Beatrice Lillie (1894–1989)
Auteur de Every Other Inch a Lady
A propos de l'auteur
Crédit image: Beatrice Lillie (1894-1989). Photo by Yousuf Karsh, March 18, 1948 (Yousuf Karsh / Library and Archives Canada / PA-165928)
Œuvres de Beatrice Lillie
Unique Incomparable 2 exemplaires
High Spirits (Original Broadway Cast) 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Exit Smiling [1926 film] 1 exemplaire
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Autres noms
- Peel, Lady
- Date de naissance
- 1894-05-29
- Date de décès
- 1989-01-20
- Lieu de sépulture
- Peel family estate, Peel Fold, Blackburn, England
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Lieu du décès
- Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Lieux de résidence
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
London, England, UK - Professions
- actor
singer
comedian
writer - Relations
- Peel, Sir Robert (husband)
- Prix et distinctions
- Tony Award 1953, 1958, 1964
Sarah Siddons Award - Courte biographie
- Beatrice Lillie was born Constance Sylvia Gladys Munston in Toronto, Canada. She left school at age 15 to sing in a family trio. Her mother took her to London, where she made her stage debut in 1914. She became a well-known music hall and cabaret entertainer, and later performed in many works by Noel Coward. She was praised for her comic timing, and was known as the mistress of the absurd, the sharp riposte, and the double entendre. In 1920, she married Sir Robert Peel, 5th Baronet, which whom she had a son, making her Lady Peel. Miss Lillie made her New York debut in 1924, and often returned to the USA to appear on Broadway. She won a Tony Award in 1953 for her revue An Evening with Beatrice Lillie, which ran on Broadway and toured across Canada. She retired after making one of her few films, Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Her autobiography, Every Other Inch a Lady, was published in 1972.
Membres
Critiques
This is the kind of autobio I love. A funny lady who made life bend to her will, made her own chances, knew lots of interesting and famous people, and rolled with the blows life dealt with honesty and dignity.
Bea Lillie was a stage star and vaudeville performer before and between the World Wars. Her career continued until the 1980s. Born a Canadian in a time when this gave her English citizenship, she made her first fame on the London stage. She was a contemporary of Fanny Brice, Gertrude Lawrence, and Noel Coward. She married Sir Robert Peel and poked a great deal of fun at her Lady Peel persona. She lost her beloved only son to Japanese bombers during World War II.
All of these bare facts help place her in time and place, but don't give you any idea of the cock-eyed comic view she had of life. Not too many guffaws, but lots of smiles and quiet giggles that made the entire reading experience a delight.… (plus d'informations)
Bea Lillie was a stage star and vaudeville performer before and between the World Wars. Her career continued until the 1980s. Born a Canadian in a time when this gave her English citizenship, she made her first fame on the London stage. She was a contemporary of Fanny Brice, Gertrude Lawrence, and Noel Coward. She married Sir Robert Peel and poked a great deal of fun at her Lady Peel persona. She lost her beloved only son to Japanese bombers during World War II.
All of these bare facts help place her in time and place, but don't give you any idea of the cock-eyed comic view she had of life. Not too many guffaws, but lots of smiles and quiet giggles that made the entire reading experience a delight.… (plus d'informations)
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 4
- Aussi par
- 3
- Membres
- 35
- Popularité
- #405,584
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 2
- ISBN
- 2
It's in the nature of theater to be ephemeral except in people's memories. Lillie had a long career doing comedy sketches in vaudeville and revue shows, but most readers in 1972 would have had only a vague notion of what that was all about (she never really describes what one of those shows was like, just a few jokes from them); by that point she was better known for Broadway plays like Auntie Mame and High Spirits, and for her days as a USO performer. None of this would've been recorded, and she did very little film acting. For me that's one of the more interesting aspects of this book, since the whole reason I knew about her at all was the 1926 silent comedy Exit Smiling—a hilarious film that should've been a movie-star-making performance for her, and was probably meant to be since her stage comedy work already had people comparing her to Charlie Chaplin.
Lillie, it seems, would not have wanted to be remembered for that; she barely mentions Exit Smiling or her few other film roles except to say that she didn't know how to perform without a live audience (she was able to get by in radio by playing to the sound engineer). That makes sense, but I'd have loved to hear more about why she didn't like the actual movie, because in some ways it's almost about her life: her character Violet lives to be on stage, knows almost nothing of the world outside of her touring company of actors, and sees herself as a melodramatic leading lady, but she's just too naturally goofy and klutzy (also, though it's never spelled out in the movie, by standards of the time she would've been considered funny-looking—something Lillie learned early on). In the movie, Violet may or may not ever make it in theater, but her wild improvising saves the day; in life, Lillie eventually decided that when people told her she was a natural comedian rather than a serious actor, they were probably right.
In any case it seems like what mattered most to her, ever since she started touring with her mother and sister as a child, was just being a performer and being able to work with other performers. (The childhood portion of the book is uneventful, but it paints a vivid picture of Edwardian Ontario, and it feels more immediate than the later material; I wonder if this was partly because by 1972 Lillie was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which sometimes leaves earlier memories clearer.) After moving to London at age 20, she was employed almost non-stop in revue shows for decades; that was her world, so a large part of the book consists of how she got hired by A for another show written by B starring C, D, E and F. Personal matters are mostly glossed over, e.g. she marries Robert Peel, briefly describes his family, and then almost completely stops mentioning him until at some point it becomes obvious that they've been separated for years. The outside world rarely intrudes, except for air raids in London, a very short mention of Vietnam, and a nearly full-page statement about why the UK should have fewer restrictions on the importation of dogs. The big exception is the death of her son in the Pacific war, which is discussed at greater length, and it's moving, but also so calm that it retroactively makes you wonder if her calmness at other times also concealed strong feelings.
There's quite a bit of name-dropping, but most of it goes over my head because I don't know much about those people and Lillie assumes you do. Nothing particularly scandalous (I think—though she's sometimes so polite and circuitous with her double entendres that I may have missed some) but I did enjoy reading how Aimee Semple McPherson used to go out partying with Tallulah Bankhead.
Possibly the best part is the ending. Lillie is aware that celebrity memoirs are supposed to have an inspirational message of some kind, so she provides a generic one. But then she suggests that maybe she should instead just say "I did it!"—that being what she once said to get her dog out of trouble for having peed on the seat in a taxi. There are a few stories like that throughout the book where her personality and her weird sense of humor come through clearly, and make me think that would've been a cool person to know.… (plus d'informations)