Gracie Fields

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen sixty one.

Gracie Fields0:24

Desert Island discs.

Gracie Fields0:34

Each week, a well-known person is asked the question, if you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you?

Gracie Fields0:43

As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:47

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter0:49

Our castaway today needs only the briefest of introductions. It's our Gracie, Gracie Fields.

Presenter0:56

Now, Gracie, we don't see nearly enough of you these days, and it seems a shame to send you off to a desert island when you do get here.

Presenter1:02

How do you think you would face up to complete isolation? Have you the temperament that could stand it?

Presenter1:07

Well

Presenter1:08

I did have a few years ago.

Presenter1:11

But uh no, I don't think so. I think uh

Presenter1:15

I like the security of streets.

Presenter1:19

I like to be where the theatres are.

Presenter1:22

And though in the past I was in the theatre all the time and didn't get much peace, I was always working myself. Well now

Presenter1:30

I can go out, nobody notices me, I can slip in the theatre and

Presenter1:34

Really enjoyable. Oh, yes. Just an odd one now and again.

Gracie Fields1:38

Don't

Presenter1:41

Do you play the gramophone very much?

Presenter1:43

Not as much as I would like to play it, because I get too many disturbances where I live. In Campry? In Campry, yes. But on the Desert Island I'll have no disturbances, so I shall really enjoy playing the record. How did you set about choosing the eight to take with you? Are you looking back, or are they nostalgic? Both, you're looking back.

Presenter2:02

Things that you remember, shows you've seen.

Presenter2:05

That sort of thing. It's all mixed. What's the first one you've chosen? Well, the first one is a little song that I heard being played continuously in New York last year.

Presenter2:15

and it kept following me around.

Presenter2:18

That is the most fascinating thing.

Presenter2:22

and it's called The Little Drummer Boy, done by the Harry Simeone Corral.

Gracie Fields2:41

Are you born king to Sid?

Presenter2:57

The Little Drama Boy sung by the Harry Simeone Chorale. What's your second choice, Gracie? Well, my second choice is a song from Gigi.

Presenter3:07

and it's sung by Maurice Chevalier.

Presenter3:10

and Hermione Gingold.

Presenter3:12

I think it's one of the loveliest duets I've ever heard. I think everybody loves it's I Remember It Well.

Gracie Fields3:19

We met at nine.

Presenter3:21

We missed 8.

Gracie Fields3:22

I was on time.

Presenter3:24

No, you will leave.

Gracie Fields3:26

Uh yes?

Presenter3:27

Uh

Gracie Fields3:27

I remember it well.

Gracie Fields3:30

Uh

Presenter3:30

Uh

Gracie Fields3:30

Without And with friends?

Presenter3:31

So we died in the lonely.

Gracie Fields3:33

But cannot sound

Speaker 33:34

Yeah.

Presenter3:34

Batter of toe

Speaker 33:35

Yeah.

Gracie Fields3:36

Yeah.

Gracie Fields3:37

I remember it well.

Gracie Fields3:41

That dazzling April moon

Gracie Fields3:44

The

Presenter3:45

There was none.

Gracie Fields3:45

Yeah.

Presenter3:45

There

Presenter3:47

Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold from the soundtrack of Gigi.

Presenter3:52

Gracie, what brought you into the theatre? Was there any President in the family?

Presenter3:55

I was the first one to go into the theatre because I had an exceptional voice, and my mother knew I had an exceptional voice. She had two, but she was never allowed to go in the theatre.

Presenter4:06

But she would get as near theatre as she could by moving continuously opposite theatrical boarding houses.

Presenter4:13

and I was living opposite one of these theatrical boarding houses, and I used to sit on the step and sing like the Dickens, knowing that some one's going to come out, give me a penny or an halfpenny. Anyway, a lady came out one day, called Lily Turner, and she said

Presenter4:27

I want to see your mother and want to see mother says I think you should go in the singing competition at the old circus in in Rochdale, where the hippodrome is now.

Presenter4:35

So she taught me a little song

Presenter4:37

which we had to sing all of us, called What Makes Me Love You As I Do?

Presenter4:41

But I I exasperated poor Lily Turnham, because I couldn't sing What Makes Me Love You As I Do. I always sang What Makes Me Love You As I Do.

Presenter4:51

So she went mad. She said, Well, listen, can't you say what? What? What? I kept saying, What? What? What?

Presenter5:00

She says sing quot

Presenter5:02

So I sing Quat

Presenter5:04

And I won the competition with Quat makes me love you as I do.

Gracie Fields5:05

Makes me love you as I do.

