Alice Delysia

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.

Presenter0:21

This week, our castaway is an international star of revue and musical comedy. It's Alice Delicia.

Presenter0:28

Madame de Lisier, could you bear to be completely alone?

Alice Delysia0:32

Yes, I think so.

Alice Delysia0:34

I've got such a lot of

Alice Delysia0:36

memories, but I'm I'm not afraid to be alone.

Presenter0:39

Can you think of any one thing you'd been particularly happy to have left behind?

Alice Delysia0:45

Nothing, I think. I love everything in life. Other than the bad, if it comes to me, I take it.

Alice Delysia0:53

Like the wood, I touch it.

Presenter0:54

Yeah.

Alice Delysia0:55

I'm very optimistic.

Presenter0:57

Good. That's important on the desert island.

Alice Delysia1:01

If I had to start

Alice Delysia1:03

My life again.

Alice Delysia1:04

I would do it exactly what I've done since

Alice Delysia1:08

Since I was a kid.

Presenter1:11

For what reasons have you chosen your records in the main? Did you have any plan in choosing your eight?

Alice Delysia1:19

People that I've heard.

Presenter1:20

Mm-hmm.

Alice Delysia1:21

In days gone by.

Presenter1:24

Who is the first?

Alice Delysia1:26

The first is even better.

Presenter1:28

Yes.

Presenter1:29

Why did you choose her?

Alice Delysia1:31

Because I was with her at the Olympia in Paris.

Alice Delysia1:36

Well s she started too soon.

Alice Delysia1:39

Young Pagne.

Alice Delysia1:41

And I admire the the purte of her voice.

Alice Delysia1:46

The credit they have was.

Presenter1:48

Watch You Singing on This Record

Alice Delysia1:49

And it was balanced.

Speaker 12:03

Uh

Presenter2:36

Yvonne Panton singing a song from The Three Waltzes, C'est la Caison d'Ambeaux. Now watch your second tip.

Alice Delysia2:42

Sharia pin.

Presenter2:43

Yeah.

Alice Delysia2:44

The best of Boris Godinov, for I knew quite well Shaliapin.

Alice Delysia2:50

In the twenties.

Alice Delysia2:51

He used to come very often at the Savoy uh green room.

Alice Delysia2:56

Where I used to have my table?

Alice Delysia2:58

And the

Alice Delysia3:00

I don't know, it took a fancy to me just

Alice Delysia3:03

Onitoi Maripond.

Alice Delysia3:06

But he was a very charming uh man and I knew his daughter and we formed quite a nice little friendship.

Speaker 43:27

Our promotion states have called

Speaker 43:54

Your son is short.

Presenter4:00

Shaliapin singing The Death of Boris from Baris Governor.

Presenter4:04

Madame de Lisia, whereabouts in France were you born?

Presenter4:07

Uh

Alice Delysia4:07

I was born in Paris.

Presenter4:09

Do you come from a a theatrical family?

Alice Delysia4:11

Not at all.

Presenter4:12

How did you get into the theatre?

Alice Delysia4:14

Well, when I left school, that was very early, at early age, about thirteen and a half, because my parents couldn't uh

Alice Delysia4:25

I was not very rich, so I had to work.

Alice Delysia4:29

And to bring a little butts up.

Alice Delysia4:32

into the family.

Presenter4:33

Yes, what to do?

Alice Delysia4:35

I was a midinette.

Alice Delysia4:37

It's a a girl, very young.

Alice Delysia4:40

who work in a m modist

Alice Delysia4:45

Or dressmaking shop, but I was in the modest to do some hats.

Speaker 44:47

So

Speaker 14:47

Yeah.

Alice Delysia4:50

And I used not to make the hat because I was too small to do it. I would have made a mess of it.

Alice Delysia4:56

But I I used to take the hats.

Alice Delysia5:01

to the beautiful ladies of that period.

Alice Delysia5:04

Was it a Duchess or a cockot?

Alice Delysia5:07

I used to with big, large hatbox and everywhere I had that is bigger than me.

Alice Delysia5:13

And I remember I took the the top of the bus. It was a bus with horses at that moment, you know.

Speaker 45:20

Yeah.

