Evelyn Dall (January 8, 1918 – March 10, 2010) was an American singer and actress who was known as England's "Original Blonde Bombshell".
Evelyn Dall was born Evelyn Mildred Fuss in New York's
Bronx, on January 8, 1918. The elder of two children, she left school aged 15,
and began her career on the vaudeville circuit. In 1935, she starred in Billy
Rose's revue show at the Casino de Paris in New York, then Chicago, before
eventually moving to London with the Monte Carlo Follies.
While performing back in New York, Evelyn Dall then received
a telegram from Bert Ambrose, who had seen her in the London version of the
Follies and who unexpectedly required a singer for his British tour. Dall
accepted the offer, and, within a day of her arrival, was performing at the
Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. Already in love with London she became a
self-confessed Anglophile from the moment she arrived.Dall made her first recording with Ambrose in September 1935, and the following year recorded the infectious "Organ Grinder's Swing", which became one of her signature numbers. In 1936 she married Ambrose's manager, Albert Holmes. The marriage was a stormy one, as for several months she had been having an affair with Ambrose himself. He was already married with two young children. The British tabloids also linked her to Victor de Rothschild, the scientist whose name was later linked to the Cambridge spy ring. Her marriage to Holmes lasted just over a year.
Away from the stage, Evelyn Dall enjoyed a fruitful film
career as the female lead in a series of lightweight musical revues including
Soft Lights and Sweet Music (1936), Calling All Stars (1937), and as Cora Fane
in Sing As You Swing (1938).
In 1938 Evelyn Dall performed at the Royal Derby Night Ball
at Buckingham Palace, singing Gershwin's Nice Work If You Can Get It to more
than 1,000 invited guests. In the same year The Daily Telegraph reported that
she was earning as much as £200 per week.
During the war years she appeared in as many as five shows
across Britain every week, returning to London to record the radio show Calling
All Stars each Friday. By the mid
1940s her film career was on the wane, and following a handful of minor roles, including that of Suzanne in He Found a Star (1941), and Miss London Ltd (1943) opposite Arthur Askey, she retired. Her final film, Time Flies (1944) co-starring Tommy Handley as a music hall star who uses a professor's time machine to return to Elizabethan England, was her most memorable.
1940s her film career was on the wane, and following a handful of minor roles, including that of Suzanne in He Found a Star (1941), and Miss London Ltd (1943) opposite Arthur Askey, she retired. Her final film, Time Flies (1944) co-starring Tommy Handley as a music hall star who uses a professor's time machine to return to Elizabethan England, was her most memorable.
After the war she had become increasingly unhappy with her
private life – Bert Ambrose had refused to divorce his wife – and Evelyn Dall
decided to return to America. In October 1946 she sailed in the Queen Elizabeth
with Bobby Cohen, a former GI she had met in London some months before. In New
York, she picked up some radio work and met a friend of Cohen's, Sam Winter,
whom she married in 1947.
Widowed in 1974, Dall moved to Jupiter, Florida in 1980, then to Arizona in 2002. Around 2006 she developed Alzheimer's. Her health gradually deteriorated and she passed away on 10 March 2010 aged 92. (Info edited mainly from the Telegraph.co.uk obit)
Widowed in 1974, Dall moved to Jupiter, Florida in 1980, then to Arizona in 2002. Around 2006 she developed Alzheimer's. Her health gradually deteriorated and she passed away on 10 March 2010 aged 92. (Info edited mainly from the Telegraph.co.uk obit)
Excerpts from the UK 1941 feature film "He Found A
Star"
2 comments:
Managed to find enough recordings to make a compilation. Sorry, but no time to design art work.
For Evelyn Dall - Swing High Swing Low go here:
http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/51621844/file.html
Here’s a track list.
1 ambrose-the-lady-in-red-feat-evelyn-dall.mp3
2 ambrose-and-his-orchestra-did-you-mean-it.mp3
3 ambrose-his-orchestra-wotcha-gotta-trombone-for.mp3
4 ambrose-and-his-orchestra-rhythms-ok-in-harlem-vocal-evelyn-dall.mp3
5 ambrose-and-his-orchestra-sailor-where-art-thou-vocal-evelyn-dall.mp3
6 ambrose-his-orchestra-fifty-million-robins-can-t-be-wrong.mp3
7 ambrose-his-orchestra-i-may-be-poor-but-i-m-honest-v-EL-sam-browne.mp3
8 ambrose-his-orchestra-swing-high-swing-low.mp3
9 ambrose-his-orchestra-swing-is-in-the-air.mp3
10 let-s-call-the-whole-thing-off-v.EL-sam-browne.mp3
11 ambrose-and-his-orchestra-organ-grinder-s-swing.mp3
12 ambrose-his-orchestra-says-my-heart.mp3
13 ambrose-his-orchestra-an-apple-for-the-teacher-v.EL Jack Cooper.mp3
14 ambrose-his-orchestra-jeepers-creepers.mp3
15 ambrose-i-got-love-feat-evelyn-dall.mp3
16 ambrose-my-heart-belongs-to-daddy.mp3
17 ambrose-his-orchestra-mr-jones.mp3
18 ambrose-his-orchestra-my-wubba-dolly.mp3
19 evelyn-dall-something-for-the-boys-hey-good-lookin.mp3
20 evelyn-dall-something-for-the-boys-something-for-the-boys.mp3
21 evelyn-dall-follow-the-girls-i-wanna-get-married.mp3
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