Jessie Matthews | |
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 Matthews in 1917, aged ten. | |
| Born | Jessie Margaret Matthews (1907-03-11)11 March 1907 |
| Died | 19 August 1981(1981-08-19) (aged 74) Eastcote, London, England |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1919–1981 |
| Spouses | |
Jessie Margaret Matthews (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period.[1][2]
After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, such asEvergreen, Matthews developed a following in the USA, where she was dubbed "The Dancing Divinity".[3] Her British studio was reluctant to let go of its biggest name, however, which resulted in offers for her to work inHollywood being repeatedly rejected.[4]
After the decline of her film career, Matthews achieved a comeback in her native Britain when she took over the role of Mary Dale in the popularBBC Radio serialThe Dales (previously known asMrs Dale's Diary).[5][6]
Jessie Margaret Matthews was born on 11 March 1907 to Jane Matthews (née Townshend) in a flat above a butcher's shop at 94Berwick Street,Soho, London, in relative poverty, the seventh of sixteen children (of whom eleven survived). Jessie's father, George Ernest Matthews, was afruit-and-vegetable seller.[7] Shortly after her birth, the family moved around the corner to 5 Livonia Street. Aged five, the family again moved, this time to 11 Carlos Street,Camden Town, where she attended St Matthew's School. In 1915, Matthews and her family returned to live in Soho, at 9 William and Mary Yard, a flat above stables, which was at the top ofGreat Windmill Street; the buildings were later demolished. She then attended Pulteney Street London County Council School for Girls.[7]
Matthews took dancing lessons as a child in a room above a local public house at 22 Berwick Street.[8] She first went on stage on 29 December 1919, aged 12, inBluebell in Fairyland, bySeymour Hicks, with music byWalter Slaughter and lyrics byCharles Taylor, atThe Metropolitan Music Hall,Edgware Road, London, as a child dancer.[7][9]
She made her cinema debut in 1923 in the silent filmThe Beloved Vagabond.[1] She also had a small part inStraws in the Wind, released the following year, in which her sister Rosie also appeared. 1923 also saw Jessie make herWest End debut when she appeared inC. B. Cochran's production ofIrving Berlin'sMusic Box Revue at thePalace Theatre. This was followed by a part in the chorus ofLondon Calling!, a revue byNoël Coward andRonald Jeans presented byAndré Charlot.[7]
Matthews was then in the chorus inCharlot's Review of 1924 in London.[10] She went with the show toNew York, where she was also understudy to the star,Gertrude Lawrence. The show moved toToronto, and when Lawrence fell ill, Matthews took over the role, and received glowing reviews.[11]
Matthews first achieved star status inThe Charlot Show of 1926, a show which saw her dance in ballet withAnton Dolin, and in musical comedy withHenry Lytton Jr. Matthews and Lytton married the same year, but they were divorced after only a few years. During this period, she was given a £25,000 contract with Cochran, equivalent to over £1m in 2022.[12][13] She made her debut as a leading lady onBroadway inThe Charlot Show of 1927, a production coupled withEarl Carroll's Vanities.[7]
In 1927, Matthews starred inOne Dam Thing After Another by Ronald Jeans, a West End revue with music byRichard Rodgers andLorenz Hart, which featured Matthews introducing their hit song "My Heart Stood Still". It was in this show that she first met her co-starSonnie Hale. The following year, they introduced Coward's romantic duet "A Room with a View" inThis Year of Grace, and her performance in the revue was acclaimed by critics.[11][12] She was similarly successful in another revueWake up and Dream (1929), in which she and Hale introducedCole Porter's "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love".[7][11][12]
Matthews' fame reached its initial height with her lead role in Cochran's 1930 stage production ofEver Green, which premiered at theAlhambra Theatre Glasgow. The musical, by Rodgers and Hart, was partly inspired by the life of music hall starMarie Lloyd and her daughter'stribute act resurrection of her mother's acclaimedEdwardian stage show as Marie Lloyd Junior. At its time,Ever Green, which included the first major revolving stage in Britain,[14] was the most expensive musical ever mounted on a British stage.[15] The show saw Matthews introduce another Rodgers and Hart standard, "Dancing on the Ceiling".[16]
