Adelaide Hall

Adelaide Hall0:00

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

Presenter0:08

Adelaide, what part of the United States are you from?

Adelaide Hall0:10

Brooklyn, New York.

Presenter0:12

Uh-huh.

Presenter0:13

Was there any background of music in the family?

Adelaide Hall0:16

Oh, yes, my father was a professor of music.

Adelaide Hall0:19

Uh he could play al well almost any instrument.

Presenter0:19

See

Presenter0:23

So he put you to it quite early.

Adelaide Hall0:24

Uh well, yes, he tried with the piano, and I sort of let it go.

Adelaide Hall0:30

I'm very sorry about it now. But I can just pick out a few things here and there, you know.

Presenter0:34

I know you began in the theatre when you were very young indeed.

Adelaide Hall0:38

Yes.

Presenter0:38

How did it all start?

Adelaide Hall0:40

Well, it really started from the uh

Adelaide Hall0:42

Concerts in school.

Adelaide Hall0:44

My sister played fairly well, and I had a nice little squeaky voice.

Presenter0:48

Uh

Adelaide Hall0:49

which they enjoyed very much.

Adelaide Hall0:52

And uh there was a producer.

Adelaide Hall0:55

Lou Leslie.

Adelaide Hall0:57

Uh happen to be in the audience.

Adelaide Hall1:00

And he was uh looking for sort of new talent.

Presenter1:03

Yeah.

Adelaide Hall1:05

Um

Presenter1:06

You would.

Adelaide Hall1:06

Yes, well he told someone he's going to keep us in mind.

Presenter1:11

What was the very first professional job you did?

Adelaide Hall1:15

Well now let's see.

Adelaide Hall1:17

I think it was a shuffle along.

Presenter1:21

Well, that was a was a Harlem show that came downtown and had a had a big

Presenter1:26

Long broadway run.

Adelaide Hall1:26

Successful.

Presenter1:29

I'm Just Wild About Harry was in it.

Presenter1:32

What did you have to do?

Adelaide Hall1:34

I had to sing um

Adelaide Hall1:36

In those good old bandana days, if I can remember right.

Presenter1:39

Yeah.

Presenter1:41

And after that?

Adelaide Hall1:42

And um

Adelaide Hall1:44

Then uh running wild.

Presenter1:45

Mm-hmm.

Presenter1:47

Now you'd started making records with Duke Ellington and his band and working at the Cotton Club too.

Adelaide Hall1:53

Yes, that's right.

Adelaide Hall1:54

Yes, but to Kellington.

Presenter1:56

What was the first

Presenter1:57

Big chance you have.

Adelaide Hall2:01

was starring, I think, in the in the in the Cotton Club

Adelaide Hall2:04

review really. After that then uh I was uh

Adelaide Hall2:08

Asked to go into the

Adelaide Hall2:10

Blackbirds, after Florence Mills.

Presenter2:12

Mm-hmm.

Adelaide Hall2:13

You see, a star with Bill Robinson, you know.

Presenter2:13

Start with

Presenter2:16

Bill Bojangleshrop

Adelaide Hall2:17

Bilbo Jangles Robinson, that's right, yes.

Presenter2:19

Oh, that was Lou Leslie's show, wasn't it?

Adelaide Hall2:21

New Leslie Show is

Presenter2:21

The man who'd seen you in the school card.

Adelaide Hall2:23

That's right, yes.

Presenter2:25

You were the first singer of I Can't Give You Anything But Love, that famous old number.

Adelaide Hall2:29

Well, yes, in a way. You see, it was in a uh a musical.

Adelaide Hall2:33

And only it only lasts one night and closed.

Adelaide Hall2:37

And then

Adelaide Hall2:38

They put

Adelaide Hall2:40

The song In.

Adelaide Hall2:41

Blackbirds.

Adelaide Hall2:43

And there was a young lady singing.

Adelaide Hall2:45

It wasn't the success they wanted it to be, and they gave me the countermelody.

Adelaide Hall2:50

And it seems as though the counter memory has brought

Adelaide Hall2:53

happened to bring the song out and they said, well from then on I was identified as the you know of I can't give you anyone love

Presenter3:00

Yes.

Presenter3:02

And was it Blackbirds that brought you to Europe for the first time?

Adelaide Hall3:05

Yes, to Paris, to the Moulin Rouge.

Presenter3:07

You stayed on in Paris for some years, didn't you?

