Noel Gay (15 July 1898 – 4 March 1954) was born Reginald Moxon Armitage. He also used the name Stanley Hill professionally.^[1] He was a successful British composer of popular music of the 1930s and 1940s whose output comprised 45 songs as well as the music for 28 films and 26 London shows. Sheridan Morley has commented that he was "the closest Britain ever came to a local Irving Berlin".^[2]

Career[link]

Armitage was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School before obtaining a scholarship at the age of 15 to attend the Royal College of Music in London, after which he attended university. He had become music director and organist at St. Anne's Church in London's Soho district by the age of eighteen, prior a brief period of military service during the First World War and then studies at Christ's College, Cambridge. A precocious talent, he had deputised for the choirmaster of Wakefield Cathedral from the age of eight, becoming honorary deputy organist at twelve.^[1][2]

Whilst at Cambridge, Armitage's interest in religious music and composition declined as that in musical comedy grew. He began writing popular songs, using the stage name Noel Gay. According to Morley the name was derived "from a sign he read on a London bus in 1924: 'NOEL Coward and Maisie GAY in a new revue'." His pseudonym of Stanley Hill was used from time to time for his more sentimental work.^[1] After contributing to revues such as Stop Press he was commissioned to write the entire score and lyrics for André Charlot's 1926 revue.^[2] His next show was Clowns In Clover, which starred Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert, a husband-and-wife team of the time.

Gay's career blossomed due to his talent for writing catchy, popular melodies in styles ranging from music hall to operetta.

His most famous show, for which he contributed the music but not the lyrics, was Me and My Girl. This originally opened in 1937 at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London and, after a shaky start, gained popularity when the BBC broadcast it live on radio on 13 January 1938. It starred Lupino Lane as Bill Snibson and it ran for 1,646 performances despite being bombed out of two theatres. The show was revived in 1952 and again in 1984, when the book was revised by Stephen Fry and came to include some of Gay's own songs.^[2] The latter production ran for eight years, initially at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester and then at the Adelphi Theatre in London, before going on tour throughout Britain and transferring to Broadway. The "showstopper" in that work was "The Lambeth Walk" which has the distinction of being the only popular song to be the subject of a leader in The Times. In October 1938 one of its leaders read "While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances — to 'The Lambeth Walk'." ^[3]

Gay went on to write songs for revues by The Crazy Gang, and for star artists like Gracie Fields, Flanagan and Allen and George Formby, as well as penning popular World War II songs such as "Run Rabbit Run" (with lyrics by Ralph Butler). He wrote two songs for the 1938 comedy film Save a Little Sunshine.

After the war, his musical output diminished and he concentrated more on production, in part because of increasing deafness and also because the fashion for cheerful Cockney-themed songs was on the wane.^[2]

He had created Noel Gay Music in 1938 as a business vehicle.^[2] It now forms a part of the Noel Gay Organisation which includes divisions for television and theatre and is a significant British showbusiness agency, under the day-to-day control of his family.^[4]

Shows[link]

Gay contributed to numerous shows, almost all of them musical comedies or revues. Grove Music Online lists the following, except where the genre is stated as uncertain or as pantomime:

Songs[link]

Among Noel Gay's songs were the following, sourced from US Library of Congress copyright catalogs and the catalogue of the National Library of Australia as indicated.

Some of his songs featured in the film Overlord

Bibliography[link]

• Dickinson, Stephen (1999). Marigold: The Music of Billy Mayerl. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ganzl, Kurt (1986). The British Musical Theatre. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

References[link]

Ali Baba by Maxfield Parrish (1909)

Ali Baba (Arabic: علي بابا‎ ʿAli Bāba) is a fictional character from medieval Arabic literature. He is described in the adventure tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

This story has been used as a popular pantomime plot such as in the pantomime/musical Chu Chin Chow (1916). Like many other folk tales frequently adapted for children, the original tale is darker and more violent than the more familiar bowdlerised versions. Popular perception of Ali Baba, and the way he is treated in popular media, sometimes implies that he was the leader of the "Forty Thieves": in the story he is actually an "honest man"^[1] whom fortune enables to take advantage of the thieves' robberies.

Textual history[link]

Some critics believe that this story was added to One Thousand and One Nights by one of its European translators, Antoine Galland, an 18th-century French orientalist who may have heard it in oral form from a Middle Eastern story-teller from Aleppo, in modern day Syria. In any case, the first known text of the story is Galland's French version. Richard F. Burton, however, claimed it to be part of the original One Thousand and One Nights.

The American Orientalist Duncan Black MacDonald discovered an Arabic-language manuscript of the legend at the Bodleian Library;^[2] however, this was later found to be a counterfeit.