Matthews' first major film role was in the musicalOut of the Blue (1931), but it was a commercial failure. However, the following year, she starred inThere Goes the Bride, directed byAlbert de Courville, which was a success. This was followed byThe Man from Toronto, released the same year, and another film for de Courville,The Midshipmaid.[7][12]
Matthews enjoyed great success with her appearance in the ensemble filmThe Good Companions (1933), an adaptation ofJ. B. Priestley's novel and play directed byVictor Saville. 1933 also saw her starring inWaltzes from Vienna, an operetta telling the story behind the production of "The Blue Danube" byJohann Strauss II, directed by a youngAlfred Hitchcock. This was followed by another ensemble film,Friday the Thirteenth (1933), in which she appeared on screen with Hale, who was by then her husband, for the first time.[7]
She then starred in the film version ofEvergreen (1934), which featured the newly composed song "Over My Shoulder"; it would to go on to become Matthews' personalsignature song, later giving its title to her autobiography and to a 21st-century musical stage show of her life.[17][18]
This was followed byFirst a Girl (1935), in which she appears as across dresser, and thenIt's Love Again (1936), where she had an American co-star,Robert Young. Exhibitors voted her the sixth biggest star in the country that year.[19]
Matthews then began to appear in films directed by husband:Gangway (1937),Head over Heels (1937) andSailing Along (1938). Following the end of Hale's contract withGaumont British, she starred in her last film for the studio,Climbing High (1938) directed byCarol Reed. In 1938, she was the fourth biggest British star at the box office.[20]
Matthews and Hale returned to the stage in 1939 in their own musical production,I Can Take It, which had a successful provincial tour. It was due to open at theLondon Coliseum on 12 September, but the outbreak of the war on 3 September meant the show was cancelled.[12]
Her warbling voice and round cheeks made her a familiar and much-loved personality to British theatre and film audiences at the beginning ofWorld War II. She was one of many British-born stars in the Hollywood filmForever and a Day (1943) (in whose cast Matthews was virtually unique, by virtue of not being anexpat: while inNew York City preparing for aBroadway role, Matthews had been recruited to film a role originally intended forGreer Garson in Hollywood over three days). She returned to the West End stage inJerome Kern'sWild Rose, a revival ofSally, in 1942.[7][12]
Matthews' popularity waned in the 1940s after several years' absence from the screen, followed by an unsatisfactory thriller,Candles at Nine (1944).[21] She directed and featured in the short film,Victory Wedding (1944), starringJohn Mills andDulcie Gray.[22][23]
During the war, she entertained troops inContinental Europe as a member ofENSA.[7]
Post-war audiences associated Matthews with a world of hectic pre-war luxury that was now seen as obsolete in austerity-era Britain.[24] She appeared in variety tours, and returned to musical theatre inMaid to Measure, which began touring in 1947 before coming to theCambridge Theatre in London's West End. However, it closed after only four and a half weeks. Matthews began to venture into straight theatre, and appeared in a two-week run ofTerence Rattigan'sPlaybill at the King's Theatre inHammersmith in 1949. This was a double bill in which she took parts inHarlequinade andThe Browning Version. Matthews then starred in the revueSauce Tartare at the Cambridge Theatre, which ran for several months and would prove to be her last West End role until 1966. In 1950, she undertook a tour of Britain playingEliza Doolittle inPygmalion.[7]
Matthews toured Australia from 1952 to 1953 inLarger Than Life, a play adapted fromSomerset Maugham's novelTheatre. Back in the UK, 1954 saw her touring the country inNoël Coward'sPrivate Lives, playing the leading female role of Amanda. The following year, she was reunited with Sonnie Hale to star in a comedy,Nest of Robins, which toured British theatres. The duo also went on tour with the play in 1957, in what would be their final appearance on stage together.[7]
Matthews was back on cinema screens when she playedTom Thumb's mother in the 1958 children's filmtom thumb. Following the completion of the film, she moved toMelbourne, where she opened a drama school. She continued to work as an actress, appearing inDinner with the Family (1959), made for Australian television.[25] Matthews returned to live in the UK in 1960.[7]
In the 1960s, Matthews found new fame when she took over the leading role of Mary Dale in theBBC's long-running daily radio serialThe Dales, formerly knownMrs Dale's Diary. Despite a campaign by the show's fans, who included theQueen Mother, the series ended in 1969 after 21 years on air.[7][26][27]
