Elsie & Doris Waters

Elsie0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

You're both Londoners, aren't you?

Presenter0:10

Elsie, was there any precedent in the family for music or the theatre?

Elsie0:14

Oh father was very fond of music, very fond of music indeed. And when we were there were six of us, you know, four brothers and we two. And when we were five years old, as we came to be five years old, we all had to learn to play the piano.

Elsie0:27

And uh we had to learn to swim, didn't we? Yes, we had to learn to swim. I never thought it might come in useful, but you never know.

Speaker 10:28

Mm-hmm.

Elsie0:33

And when we were able to play the piano fairly well, you know, sort of background, we had to take up another instrument and through doing that

Elsie0:40

We became a little orchestra.

Presenter0:42

The little family or

Elsie0:43

Because of family orchestra.

Presenter0:44

One member of that orchestra was someone known to us now as Joe Huggett, T C Dixon, Tonger Up of Rat Holes, and Jack Warner.

Elsie0:47

DC Dixon, bunger up of Rat Holes and Jack Warner. Yes, yes. Yes, well he played the video.

Presenter0:52

Did Jack change his name or did you change yours?

Elsie0:56

No, Jack changed his name.

Presenter0:58

Hmm.

Elsie0:58

See uh

Elsie1:00

He wanted to because he well, we sort of suggested it because we knew he could do well on his own.

Elsie1:06

And not just be known as uh

Elsie1:08

Elsie Norris's brother.

Presenter1:09

Yes.

Elsie1:10

And he changed his name.

Elsie1:12

He chose Jack Warner so that he shouldn't have to uh alter the initials on his hairbrushes and a suitcase.

Presenter1:18

See?

Speaker 11:19

Okay, so

Presenter1:19

Uh

Elsie1:20

I must say we're known as Jack Warner's Sisters now.

Speaker 11:23

Well, you had this family orcstoke. What was the next step?

Elsie1:27

Well, um Elsie began playing her violin. Ah, people kept asking her to play her violin at all sorts of little bazaars and concerts and things, and I went along to accompany her.

Elsie1:38

And she said one day, she said, You know, you must uh learn to do something else. People won't pay you just to come along and play for me. Well, I was getting a guinea. I know, and giving me some of it.

Elsie1:47

Half of it, wasn't it? Yes. And so I she said, You must tell some stories. I said, Oh, I couldn't possibly do that.

Elsie1:53

But I did, and then she began writing me little

Elsie1:57

Songs? Funny songs. We thought they were funny. The audience didn't sometimes.

Elsie2:01

And I was

Elsie2:03

able to write the music to them. We still do that now with our songs. Elsie writes the words and I do the music.

Elsie2:09

And then uh

Elsie2:10

We got our first engagement in a concert park.

Presenter2:12

Where was that?

Elsie2:13

Clacton.

Presenter2:14

Yeah.

Elsie2:15

Thurm will see Pepper, Harry Pepper's farm.

Presenter2:17

Oh yeah.

Elsie2:18

We were quite cool.

Presenter2:20

How long did that engagement last?

Elsie2:21

The week.

Presenter2:22

Oh dear.

Elsie2:22

It did. Yes, there was a railway strike, and we all had to come home.

Elsie2:26

And we were very sad about that because we'd already refused to go to Southwold for Mr Pepper that summer when he'd asked us to go. And having enjoyed the week at Whitson so very much, we thought, well, we really wish we hadn't said no. So we went to see him again and we said we really would like to go to Southwold now, if we may. And so he said, I'm very sorry.

Speaker 12:38

Yeah.

Elsie2:43

But it's too late. I asked you, you said no, and I'm afraid I haven't any room for you.

Presenter2:46

Why'd you say no?

Elsie2:48

Well, we saw it mother didn't like us to wear short skirts.

Elsie2:54

However, we went out and he said, I can only take one of you. And so we went away and we were very depressed and we made an excuse one to the other. Doris went to the telephone, phoned him and said, Mr. Pepper, do take Elsie, I know she would love to go to Southwold. I phoned him and said, oh, do take Doris, I know she would love to go to Southwold. It rather amused him, I think, because he sent for us both again and said, I'll send you both. How much do you want? And so I gulped and said, eight, no, sixteen pounds a week. And so he said, I'll give you eight. And we said, thank you very much. We'll take it.

Elsie3:24

Between us, yes, of course.

Presenter3:24

Oh yes. Well I I know you stayed in concert party for quite a long time with after dinner entertaining during the winter. Then which came first, records or broadcasting?

Elsie3:33

Or broadcasting. Because it was because the Gramophone Company heard us broadcasting that they asked us to make records.

Presenter3:38

Yeah

Presenter3:39

And what was the origin of of Girt and Daisy? How did they start?

Elsie3:43

Well, you see, when we first began making records we just did little close harmony songs and things like that.

Elsie3:49

And then we had made one side of a record, and suddenly, one evening when we came home after our after dinner entertaining,

Elsie3:56

We realised that we hadn't got anything to put on the other side of the record and we had a grammar phone session fixed for the next morning. So we suddenly thought, well, one of us said we'll do a talking record for a change.

Elsie4:08

And uh I sat down at the piano and began to play bells and

Elsie4:13

We said bells, yes, Elsie said wedding bells, people like wedding bells, yes, and so I quickly wrote this four-line tune, Elsie wrote the words, and we wrote the patter of two cockney women watching a wedding.

Presenter4:24

And that was the beginning of Gerdon Days. Were they based on real people?

Elsie4:28

Yeah, sort of, you know. Unconsciously, I

Presenter4:30

Yes. And what about Floggit? Is there a real Flog It?

Elsie4:33

Yeah, isn't it? There is three ockets in Sussex.

Presenter4:34

There is.

Elsie4:37

Yes.

Presenter4:37

In a real village?

Elsie4:38

In a real unit, yes.

Elsie4:40

The the the imaginary name of the village we gave uh to Floggetts is Russet Green.

Presenter4:44

Hmm.

Elsie4:45

But there is the original of Russet Green in Sussex.

Presenter4:48

Oh, you must tell me quietly afterwards where that village is. I I'd love to visit it. You're most welcome. Gert and Daisy have taken you c to quite a few corners of the globe, haven't they? Or, shall I put it the other way round? You've taken the.

Elsie4:49

I'd I'd love to

Elsie4:58

No, I think the first time was right. I think they've taken us.

Presenter5:01

Mm.

Elsie5:01

Even onto the desert island, you can imagine.

Presenter5:03

Yeah.

Elsie5:04

But uh we we went to India, you know, during the war.

Elsie5:08

And again to India and Ceylon, Malaire, Hong Kong, all those places. Yeah. Wonderful.

Speaker 15:14

Yeah.

Elsie5:16

We flew out to India in a twin engined aircraft and nearly came down in the sea when we were about an hour and a half flying time from Gibraltar, because one of the engines had gone wrong. And we got to Gibraltar with just two gallons of oil left.

Speaker 15:26

Uh

Elsie5:29

Well

Elsie5:30

They mended the aircraft there and uh

Elsie5:33

Then we flew on to Algiers, and on the way the pilot indulged in what we realized afterwards was some very clever low flying.

Elsie5:40

The wingtips it seemed nearly to touch the coves and places as we went along. And when we got down at Mais-En-Blanche Aerodrome, we said to him, Thanks for the buggy ride. So he said, Did you enjoy the low flying? So we said,

Elsie5:52

Yes. He said, well, he said, I felt I had to do something for you to make up for the scare you had this morning.

Presenter5:58

Okay, just

Elsie5:59

You nearly frightened the lives out of us.

Presenter6:01

I remember on the home front Gert and Daisy used to give some rather curious recipes on here for the Ministry of Food, too.

Elsie6:07

Yeah, you would remember that wouldn't it?

Presenter6:10

I wonder what ever happened to Wolton Pye. You never see it on the mail nowadays.

Elsie6:13

You give me the recipe again if

Presenter6:15

Yeah.