Story[link]

Ali Baba and his elder brother Cassim are the sons of a merchant. After the death of their father, the greedy Cassim marries a wealthy woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father's business—but Ali Baba marries a poor woman and settles into the trade of a woodcutter.

One day Ali Baba is at work collecting and cutting firewood in the forest, and he happens to overhear a group of forty thieves visiting their treasure store. The treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the words "iftah ya simsim" (commonly written as "Open Sesame" in English), and seals itself on the words "Close, Simsim" ("Close Sesame"). When the thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself, and takes some of the treasure home.

Ali Baba borrows his sister-in-law's scales to weigh this new wealth of gold coins. Unbeknownst to Ali, she puts a blob of wax in the scales to find out what Ali is using them for, as she is curious to know what kind of grain her impoverished brother-in-law needs to measure. To her shock, she finds a gold coin sticking to the scales and tells her husband, Ali Baba's rich and greedy brother, Cassim. Under pressure from his brother, Ali Baba is forced to reveal the secret of the cave. Cassim goes to the cave and enters with the magic words, but in his greed and excitement over the treasures forgets the magic words to get back out again. The thieves find him there, and kill him. When his brother does not come back, Ali Baba goes to the cave to look for him, and finds the body, quartered and with each piece displayed just inside the entrance of the cave to discourage any similar attempts in the future.

Ali Baba brings the body home, where he entrusts Morgiana, a clever slave-girl in Cassim's household, with the task of making others believe that Cassim has died a natural death. First, Morgiana purchases medicines from an apothecary, telling him that Cassim is gravely ill. Then, she finds an old tailor known as Baba Mustafa whom she pays, blindfolds, and leads to Cassim's house. There, overnight, the tailor stitches the pieces of Cassim's body back together, so that no one will be suspicious. Ali and his family are able to give Cassim a proper burial without anyone asking awkward questions.

The thieves, finding the body gone, realize that yet another person must know their secret, and set out to track him down. One of the thieves goes down to the town and comes across Baba Mustafa, who mentions that he has just sewn a dead man's body back together. Realizing that the dead man must have been the thieves' victim, the thief asks Baba Mustafa to lead the way to the house where the deed was performed. The tailor is blindfolded again, and in this state he is able to retrace his steps and find the house. The thief marks the door with a symbol. The plan is for the other thieves to come back that night and kill everyone in the house. However, the thief has been seen by Morgiana and she, loyal to her master, foils his plan by marking all the houses in the neighborhood with a similar marking. When the 40 thieves return that night, they cannot identify the correct house and the head thief kills the lesser thief. The next day, another thief revisits Baba Mustafa and tries again, only this time, a chunk is chipped out of the stone step at Ali Baba's front door. Again Morgiana foils the plan by making similar chips in all the other doorsteps. The second thief is killed for his stupidity as well. At last, the head thief goes and looks for himself. This time, he memorizes every detail he can of the exterior of Ali Baba's house.

The chief of the thieves pretends to be an oil merchant in need of Ali Baba's hospitality, bringing with him mules loaded with thirty-eight oil jars, one filled with oil, the other thirty-seven hiding the other remaining thieves. Once Ali Baba is asleep, the thieves plan to kill him. Again, Morgiana discovers and foils the plan, killing the thirty-seven thieves in their oil jars by pouring boiling oil on them. When their leader comes to rouse his men, he discovers that they are dead, and escapes.

To exact revenge, after some time the thief establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali Baba's son (who is now in charge of the late Cassim's business), and is invited to dinner at Ali Baba's house. The thief is recognized by Morgiana, who performs a dance with a dagger for the diners and plunges it into the heart of the thief when he is off his guard. Ali Baba is at first angry with Morgiana, but when he finds out the thief tried to kill him, he gives Morgiana her freedom and marries her to his son. Ali Baba is then left as the only one knowing the secret of the treasure in the cave and how to access it. Thus, the story ends happily for everyone except the forty thieves and Cassim.

Classification[link]

The story has been classified in the Aarne–Thompson classification system as AT 676.^[3]

Adaptations[link]

