Lizbeth Webb
|
---|
|
Born
| Betty Ethel Holton
(
1926-01-30
)
30 January 1926
|
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Died
| 17 January 2013
(2013-01-17)
(aged 86)
|
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Occupation(s)
| Soprano, actress
|
---|
Years active
| 1943?1969
|
---|
Spouse(s)
| Donald H. Parker
Col. Sir Guy Campbell, Bt. (deceased 19 July 1993)
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Betty Ethel Holton
(30 January 1926 ? 17 January 2013), better known by her stage name,
Lizbeth Webb
, was an English
soprano
and stage actress. Known as "the champagne soprano", she is remembered partly for originating the song "This Is My Lovely Day".
After performing as a dance band vocalist and entertaining British troops during World War II, Webb pursued a career in West End musicals, becoming known for her vivaciousness in playing such roles as Lucy Willow in
Bless the Bride
, Linda in
Ivor Novello
's
Gay's the Word
and Sarah Brown in
Guys and Dolls
. She married Colonel
Guy Campbell
, the heir to a
baronetcy
, and left the stage in the late 1950s, bringing up two sons but returning for a last engagement in the title role of
The Merry Widow
in 1969.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Webb was born in
Reading
, Berkshire, the last of three children of Frederick Holton, a locomotive engine driver, and his wife Ethel,
nee
Strutt (1895?1926).
[1]
Webb's mother died in childbirth, and she was adopted by her aunt and uncle, Ethel and Alfred Wills Webber. Her sister and brother were adopted by other aunts. She attended E. P. Collier Primary School, where she was known as
Betty Webber
.
[2]
She later went on to
Hemdean House School
and
Queen Anne's School
, both in
Caversham
, Reading. As a child, she excelled at rowing, swimming and running.
[3]
From an early age, she took singing lessons.
[4]
She began her career as a teenage band vocalist and on
BBC radio
under the name Betty Webb, singing to the troops during World War II and freelancing with British bands, often for
Jack Payne
, who discovered her, and also for Albert Sandler,
Henry Hall
,
Louis Levy
and
Geraldo
. She generally performed two or three live broadcasts daily during the height of the German air-raids. She was also a regular on programmes such as
Happidrome
,
Workers Playtime
,
Kaleidoscope
, "Music Hall",
Variety Bandbox
,
Four and Twenty
,
The Forces Show
with
Diana Dors
,
Jack Buchanan
and
Bob Monkhouse
,
Follies of the Air
with
Sonnie Hale
,
Home at Eight
with
Hermione Gingold
and
Richard Attenborough
, and
Friday Night Is Music Night
.
[4]
Among the conductors she sang with were George Melachrino,
Mantovani
,
Richard Tauber
, Harry Rabinowitz, Stanley Black,
Max Jaffa
,
Charles Mackerras
, both Eric and
Stanford Robinson
and
Vilem Tausky
.
[3]
[4]
In addition to entertaining the Allied troops, she took part in propaganda broadcasts of German light music, often in German, working with
Mischa Spoliansky
, and sketches with upbeat tales of life in Britain. This placed her on potential Nazi death lists.
[3]
West End success
[
edit
]
After an introduction from Geraldo, in 1946, the impresario
Charles B. Cochran
engaged her to work for him and changed her name to Lizbeth Webb. She first understudied and then took over the lead, Grace Green, in
Vivian Ellis
and
A. P. Herbert
's parliamentary satire
Big Ben
at the
Adelphi Theatre
in London and on tour (1946).
[4]
[5]
Ellis and Herbert wrote a leading role for her the next year, Lucy Willow, in the hit musical
Bless the Bride
,
[6]
[7]
in which her character leaves a stuffy English fiance, who she does not love, to elope with a brave and dashing Frenchman, played by
Georges Guetary
. One of her songs with Guetary, "This Is My Lovely Day", became one of the BBC's most requested songs of all time,
[4]
and the song's popularity, and that of the show, were increased by their association with the wedding in 1947 of
Princess Elizabeth
and Lt.
Philip Mountbatten
(later Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip).
[3]
The show's sweeping score also included another popular song for Webb and Guetary, "I Was Never Kissed Before".
Oklahoma!
opened in the West End the same year as
Bless the Bride
, but the British musical was not overshadowed by the American hit, enjoying a good reception from the critics
[8]
and audiences and running for more than two years and 886 performances.
[4]
Webb became known as "The Champagne Soprano", and she was admired on stage for her "vibrancy and vivacity".
[4]
Webb played in
pantomime
, including the role of
Dick Whittington
in 1950, and starred as
Cinderella
opposite the stars of
The Goon Show
in 1951 on
The Light Programme
.
Ivor Novello
wrote the role of Linda especially for Webb in his last musical,
Gay's the Word
.
[9]
[10]
The show began with performances in
Manchester
in 1949 and came to the West End in 1951, where it was another hit. Webb was praised for her singing of the ballads in the show.