Presenter5:07

How old were you then? Seven. And that was your first appearance? That was my first appearance in the theater. And you were on tour with the juvenile troop when you were in the... Yes, I was in several juvenile troops. Haley's Garden of Girls, Haley's Juveniles, Clara Coverdell's Nine Dayty Dots, and Charburn's Young Stars. Charburn's Young Stars, I was with them for about two years.

Gracie Fields5:13

Yes, I was

Gracie Fields5:20

And

Presenter5:25

And you also worked in the cotton mill as a part-time. That's right. I did one year because mother said all the neighbors began to say you must put her in the factory and

Presenter5:34

Tell him, father, that he should put her in the factory and forget the theatre.

Presenter5:38

And mother said, Well, you might lose your voice. You ought to be able to do something else, so you better go in So I went in the factory, she said, But you're not going to stop, I'll see that you don't stop And she did. It's true that you never took a singing lesson.

Gracie Fields5:46

And he did.

Presenter5:48

No, I never took a singing lesson in my life.

Presenter5:51

The small-town touring theatres in which you learned your job the hard way have almost completely disappeared now. Some of them were.

Presenter5:58

Pretty rough, weren't they? Oh, some of them were quite rough, but you didn't notice it when you're young, you know. Everything's a wonderful time. Yes. Well, then after years of slogging, there was one show that brought you into the West End. That's right. mister Tower of London.

Presenter6:11

And it had several other members of the family in it. That's right. My sister, two sisters were in it, Betty and Edith.

Gracie Fields6:13

That's what

Presenter6:17

And my brother Tommy.

Presenter6:19

And we were all married to somebody in the show. Tommy was married to a chorus girl. I was married to Archie Pitt, the owner of the show, and Betty was married to the scenic artist. Edith was about to be married, but she got out of the thing, went to America, and then came back again and married, so she was in the business. We were all in the factory.

Gracie Fields6:28

Read.

Presenter6:37

Well, you came into the Alhambra in London. Is it true that you, the leading lady, had been up all night remaking most of the costumes from Fortnite? I'd been up several nights before and I'd had the girls sitting up with me too. We'd decided that we had to be the best dressed

Gracie Fields6:44

I've been

Presenter6:51

and the best rehearsed dances of all the London shows. And when the papers came out, I believe the next day, it said that they were beautifully drilled

Presenter7:00

Like the Tiller's best troops. And that was a big thrill for me. And the dresses were all remarked upon too. And I thought, Oh, really, really? I'm a blessed maker.

Presenter7:10

Well, at this point your first West Sense success. Let's break off for another record. What should we have next?

Presenter7:15

Well, I'm very, very fond of

Presenter7:18

This special record.

Presenter7:20

That's Rak Maninoff playing his second piano concerto, a bit of the last movement.

Presenter8:27

Raghmaninov

Presenter8:29

in part of the third movement of his second piano concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stukovsky.

Presenter8:36

Well now what happened after mister Tower of London, Gracie?

Presenter8:39

Well, then I did a vaudevillect for quite a while.

Presenter8:43

and then went into a play with Sir Gerald Murray. Yes. And my family and everybody was shocked that I should go into a play and they said, Well,

Presenter8:52

Uh we think you should continue with your vaudeville work. You're killed off in the first part of the show, and you've got the time, then you can slip over to the Alhambra, London, and do your own vaudeville act. You must not forget your own art, your own work.

Presenter9:08

That I did. Then on top of that I did my first cabaret. That was at the Cafe Royal. It was my first and last in England. But in America I've done a lot of cabarets since, and I did I quite enjoyed it.

Presenter9:21

But I prefer the theatre always because I like that row of footlights.

Presenter9:26

Well, you were certainly working hard, weren't you? I was doing six shows a day, and then recording and doing something. I I was just a young horse, I ought to say, I must have been. There was an occasion shortly after this when you took over a part from one of the Duncan sisters at the Gaether Theatre at tremendously short notice.

Gracie Fields9:40

That's a mental health.

Presenter9:42

Yes, it was very funny, going from Lady Bois in uh Gerald de Mario's play and when I had to be frightfully like that, you know, I was supposed to be had a bad heart. It was very funny.

Gracie Fields9:54

And the part at the game

Presenter9:54

Yeah.

Gracie Fields9:54

Better than

Presenter9:54

The part at the Gaita Theatre

Gracie Fields9:54

Good ha!