• The story was made into an Egyptian movie in 1942 as "Ali Baba We El Arbeen Haramy" (Alibaba and the Forty Thieves), with Ali AlKassar playing the lead as Ali Baba, and the comedian actor Ismail Yasin as his assistant.
• An 1878 British pantomime version was The Forty Thieves.
• A French film Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs starring Fernandel and Samia Gamal (1954).
• A French telefilm starring Gérard Jugnot and Catherine Zeta-Jones (2007).
• In 1970s Alibaba story was adapted in a Bengali film called 'Morgiana Abdulla'.
• A Soviet-Indian joint film of 1979 Ali Baba aur 40 Chor, starring Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Rolan Bykov and Zeenat Aman, was largely based on this adventure tale.
• A Malaysian comedy film, Ali Baba Bujang Lapok (1960) which quite faithfully adhered to the tale's plot details, but introduced a number of anachronisms for humour, for example the usage of a truck by Kassim Baba to steal the robbers' loot.
• There are two Tamil films under the title Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum ("Alibaba and Forty Thieves"). The first film starring N. S. Krishnan as Ali Baba released in 1941, the second film starring M. G. Ramachandran, released in 1956.
• The story was adapted in the 1971 anime Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (アリババと４０匹の盗賊, Aribaba to Yonjuppiki no Tozoku^?), storyboarded by Hayao Miyazaki.
• The concept of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was used for the last installment of Disney's Aladdin series, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, released in 1996, introducing Cassim the King of Thieves as Aladdin's father.
• In the television mini-series Arabian Nights, the story is told faithfully with two major changes. The first is that when Morgiana discovers the thieves in the oil jars, she alerts Ali Baba and together with a friend, they release the jars on a street with a steep incline and allow them roll down to break open. Furthermore, the city guard is alerted and arrest the disoriented thieves as they emerge from their containers. Later when Morgiana defeats the thief leader, Ali Baba, who is young and has no children, marries the heroine himself.
• A film adaption Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was made in 1944. The film was remade in 1965 as The Sword of Ali Baba. Frank Puglia portrayed the character named Kassim in both versions.
• At the United States Air Force Academy, Cadet Squadron 40 was originally nicknamed "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" before eventually changing its name to the "P-40 Warhawks"
• A mythopoeic novel by Tom Holt, 'Open Sesame', is based on characters from the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"

In other media[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011)

• A Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck cartoon, Ali Baba Bunny, has a similar premise to the concept of the treasure-filled magical cave.

• A Popeye cartoon, Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, features Popeye meeting and defeating the titular group.

• In the Disney film Aladdin there are several references to the story. Also, in Aladdin and the King of Thieves the forty thieves play an integral part in the story. However the story is very different than the original Ali Baba story, particularly Cassim's new role as the King of Thieves.

• In the Simpsons episode Moe Goes From Rags To Riches, Lisa is Scheherazade and Nelson Muntz is King Shahryar, and Lisa tells him the story.

• The 1971 Japanese film, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (アリババと40匹の盗賊, Aribaba to Yonjūbiki no Tozuku^?), for which Hayao Miyazaki was key animator and organizer.

• A 1981 computer video game by Quality Software^[4]

• Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, a 1982 arcade video game by Taito

• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a computer game for the Apple II published in 1982

• A version of Ali Baba appears in Sonic and the Secret Rings, where he is portrayed by the character Tails.

Iraq War[link]

• The name "Ali Baba" was often used as derogatory slang by American and Iraqi soldiers and their allies in the War in Iraq to describe individuals suspected of a variety of offenses related to theft and looting.^[5] British soldiers routinely used the term to refer to Iraqi civilians.^[6] In the subsequent occupation it is used as a general term for the insurgents, similar to Charlie for the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.^[7]

• Due to interaction of the two peoples, the term "Ali Baba" was adopted by the Iraqis to describe foreign troops suspected of looting,^[8] and the English-speaking mainstream press mistakenly reported the slang to be native to the locals.^[9]

Gallery[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ali Baba

• "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (e-text, in English)
• Waller Hastings, "Ali Baba and the forty Thieves": essay
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Arabian Nights and The Sword of Ali Baba at the Internet Movie Database

Douglas Furber (13 May 1885 – 20 February 1961) was a British lyricist and playwright.

Furber is best known for the lyrics to the 1937 song The Lambeth Walk and the libretto to the musical Me and My Girl, composed by Noel Gay, from which it came^[1]. This show made broadcasting history when in 1939 it became the first full length musical to be broadcast on television. A 1986 revival went on to achieve great acclaim, and was nominated for Tony awards for both Best Score and Best Book.

Furber made his first entry into song writing with the Australian born composer A. Emmett Adams. Following a visit to St. Mary's Church, Southampton, England in 1914, the two wrote The Bells of St. Mary's.^[2] The song was published in 1917 This became a major hit in America, in 1917, despite having been originally rejected by the publishers. In 1945, Bing Crosby had a hit with The Bells of St. Mary's after it was used as the title song to the film of the same name.

Other hits include Limehouse Blues from 1924, written with composer Philip Braham.

Furber also made a few appearances on stage.

References[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Douglas Furber

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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2009)

Gracie Fields
Fields on the island of Capri, by Allan Warren, in 1973
Born	(1898-01-09)January 9, 1898 Rochdale, Lancashire, England
Died	September 27, 1979(1979-09-27) (aged 81) Il Canzone Del Mare, Capri, Italy
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1924–1978

Dame Gracie Fields, DBE (born Grace Stansfield, 9 January 1898 – 27 September 1979), was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.

