BEST GIRL SINGER
Born Mary Ann McDivitt on the second floor of a tenement building in Kinning Park, Glasgow, her mother, Isabella, was a housewife, and her father, Willie, was a lorry driver for Shell. She had a younger brother called Eddie.
As a child, Mary used to sing along to songs on the radio. Her ambition was to be a hairdresser.
Aged ten, Mary was singing at the local church hall on Saturday nights. She had no microphone, so instead she sang with a megaphone.
She would do impersonations of the stars of the time such as Gracie Fields and Maurice Chevalier.
When Mary was thirteen, she saw an advert in a local newspaper for a singing contest. ‘Personality girl wanted to appear in a competition to be held at the Glasgow Empire Theatre’.
It was held at Pettigrew and Stephen’s department store in Glasgow – but you had to be fourteen to enter. Mary lied about her age.
It was judged by well-known bandleader, Roy Fox. Mary sang a song called ‘My Kid’s a Crooner’. Mary won the competition and advanced to the national final – which she also won.
Mary’s prize was five guineas – and she was offered the opportunity to join Roy Fox’s band. However, her father refused to let her, saying she couldn’t join until she was fourteen.
“I remember saying to my mother, ‘Ach, I bet they forget all about me.”
When Mary eventually left school (aged fourteen), she went to work in the office of a slate factory.
She had not been forgotten though. Mary received a telegram from Roy Fox, inviting her to London to join his orchestra.
Being so young, Mary was chaperoned down to the capital. Her mother chose a local lady, Alice Balnave, because she had been to the USA and was used to travel. Alice shared Mary’s wages and her accommodation.
Mary said Alice was an exceptionally kind woman.
In London, she adopted the stage name ‘Mary Lee’ (often billed as ‘Little Mary Lee’).
The rest of the orchestra were ordered not to swear in front of her, nor tell ‘unsavoury’ stories.
Initially, Mary was very homesick and had to be persuaded to stay in London. Gradually, she learned to love the limelight. “There were about twenty-one musicians and Roy Fox was immaculately dressed in beautiful tails and playing gorgeous music. I thought to myself, ‘I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
Mary’s parents had signed an all-inclusive contract with Roy Fox. She was to be paid five shillings a week for the first year, six for the second and seven for the third year. This meant she got no bonuses for recordings, late night dances or Sunday concerts. Mary admitted her parents were a little naive.
“So, I was skint – but I was famous. It could have been worse.”
Mary was taught speech, dress and manners. Roy used to take her to posh London restaurants in his Rolls Royce.
Roy had a racehorse that Mary adored – called ‘Whispering’. One of his songs was a tribute to the horse.
She then went on tour throughout Britain with the Roy Fox Orchestra, which included a week appearing at the Glasgow Empire Theatre.
Mary stayed at home that week. For appearances sake, her father insisted she take a taxi to the theatre each night. However, he had no money, so two streets into the taxi journey, they had to stop, get out and catch a bus.
The first recording with them was for Decca. Mary was so small she had to stand on a wooden box to reach the microphone.
The two songs she made were ‘Mickey’s Son and Daughter’ and ‘Truckin’. The record company deemed the titles unsuitable and made the band record them again.
Mary became the featured singer on all the band’s recordings, often labelled as, “With vocal refrain by Mary Lee.”
Fox moved his band to HMV, and her first record with them was ‘(If I Had) Rhythm in my Nursery Rhymes’.
Aged fifteen, Mary performed a duet with Denny Dennis, singing the George and Ira Gershwin song, ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off’. This had become very popular after having recently featured in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film, ‘Swing Time’.
The next record was extremely popular – a medley of songs by Roy Fox called ‘Hit Tunes of the Years 1928-1937’. On it, Mary sang a solo version of ‘Stormy Weather’.
In 1937, Melody Maker’s readers voted Mary as the ‘Best Girl Singer’. She beat Vera Lynn into second place.
For three years, Mary was regarded as one of Britain’s biggest – and smallest – talents.
She made early television appearances from the Alexandra Palace, but pre-war, radio was the more popular medium. Mary often played with the band on Radio Luxembourg.
They performed in front of Queen Mary and at a special concert to celebrate the Earl of Shrewsbury’s 21st birthday.
In 1938, Mary recorded ‘Whistle While you Work’ from the film ‘Snow White’. It was part of an LP of thirty commercial songs recorded by Roy Fox.
Although the record was immensely successful, Mary received a telegram from Fox saying the orchestra had been disbanded. She had no warning of this – and it was a total shock.
Fox also told her she had been ‘transferred’ to Jack Payne’s band. There was no consultation with Mary.
She, and the rest of the band, fell out with Roy Fox over the manner in which he had imparted the news.
Mary hated working with Payne. She found him a bully. After recording ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’, Payne shouted at her to stop singing like Ella Fitzgerald. At this point, Mary had never even heard of Ella Fitzgerald.
Mary quit after just three months.
She then joined Jack Jackson’s band. She described him as, “A joy to work with.” She stayed with him for six months but then stepped down as she was tired of constantly touring. Sadly, no recordings were made of Mary singing with this band.