Presenter9:57

It was really my cup of tea. I had seen the Duncan sisters, who I adored in Topsy and Eva. I saw their first night. And uh when uh I met Rosetta Duncan in the um

Presenter10:09

Savoy one day, having lunch, she was in terrible state, said her sister's sick, can't do the show and this, that and the other. I says, Oh, I'll do it Oh, she says, Oh, no, nobody can play my sister's part, nobody can play Topsy. I says, Oh, I can play it I saw the first night But she didn't believe me and the different people around it and I said, Well

Presenter10:27

I I feel sure I can do it because I just felt it.

Presenter10:30

And I did it and it was very, very wonderful that day. Yes, and on your opening night you were carried shoulder high down the strand by your admirers. Yes, it was a terrific evening, but I enjoyed doing that show. A little topsy.

Gracie Fields10:33

Yeah.

Presenter10:43

The entrance laugh.

Presenter10:45

Oh, then came films both here in Hollywood and the international success that's been yours ever since. Now, Gracie, have you any one outstanding ambition, any one thing in the profession that you would like to achieve but haven't done yet? Well, I would like to do

Presenter10:59

an outstanding play, something that you can really get your teeth into.

Presenter11:04

But it hasn't turned up. I've played in uh

Presenter11:08

in a a play which is which is um Buried Alive, Arnold Bennett's Buried Alive, which they called Holy Matter Money. That was in a film without singing and it came out one of the ten best the year that I did it. And then I did The Old Lady Shows Her Medals in nineteen fifty six on the television, my first straight play on television. You received an award for that. And I received the award for that, for the best actress of the year. And that was the first two

Gracie Fields11:29

Mana

Presenter11:34

plays that I've done without any singing in it. Well, there may be even one in the post. Well, there must be a third, mustn't there? Well I hope it brings me to London and someone finds it.

Gracie Fields11:38

Well, there must be a third

Presenter11:43

So do we. Well, let's have your fourth record now. What left is?

Gracie Fields11:44

Well let's have

Presenter11:47

Well, the fourth one is that delightful uh

Presenter11:51

Song The Twin Soliloquist from South Pacific, sung by Mary Martin and Pinzer. I shall never forget the first night I saw them in South Pacific. It was really such a thrill. Younger men than I

Presenter12:05

Officers and doctors probably pursue her she could have.

Speaker 212:15

Wonder why I feel cheery, jumpy. I am like a schoolgirl waiting for a dance.

Presenter12:25

Can I ask her now, are you like a schoolboy, what will be her answer?

Presenter12:33

Mary Martin and Ethiopenza.

Presenter12:36

from South Pacific.

Presenter12:38

Your home now is in in Capri. That's where you spend most of the year? Yes, about eight months of the year. And then the other four months I like to be between England and America.

Presenter12:49

I like to go in the winter time to watch people work do the things that I like doing.

Gracie Fields12:49

All right.

Presenter12:54

Your enthusiasm for Capri began quite early in life, didn't it? Yes, very early. When when I was being made such a fuss of I never got the chance to even learn a new song. I was always opening a bazaar or doing something and and used to be from eleven o'clock in the morning they used to pick me up in any town I went to. And I never had any day to myself, so I couldn't learn new programmes and I used to go to Capri if it was only just for one week.

Presenter13:19

As well as your villa there, you also have a restaurant and a swimming pool. Well, now we have, yes. This was built

Presenter13:25

A few years back, thinking that we'd settle down, and my late husband, Monty Banks, I thought, well, it'll keep him quiet, because he was always in one country, and I'm in another.

Presenter13:35

And I thought, Well, I always talked about retiring actually ever since I've been in in the theatre, although I love the theatre, but when I get to a bad town I always retire.

Presenter13:45

And uh they always used to laugh at

Speaker 313:47

Yeah.

Presenter13:49

But anyway, I was always planning then we'd retire and and I should keep house and he would run the restaurant. Anyway, he died before it was completed.

Presenter14:00

And then I was left with it. People thought I would throw it in the ash can or sell it for nothing. I said, No, we

Presenter14:06

Haven't finished building it yet, but I hate to see anything half

Presenter14:10

Done. So I shall finish it and just hope for the best and see what happens.

Presenter14:14

Well, I finished building it, then I met Boris.

Presenter14:17

And then it ran for two years and uh

Presenter14:20

I was doing one night stands, paying for it, it seemed like, and uh I said I met Boris, I said, I'll give anybody half a crown to take it away from me.

Presenter14:28

So he said, Well, I do not know anything about this business, but I will do my best.

Presenter14:34

But he knew more about things than I did.

Presenter14:36

And you put it right on the

Presenter14:38

proper business like scale and rented the restaurant and since then it's been rented with that you have to be brought up to. Yes, indeed. Do you still run your orphanage near Brighton? Oh yes, we still have the little orphanage still going on.