Life and work[link]

Early life[link]

Grace Stansfield was born over a fish and chip shop owned by her grandmother, Sarah Bamford, in Molesworth Street, Rochdale, Lancashire. She made her first stage appearance as a child in 1905, joining children's repertory theatre groups such as 'Haley's Garden of Girls' and the 'Nine Dainty Dots'. Her two sisters, Edith and Betty and brother, Tommy, all went on to appear on stage, but Gracie was the most successful. Her professional debut in variety took place at the Rochdale Hippodrome theatre in 1910 and she soon gave up her job in the local cotton mill, where she was a half-timer, spending half a week in the mill and the other half at school.

She met comedian and impresario Archie Pitt and they began working together. Pitt gave Fields champagne on her 18th birthday, and wrote in an autograph book to her that he would make her a star. Pitt would come to serve as her manager and the two married in 1923 at Clapham Register Office. Their first revue in 1915 was called Yes I Think So and the two continued to tour Britain together until 1924 in the revue Mr Tower of London, with other reviews including By Request, It's A Bargain and The Show's The Thing.

Archie Pitt was the brother of Bert Aza, founder of the Aza agency, who were responsible for many talents of the day including the actor and comedian Stanley Holloway, who was introduced to Aza by Fields. Fields and Holloway first worked together on her film Sing As We Go in 1934 and the two remained close friends for the rest of their lives.^[1]

Fame[link]

Fields came to major public notice when Mr Tower of London came to the West End. Her career rapidly accelerated from this point with straight dramatic performances and the beginning of a recording career.

One of her most successful productions was at the Alhambra Theatre in 1925. The show, booked by Sir Oswald Stoll, was a major success and toured for ten years, throughout the UK. She later said "One day I was in Plymouth's palace theatre and the next playing Blackpool!". She made the first of ten appearances in Royal Variety Performances in 1928, following a premiere stint at the London Palladium, gaining a devoted following with a mixture of self-deprecating jokes, comic songs and monologues, as well as cheerful "depression-era" songs all presented in a "no-airs-and-graces" Northern, working class style. She recorded her first record for HMV Because I Love You and My Blue Heaven in 1928.

At one point, Fields was playing three shows a night in London's West End. She appeared in the Pitt production she was working on, with Gerald Du Maurier in the straight play SOS at the Saint James Theatre, with also a cabaret spot at the Cafe De Paris following this.

Fields had a great rapport with her audience, which helped her become one of Britain's highest paid performers, playing to sold out theatres across the country.^{[citation needed]}

Her most famous song, which became her theme, "Sally," was worked into the title of her first film, Sally in Our Alley (1931), which was a major box office hit. She went on to make several films initially in Britain and later in the United States (for which she was paid a record fee of £200,000 for four films). Regardless, she never enjoyed the process of performing without a live audience, and found the process of film-making boring. She tried to opt out of filming, before director Monty Banks persuaded her otherwise, landing her the lucrative Hollywood deal. Fields demanded that the four films were to be filmed in Britain and not Hollywood, and this was the case.

Ironically, the final few lines of the song "Sally" were written by her husband's mistress, Annie Lipman, and Fields sang this song at nearly every performance she made from 1931 onwards – claiming in later life that she wanted to "Drown blasted Sally with Walter with the aspidistra on top!"

Charity work[link]

The late 1930s saw her popularity peak and she was given many honours: the Officer of the Venerable Order of St. John (for charity work), the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (for services to entertainment) in 1938 and the Freedom of the Borough of Rochdale.

She donated her house, The Towers, 53 The Bishops Avenue, London, N2 0BJ (which she had not much cared for and which she had shared with her husband Archie Pitt and his mistress) to a maternity hospital after the marriage broke down. In 1939, she became seriously ill with cervical cancer. The public sent over 250,000 goodwill messages and she retired to her villa on Capri. After she recovered, she recorded a very special 78rpm record simply called Gracie's Thanks, in which she thanks the public for the many cards and letters she received while in hospital. During World War II, she paid for all servicemen/women to travel free on public transport within the boundaries of Rochdale.

Fields also helped Rochdale F.C. in the 1930s when they were struggling to pay fees and buy sports equipment.

In 1933 she set up the Gracie Fields Children's Home and Orphanage at Peacehaven in Sussex for children of those in the theatre profession who could not look after their children. She kept this until 1967, when the home was no longer needed. This was near her own home in Peacehaven, and Fields often visited, with the children all calling her 'Aunty Grace'.^[2]

World War II[link]

Fields, accompanied by an RAF orchestra, entertains airmen at their 1939 Christmas party.

