Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actress who is the last surviving British star of the silent screen and later starred in talkies such as Carnival and Gypsy; she was the first British sex sy
On the island
Eight records
Well, I'm choosing this record because everybody when they meet me always says, Where did you get your name from? Where did you get Chili from? So I'll have to say that it came from a song, I Love My Chili Bomb Bum.
Ray Starita and the Piccadilly Revels Band
My first job. In front of a camera was in a talkie. Well, it wasn't a talkie, it was it was a soundy. An American singer sang songs and I wobbled about in the background doing the Charleston and things. He sang Ain't She Sweet.
In the silent days we used to have a little three-piece orchestra playing for us during our scenes. and we were allowed to choose our own mood music. I had Ain't She Sweet or Sweet Sue for the jolly scenes, and I had a number called Songs My Mother Taught Me for the Sad Scenes and the Love Scenes.
Jack Plant with Teddy Joyce and His Orchestra
After thee. the despair and the loneliness. I was in a show in London and I was invited by a man called Teddy Joyce to appear as his guest at our The Kit Kat where he was playing. ... And we danced beautifully together, cheek to cheek ... And I thought he was the most romantic thing that I'd ever seen for a long time
The World Is Waiting for the SunriseFavourite
Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band
Well, his signature tune was The World is Waiting for the Sunrise and it was very lovely because when we did announce our engagement as I say he was away a lot, if I was at home And I went to one of the big all the big places ... The band leaders would see me stop playing what they were playing and play The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Mark Ermler
Hopefully when I'm sitting on my desert island and watching a beautiful sunset. I would like to hear this music. I shall be thinking of Teddy and Mum and Dad and my brother and everybody that's gone, I think. And just be quiet and listen to this beautiful piece of Tchaikovsky.
When we first got together and went round, the Third Man film was showing, and the Harry Lyme theme on the Zither was sort of top of the pops. So that's the one that I always remember Bluey from when I hear it.
Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras
Well, this is a thrill. This is for me. On my desert island to get thrills up and down my spine, I want the three tenors, please, singing O Sole Meal.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:11Were you really the first sex symbol of the British screen?
Yes, I was. I was the English Claribeau, or the English It Girl. ... And we weren't allowed to say sex in those days, so it was it and not sex. It was sex appeal.
Presenter asks
2:29What about the casting couch? You must therefore have been the victim of many occasions on that.
I didn't have too much trouble at first because they did know [how] young I was. But it was a little later on I started when I became a more sophisticated actress that uh I started to have bits of trouble with directors and producers.
Presenter asks
8:52Can you still feel the shame of [the Harrods sacking] somewhere inside you?
N only for them. I I wasn't ashamed. No, I wasn't ashamed, not really. I pretended to the girls the next morning. That I'd enjoyed it, but I hated it. Perhaps if I'd enjoyed it, I might feel ashamed, but I didn't.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Ralph Waldo Trine
I would rather like to have taken my autobiography because it's got lots of nice pictures of my family and people ... Perhaps it is a little self indulgent. So I've got a lovely little book called In Tune with the Infinite by Rafe Waldo Trine, which is a simply written little book, but it has a wonderful message in it.
The luxury
Well, I expect Fengen to ask what all the girls ask for. My makeup kit. I must have that with me. No, couldn't live without it.
What did you think when you first heard yourself on the movies?
I knew I had to do something about my vowels, which were rather fulhamish, rather weak, I thought. I had a tiny part in a film with Sybil Thorndyke, and one day she was calling to address her across the studio, and she said, Darling, bring me my powder. I thought that sounds nice. Powder. And I said it to Powell, I said, No, that's Fulhamish No. So I started to um get my vowels.
Presenter asks
27:59Why didn't you like Hollywood?
I just hated it. I didn't like the atmosphere. I didn't like the people. I mean, I loved the the sun and the scenery. It was beautiful. But it was the vibes of all these rather s strange people that had all got together, all making films, but they weren't really Really nice people.
Presenter asks
29:17Do you regret walking out [on your Hollywood contract]?
Yes, but I went into the theatre. And people don't seem to realize that. They just think I finished working then, but I didn't. I started to work fairly hard in the theatre. After that.
“I just looked different to everybody else, I think. I had this mad mop of black curly hair, and I was unfashionably plump, and everybody had to look like a bean pole in those days.”
“I wasn't meant to be Mrs. Howard Hughes, and I the one thing I do regret. All his ladies, and his leading ladies, he put on a Pension for life. That that's what I missed.”
“I was just a bad picker, I think, as far as men were concerned. But by the time I met Blueie, I was more mature. And I I looked for something other than good looks. Perhaps I shouldn't have gone for the good looks.”