Jessie Matthews made her name in the theatre before becoming
Britain’s favourite 1930s musical film star. Born one
of ten children in London in 1907, she made her stage debut
at 10 in the children’s play Bluebell in Fairyland.
At 16, she was in the chorus of
Charlot’s revue
in London and New York. She idolised the
show’s star, Gertrude Lawrence and
in her hotel bedroom would practise her hit number, ‘Parisian
Pierrot’,
remembering every movement and gesture. When Charlot asked
who was Lawrence’s
second understudy, Jessie piped up ‘Me’. Impressed,
Charlot made her the first understudy. In theatrical tradition
more usual in fiction than real life, the night came when the
star was off and Jessie was on. She never looked back.
In 1928 Jessie was contracted to C B Cochran for the Noël
Coward revue This Year of Grace, starring opposite
the popular Sonnie Hale. They fell in love. Unfortunately Hale
was already married to much-loved musical star Evelyn Laye,
and despite her own popularity, this temporarily alienated Matthews
from the public. She and Hale later married, although the marriage
did not last.
In 1930 Matthews had one of her greatest successes in Rodgers
and Hart’s Ever Green in which she danced and
sang ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ around a stage set
with an upended chandelier. She played a young girl who pretends
to be a 60 year old woman miraculously kept young by cosmetics.
For most of the 1930s, Matthews was Britain’s most popular
film star, kept busy making one box-office smash musical after
another, including First a Girl (later remade as Victor
Victoria starring Julie Andrews), Ever Green and
The Good Companions opposite John Gielgud. However
the pressures were too great and Jessie began to suffer from
depression and attempted suicide. She later remarried and went
to live in Australia. When she returned to England, the more
mature Jessie found it difficult to restart her career, but
in the 1960s she became a household name again as the eponymous
heroine of the hugely popular radio soap Mrs Dale’s
Diary.
Introduction