World War II was declared while she was recovering in Capri, and Fields - still very ill after her operation, threw herself into her work and signed up for ENSA headed by her old film producer, Basil Dean. Fields travelled to France to entertain the troops in the midst of air-raids, performing on the backs of open lorries and in war-torn areas. She was the first artist to play behind enemy lines in Berlin.

Following her divorce from Archie Pitt, she married Italian-born film director Monty Banks in March 1940.

However, because Banks remained an Italian citizen and would have been interned in the United Kingdom, she was forced to leave Britain for North America during the war, at the instruction of Winston Churchill, who told her to "Make American Dollars, not British Pounds," which she did in aid of the Navy League and the Spitfire Fund. She and Banks moved to their home in Santa Monica, California. She did occasionally return to England to show she was not indeed a traitor, performing in factories and army camps around the country. After their initial argument, Parliament offered her an official apology.

Although she continued to spend much of her time entertaining troops and otherwise supporting the war effort outside Britain, this led to a fall-off in her popularity at home. She performed many times for Allied troops, travelling as far as New Guinea, where she received an enthusiastic response from Australian personnel.^[3] Late 1945 saw her tour the South Pacific Islands.

Post WWII[link]

After the war, Fields continued her career less actively. She began performing in Britain again in 1948 headlining the London Palladium over Eartha Kitt who was also on the bill. The BBC gave her her own Radio Show in 1947 dubbed Our Gracie's Working Party in which 12 towns were visited by Fields, and a live show of music and entertainment was broadcast weekly with Fields compering and performing, and local talents also on the bill. This tour commenced in Rochdale.

In 1951, Fields opened the Festival of Britain celebrations. She proved popular once more, though never regaining the status she enjoyed in the 1930s. She continued recording, but made no more films, moving more towards light classical music as popular tastes changed, often adopting a religious theme. She continued into the new medium of LP records, and recorded new takes of her old favourite songs, as well as new and recent tracks to 'liven things up a bit'.

Monty Banks died in 1950 of a heart attack while travelling on the Orient Express. Two years later Fields married Boris Alperovici, a Romanian radio repairman. She claimed that he was the love of her life, and that she couldn't wait to propose to him. She proposed on Christmas Day in front of friends and family. They married at the Church of St Steffano on Capri in a quiet ceremony before honeymooning in Rome.

She lived on her beloved Isle of Capri for the remainder of her life, at her home La Canzone Del Mare, a swimming and restaurant complex which Field's home overlooked. It was favoured by many Hollywood stars during the 1950s, with regular guests including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo and Noël Coward.

Later years[link]

She began to work less, but still toured the UK under the management of Harold Fielding, manager of top artists of the day such as Tommy Steele and Max Bygraves. Her UK tours proved popular, and in the mid 1960s she performed farewell tours in Australia, Canada and America - the latter performance was recorded and released years later.

In 1956, Fields played Miss Marple in a US TV production of Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced.^[4] The production featured Jessica Tandy and Roger Moore, and predates the Margaret Rutherford films by some five years. She also starred in television productions of A Tale of Two Cities, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals – for which she won a TV Award – and Mrs 'Aris Goes to Paris, which was remade years later with Angela Lansbury as Mrs Harris, a charwoman in search of a fur coat. (A Chanel dress in Lansbury's case.)

In 1957, her single, "Around the World" peaked at #8 in the UK Singles Chart, with her recording of "Little Donkey" reaching #20 in November 1959.^[5]

Fields regularly performed in TV appearances, being the first entertainer to perform on Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Fields had two Christmas TV specials in 1960 and 1961, singing her old favourites and new songs in front of a studio audience. 1971 saw A Gift For Gracie, another TV special presented by Fields and Bruce Forsythe. This followed on from her popularity of Jess Yates's Stars on Sunday religious programme, UK ITV's rival to the BBC's Songs of Praise, in which celebrities sang religious hymns and read Bible readings. Fields was the most requested artist on the show.

In 1968, Fields headlined a two week Christmas stint at Yorkshire's prestigious Batley Variety Club. "I was born over a fish and chip shop – I never thought I'd be singing in one!" claimed Fields during the performance recorded by the BBC.

In 1975, her album, The Golden Years, reached #48 in the UK Albums Chart.^[5]

In 1978, she opened the Gracie Fields Theatre, located next to Oulder Hill Community School, in her native Rochdale, performing a concert there recorded by the BBC to open the show. Fields appeared in ten Royal Variety Performances from 1928 onwards, her last being in 1978 at the age of 80 when she appeared as a surprise guest in the finale, in which she appeared and sang her theme song, "Sally".

