Violet Loraine

Violet Loraine (26 July 1886 – 18 July 1956) was an English musical theatre actress and singer.[1]

Violet Loraine
George Robey (left), Violet Loraine and Alfred Lester in a publicity shot for The Bing Boys Are Here.
Born
Violet Mary Tipton

(1886-07-26)26 July 1886
Kentish Town, London
Died18 July 1956(1956-07-18) (aged 69)
Newcastle upon Tyne
Spouse(s)Edward Raylton Joicey MC 1921

Early life

She was born Violet Mary Tipton in Kentish Town, London, in 1886 and went on the stage as a chorus girl at the age of sixteen.

Musical revue

Her rise to fame came in April 1916 at the Alhambra Theatre in the musical/revue The Bing Boys Are Here. She was given the leading female part, Emma, opposite George Robey playing Lucius Bing. It became one of the most popular musicals of the World War I era.

Recording and film

Her duet with Robey "If You Were the Only Girl (in the World)" became a "signature song" of the era and endured as a pop standard.[2]

She retired from the stage on her marriage on 22 September 1921 to Edward Raylton Joicey MC (1890–1955) and they had two sons, John and Richard. She returned to acting for the screen, appearing in Britannia of Billingsgate (1933),[3] a musical based on the play of the same name by Christine Jope-Slade and Sewell Stokes, followed by Road House in 1934.[4]

Personal life

Violet Mary Joicey died in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1956. Her brother was Ernest Sefton, also an actor.[5]

Legacy

Research by the Kipling Society suggests that she was the thinly disguised music-hall singer upon whom Kipling modelled his character of "Vidal ("Dal") Benzaguen" in the humorous story "The Village That Voted The Earth Was Flat".[6]

Selected filmography

References
  1. W. A. Darlington, "Loraine, Violet (1886–1956)", rev. K. D. Reynolds, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 5 July 2006
  2. Wilson, Jason (6 November 2012). Soldiers of Song: The Dumbells and Other Canadian Concert Parties of the First World War. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. ISBN 9781554588831 – via Google Books.
  3. Britannia of Billingsgate, a comedy film in four acts, by Christine Jope-Slade and Sewell Stokes, Samuel French Ltd: London 1931.
  4. "Violet Loraine".
  5. McFarlane, Brian (16 May 2016). The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781526111968 – via Google Books.
  6. There is a public-domain postcard picture available at http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_villagevoted_notes.htm
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