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Gracie Fields
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The lusty, loudmouthed darling of Britain's music halls, 49-year-old Gracie Fields, was a near casualty of the war. When Gracie and her Italian husband, Monty Banks (Mario Bianco), quit England one jump ahead of the Luftwaffe in 1940, the British press and public hooted bitterly. It was only to save Monty, an enemy alien, from pokey, Gracie explained from the U.S.
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Gracie Fields had a mother, eh by gum she did n'all - a determined woman called Jenny who longed for a life on the stage herself. Working in the mills was not good enough for her three daughters and one son and she bullied, scrimped and saved and forced her kids to practice their singing. Gracie showed the most talent early on and Jenny, who cleaned and took in laundry from the local Rochdale Hippodrome (now demolished) used to cart young Grace into the Hippodrome with her, 'Keep your eyes about you, young Grace Watch everything you can, that's the only way you'll learn.''
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The Rochdale singer Gracie Fields bought a Peacehaven bungalow for her mother, Sarah Stansfield, and stayed in Peacehaven sometimes between variety shows or films. Peacehaven, then, had a pale extension of Brighton's theatrical tradition. Flora Robson made her first public appearance at the Rosemary Tea Rooms. In her brief first career as an actress, Elizabeth David played the summer season at the Peacehaven Theatre. The tea rooms and the theatre have been demolished. Peacehaven didn't linger over its past.
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From age 13 Gracie Fields worked as an entertainer in music halls; after 20 years in show business she soared to extraordinary popularity in the early '30s as a comedienne and singer, working onstage and debuting onscreen in 1931. For most of the '30s Fields was the top box-office draw and the highest-paid actress in Britain; her spirited, broad comedies were welcome relief from the Depression. Once described as England's Will Rogers, her British humor failed to excite American audiences. Married to actor and director Monty Banks, in 1940 Fields joined him in America after he was declared an alien in Britain (due to his birth in Italy and Italy's participation in the War). In Hollywood she co-starred with Monty Woolley in two successful films, played a supporting role in a third, then retired from the screen in 1945. Gracie Fields was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1979.
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Gracie Fields was born in 1898 in England and she was a recording star, a film star, and at one time the highest paid entertainer in the world. However, she is unknown to most people born after 1950. Fortunately, Pamela Campbell and Nancy Beck have chosen to reintroduce her in their new show, "Amazing Gracie" playing every Saturday until August 30 at the Arts Guild. The show is a collection of Nancy and Pam's favourite Gracie songs, interspersed with the story of her life and career.
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Gracie Fields is remembered today as the singer of the song "Sally". In the earlier part of her career Gracie Fields was a top variety entertainer with a huge repertoire of comic songs. This CD includes many from those early years, sung in a broad Lancashire accent, as well as some of the later songs. Under-rated today for her earlier work, much of which has been unavailable for years, this CD should help to redress the balance.
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Gracie Fields