Her final TV appearance came in January 1979 when she appeared in a special octogenarian edition of The Merv Griffin Show in America, in which she sang the song she popularised in America, "The Biggest Aspidistra In The World". Fields was notified by her confidante John Taylor while she was in America that she had the invitation to become a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, to which she replied: "Yes I'll accept, yes I can kneel – but I might need help getting back up, and yes I'll attend – as long as they don't call Boris, Buttons."

Fields' health declined in July 1979, when she contracted pneumonia after performing an open air concert on the Royal Yacht which was docked in Capri's harbour. After a spell in hospital, she seemed to be recovering, but died on 27 September 1979. The press reported she died holding her husband's hand, but in reality he was at their Anacapri home at the time, while Gracie was home with the housekeeper, Irena. She is buried in the non-Catholic cemetery on Capri; the Protestant Cemetery.^[6] in a white marble tomb. Her coffin was carried by staff from her restaurant. Her husband Boris died in 1984.

Honours[link]

In February 1979, she was invested as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire^[7] seven months before her death at her home on Capri, aged 81.

On 3 October 2009 the final train to run on the Oldham Loop before it closed to be converted to a tramway, a Class 156, was named in her honour.^[8]

She was also granted the Freedom of Rochdale.^[9]

Miscellaneous[link]

The Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust holds the 'Gracie Fields Archive'.

In 2009, Jane Horrocks took the lead in the BBC TV production Gracie!,^[10] a drama portraying the life of Fields just before and during World War II and her relationship with Monty Banks (played by Tom Hollander).

Famed Jewish jazz pianist Irving Fields was born Isadore Schwartz, taking the name Fields from his sister Peppy, who had borrowed the name in tribute to Gracie Fields.

Famous songs[link]

• "Sally"
• "Sing As We Go" (later parodied by Monty Python as "Sit on My Face")
• "Thing-Ummy-Bob (That's Gonna Win The War)"
• "The Biggest Aspidistra in the World"
• "I Took my Harp to a Party"
• "Teddy Bears' Picknick"
• "Only a Glass of Champagne"
• "Angels Guard Thee"
• "Nuns' Chorus"
• "Now Is the Hour"
• "The Isle of Capri"
• "Walter, Walter, Lead Me to the Altar"
• "Christopher Robin is Saying His Prayers"
• "If I Had a Talking Picture of You"
• "Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye"
• "When I Grow Too Old to Dream"
• "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake"
• "The Twelfth of Never"
• "Those Were The Days" (performed live at The Batley Variety Club in 1968)

Filmography[link]

• Sally in Our Alley (1931)
• Looking on the Bright Side (1932)
• This Week of Grace (1933)
• Love, Life and Laughter (1934)
• Sing As We Go (1934)
• Look Up and Laugh (1935)
• Queen of Hearts (1936)
• The Show Goes On (1937)
• We're Going to Be Rich (1938)
• Young and Beautiful (1938) - short Jinx Falkenburg feature, in colour
• Keep Smiling (1938)
• Shipyard Sally (1939)
• Stage Door Canteen (1943) - cameo appearance
• Holy Matrimony (1943)
• Molly and Me (1945)
• Paris Underground (1945) aka Madame Pimpernel

Box office ranking[link]

For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted her among the top ten stars in Britain at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.

• 1936 - 1st (3rd most popular star over all)^[11]
• 1937 - 1st
• 1938 - 2nd^[12]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Sing As We Go, The Autobiography of Gracie Fields published in 1960 by Frederick Muller Limited
• Gracie Fields: The Authorised Biography (1995) by David Bret
• "Gracie Fields" by Jeffrey Richards in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Further reading[link]

