Betty Bolton Articles

It is easy enough to find Elsie Carlisle autographs. Usually they take the form of photographs or postcards that she signed, often hastily and even sloppily. Occasionally one finds a little more than just her name; for example, I have a small photograph of Carlisle on which she has written “Home, James” (referring to her then popular comedy song “Home, James, and Don’t Spare the Horses”).

Carlisle would have enjoyed her greatest fame between 1926, when she began to appear regularly on the radio and started to make records, and the mid-1940s, when she quietly retired. But she would have been a familiar face to theater-goers for a few years preceding that period, and presumably they would have wanted autographs as well — but until recently I had only ever seen a single autograph dating from 1923, which referenced the Fred Karno revue 1923. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I came across the following scrap of paper:

Songs lyrics handwritten by Elsie Carlisle on November 29, 1919. — Song lyrics from the 1919 show “Back Again” written in Elsie Carlisle’s handwriting

This page, apparently torn from a small notebook and dated November 29, 1919, contains what I think are song lyrics from the 1919 London show Back Again, which featured American actress and singer Lee White, along with some British actors (including a thirteen-year-old Betty Bolton). I feel confident in identifying that show, because the passage from the lyrics ends with the words “BACK AGAIN” (written in small caps), and the date at the top of the page indicates that it was written while the revue was still on stage (September 2, 1919-December 6, 1919). Carlisle has signed her name and the name of the venue (the Ambassadors Theatre); all of the writing is in impeccably beautiful cursive — it is definitely her handwriting, but so much less hastily executed than her scrawl in later years.

The page’s status as a remarkable collectible stems largely from the fact that Back Again is thought to be Carlisle’s very first London show.¹ A successor revue to Lee White’s successful U.S. (1918),² the show contained original music by Clay Smith, R. P. Weston, and Bert Lee, as well as the Creamer-Layton composition “After You’ve Gone.” Recordings survive of Lee White singing numbers from Back Again, such as “The Wedding in Dollyland,” and pianist Adam Ramet has more recently recorded a “Musical Comedy Revue Selection” and a “Foxtrot on Themes from the Revue” that give a sense of the sort of music included in the original show.

It is not entirely clear to me what music Elsie Carlisle herself sang in Back Again, but her role was likely a noteworthy one. An item in the October 1, 1919 edition of The Bystander announces “Back Again!” above photographs of Elsie Carlisle and Lee White, in that order, comically showing their backs to the camera.³ No other actors from the show are mentioned.

Lee White would take Back Again to Australia in 1926-1927, although it is likely that the revue evolved considerably over the years, and Elsie Carlisle was not part of its revival.

Notes:

Richard J. Johnson, “Elsie Carlisle (with a different style), Part One,” Memory Lane 174 (2012): 25. ↩
Vivyan Ellacott, “London Revues 1915-1919,” overthefootlights.co.uk. ↩
“Back Again!” The Bystander, October 1, 1919, 31, British Newspaper Archive. ↩

Elizabeth Carlisle was born on January 28, 1896¹ in Manchester, England to James Carlisle and Mary Ellen Carlisle (née Cottingham). Elsie was not the only member of her family to show a knack for show business; her brothers James (“Jim”) and Albert (“Tim”) were both singers who worked with the great composer, publisher, and impresario Lawrence Wright. By her own account, Elsie was encouraged to learn singing by her mother, who paid for her to have lessons when she was only a small girl.² It was her brother Jim who got her her first theatrical role at the age of 12,³ and by the time of her marriage in 1914 she could be described as a “musical hall artiste” on the wedding certificate. By 1919 she was appearing in the West End in a show whose cast included Betty Bolton, and the next year she merited her own show, entitled Elsie Carlisle – With a Different Style, in which she performed as a solo vocalist.

How “different” her style was would quickly be made known to larger and larger audiences. Her stage career grew, only to be eclipsed, starting in 1926, by her broadcasting and recording efforts. Elsie’s recordings made with Ambrose and His Orchestra between 1932 and 1935 are among the best remembered, but one should remember that she recorded at least 332 record sides between 1926 and 1942 — a prolific output. The British public would have known her better still from her broadcasts on the BBC and Radio Luxembourg. She was often billed as the “Idol of the Radio,” a well-earned epithet. By the mid-1930s she was ranked amongst the top vocalists who could be heard on the British airwaves, and she had film and television credits to her name as well. Her dulcet delivery of themes both comic and plaintive continues to attract listeners well over a century after her first performance in a Manchester music hall, and the world is much richer for her having lived in it.

Elsie Carlisle at the Bassano Studios (August 22, 1919) - NPG x103150 — Elsie Carlisle at the Bassano Studios (August 22, 1919) – NPG x103150

Cartoon of Elsie Carlisle in “The Encore” (February 18, 1926, three months before she began her recording career).

Elsie Carlisle Postcard — The reverse of this postcard mentions Ambrose, so it can be no earlier than 1932, but the original photograph of which it is a tinted version was taken around 1926.

This signed postcard dates from the mid-1930s, but the original photo was taken no later than 1932.

Notes:

January 28, 1896 is the date that Elsie Carlisle’s mother provided when she registered her daughter’s birth on March 3, 1896. The same birthday appears on Elsie’s baptismal certificate, which is dated April 15, 1896, so the date “21 January 1897” found on Elsie’s death certificate must be erroneous. People are not generally baptized before they are born, and one would assume that Elsie’s mother was a better source of information regarding her own daughter’s birth than Elsie’s son Wilfred, the informant for the death certificate. ↩
Ralph Graves. “Radio Sweetheart No. 1.” Radio Pictorial 251 (November 4, 1938): 8. ↩
According to Richard J. Johnson in “Elsie Carlisle (with a different style).” Memory Lane 174 (2012): 25. ↩

Elsie Carlisle

“Back Again” (1919)

Elsie Carlisle’s 128th Birthday

"The Idol of the Radio." British dance band singer of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.