Instead, Mary took up a residency at a London club called ‘The Nut House’. One night, her pianist was taken ill. He was replaced by a young blind man called George Shearing.
In time, Shearing would become a noted jazz pianist. Mary called him the best accompanist she had ever had. He called her the greatest ever influence on him.
Mary only ever did one solo recording session – for Parlaphone. From it came two singles.
The first was ‘Christopher Robin is saying his Prayers’, from a poem by A.A.Milne. The B-side was ‘Wynken, Blynken and Nod’.
The second single was ‘Ma Curly Headed Baby’.
Then the Second World War broke out. Mary sang on Saturday night broadcasts from ‘The May Fair Hotel’ on the radio. However, by now she was tired of being billed as a child star, as she was an adult.
“It was dawning on me that I was a member of a very tough profession, no longer child wonder Little Mary Lee, but just another jobbing dance band vocalist.”
“It’s a daunting transition, sliding from child star to adult status.”
Mary joined an RAF dance band, ‘The Squadronaires’. They toured Scotland and also appeared in ‘Stars of the Air’ – a top of the bill variety act at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Then, Mary was called up. She was assigned to ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association), and toured Britain performing for troops.
When she appeared in Paisley, her whole family came to see her. Air raid sirens went off – and people rushed to shelters. Mary and her family chose to stay in the theatre.
The theatre was not hit – and consequently Mary and her family survived the Clydebank Blitz, although hundreds of other people did not.
In 1942, Mary married Ronald Jackley Hirsch (stage name Ron Jackley). He was the brother of the more popular comedian, Nat Jackley.
Ron and Mary started a stage partnership, performing comedy and music.
They had one daughter, Diana. However, their marriage fell apart very quickly.
Mary decided she wanted to move into comedy. “I loved singing, but I knew I would always make a good living from comedy. I spent most of the 1940s perfecting the art and writing scripts.” It was said that Mary had, “exceptional comedic timing.”
Mary then went to the Middle East with bandleader Harry Roy but had a bout of stage fright. This led to a nervous breakdown in Cairo, and she was hospitalised. That was where she spent the rest of the war.
In 1949, Mary met comedian Jack Milroy whilst performing in Belfast. They were married three years later.
They performed three seasons together in Aberdeen before having a son called Jim.
Despite being the bigger name, Mary decided to retire from the stage. For her, family came first.
Husband Jack went on to form the successful Scottish comedy duo ‘Francie and Josie’ with Rikki Fulton. Jack played Francie – always wearing a red jacket.
In later years, Mary admitted that she had missed the theatre and was jealous of Jack’s success.
Mary was rediscovered in the 1970s by BBC broadcaster Alan Dell, who began playing her songs on his radio show. Mary contacted Dell and he invited her to perform at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the South Bank Pops series.
This led to Mary performing in the ‘Dance Band Days’ segment of the 1976 ‘International Festival of Light Music’. Roy Fox was in the audience, and after the show Mary and him patched up their differences and made friends again.
Mary and husband Jack were honoured with a Variety Club of Great Britain dinner in the early 1980s.
Shortly afterwards, Roy Fox died. Mary appeared at the Festival Hall again in a tribute concert for him. She sang the song ‘Whispering’.
She also appeared as an old woman in a Rab C. Nesbitt television programme in the 1990s. This led to Mary being given her own show on Radio Clyde – ‘Aunty Mary Lee Show’ – playing ‘Golden Oldies’. She won a Sony award for it.
Mary went back on the road with Jack, performing a music and comedy double act. They also appeared in pantomime and on Scottish TV’s Hogmanay programme.
Mary was thrilled that they were invited to perform at the 1993 Royal Variety Performance, in front of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Mary found the latter, “Quite charming – not at all shy.”
In 2001, after forty years of marriage, Jack died. Mary promptly wrote her memoirs entitled, ‘Forever Francie – My Life with Jack Milroy’.
Her son, Jim, was a drummer at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow. He died suddenly of a heart attack, aged just forty eight.
Mary donated the red jacket Jack wore whilst playing Francine, to the theatre. “That suit will be a nice lasting memory to both Jack and Jim, because this really was their favourite venue.”
“Jack just loved the place. I couldn’t think of a more fitting last resting place for his famous suit.”
In 2014, Mary made an appearance in Len Goodman’s documentary ‘Dancing Feet’.
Reflecting on her career, Mary said, “I truly started at the top and worked my way down.”
Mary’s grandson, Darrell Currie, is a well-known TV presenter and sports journalist in Scotland.
Mary was an Honorary Member and Vice-President of the Scottish Music Hall Society.
She loved appearing in public and right to the end, always wore high heels and had a spectacular ‘hair-do’.
Mary lived just past her 101st birthday and died at home.
There were many tributes to her. She was described as, “a legend in Scottish show business, a true professional and a woman who was greatly admired by many.”
“There have been a number of ‘child singers’, notably girls, who made it to the top – Helen Shapiro, for example. But Mary was the first of them.”
At Mary’s funeral, the very words that she had written for her husband Jack, were used for her – “A wonderful life, wonderfully lived.”
RIP = Redjacket In Pavilion (Theatre)