Alice Delysia5:21

And then um my first place

Alice Delysia5:24

I must say that I was thrown out of the pass because I was a little devil.

Presenter5:30

What did you do?

Alice Delysia5:31

Oh well I

Alice Delysia5:32

I laugh, I make clown, I dress myself with the uh bits of ribbon, plume, uh silk, everything that I could find.

Alice Delysia5:45

And sometimes I sang a little song too, because remember even when I was a kid I used to love to sing.

Alice Delysia5:52

And uh there in that atolier that I was working as a medi net.

Alice Delysia5:59

There was a little girl

Alice Delysia6:01

also who was quite quite sweet. She was she was a Corsican. And she said to me one day, she said, Did you see the paper? Would you like to be an artist? I said, Oh, yes, I would love to be an artist, but I'm not

Alice Delysia6:12

I can sing a little song, but not very much. I'm not very big voice yet.

Alice Delysia6:19

I said, well, they're asking.

Alice Delysia6:22

Some figurines

Alice Delysia6:24

Mm-hmm.

Alice Delysia6:25

What do you call figurative?

Presenter6:26

Walk us on, really?

Alice Delysia6:27

Yeah, smoke yourself.

Alice Delysia6:28

At the variety theater.

Alice Delysia6:32

said, why don't we go there and see Monsieur Samuel? Monsieur Samuel was a director of that theatre.

Alice Delysia6:39

It was in the Grand Boulevard still, on the Grand Boulevard now.

Alice Delysia6:43

And he opened a beautiful review. The first review

Alice Delysia6:47

In France.

Alice Delysia6:49

It was called La Revue des Varget.

Alice Delysia6:51

So we were engaged and uh

Alice Delysia6:54

I was also diverted in that past because one night, during the interval,

Alice Delysia7:00

We had to pass under the stage to go to our dressing room. And one day took me a fancy to I had all the electric tableau in front of me. When I got I pushed the thing, I put all the theater inductors. So I was so I was pushed out of the theater.

Presenter7:14

So,

Presenter7:16

So I I must push the

Presenter7:19

Yes, you would be.

Presenter7:22

Where did you go on to? What happened next?

Alice Delysia7:25

Then I wanted to travel. It has been always my

Alice Delysia7:29

My aim to travel, to go, to see the world.

Alice Delysia7:32

And when I was at school I know that I was very good for geography.

Alice Delysia7:37

I loved it.

Alice Delysia7:38

So

Alice Delysia7:39

An agent came, his name was Monsieur Coll. I remember the name, I have a good good memory, you know, not bad for my age.

Alice Delysia7:48

Eighty three, nearly.

Presenter7:50

Well, you don't look it or sound it.

Alice Delysia7:52

Thank you.

Alice Delysia7:54

I feel it today because I'm there.

Presenter7:55

Oh, nonsense.

Alice Delysia7:58

So I took an engagement to go to New York.

Presenter8:01

Yeah.

Speaker 48:02

Yeah.

Presenter8:02

Uh

Alice Delysia8:03

in the catch of the season.

Alice Delysia8:05

and the star was Edna May.

Presenter8:08

He was still only about fifteen.

Alice Delysia8:10

I was fifteen.

Presenter8:11

Yeah.

Alice Delysia8:12

Exactly.

Alice Delysia8:14

Yeah.

Alice Delysia8:15

After New York, I went to the Moula Rouge. And there there was a very big artist called Harry Fraxon.

Alice Delysia8:24

We used to sing at the piano, you know.

Presenter8:26

Yes, he played a lot in London, didn't he?

Alice Delysia8:28

He played a lot he played at the octavo.

Alice Delysia8:32

And he was earning directively, you know, four hundred and five hundred pounds a week. Well, at that period it was something.

Alice Delysia8:40

He was at the Moulin Rouge, the big star. I was the little one, not even a star. But he noticed me.

Alice Delysia8:49

And we fall in love.

Alice Delysia8:52

So

Alice Delysia8:53

He said, I don't want you to be on the stage anymore.

Alice Delysia8:56

And we will marry you soon.

Alice Delysia8:59

As we can.

Alice Delysia9:01

So I followed him to England.

