Margaret Tisdall ( 8 January 1906*– 30 April 1979), better
known by her stage name Peggy Dell, was an Irish singer and pianist who became
a popular music hall entertainer.
Born in Dublin, Tisdall made her first public appearance
as a pianist at the age of nine at the Olympia Theatre, where her father played
flute with the pit orchestra. Later, at the age of 13, she was employed by
Woolworth's to play at their store in Grafton Street in order to improve the
sales of sheet music.
While still in her teens Tisdall formed her own band
which played at various Dublin venues, such as the Theatre Royal and the
Capitol Theatre. In the early 1930s she joined Roy Fox's band in London as his
first female singer. For visual appeal on posters and handbills, Peggy Tisdall
then adopted the stage name ‘Peggy Dell’ and kept it throughout her subsequent
career. A deep voice added to the jazz-band quality of her performance.
She toured the USA to great acclaim with the Jack Hylton
Orchestra, returning to Dublin on the eve of the second world war. She turned
down a BBC offer of a place in Tommy Handley's new ITMA (‘It's That Man Again’)
radio show of 1939–49, a series later enshrined in the canon of British
entertainment.
Nevertheless, in the comparative safety of ‘Emergency’ Dublin, Peggy Dell joined Phil Murtagh's band at the Metropole ballroom on O'Connell St., close to the Capitol. She continued to appear at the Theatre Royal .Her fame was undiminished and ‘the Peggy Dell Orchestra’ achieved national prominence.. She played and sang at dances, performed in revues, and acted in pantomimes.
Nevertheless, in the comparative safety of ‘Emergency’ Dublin, Peggy Dell joined Phil Murtagh's band at the Metropole ballroom on O'Connell St., close to the Capitol. She continued to appear at the Theatre Royal .Her fame was undiminished and ‘the Peggy Dell Orchestra’ achieved national prominence.. She played and sang at dances, performed in revues, and acted in pantomimes.
The 1950s preserved her appeal but time, fashion, and
technology gradually affected the cohort of Dublin entertainers who had started
out with the new state. After 1960, television provided alternative popular
entertainment, and economic development swallowed up the live entertainment
halls, replacing them with undistinguished office blocks. Peggy Dell was on
stage for the last week of shows at the Theatre Royal in June 1962. What later
became the genre of ‘rare ould times’ nostalgia was then part of a highly
emotional endgame for fading stars.
She suffered
serious head injuries in a taxi accident in 1970, causing recurrent fainting
spells, virtually ending her career and her remaining public profile. Some
thought she had died, so private did she become. By a twist of fate, her career
was suddenly resurrected on 22 December 1973 by her guest appearance on a
special RTÉ ‘Late late show’ television birthday tribute to Noel Purcell.
Surprised audiences were struck by Peggy Dell's physical presence and
virtuosity at the piano, leading to many inquiries and expressions of delight
at her part in the show.
RTÉ subsequently provided her with a television series,
‘Peg o' my heart’, from which commercial albums were made. Other numbers were
revived from her previous recordings. In 1974 her television series won a
Jacob's award and she was engaged to entertain Mediterranean cruises until 1975,
highlights of a second career which happened by chance.
In February 1975, she won a Jacob's Award for the
programme. From then until her death, Dell enjoyed renewed success as an
entertainer, performing regularly on radio and television, as well as making
live appearances. In 1975 she released an album entitled Among My Souvenirs.
Peggy Dell never married. She died in Dublin aged 73 and
is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Dictionary of Irish
Biography)
* (some sources give birth date as 17 March 1905.)
* (some sources give birth date as 17 March 1905.)
4 comments:
Couldn’t get a compilation of Peggy Dell although there is a 16 track album out there somewhere, so I gathered as many off the web and have tried to put them in date order. Managed to get 20 titles from YouTube and other sources plus album art (although rushed) . So for “Peggy Dell – Collected” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/9710665/Peggy_Dell-Collected.rar.html
1. I Cover The Waterfront (1933)
2. Without That certain Thing
3. In Other Words We’re Through (1934)
4. True
5. When Tomorrow Comes
6. Over My Shoulder
7. St. Louis Blues (1935)
8. Some Of These Days
9. A Little Bit Indepenent (1936)
10. Eeny meeny Miney Mo
11. You’ve Got The Wrong Rhumba
12. Cinderella Sweetheart (1938)
13. Now It Can be Told
14. Gypsy Tears (1939)
15. I Shall Always Remember You Smiling
16. Our Love
17. Sing My Heart
18. Summer Sweetheart
19. My Prayer
20. Did Your Mother Come From Ireland (19??)
Please note all tracks are from various sources so may vary in bit rate and quality.
All recorded from 1933 – 1939 with Roy Fox and Jack Hilton’s Orchestras. Sorry but no time to give specifics regarding discography.
Thanks!
Wonderful, thanks! Love the video!
By the by, for anyone wondering who the gent with the long white beard in the video is, that's actor Noel Purcell (1900 - 1985), whom you may have seen in such films as John Huston's "Moby Dick."
I suspect that I might be a distant relative, my father's mother's brothers daughter. Margaret tisdell.
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