leonard Pinario as soloist. You knew Gershwin, didn't you?

Evelyn Laye16:07

Yes, I did. I met him first in New York, you know, when I was playing there in Bitter Sweden.

Evelyn Laye16:12

What have you got next, Police?

Evelyn Laye16:14

When I lived at Harpington, I uh during the war

Evelyn Laye16:17

I had a very nice little house there. Frank was away most of the time.

Evelyn Laye16:23

And I was sometimes

Evelyn Laye16:25

Rather afraid then when there were air raids and when the news came through and it was rather bad.

Evelyn Laye16:31

Do you know I only used to have to hear the voice of Sir Winston Churchill on the radio making one of his speeches?

Evelyn Laye16:38

And somehow I thought it was a personal thing he was talking to me alone and nobody else.

Evelyn Laye16:43

I only ever met him once. It was at a garden party.

Evelyn Laye16:47

My husband raised his hat to him, and he must have thought

Evelyn Laye16:51

Those two faces are familiar, and he came over

Evelyn Laye16:54

and shook us by the hand.

Evelyn Laye16:56

We just glowed.

Evelyn Laye16:58

He afterwards signed a photograph for us. It stands on the piano. Whenever whenever I lack courage, I just stand at it and stare at it, and it seems to say,

Evelyn Laye17:07

Get on with it, girl. Don't be weak and flabby. Fight.

Speaker 217:13

We shall go on to the end.

Speaker 217:16

Missiles fight in France.

Speaker 217:18

which will fight on the seas and oceans

Speaker 217:21

We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.

Speaker 217:28

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

Speaker 217:32

We shall fight on the beaches.

Speaker 217:34

Visual site on the landing ground.

Speaker 217:37

We shall fight in the fields.

Speaker 217:39

And illustrate.

Speaker 217:41

Bristol Fight in the Hills.

Speaker 217:43

We shall never surrender.

Speaker 217:45

And if

Speaker 217:47

which I do not for a moment believe

Speaker 217:50

This island, or a large part of it, was subjugated and starving.

Speaker 217:56

Than our empire beyond the seas.

Speaker 217:59

armed and guarded by the British fleet.

Speaker 218:03

Carry on the struggle.

Speaker 218:05

Until in God's good time.

Speaker 218:08

The new world with all its power and might.

Speaker 218:11

steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Presenter18:17

A Churchill speech of june nineteen forty.

Presenter18:21

Oh, how well do you think you'd manage as a castaway? Are you a practical person?

Evelyn Laye18:26

No, I'm not, you know.

Evelyn Laye18:28

I'm not very clever with my hands at all.

Evelyn Laye18:31

It pains me to think of killing anything to eat. Fishing? Well, I used to be all right fishing, but I can't kill things. I just. I can't bear to think of it, but I suppose sheer desperation would make me. I suppose.

Evelyn Laye18:47

Necessity would become the mother of invention. Would you try to escape?

Evelyn Laye18:51

I don't know. Would I try to escape? Well, it's a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. I mean, literally the deep blue sea, isn't it? No, I think I'd stay where I was and wait, hopefully, for a passing ship to rescue me.

Presenter19:04

Let's have record number seven.

Evelyn Laye19:06

I'd like to take a record of my friend Leon Gusen's playing.

Evelyn Laye19:10

Jesual joy of man's desiring.

Evelyn Laye19:27

Hold on.

Presenter20:10

Jesus Joy of Man's Desiring, Leon Gosens with the Temple Church Choir.

Presenter20:15

And now we come to your last one. What's that?

Evelyn Laye20:19

Well, it's one lake.

Evelyn Laye20:21

I adore the ballet. One of the greatest treats that I can have is to go to a ballet performance at Covent Garden.

Evelyn Laye20:27

Especially if it happens to be a gala evening and the house is dressed and

Evelyn Laye20:32

Some of our royalty have presents.

Evelyn Laye20:34

An evening which I have tucked away in my memory.

Evelyn Laye20:38

as one of the greatest I shall ever behold.

Evelyn Laye20:41

Is De Marco Fontaine and Neuriev?

Evelyn Laye20:44

Dancing swan leg.

Presenter21:46

The finale of Swan Lake, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Cariac.

Presenter21:51

If you would take just one of the eight records you played as Blue, which would it be?

Evelyn Laye21:56

Oh, it's very difficult, isn't it, Roy? I think I'd take an old coward, because I I can't live without a laugh, you see.

Presenter22:02

And one luxury to take to the island with you?

Evelyn Laye22:04

A large box of cosmetics, please. You see, the older I get, the vainer I get. It's dreadful, isn't it? But I think a lady should always look her best.

Evelyn Laye22:14

And if I'm going to be rescued by a handsome sailor, I've got to look all right, haven't I?

Presenter22:18

Indeed. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare which are already on the island.

Evelyn Laye22:24

I'd like to take a book called White Magic by Alice Bailey.

Presenter22:28

What's that?

Evelyn Laye22:29

Well, I always keep it by my bed. It's a book on ancient wisdom, from which I get an enormous amount of help.

Presenter22:35

White Magic by Alice Bailey. You shall have it. And thank you, Evelyn Lay, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Evelyn Laye22:41

Thank you, Roy. It's been lovely being with you.

Presenter22:43

Goodbye, everyone.