The teachers were shocked that one of their girls was singing a song that had such ‘suggestive’ words! We just thought it was a great song.
This is a photo of
Central Girls School Choir, which I was part of in the early 1930s. We sang in competitions with other schools and in either 1931 or 1932, the choir won a big competition at the City Hall in Newcastle. However, I didn’t sing in that one because I was ill.
The next year I was there, as we defended our cup. Our teacher gave us instructions about which song to sing on the day. If it was raining we would sing one song, if it was fair we’d sing a different one. As we travelled on the bus to Newcastle it was raining, but when we got to the City Hall it had faired up.
Well, you can imagine what happened on stage. The pianist started to play the ‘fair-weather’ song while we, as the choir, sang the ‘rain’ song. We realised what had happened but the pianist just had to try and keep up with us. Enough to say that we lost the cup. My friends said it was because I was singing that year, while I’d missed the year before. I never lived it down. I didn’t sing with the choir after that – I acted in the school plays instead!
Just thinking back about it, I was in all the school plays. I loved the comedies, I think it fitted my nature, being the girl who was always in trouble or up for a lark. ‘Game for a Laugh’ – that was me. I can remember going on school camp, where we made our own entertainment and did turns. One year my friends asked me to sing a very modern song called ‘Goodnight my Love’. Alice Faye sang it and I remember one verse went:
Goodnight, my love, the tired old moon is descending
Goodnight, my love, my moment with you now is ending
It was so heavenly, holding you close to me, it will be heavenly to hold you again in a dream
The teachers were shocked that one of their girls was singing a song that had such ‘suggestive’ words! We just thought it was a great song.