Each month I take a look at funny women from throughout the 20th Century – stating their case so that you may decide which to vote your favourite Vintage Funny Woman. So far we have looked at Fanny Brice, Lucille Ball, Yorkshire’s Marti Caine, Music Hall star Vesta Tilley, the great Judy Garland, Carry On star Hattie Jacques, the ‘Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat’ Carmen Miranda, the dazzling Ginger Rogers, the versatile Kay Thompson, comedy great June Whitfield CBE and this month is Britain’s multi-talented Joyce Grenfell.
Joyce Grenfell was an actress, writer, comedy performer and one of the country’s greatest entertainers; she paved the way for other musical comediennes such as Victoria Wood. My first experience of her was actually seeing Maureen Lipman performing her monologues on television.
Upon telling anyone over 50 years old that I was writing this column for Funny Women they always would insist that I HAD to include Joyce Grenfell – she obviously left an impression.
She was born Joyce Phipps on the 10th February 1910 in Knightsbridge to an architect and American socialite. Grenfell had a more privileged beginning than many of our previous ‘Vintage Funny Women’; her aunt was Viscountess Astor and many of her early years were spent at Cliveden house in Buckinghamshire. Her education was at private girls schools and she attended finishing school in France.
The name ‘Grenfell’ was obtained at age 19 when she wed Reginald (Reggie) Pascoe Grenfell and they remained married for the next 50 years until her death. Reginald’s obituary in the Telegraph refers to him as Joyce’s ‘silent partner’ and despite her privileged start to life the early years of their marriage was fraught with money worries and often resorting to asking their families for help. They were unable to have children but had a wide social circle of friends which included Celia Johnson and her husband Peter Fleming, Edith Evans and Noel Coward (although her Telegraph obituary states she remained ambivalent to Coward as she distrusted theatre and “queers”!)
Joyce Grenfell makes an appearance here in this lovely old newsreel of Noel Coward’s 70th birthday.
Grenfell attended RADA for just six months before leaving: “I think I lost interest in acting in plays because I found it too restrictive”. Her debut stage performance was in 1939 in a review called ‘Light and Shade’ at the Little Theatre London and she wrote what became her signature song: ‘I’m Going to See You Today’.
She began a musical recording career, producing humorous recordings and books along with being a writer for the BBC.
At the outbreak of war she became a performer for ENSA, going on tour to entertain the troops stationed around the world. Her wartime journals were published as ‘Time of My Life: Entertaining the Troops’. During this time she started making small appearances in films, often war based and sometimes as herself. Her writing at the BBC continued with the satirical ‘How’ series.
The 1950s were packed for Grenfell: she wrote and starred in her show ‘Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure’ which she performed in the West End and took to the USA; she appeared in the ‘St Trinians’ films and in ‘The Happiest Days of Your Life’ amongst others; she even appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show alongside Elvis Presley.
She is best remembered for her comic monologues and in particularly this one:
In 1973 Grenfell was taken ill with an eye infection and subsequently diagnosed with cancer, although she was never told. The eye was removed and replaced with an artificial one and she continued performing for the next six years, particularly making appearances on the BBC’s ‘Face the Music’ – you can see her in action here.
She passed away aged 69 on 30th November 1979 just a month away from her golden wedding anniversary. Her memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey, the first time a comedian has had this granted. It was later confirmed that she had been made a ‘Dame’ in the New Year’s honours.
It has been an interesting process researching for this column because, for all her wit and talent, Joyce Grenfell doesn’t actually strike me as the most likeable person – but is that important? There are many unlikable comedians out there that still make us laugh, does likeability in their private life matter? I’m not sure. We now have much more insight into performer’s private lives and there are certainly many unlikeable actors out there and yet their movies still get an audience. Sandi Toksvig’s review of Janie Hampton’s biography ‘Joyce Grenfell’ states:
“In her first professional show, Hampton tells us that Joyce ‘did not adjust to the ‘complete lack of standards’ of her colleagues in the company, and regretted that they did not go to church or read books, and that many of them were homosexual.’ Here Joyce and I would have parted company, as that list includes the main reasons for going into show business in the first place.
It gets worse. For all her skill at observing ordinary people, Joyce seems to have been rather grand in life. While touring in Algeria during the second world war, if Joyce didn’t get the performance conditions she required she deliberately “became ‘altesian’ from the French altesse, as in ‘Your Highness’ – and would make clear her displeasure by becoming taller and more distant.” Oh dear, as she might have said, how horrid.”
Was she just a product of her background and the times? I don’t know, but her comedy still lives on. If you remember Joyce Grenfell fondly and think she is a worthy contender for the ‘Vintage Funny Women Awards’ let us know as well as letting us know who else we should cover!