Alice Delysia9:03

And I had my twentieth birthday, my vinton.

Alice Delysia9:07

In London.

Alice Delysia9:10

It was a great sensation. Davoir Vinter, it's merville.

Presenter9:14

Oh yes.

Alice Delysia9:15

Yeah.

Alice Delysia9:17

And then uh we had a quarrel.

Alice Delysia9:21

Silly quarrel I didn't want to give way.

Alice Delysia9:24

He didn't want to, so we parted.

Alice Delysia9:28

When I was with Harry Frankson in London,

Alice Delysia9:31

I met Monsieur Cochrane, Charles Cochrane.

Speaker 19:33

Charles

Alice Delysia9:36

I said, could you give me a job?

Alice Delysia9:40

He said, I have got a little ambassador's theater.

Alice Delysia9:43

I've got few artists here, so we opened that little review at the Ambassadors. It was called All the Nands.

Presenter9:50

This was the very first intimate review in London.

Alice Delysia9:52

The first intimate review in England.

Presenter9:54

Yeah. And you played quite a number of reviews at the annual.

Alice Delysia9:58

Oh yes, and so I play odds in hands. Then after we add Pell Mel.

Alice Delysia10:02

Then after we add more.

Presenter10:04

Let's break off and have another record. What do we have next?

Alice Delysia10:04

That's

Alice Delysia10:07

The main explicit will be sincere, the carnival of the animals.

Presenter10:11

Yeah.

Alice Delysia10:11

The spoon de certain.

Presenter10:13

Yeah.

Presenter11:15

The swan from the Saint-Sanskran of Rubby Animals, the soloist, was Rodber Coitier.

Presenter11:22

Now you've done a number of shows for Cochrane at the London Pavilion.

Alice Delysia11:27

I did the

Alice Delysia11:28

As you were first, nineteen nineteen. Now you caused a scandal in As You Were.

Presenter11:33

Go with one at

Alice Delysia11:34

Because at that moment, Parasite was a scandal.

Presenter11:34

Cost you a

Alice Delysia11:37

But now they would think that I'm too

Alice Delysia11:41

Uh to

Presenter11:43

What is it?

Alice Delysia11:44

Wait.

Presenter11:45

What was the costume?

Alice Delysia11:47

I was representing Lucifer and I was dressed just in black tights.

Presenter11:52

Mm.

Alice Delysia11:52

Well, I could wear those buttons because I

Alice Delysia11:55

They will tribute.

Presenter11:58

Very well too.

Alice Delysia11:59

Yeah.

Alice Delysia12:01

And uh that make a scandal with the sensor. But I've had always a little bit of trouble with the sensor, you know, in the twenties when I played with Cochrane. I had always a little poor Cochrane.

Alice Delysia12:11

Always the sense always after even after the first night said, Oh, but tell Madame de Liza to the shower late, what look now at the show.

Presenter12:19

Yeah,

Alice Delysia12:20

Yeah.

Presenter12:21

And after as you were, Afghan, that was all.

Alice Delysia12:24

After the wear Afghan, Afghar was a Moorish play.

Alice Delysia12:29

A very beautifully dressed by Paul Poiret.

Alice Delysia12:33

Is that Harry Welchman was there?

Presenter12:36

Yes.

Alice Delysia12:36

And Mary Berg

Presenter12:37

Yeah.

Alice Delysia12:37

I like Marie.

Presenter12:39

You played Afghanistan.

Alice Delysia12:41

I played in England and then in New York. Yes. Not a big success. It was quite good.

Presenter12:47

Yes. And then you did on with the dance.

Alice Delysia12:51

On with the dance, still dancing.

Alice Delysia12:54

Yeah.

Presenter12:54

Yeah.

Alice Delysia12:57

Yes, that's where I sang the f I think it was the first song he has written, Poor Little Girl.

Presenter13:03

Yes. And there was a very successful musical comedy in the twenties at the palace, Princess Charming.

Alice Delysia13:09

A Princess Charmine, yes. Uh we opened at Manchester because Cochrane Show used to open always Manchester or Liverpool. A very good thing to start a show.

Presenter13:14

Manchester.

