Elizabeth Welch Has Died

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 7/16/03 at 11:34am

Elizabeth Welch, who appeared in BLACKBIRDS OF 1928 (w/Bill Robinson & Adelaide Hall) & as on Broadway as recently as 1986 JEROME KERN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD (w/Liz Robertson) has died. When she was in town, 1 of her favorite watering holes was Chita Rivera's club BOBO's on W. 42nd St. I had the pleasure of meeting with Miss Welch several times there in the early 90's. I remember her telling me how she came to introduce "Love For Sale" when the producers thought it inappropriate for a white woman to sing the song in the show, she was hired.

I have her last CD. By that point, I would describe her as a disseuse rather than chanteuse. A charming woman, whom I remember telling me "don't call me before 2 p.m. or after 2 a.m. What a life she led, true to herself & her beliefs.

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In 1935, she appeared w/Ivor Novello & Mary Ellis in Novello's GLAMOROUS NIGHT

Since I am unable to find a link to it, here is an excerpt fr today's LONDON INDEPENDENT:

"Elisabeth Welch Black diva whose roles ranged from Cole Porter's 'Nymph Errant' to Derek Jarman's 'The Tempest'

For six decades Elisabeth Welch was one of the most popular American singers working in Britain and a permanent fixture on the West End musical stage, from Cole Porter's "Nymph Errant" in 1933 to the all-star concert "A Time to Start Living" in 1992, a World Aids Day gala organised by Crusaid, for which the cream of British show business gathered to pay tribute to her.

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Both Cole Porter and Ivor Novello wrote songs for her. When she appeared as "A Goddess" in Derek Jarman's imaginative 1979 screen version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" -- dressed in gold from head to foot, walking through a rain of confetti in a room garlanded with flowers, and singing "Stormy Weather" to a group of handsome young sailors -- George Melly described it as "arguably the campest, most sparkling moment in the history of cinema."

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"In 1931, during a cabaret engagement in New York, Welch was asked to replace the singer of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" in the Broadway musical "The New Yorkers". For Welch, "Love for Sale", a prostitute's lament, was "beautiful poetry because it was like one of the street cries of London."

"When the Second World War broke out, Welch decided to stay in London. 'All my friends were here, she said, "and I was determined to stay." Together with Evelyn Laye, Kay Hammond and Douglas Byng, Welch entertained the troops at Army and Royal Air Force camps throughout Britain, and in 1942 she travelled to Malta and Gibraltar with an all-star cast that included John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Beatrice Lillie and Michael Wilding in a special entertainment for the Forces organised by Hugh "Binkie" Beaumont. Gielgud said: "You could hear a pin drop while she sang, but when she finished the thunder of applause could be heard in the street."


Milla