Dame Gladys Cooper

Does music mean a lot to you?

Yes, it does. It means a great deal to me when I'm alone. Uh for instance, uh when I'm in California where I uh live quite a lot and do a lot of television, films and so on. I'm there alone'cause my family are all in England now and uh there's a wonderful station there called K uh KFAC which has twenty four hours of music and it's the only station I ever have on and I have it in the house, I wake up with it, I have it in the car, I drive. by it. And all day long and all night they have every kind of uh music, symphonies, uh not all highbrow, but certainly never any lowbrow, very low brow.

How did it all start?

Well, at school one was stage struck, as all girls were… And my friend wrote up for an appointment… I bought the song out of the play and took it to the theatre. Didn't give my own name. I said my name is Mary Hennessy… And they gave me a scene to learn out of the play… And from that, I did get my first part in the theatre, which was a play by Seymour Hicks, a children's play, which was going on tour, called Bluebell in Fairyland. And from then I started in the theatre.

Did you find this was a hindrance to your career or did it help it?

No, it was a hindrance really, because one was rather resented by being well known from photographs and postcards and uh and so on. And not as an actress. I and I wanted to be and I worked very hard. to be a good actress, to learn my job, but as I say, it was rather resented for some time by the critics because they wouldn't accept one as an actress. And after I'd done quite a lot of parts and successful plays, I was asked what was the best notice I'd ever had to date. And they said Gladyskoo was surprised as.