Maidie Scott (born Mary Elizabeth Pim; 21 September 1881 – 28 July 1966) was an Irish-born singer, comedienne and music hall performer.
Maidie Scott | |
|---|---|
 Signed promotional photo | |
| Born | Mary Elizabeth Pim 21 September 1881 Mountmellick, County Laois, Ireland |
| Died | 28 July 1966 (aged 84) Durban, South Africa |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, comedienne |
| Years active | c.1900–1927 |
| Children | Mary Diana Mac Gregor and John Mac Gregor |
| Relatives | Surviving grandchildren John, Bridget and Christopher. Children of Mary Diana. John her twin brother was an air gunner during WWII. His plane was shot down and he is buried in Italy. Most surviving grandchildren, great grandchildren reside in South Africa. |
Life and career
editShe was born in Mountmellick, County Laois, Ireland, and moved with her parents and siblings to Manchester, England, when she was a child. She soon began touring as a stage performer, and under the name Madie Doris Pim married Alfred Scott Dodd in 1900.[1]
By 1904 she was known professionally as Maidie Scott. One reviewer in Leeds described her performance that year in the musical comedy The Girl from Japan as: "delightfully dainty and demure... [She] holds the hearts of all the male members of the audience in willing thralldom... Her songs... are rendered with vocal skill and sweetness which make an audience turbulent for encores... [As a dancer] her marked originality, graceful and artistic movements proclaim her as an artiste of high attainments."[2]
Her popularity extended to the United States, where she made her first appearance in 1908.[3] Among her most successful songs were "Everybody Works But Father" (first published in 1905), "The Bird on Nellie's Hat" (1907), "If the Wind Had Only Blown the Other Way" (1909), and "If the Managers Only Thought the Same as Mother" (1910).[4][5] The writer W. L. George, in A London Mosaic: London in the early 1900s, described Scott as "the most finished product on the music-halls of today".[6]
In 1913, she and her husband, a variety agent, divorced in a well-publicised case.[7] She married John Francis MacGregor, a stockbroker, and lived on Magna Carta Island in the River Thames at Runnymede. She remained a popular performer, appearing with Gaby Deslys in revue in 1915, when she was described as "one of the daintiest, cleverest, and most winsome comediennes on the stage".[8] She also recorded several of her most popular songs, for the Zonophone label in 1912, and His Master's Voice in 1915.[9] After having two children, she continued to tour, and in Australia in 1925 was described as one of "the small coterie of vaudeville 'stars' whose name is well known outside the Old Country."[5]
Following a second divorce, she married Noel Robertson in 1927. She retired from the stage, and the couple emigrated to South Africa. Her husband died in 1960, and she died in Durban in 1966, aged 84.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Sam Beale, The Comedy and Legacy of Music-Hall Women 1880-1920: Brazen Impudence and Boisterous Vulgarity, Springer, 2020
- ^ Percy L. Day, "Whispers From the Wings", The Magnet, Leeds, 24 September 1904, p. 5d, at Footlight Notes. Retrieved 13 April 2021
- ^ Poster, Klaw & Erlanger's Advanced Vaudeville, 1908, Library of Congress. Retrieved 13 April 2021
- ^ Search: Maidie Scott, Monologues.co.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2021
- ^ a b "Miss Maidie Scott", The Brisbane Courier, 13 January 1925, p.11
- ^ Walter Lionel George, A London Mosaic: London in the early 1900s
- ^ "Theatrical Divorce", Cambria Daily Leader, 12 July 1913, p.1. Retrieved 13 April 2021
- ^ "Gaby Deslys at the Palace", Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 25 August 1915, at StageBeauty.net. Retrieved 13 April 2021
- ^ "Nellie Wallace & Maidie Scott: Mother's Advice", Windyridge CD liner notes. Retrieved 13 April 2021
External links
edit- Film of Scott at Magna Carta Island, 1920s
- Maidie Scott discography at Discogs