The One and Only Phyllis Dixey

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Roye: "Phyllis in Censorland", 1942, Elstree Publications Ltd. and The Camera Studies Club, a larger edition 1950s. For a declining number of the British population the variety artiste Phyllis Dixey is remembered for her “ Peek a Boo” revues. Phyllis Dixey’s life was immortalized in the 1978 film The One and Only Phyllis Dixey and in a 2009 play called Barely Phillis. And this plaque, placed on her former home after much controversy: Heydays Hotel (1976) for Granada, starring a young Nigel Havers, was, he maintained, an experiment in trompe l’oeil television; a conventional period drama turning unexpectedly into something quite different. Philip Purser and Jenny Wilkes: "The One And Only Phyllis Dixey", 1978, Futura Publications, London; ISBN 0-7088-1436-0

Phyllis Dixey started her career as a child dancer in pantomime. Later, Phyllis secured a job in the chorus line with the impresario Wallace Parnell. This was a time of the grand revues and Wallace Parnell was famous for his glamorous productions. Later Phyllis found employment with the comedian and actor-manager Ernie Lotinga and toured Britain in a show called, “ The Means Test“. Jerry Roberts Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors, Lanham Maryland & Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press, 2009, p.600 In 1946 she appeared in the film Dual Alibi with Herbert Lom. The following year she closed her Whitehall show on the heels of five years of success. For several years she and Tracy toured her revues through Britain and Scandinavia. By the mid-1950s competition from similar revues plus the advent of television had taken their toll and she was forced to stop headlining and producing her own vehicles. In 1956, billed as “The One and Only Phyllis Dixey”, she appeared with Paul Raymond’s touring revue. She danced professionally through 1958. In 1970, she informally adopted a small boy, Mark Ugbomah, who lived in Wood Green, north London, enrolling him at the Michael Hall Steiner school, in Forest Row, East Sussex, and later becoming godmother to many members of Mark’s extended family in the UK, Jamaica and the US. Phyllis and her brother were first educated at Fircroft Road Elementary School Tooting before the family moved to Surbiton Surrey.Her headstone in Epsom Cemetery had deteriorated but was restored late in 2005 by the British Music Hall Society.

Jenny’s life was transformed in the early 1980s when she met and married the radical American historian Bradley Smith. For many years the couple alternated their lives between his teaching base in California and her apartment overlooking Primrose Hill, in north London. Her life was portrayed in the British television film The One and Only Phyllis Dixey (1978), in which she was played by Lesley-Anne Down. It was written by Philip Purser. [6] From the mid-1990s Jenny cared for Bradley, who developed Alzheimer’s disease. She studied drama therapy at the (now Royal) Central School of Speech and Drama, to help them cope, and, combining her old and new skills, she shot more than 200 hours of film with Bradley to show the effectiveness of drama therapy. At the time of her death, she was editing this material into short training films and a documentary, A Love Story, to show how their relationship had deepened during his illness. Bradley died in 2012.

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In 2011, English Heritage made plans to erect a blue plaque at Dixey's former home at Wentworth Court in Surbiton; however, the installation of the plaque was turned down by the residents' association of the building due to the proposed title 'Striptease Artiste' being used on the plaque. [4] Filmography [ edit ]