Matthews was awarded anOBE in 1970.[2] She continued to make cabaret and occasional film and television appearances throughout the 1970s, including a one-off guest role in the popularBBC TV drama seriesAngels.[28] Her final appearance in a stage musical was playing Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby inThe Water Babies (1973), an adaptation of theCharles Kingsley children's novelThe Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby.[16]
She also playedWallis Simpson's "Aunt Bessie" Merriman in the 1978Thames TV seriesEdward & Mrs. Simpson, which told the story ofEdward VIII's abdication.[29] The same year, she returned to the theatre inLady Windermere's Fan.[12]
She took her one-woman stage show toLos Angeles in 1979 and won the United StatesDrama-Logue Award for the year's best performance in concert.[11] Matthews' last appearance was inNight of One Hundred Stars at London'sRoyal National Theatre, on 14 December 1980.[12]
On 17 February 1926, aged 18, Matthews married the first of her three husbands, the 19-year-old actorHenry Lytton, Jr. atHammersmith Register Office. He was the son of singer and actressLouie Henri andSir Henry Lytton, the doyen of theSavoy Theatre. Matthews and Lytton Jr. lived in Warwick Close inKensington, but the marriage did not last, and they divorced in 1930. Following this, she moved toAdelaide Road inSouth Hampstead.[7]
Matthews had several romantic relationships conducted in the public eye, often causing controversy in the newspapers. The most notorious was her relationship with the married actorSonnie Hale. A high-court judge denounced her as an "odious"[30] individual when herlove letters to Hale were used as evidence in the case of his divorce from his wife, actress/singerEvelyn 'Boo' Laye.[31] Hale and Matthews were married on 24 January 1931 atHampstead Register Office, and they lived in The Old House, a farmhouse inHampton,Middlesex.[7]
It took some time for Matthews' popularity to recover from thescandal of her affair with Hale. "If I ceased to be a star", she wrote in a piece forPicturegoer in 1934, "all that interest in my home life would evaporate, I believe. Perhaps it is the price one has to pay for being a star".[32] During the filming ofEvergreen, she suffered the first of her nervous breakdowns.[12] On 18 December that year, she prematurely gave birth to a son, John Robert Hale Monro III, who survived for only four hours.[7] She had another serious breakdown in 1936, and was hospitalised inNew York duringWorld War II.[7][12]
In 1944, after thirteen years of marriage, Sonnie Hale and Jessie Matthews were divorced. She subsequently moved toChelsea. On 9 August 1945, she was married for the third and last time to military officer Lt. Brian Lewis, a man thirteen years her junior. In December that year, she miscarried a child. Matthews and Lewis separated in 1956, and were subsequently divorced. However, because the divorce was in South Africa, it was not recognised in England. Consequently, the decree nisi was not granted until December 1980, over twenty years since they had last seen each other.[7][33][34] With Hale she had one adopted daughter,Catherine Hale-Monro, who married Count Donald Grixoni on 15 November 1958; they eventually divorced, but she remained known as Catherine, Countess Grixoni.[7][35]
Matthews latterly lived inHatch End, north west London.[36] She died of cancer, aged 74, on 19 August 1981.[37]
A posthumous documentary on Matthews,Catch A Fallen Star, part of the BBC's40 Minutes strand, was broadcast in 1987.[38]
A memorial plaque above the venue for her childhood dance classes, 22 Berwick Street, Soho, was unveiled on 3 May 1995 byAndrew Lloyd Webber and stage actressRuthie Henshall.[8]
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For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted her among the top ten stars in Britain at the box office via an annual poll in theMotion Picture Herald.
Matthews' 12 starring films fromThere Goes the Bride toSailing Along have been released on DVD in the UK by Network.[40] The same films, except forWaltzes from Vienna andEvergreen, have also been released on DVD in the US by VCI Entertainment[41] In France,Waltzes from Vienna has been released on DVD under its local title,Le Chant du Danube byUniversal, who paired it with anotherHitchcock-directed film,Downhill (1927).Climbing High has also been released on French DVD by Elephant Films, asLa Grande escalade.
Three of the four remaining films Matthews made after the end of her leading lady period (Forever and a Day,Tom Thumb andThe Hound of the Baskervilles) have been released on DVD in various countries.
