Evelyn Laye: Queen Of Musical Comedy on 2 CDs

You are that rare and Holy Trinity of the stage, a great singer, a great actress and a great beauty’. Thus spoke legendary Austrian film director Max Reinhardt referring to the subject of AVID’s latest 2CD tribute, Evelyn Laye - Queen of Musical Comedy.

During a career spanning nine decades she ran the gamut of 20th Century entertainment from operetta to variety via silent cinema, farce, pantomime and TV drama. Born into a small time theatrical family in 1900, ‘Boo’ as she was known to all, began her theatrical career at the tender age of four when she sauntered on to the stage unexpectedly during a matinee and received 6d for her troubles! At the peak of her career she was earning £1000 a week, a huge amount in those days. Her final stage performance came in 1992 at London’s Players Theatre and her final public performance two years later in 1994 when she appeared on Pat Kirkwood’s This Is Your Life TV tribute show.

Our splendid double CD set covers her 71 year career and includes many previously unreleased performances and liner notes by Daily Mail columnist Michael Thornton.