• Cullen, Frank; Hackman, Florence; McNeilly, Donald (2007), "Gracie Fields", in ., Vaudeville, old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performers in America, Vol.1, New York: Routledge Press, pp. 380–383, ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2, http://books.google.com/books?id=XFnfnKg6BcAC&pg=PA380&dq=gracie+fields&hl=en&ei=ohmATO_JNJCjcYrGyP8K&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=gracie%20fields&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010 
• "Gracie Fields: English comedienne mugs and sings", Life: 124, 126, 21 December 1942, http://books.google.com/books?id=NVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA124&dq=gracie+fields&hl=en&ei=7A-ATMbyOIyivQOs55CqBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBg#, retrieved 2 September 2010 
• Hunter, Jefferson (2010), English Filming, English Writing, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-253-35443-3, http://books.google.com/books?id=JbnHvxuby54C&printsec=frontcover&dq=English+Filming&hl=en&ei=fSSATNW_H4uycaOCpbAM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010  Paperback ISBN 978-0-253-22177-3
• Johnston, Sheila M.F (2001), "London Little Theatre Era: Gracie Fields", in ., Let's go to the Grand!: 100 years of entertainment at London's Grand Theatre, Toronto, Canada: Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc, pp. 95–96, ISBN 1-896219-75-6, http://books.google.com/books?id=XwdlHPIR9FEC&pg=PA95&dq=gracie+fields&hl=en&ei=sSOATMiVO8Grcdyp9JwL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q=gracie%20fields&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010 
• Joyce, Patrick (1994. First published 1991), Visions of the people: industrial England and the question of class 1848-1914, Camridge, New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, pp. 215–219, 318–320, ISBN 0-521-37152-X, http://books.google.com/books?id=z_nMtyp7XCEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Visions+people&hl=en&ei=kSmATPPcNoqrcdKKpe8K&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010 
• Landy, Marcia (2001), "The extraordinary ordinariness of Gracie Fields: the anatomy of a British film star", in Babington, Bruce, British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to Sean Connery, Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, pp. 56–67, ISBN 0-7190-5840-6 (hardback), http://books.google.com/books?id=vxmQJRr0vL8C&pg=PA56&dq=gracie+fields&hl=en&ei=7A-ATMbyOIyivQOs55CqBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEYQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=gracie%20fields&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010  Paperback ISBN 0-7190-5841-4
• Scannell, Paddy (1996. Digitalised 2002), Radio, television, and modern life: a phenomenological approach, Oxford, UK & Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, pp. 65, 72, ISBN 0-631-19874-1, http://books.google.com/books?id=ukYabkWNV1cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=radio+television&hl=en&ei=0iGATLCoFoHvcPOFyPMK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010  Paperback ISBN 0-631-19875-X
• Slide, Anthony (1985), "Sing As We Go", in ., Fifty classic British films, 1932-1982: a pictorial record, General Publishing Co., Canada; and Constable & Co, UK, pp. 16–18, ISBN 0-486-24860-7, http://books.google.com/books?id=Rf5CCA7_Lv4C&pg=PA16&dq=gracie+fields&hl=en&ei=ohmATO_JNJCjcYrGyP8K&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=gracie%20fields&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010 
• Shafer, Stephen C (1997), British popular films, 1929-1939: the cinema of reassurance, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-00282-6, http://books.google.com/books?id=jeB2-TiVoPIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=british+popular&hl=en&ei=XBqATM3dHozKceCkxe8K&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010 
• Short, Ernest Henry & Compton_Rickett, Arthur (1970. First published 1938), Ring up the curtain: being a pageant of English entertainment covering half a century, Freeport, N.Y: Books for Libraries Press, ISBN 0-8369-5299-5, http://books.google.com/books?id=mZXSZvShXKcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Ring+up&hl=en&ei=MheATKWzBIWsvgOP1O2IBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false, retrieved 2 September 2010 

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gracie Fields

• Gracie Fields at the Internet Movie Database
• Gracie Fields at Turner Classic Movies
• Gracie Fields: A Biography by Joan Moules
• Photographs and literature
• Nine digitally restored Gracie Fields recordings

Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth.

The musical had a successful original run on the West End in 1937 and very successful revivals in both London and New York in the 1980s. The show stopper, “The Lambeth Walk”, was the subject of a news story in The Times of October 1938: “While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances — to The Lambeth Walk.”

A film version was produced in 1939, titled The Lambeth Walk.

Production history[link]

It originally opened at the West End Victoria Palace Theatre on December 16, 1937, and starred Lupino Lane. Lane had previously played Bill Snibson in a horseracing comedy play, Twenty to One, that opened in 1935. Me and My Girl was conceived as a fresh vehicle for the character.^{[citation needed]}

At first attracting little notice, the production gained immediate success after a matinee performance was broadcast live on BBC radio, following the cancellation of a sporting event. On May 1, 1939, a performance was televised from the theatre, one of the first times such was done. The original West End production ran for 1,646 performances.

It was revived in 1952. In 1984, a revised production opened at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre with a revised script by Stephen Fry and contributions by Mike Ockrent. It transferred to the West End Adelphi Theatre on February 12, 1985 and closed on January 16, 1993 after an eight year run and 3,303 performances. It starred Robert Lindsay as Bill Snibson, Emma Thompson, and Frank Thornton. The production won two Olivier Awards: Musical of the Year and Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical (Robert Lindsay).^[1][2] Cast changes included : Enn Reitel (as Bill Snibson) and Su Pollard (as Sally Smith) in 1986; Gary Wilmot (as Bill Snibson) and Jessica Martin (as Sally Smith) in 1989. Thornton was succeeded by Nicholas Smith. The production subsequently toured throughout Britain.