[4]
She also played Sarah Brown in the first London production of
Guys and Dolls
at the
London Coliseum
in 1953, which was broadcast as a
Royal Variety Performance
.
[4]
The same year, she was also featured in the
Royal Command Performance
given in the presence of the newly crowned
Queen Elizabeth
. Webb continued to entertain the troops between West End engagements, in Austria after the war, in Korea in 1953 (while under enemy attack) and in Cyprus and Libya in 1956, where she met her second husband, who was head of the British military force in
Tripoli
.
[3]
Webb toured the British provinces in
Jubilee Girl
(1956), a troubled production that she, the director, the choreographer and others abandoned before it arrived in London.
[4]
She next appeared as Giulietta in a 1959 television production of the musical
Carissima
, by
Eric Maschwitz
with music by
Hans May
, starring
Ginger Rogers
.
[
citation needed
]
Family and later years
[
edit
]
Webb was engaged briefly to
Peter Sellers
in 1951 after appearing with him on
The Light Programme
.
[3]
Her first husband was Donald H. Parker, an RAF pilot, from whom she was divorced after several years. On 17 August 1956, Webb married Colonel
Guy Campbell
, OBE, MC, the heir to a
baronetcy
. Campbell earned the
Military Cross
and, upon his father's death in 1960, inherited his family title. Webb and Campbell had two sons, Sir Lachlan Philip Kemeys Campbell, Bt., an artist and illustrator (
Eton Colours, When It Happened in Scotland,
and
When It Happened in Britain
), born in 1958, who has three children, Archie, Georgia and Ivo; and Rory Charles Fitzgerald Campbell, a classical singer and musical theatre actor who owns the entertainment company Encore Entertainment Ltd., born in 1961, who has a daughter, Olivia.
[11]
Webb effectively retired from the stage by the late 1950s to bring up her children,
[9]
although she continued to make guest appearances on radio and on television comedy shows of
Charlie Drake
and
Dickie Henderson
. She also did casting work.
[4]
In 1969, she starred in the title role of
The Merry Widow
on tour and then at the
Cambridge Theatre
in London.
[4]
[12]
She and her husband moved to
Marbella
, Spain, where they lived for a few years in the 1970s before returning to England and living in
Cheltenham
. Her husband died there in 1993, and Webb moved to London to spend her last two decades.
[4]
In 2004, a CD of her songs, entitled
My Lovely Day With Lizbeth Webb ? The Champagne Soprano
, was issued.
[13]
The following year, another CD was released called
Lizbeth Webb: With a Song In My Heart
.
[14]
Webb died in 2013 at age 86.
[9]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Webb's birth was registered at Reading (St Giles) on 10 February 1926 Reading Register Office, Vol. 2c, p. 599 as Betty Ethel Holton, and the birth certificate shows her parents' names and father's occupation. Her mother's birth was registered at the
Headington
registration District, Vol. 3A, p. 880, 1st QTR 1895 as Ethel Strutt. She was baptised on 5 May 1895 at St Philip & St James's Church,
Oxford
; her mother's parents were named as Henry Cecil Strutt and Florence Letitia Strutt. The baptism register states that her mother was born 20 February 1895; the family lived in Oxford. Later, as on Webb's birth certificate, her mother sometimes gave her maiden name as Vining.
- ^
"Lizbeth Webb lived life to the full"
,
Reading Post
, 1 February 2013
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Obituary: Lizbeth Webb"
.
Daily Telegraph
. 22 January 2013.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Coveney, Michael.
"Lizbeth Webb obituary"
,
The Guardian
, 27 January 2013
- ^
"A star still shining",
The Stage
, 12 February 2004
- ^
"'Bless the Bride' original cast recording"'
. Amazon, retrieved 16 March 2010
- ^
Green, p. 35
- ^
"Profile of
Bless the Bride
from Record Cabinet"
. Archived from
the original
on 27 February 2001
. Retrieved
28 January
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Eden, Richard.
"
Champagne Soprano' Lizbeth Webb bows out"
,
The Telegraph
, 20 January 2013
- ^
Green, pp. 145?46
- ^
Dewar, Peter Beauclerk. Sir Guy Campbell at
Burke's landed gentry of Great Britain
, p. 153, Burke's Peerage, 2001
ISBN
0-9711966-0-5
- ^
Green, p. 285
- ^
"My Lovely Day with Lizbeth Webb: The Champagne Soprano"
. Castalbums.org, accessed 8 August 2011
- ^
"Lizbeth Webb: With a Song In My Heart
. Castalbums.org, accessed 8 August 2011
References
[
edit
]
- Green, Stanley.
Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre
, Da Capo Press, 1980,
ISBN
0-306-80113-2
- "Bless the Bride" feature.
Theatre World Magazine
, No. 270, July 1947
External links
[
edit
]