Alice Delysia13:19

A very good audience, you know.

Alice Delysia13:21

And we opened the show with Winnie Melville.

Speaker 413:24

Yes.

Alice Delysia13:24

But uh she was very charming, lovely voice, but uh she was not really the person for the Princess Charmie.

Alice Delysia13:33

So

Alice Delysia13:34

Cochrane asked Evelyn Le to play the part in London.

Alice Delysia13:39

So people said, Oh, Evelyn Lay with Alice Delisier, they're going to quarrel, they're going to

Alice Delysia13:45

And we are the greatest friends.

Presenter13:46

Tail.

Alice Delysia13:49

On earth now.

Presenter13:51

Still.

Presenter13:52

She's sweet.

Alice Delysia13:54

My three great friends on the stage are Evelyn Ley,

Alice Delysia13:58

Florence Desimon.

Alice Delysia14:00

And before?

Alice Delysia14:02

Valid some point.

Presenter14:03

Yes.

Presenter14:05

And there was a musical at the Gaudi Mother of Pearl.

Alice Delysia14:07

Ah, Mother of Pearl, Mother of Pearl was in nineteen thirty three. Yes. It was a very good uh very good operetta. It was a French play, and in France it was called Le Fotoi Carrant Set.

Alice Delysia14:22

Then I did a lot of uh

Alice Delysia14:24

of Kabaka show or so.

Presenter14:26

Yeah.

Alice Delysia14:26

I did a palladium or so.

Presenter14:28

There was a very successful comedy you were playing when war broke out.

Alice Delysia14:28

Very simple.

Alice Delysia14:32

Adatroise of French for love.

Presenter14:34

French.

Alice Delysia14:34

And the Keiter Lion Theater. Sure.

Presenter14:36

Well now your wartime adventures we'll talk about in a moment or two. Let's have another record. What shall we have?

Alice Delysia14:40

Boulabel Carl.

Presenter14:42

No cat.

Alice Delysia14:42

Singing work

Alice Delysia14:44

Forty-seven scout.

Speaker 414:53

Poor little rich girl, you're a bewitched girl, better take hand.

Speaker 415:01

Laughing at danger, virtuous danger, better beware.

Speaker 415:09

For life you lead set solar nerves

Presenter15:12

Never occurred.

Presenter15:13

Now in May 1941 you set off for Ensa to the Middle East.

Alice Delysia15:18

Yes.

Alice Delysia15:20

I wanted to do something for my two countries that I love, England and France. So I want to see

Alice Delysia15:27

Ada goal.

Alice Delysia15:29

And I didn't know then.

Alice Delysia15:31

That my future has been worth the cousin of the Valerian.

Alice Delysia15:36

And I said, Mon general, I said, you must help me.

Alice Delysia15:39

To go to the Middle East, to be the first artist to go to the Middle East.

Alice Delysia15:45

He said that you will be the first.

Alice Delysia15:47

To the Middle East.

Alice Delysia15:48

Uh

Presenter15:48

You were going for three months.

Alice Delysia15:51

I say for three months and I said three years.

Presenter15:52

Yeah.

Alice Delysia15:54

Less three weeks.

Presenter15:55

You came under fire on a number of occasions.

Alice Delysia15:57

Oh yes, oh yes, we were, yes. We had to

Alice Delysia16:02

herself on the floor. But it was exciting because I love everything that is exciting.

Presenter16:06

And he was singing at lonely gun sites and huge rest camps.

Alice Delysia16:07

And he was singing.

Alice Delysia16:11

Yes, everywhere. I was singing for one man uh thousand uh

Presenter16:16

You sang in a sandstorm once.

Alice Delysia16:18

Oh, yes. That was at Berezo. I remember very well.

Presenter16:22

And then you followed the invasion forces into Europe.

Alice Delysia16:25

And then I came back, I married.

Alice Delysia16:29

Commandant Colbernard?

Alice Delysia16:32

And then I asked to go to be the first artist there. I'm very stubborn, you know.

Alice Delysia16:37

to go to Normandy and I disembark in uh Armanche.

Presenter16:41

Yeah.

Alice Delysia16:43

Um one one month or one month and a half after D Day.

