Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress and cabaret singer, best known for her stage and cabaret performances.
On the island
Eight records
I love classical music … as a little girl I started by dancing and ballet … I also took piano lessons
I didn’t know exactly which one to pick … I guess the best one is come rain or come shy
I think I’d like to think sometimes about my days of when I planted my oats in Paris
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
I thought it was absolutely wonderful, Death in Venice … one of my favorite composers is Gustav
She’s a wonderful study for singers … every time I hear it it just brings chills up my spine
Closing sequence from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the WorldsFavourite
I picked the War of the Worlds … I find it quite in a way funny. But also very essential
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aram Khachaturian
I guess if the setting sun was going to set on me on an island … I would like to be laying in the sand listening to the water lapping up at my heels and watching the sun go down slowly
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:00There's an alarming story, Bertice, that you were born in a lavatory. How did that come about?
I wasn't born in a lavatory. I was born in a toilet. … I actually my mother didn't realize and I just dropped out and made a big splash into the water. … I think everybody should be born in the toilet.
Presenter asks
6:31What went wrong with that [becoming a doctor]?
Well, when I got to school I was in my second year pre med at Misericordia College in Dallas, Pennsylvania, when my mother took ill, and there was no one at home to look after her, so I had to come out of school for a couple of months. … So after a short time I left. And when I was leaving I walked past the theater, the Earl Theatre, and um they were having a talent contest, so I went in. I sang a song called Can't Help Lovin' That Man of Mine. … I got it and then I won the prize.
Presenter asks
12:44It was while you were in Paris that you were invited to come to London for the first time, wasn't it?
Well, they asked Lionel's band to come to London. And of course Gladys Hampton had parrots, so she wouldn't let the band come because they wouldn't let the parrots in. So I missed London. … I sang one night and Mervyn Nelson, who was the director of Jazz Train, was there. And he asked me to come for an audition. … and he would like me to do jazz train in London.
The keepsakes
The book
Kahlil Gibran
Very short book. No, but it has so much in it. I take it everywhere with me I wouldn't be without it.
Presenter asks
19:31Now, Bertice, what decided you to return to Europe?
Well, I think that what really sent me back to Europe was that I had done Rayquium here in London, and I was the first black woman to do it … I was quite sure that I would have the role [in Sanctuary]. … They had already signed a woman to do the role. It was a woman who had never done any acting before. Odetta. … I cried for about three days. … I said, When are you going back to Europe? And she said we're going back in two weeks. … I felt good. I would never do anything in America. … And I thought it was better to come back to Europe.
Presenter asks
26:50Bertice, could you look after yourself on a desert island? Would you be good at building a shelter? Any good at fishing? Would you try to escape?
Oh yes, I'd be very good. I was a Girl Scout and I had twenty eight badges. … I think that if you're on a desert island and there's nobody else there, you could get fish very easily. … I'm very good, I think, at picking up fish that way, but I'm not very good with those very expensive rods and all that sort of thing. … Oh no. No, I wouldn't. I'd be very happy right there with letting the sunset shine on me.
“I think everybody should be born in the toilet.”
“To know her was to love her, and I loved her.”
“I didn’t know what a college loaf was.”
“I think Shakespeare must have known me in another life.”
“I’d be very happy right there with letting the sunset shine on me.”
“I think it would be the War of the Worlds, because I love story telling.”