The revised London production opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on August 10, 1986, and closed on December 31, 1989, after 1,420 performances. Directed by Mike Ockrent with choreography by Gillian Gregory, the cast starred Robert Lindsay and Maryann Plunkett, with George S. Irving and Jane Connell. The production was nominated for 13 Tony Awards and won for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Choreographer. Jim Dale succeeded Lindsay in the lead role of Bill.^[3] Tim Curry played Bill Snibson in the extensive US Tour that followed the Broadway run.

Numerous productions have been staged over the years all across the UK. In 1997 it even appeared at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a limited run with Adam Schumacher as Bill Snibson.

A 70th anniversary production of Me and My Girl had an eight-month British tour during 2006-07.^[4] It was directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with a cast including Richard Frame (Bill Snibson), Faye Tozer (Sally Smith), Sylvester McCoy, Trevor Bannister and Dillie Keane.

The original star of Me And My Girl, Lupino Lane, was commemorated at The Actors Church, Covent Garden on Tuesday 10 November 2009 by The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

Sheffield Theatres, United Kingdom produced a revival of 'Me and My Girl' at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield with previews beginning 2 December 2010 until 29 January 2011. An expected transfer to London's West End was scrapped due to there not being a venue available.^[5]

Plot[link]

Act I

In the 1930s, the Harefords, a family of haughty aristocrats, are seeking the legitimate heir to the title of Earl of Hareford. Bill Snibson, a Cockney from Lambeth is found and named as the long-lost “Earl of Hareford”. It seems that the 13th Earl had secretly and briefly wed a girl from a bad neighborhood. But Bill's rough Cockney ways do not satisfy the Will of the last Earl: In order to gain his inheritance of the title and estate, Bill must satisfy the very proper executors (Maria, Duchess of Dene, and Sir John Tremayne) by learning gentlemanly manners. The Duchess thinks that she can make Bill “fit and proper”, but not his Cockney girlfriend, Sally Smith. The Duchess plans a party in Bill's honour, but Sally is not to be invited. Sir John tells Sally that she and Bill ought to return to Lambeth, but he is moved by Sally's heartfelt declaration of love for Bill.

At the party, Bill puts on airs and tries to please his new-found upper-class lawyers, family and servants, but his everyman roots quickly begin to show. Sally shows up in inappropriate garb, with her Lambeth friends, saying that she is going back to where she belongs. Bill seconds this at first but then teaches the nobility The Lambeth Walk.

Act II

Bill must make a speech in the House of Lords in coronet and “vermin”-trimmed peer's robes. Sally leaves, telling him to marry someone with good blood, and, in a scene inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, the portraits of Bill's ancestors awaken to remind him of his noblesse oblige.^[6] Bill and Sally have gained an ally in Sir John, who offers to help them by engaging a speech professor who will help Sally impress the Duchess.

Bill constantly bemoans his separation from Sally. Preparing another party for Bill, the Duchess realises how much Sally means to him. This puts her in a romantic mood, and she accepts an offer of marriage from Sir John. Bill, dressed in his old outrageous Cockney clothes, declares that he's going home and goes upstairs to pack. Just then, Sally astonishes everyone by arriving in an elegant gown and tiara and speaking with a perfect upper-crust accent. When Bill returns downstairs, Sally conceals her identity. When she reveals it, Bill is relieved and the couple gain the acceptance of the family.

Musical numbers[link]

Based on the 1986 Broadway production

Characters[link]

• Bill Snibson - a cockney costermonger who inherits Lord Hareford's land and titles.
• Sally Smith - Bill's sweetheart.
• Sir John Tremayne - an older gentleman, who is kind to Sally and Bill. He is in love with the Duchess.
• The Duchess of Dene - an intimidating aristocrat. Bill's Aunt.
• Gerald Bolingbroke - an attractive young man. He is in love with Jackie.
• Lady Jacqueline (Jackie) Carstone - breaks off her engagement to Gerald to pursue Bill.
• Herbert Parchester - the family solicitor.
• Lord Jasper Tring - an elderly and hard-of-hearing nobleman.
• Charles - a manservantoddities.
• Lord and Lady Battersby, Lady Brighton, The Honourable Margaret Aikington, Charles Boulting-Smythe - other members of the family who are mostly interchangeable.
• Mrs Brown - Sally's landlady.
• Bob Barking - a friend of Bill and Sally.

Film adaptation[link]

In 1939, the play was turned into a film directed by Albert de Courville. Lane reprised his stage role of Snibson. The film took its name from the well-known song and dance. The film was a largely faithful adaptation of the musical and was commercially successful and popular with critics.^[7]

Awards and nominations[link]

London Revival 1984[link]

Original Broadway production[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Me and My Girl at the Internet Broadway Database
• Synopsis and production information at guidetomusicaltheatre
• NY Times review, Aug.11, 1986
• Me and My Girl (1939 BBC broadcast) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lambeth Walk (1940) at the Internet Movie Database
• [1]