Alice Delysia16:47

And then I did

Alice Delysia16:49

Normandy?

Alice Delysia16:51

Belgium

Alice Delysia16:52

And how long?

Alice Delysia16:54

NIMEGA. NIMEGA was during the it wasn't the war was not yet finished. We had we have we have some lots of bombs and things.

Presenter16:56

McMegan.

Presenter17:02

Yes.

Presenter17:04

And since the war we haven't seen you in the London theatre?

Alice Delysia17:06

No.

Alice Delysia17:08

Because

Alice Delysia17:10

I was very happily married.

Alice Delysia17:13

Twenty-three years.

Presenter17:15

Yes.

Alice Delysia17:16

Very nice man, charming man.

Presenter17:18

And he your husband became a diplomat.

Alice Delysia17:21

Then he went into the diplomacy and his first post was Consul General de France in Southampton. Yes. We stayed two years.

Alice Delysia17:35

Then after we went to Calcutta, the black hole of Calcutta.

Alice Delysia17:39

As they say, I loved it. I traveled, so I was happy. And anyhow, I was always happy with my husband.

Speaker 117:43

Yeah.

Alice Delysia17:47

Then we stayed two years, then then we went to

Alice Delysia17:50

Palma de Mallorca?

Alice Delysia17:52

That's where I begin to s speak Spanish, to learn Spanish.

Alice Delysia17:56

Then I went to we went.

Alice Delysia17:58

To Nicaragua.

Alice Delysia18:00

Maraguado, capital.

Alice Delysia18:03

And then after Managua we went to Valencia for five years.

Alice Delysia18:09

Valencia is a very interesting town. It's it's not beautiful, but it's very agricultural, you know.

Alice Delysia18:15

And uh they are very gay. Actually, we made a lot of friends.

Alice Delysia18:19

And then after Valencia, it was the

Alice Delysia18:21

Uh

Alice Delysia18:22

the age of my husband, he was sixty three, to retire. So we decided to buy a house in a very lovely little place in France.

Alice Delysia18:33

tiny little village of seven hundred inhabitants.

Alice Delysia18:37

And we were in s uh stale there, quite comfait, with our vegetable garden, with our horse garden, with everything, and dodge, because I adore animals, even snakes I love.

Alice Delysia18:49

And the foreign les affaire etgère de France called him again to take the post of Argent Consulaire.

Alice Delysia18:58

De France at Las Palmas au Canarie.

Presenter19:01

Yeah, yeah.

Alice Delysia19:01

Yeah.

Alice Delysia19:03

He had

Alice Delysia19:04

All those years little trouble with his heart.

Alice Delysia19:08

And at last palmas.

Alice Delysia19:11

Just finish.

Presenter19:12

Yeah.

Presenter19:14

And since then where have you been living?

Alice Delysia19:16

have been living anywhere

Presenter19:19

You were still in the middle of the middle.

Alice Delysia19:20

A bird on a branch. I come to England.

Alice Delysia19:25

I stay in Paris with some friends in the Basque Coast, in the Pyrenees, beautiful mountains, the latest

Alice Delysia19:34

I stay with in a hotel.

Alice Delysia19:37

But I'm happy, I'm happy. I'm not happy because I'm without my husband. But

Presenter19:43

Something.

Presenter19:44

Many people must tell you that you're astonishingly youthful. Do you have any recipe for for keeping well and and young?

Alice Delysia19:52

You know, I think my mother and God, for I believe in God very strongly.

Alice Delysia19:58

I don't go to church every day. I pray when I'm alone.

Alice Delysia20:02

And I pray in a little village, not in big cathedral, doesn't interest me.

Alice Delysia20:08

I love everything that God has given us, you know.

Alice Delysia20:12

I've got a good a good stomach, I touch. I've got all my teeth, and that's very rare, at eight nearly eighty-three, yeah.

Alice Delysia20:23

Terrible.

Alice Delysia20:26

I've never had a toothache in my life, I've never had a headache in my life, I've never had a tommyache in my life.

Alice Delysia20:32

I'm still here.

Presenter20:33

Bruh.

Alice Delysia20:34

Uh

Presenter20:34

Okay.

Alice Delysia20:34

Yeah.

Presenter20:35

Let's have another Nickle. What takes?

Alice Delysia20:37

When I think we have

Alice Delysia20:40

Vicidarte, pasaldin fa.

Speaker 420:49

The I'll come and I'll be just to my dear.

Speaker 420:55

I wanna make a war.

Speaker 421:31

Yeah.

Presenter21:39

Geraldine Farah singing Visi Dashti from Tosca. Let's go straight on to your next record.

Alice Delysia21:45

Carozo

Alice Delysia21:47

I remember Caruso at my first night.

Alice Delysia21:51

of Avgar in New York. And he was on the second of the stores and I could see after the show, he was standing up like many people because I had a big success and applied me. So I've always loved Carrie South. So that also the Florida's voice, for he was somebody.

Presenter22:07

What is he?

Alice Delysia22:08

The flower song from Carmen.

Speaker 422:12

The marquis bless one woman dun far da da deal este d'ael mater war o gon man.

Speaker 422:41

Oh what God

Speaker 422:50

Go through battlefields.

Speaker 122:57

Wow.

Presenter23:09

Carols are singing the pla song from Karmet.

Presenter23:13

Madam Felicia, how resourceful would you be at looking after yourself on a desert island?

Presenter23:17

Could you cook for yourself? Yeah.

Alice Delysia23:19

Cook, I'm a very, very good cook. You are skiblin leif, I'm not a good cook.

Presenter23:24

All right, I will. No, I'll take your word for it.

Alice Delysia23:27

Not really, I'm a good

Presenter23:28

And I love cooking. What will you cook?

Presenter23:31

Hmm? Yeah.

Alice Delysia23:32

Uh

Alice Delysia23:33

No, I could

Alice Delysia23:37

Ragoude mutton and cook the the the uh the the national dish of France.

Presenter23:41

The recommendation.

Presenter23:43

Yeah.

Alice Delysia23:43

Your photo film

Presenter23:44

But we're talking about the national dish of this desert island. There's no mutant.

Presenter23:49

It's only fish or fruit or vegetables.

Presenter23:53

How good are you at fishing?

Alice Delysia23:56

She I'm not very good, but I used to catch frogs.

Alice Delysia24:00

Of course you English people I often talk about

Presenter24:03

Hello deluding

Alice Delysia24:05

But I like it.

Presenter24:07

Let's have another record. What would that be?

Alice Delysia24:08

That for this protest.

Presenter24:10

Failures

Alice Delysia24:11

We

Presenter24:11

Uh

Presenter24:56

The closing passage of the Berlioz Symphonie Fontastique saw Thomas Beacham conducting the French national radio orchestra.

Presenter25:04

Now we come to your last record, what are we going to have now?

Alice Delysia25:06

Ah, my beloved record.

Alice Delysia25:10

You could care for me.

Presenter25:11

Your signature till.

Alice Delysia25:12

Next.

Speaker 425:14

Yeah.

Speaker 425:29

This one would be a power adored.

Presenter25:44

Your own recording of If You Could Care For Me.

Presenter25:47

If you would take just one disc out of your eight, which would you choose?

Alice Delysia25:50

Well I will choose uh event tracker.

Presenter25:53

Yeah.

Presenter25:55

And one luxury to take to the island, will you?

Alice Delysia25:58

Luxury.

Alice Delysia26:00

I would like to have a very large bed.

Alice Delysia26:05

that I can really relax.

Alice Delysia26:07

Beautiful lake, looking at the star, I don't know the or the sky as a roof.

Presenter26:13

You get under the bed when it rains.

Alice Delysia26:15

Well, bed. It will be nice to repose my my bones.

Presenter26:22

And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Alice Delysia26:26

One book.

Alice Delysia26:27

Memisterable, the Victoria Gold.

Presenter26:30

Right.

Presenter26:30

And thank you, Ellie Stelicia, for letting us hear your desert island disc.

Alice Delysia26:35

Well, I thank you all.

Alice Delysia26:37

Because I was terrified, but I'm very pleased to have done it, and may God bless you all.

Presenter26:43

Goodbye everyone.