Adelaide Hall3:10

Yes, four years in Paris. I played the Lido return engagement at Le the Lido.

Adelaide Hall3:15

And I played uh the Casino in Cannes, the Casino in Nice.

Adelaide Hall3:19

Casino and

Adelaide Hall3:21

uh Monte Carlo and Beoritz and San Remo.

Presenter3:25

And you had a club, did you not?

Adelaide Hall3:27

Uh Bert Hicks, my husband, in Paris, yes, we had a club and we call it the Grosse Bomme.

Presenter3:30

Yes, we have

Adelaide Hall3:33

Big apple. Big apple, yeah.

Presenter3:33

Big apple.

Presenter3:35

And I remember you in those days with Willie Doyce in his orchestra.

Adelaide Hall3:38

That's right, yes.

Presenter3:40

When did you first come to London?

Adelaide Hall3:42

Uh I came to London in 1936.

Presenter3:45

Yes.

Adelaide Hall3:46

at the Palladium for two weeks.

Presenter3:49

And round about that time you were in a very spectacular show at Drury Lane.

Adelaide Hall3:55

Yes, the sun never sets.

Presenter3:56

That's right. That's it. A beautiful show to look at. It didn't run very long.

Adelaide Hall4:02

No. There was a lot of sort of uh well, I don't know, difficulty about the

Adelaide Hall4:08

the comedies or something, but something with a story wasn't just right. And that was with Leslie Banks and Edna Bess and Stuart Grange and uh

Adelaide Hall4:16

Oh, Todd Duncan.

Adelaide Hall4:18

You know?

Presenter4:19

That's quite a bit of a

Adelaide Hall4:19

Mackenzie Ward. Oh dear.

Adelaide Hall4:22

Tremendous cast.

Presenter4:23

Yes.

Presenter4:24

And during the war, what? ENSAR? ENSER.

Adelaide Hall4:26

Yes.

Presenter4:28

Yes, you told me they made you a left hand.

Adelaide Hall4:31

Oh yes, a beautiful costume. But beautiful, it wasn't a costume, uniform. I just loved it.

Presenter4:36

Yeah, I just loved it.

Adelaide Hall4:37

But I couldn't stand the collapse.

Presenter4:37

Uh

Adelaide Hall4:39

It was very stiff for me, you know. But still you get used to anything on time.

Presenter4:43

And where did you go?

Adelaide Hall4:44

Oh, all over the place. Had a delightful time.

Presenter4:47

After the war, you did quite a number of shows in London. What were they? In the theatre.

Adelaide Hall4:51

Oh, uh, kiss me, Kate.

Adelaide Hall4:55

And uh love from Judy.

Presenter4:57

Mm-hmm. Two big musicals.

Adelaide Hall4:58

Two big musicals and two plays.

Presenter5:00

And you went back to Broadway for a musical.

Adelaide Hall5:04

Oh, he is just

Adelaide Hall5:05

Jamaica with the Lenohorn and Ricardo Mottel Band.

Presenter5:08

Yes.

Adelaide Hall5:09

and stayed uh one year and a half.

Presenter5:11

How did you feel playing on Broadway after so many years? Did you feel you wanted to stay there or had you got a kind of mid-Atlantic feeling that

Presenter5:18

When you're in New York you want to be in London. When you're in London you want to be in New York.

Adelaide Hall5:18

Well

Adelaide Hall5:23

Well, uh

Adelaide Hall5:24

No, I can't say that. I enjoyed the play very much.

Adelaide Hall5:28

And all and you know, with my old friends. I enjoyed it very much. But, um

Adelaide Hall5:34

No, I uh found that I had

Adelaide Hall5:37

I thought I'd lost something, you know, with America. I don't know what it was. Anyway, I was

Adelaide Hall5:43

Very glad to come home to my

Presenter5:46

To London.

Adelaide Hall5:46

Yeah, still under.

Presenter5:48

What have been the highlights since Jamaica, since that Broadway trip?

Adelaide Hall5:52

Just variety, I've been doing a lot of variety.

Presenter5:54

Yeah, so

Adelaide Hall5:54

A lot of theaters all over the country.

Presenter5:56

You never stop.

Adelaide Hall5:57

No. Well, up until last Friday and Saturday.

Presenter6:00

Yeah.

Presenter6:00

What's in the book for the future?

Adelaide Hall6:02

Well, I've heard of a musical.

Adelaide Hall6:04

And I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Presenter6:07

Well, that would be great.

Adelaide Hall6:08

Thank you.