Saturday 11 May 2013

Eve Boswell born 11 May 1922



Eve Boswell (Eva Keleti, May 11, 1922, Budapest, Hungary - August 14, 1998, Durban, South Africa) was a successful pop singer in Britain in the 1950s.

A singer with a vivacious style, who was especially popular in the UK during the 50s, Boswell was also an accomplished pianist and ballet dancer, and spoke four languages fluently. Educated in
Lausanne, Switzerland, Boswell later studied music at the Budapest Academy.
 She came from a vaudeville family with whom she appeared as a teenager in a  music hall juggling act known as the Three Hugos.

She worked in South Africa in Boswell's Circus and married Trevor McIntosh, the stepson of one of the owners, who became her manager until his death in 1970. In the 40s, as Eve Boswell, she

sang with South Africa's leading dance band, led by Roy Martin.

She went to the UK in 1949 and replaced Doreen Lundy as the star vocalist in Geraldo's Orchestra. After featuring on several of the
orchestra's records, including "Again", "Best Of All" and, somewhat curiously, "Confidentially" (the composition and theme song of comedian Reg Dixon), she left Geraldo in 1951, and toured the UK with George Black's revue Happy-Go-Lucky, and was their leading lady in the musical The Show Of Shows, at the Opera House, Blackpool. She also toured Korea and the Far East, entertaining British Forces, appearing regularly in the UK on the radio, television and variety circuit, She appeared in the 1953 Royal Variety Performance and toured widely with comedian Derek Roy, before getting her own radio show in 1954.




Signed to Parlophone Records in 1950, her first record, "Bewitched", was followed by several other successful titles, including "Beloved, Be Faithful", "The Little Shoemaker" and "Ready, Willing And Able". Her biggest hits were two up-tempo South African songs, "Sugarbush" (1952) and "Pickin' A Chicken", which entered the UK chart in 1955, and resurfaced twice during the following year. Her first LP, Sugar and Spice, on which she sang 10 songs in nine different languages, followed later in the year.




Although well known for lively, up-tempo material, her album Sentimental Eve revealed that she could handle ballads equally well, with such tracks as "I'll Buy That Dream" and "You'll Never Know". A continuous programme of radio work and tours 
followed, leading to more than one mental breakdown.

She remained active in the UK during the 50s and into the 60s.  She faded from public view as public tastes for pop music changed. She began a new career as a vocal coach, but returned to South Africa following McIntosh's death. There she married radio producer Henry Holloway and opened a singing school.

One of her last shows was a guest spot on Granada's Wheel-tappers & Shunters Social Club in the Seventies, where she soon had an overjoyed audience clapping along with a selection of her past hits. Of course, "Sugar Bush" made a clapping climax. http://youtu.be/y7TADnZwVpQ


(Info edited from Wikipedia & All Music)

2 comments:

boppinbob said...

For "The Best Of Eve Boswell" go here:
https://mega.co.nz/#!Y1Ry2BTC!XN7Oi3Z9vCkVV7k1dzWjqCJCVFpbNYIIcYgKATO5xPo

Mr Moon said...

Thanks for a great read about Eve!