Gracie Fields14:48

Uh

Presenter14:51

You've been running that for a while. It's for the orphan children of actors.

Gracie Fields14:52

Has eighteen children.

Presenter14:57

Well, you must have a a good many nephews and nieces in different parts of the world from that orphanage. Yes, I certainly do, and I I'm awfully thrilled to meet them. They come round and see me when I'm in America, when I've been doing tours across Canada, and those kids come up to me and they say

Presenter15:12

That was the best time of our lives, really it was. So it's nice to hear these things. Yes, you have a very big family scattered around. Very big now, yes.

Gracie Fields15:18

Yeah.

Gracie Fields15:20

Scattered around the world.

Presenter15:22

Let's have record number five now, Gracie. Number five.

Presenter15:26

Well, this is a favourite, I think.

Presenter15:29

all English people, although they play it in Italy on our television, we get it a lot.

Presenter15:34

And a lot of people in there, we were arguing about it. They said it was an Italian melody. And I said, Oh no, it's English. Now we'd better start something, because the melody is green sleeves.

Presenter16:48

The Vaughan Williams fantasier on that fine old English tune, Greensleeves. That's right.

Presenter16:54

And what's number six? Well, number six, I saw the film recently and uh I was very impressed by the music.

Presenter17:03

And that's the main theme from the soundtrack.

Presenter17:06

of Exodus.

Presenter17:36

The main theme from Exodus Ernest Gold conducting the Sinfonia of London.

Presenter17:41

Gracie, how efficient a castaway would you be on this island? Could you look after yourself all right?

Presenter17:46

Oh, I think I should manage, you know, you put me anywhere. I'm not fussy, so I can always manage something. You could build a shelter? Oh, yes. Ever done any fishing?

Presenter17:55

Yes, many times.

Presenter17:57

Are you good cook? Catching crabs, lobsters and things like that, carrying them home and that sort of thing? Oh yes. Are you a good cook?

Presenter18:04

I can manage. My husband says I'm not bad at all, but uh I'd like to be much better.

Gracie Fields18:08

But

Presenter18:09

Yes, I'll be able to.

Presenter18:15

Let's have record number seven.

Presenter18:17

Oh, number seven.

Presenter18:19

I've chosen one of my own. Do you know why? It's one I did many, many years ago, and it rather fascinates me in the way that my voice has gone down lower.

Presenter18:29

But as it's gone down lower from the top register, it's gone lower in the lower register. So I'm very lucky it's in the same range. But this this one was when I was in my very, very top register and very clear, which I enjoy, and many people have enjoyed it too, and that is the Holy City.

Speaker 319:06

Uh

Presenter19:38

The Holy City

Presenter19:40

Have you ever counted up how many records you've made during your career, so far?

Presenter19:44

I think it's over two hundred. Do you have a complete collection of them?

Presenter19:49

Uh no, not a complete one, but I think I'm getting one. One of my fans has written to me and he's told me he's got lots of records of mine. He's got sixty over, and there's sixty that I haven't got.

Presenter19:59

But uh it was very funny. I remember we had a a big

Presenter20:03

Luncheon they gave me HMV many years ago.

Presenter20:07

and it said that it was for the pressing of my four millionth record.

Presenter20:12

And the woman was in a hairdresser's and I heard her, she was sitting next to me, so she said, Well,

Presenter20:17

I know you've done a lot of records, I've only got three, but four million you must have never stopped singing.

Presenter20:25

Well what's the last one going to be for the island? And I shall go off singing it now when he's finished.

Presenter21:08

Mountovani in his orchestra, Charmaine.

Presenter21:11

If you could only take one of these eight records, Gracie, which would it be?

Presenter21:15

Oh, I'm pretty sure it would be Ragman enough playing his second piano concerto.

Presenter21:21

And you're allowed to take one luxury to this island something that's of no practical help in living, but something you'd like to have. Well, I would love to own the real

Presenter21:31

Renoir picture. I think it's called the picnic. I'm not positively sure, but there are many

Presenter21:37

characters, people on this

Presenter21:39

picture and uh I had a reproduction.

Presenter21:42

And I never get tired of it. It just fascinates me. I can imagine what they're all saying to each other.

Presenter21:48

and one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Presenter21:51

Well, one book I read many years ago was Galsworthy's Foresight Saga.

Presenter21:57

And I would really like to read that again, nice and slowly, with no interruptions. Just dream on the island. All right. And thank you, Gracie Fields, for letting us hear your choice of Desert Island Discs. Well, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure being with you. Goodbye, everyone. Bye-bye.

Speaker 322:25

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio for