Joyce Grenfell
(1910 - 1979)
Looking back on the days when I trod the boards of community theatre,
those occasions where I got the part or at the very least got a
callback where the times when I used one of Joyce Grenfell's monologues
as an audition piece. Shaky though my accent gene may be or however
much I may have lacked in the area of finesse, it was the solid material
that impressed artistic staff. In the case of open auditions, other
actresses would chase me down asking excitedly where I found that
wonderful piece. Joyce combined her observant nature, understanding and talent for mimicry to create real characters that came to life. She used delicate brush strokes and pinpoint precision to skewer pretensions and elevate the mundane, finding humour in all. The effect is rather like singing a Cole Porter song, immediately you
are one hundred percent smarter and more witty than in reality.
Joyce
Grenfell would have been the dream guest on one of those popular
programs that probe a celebrity's family tree. Her family included
British peers and eccentric, wealthy Americans with ties to
well-remembered names of the 19th and 20th century. Her mother was Nora
Langhorne, whose father made a fortune in the railway business and
whose sister Nancy became the first female British Member of Parliament,
Lady Nancy Astor. Their sister Irene married the artist Charles Dana
Gibson and the elegant sisters were the inspiration for his famous
Gibson Girls. If the name Langhorne sounds familiar, it is because the
family was related to Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
Born in
London on February 10, 1910, Joyce grew up an observant and thoughtful
youngster with a sense of humour, nurtured and shaped by her
intermittently devoted mother and dependable, stolid father. Not an
overly committed student, Joyce could be called the class clown who
delighted in spot-on impersonations of staff and creating games with her
lifelong friend Virginia Graham. Joyce loved the idea of being on
stage and took the idea as far as completing one term at the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts. There, she balked at the training, but made
another lifelong friend in Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter, The Holly and
the Ivy). At 20, Joyce married Reggie Grenfell and the union would
last 50 years until her passing. The couple were not blessed with children, but with deep affection and support for each other.
The young married lady
was drawn into the political activism of her aunt Lady Nancy Astor, as
well as caring for her own husband and home, and cultivating her
friendships. The creative longing was deeply seeded. Her younger
brother Tommy would eventually become a writer in Hollywood contributing
to screenplays such as A Yank at Eton and several television dramas.
Joyce's first forays into publication were light verses for Punch.
Eventually, this led to radio criticism for The Observer and she is
credited with helping to form that branch of professional journalism.
Joyce unsuccessfully auditioned as a singer and actress for the BBC
Radio. Through her radio and journalistic contacts, Joyce's amusing
take-offs on different character types began to garner notice and she
was asked to write for Herbert Farjeon's popular Light and Shade revue. Joyce was only
too happy to do so, but demurred when first asked to appear on stage.
The producer felt that no one could do justice to Joyce's work like the
author herself. The professional cast of the revue rebelled at the
thought of an untried amateur in the ranks. The lure of the spotlight and the application of a strong work ethic marked Joyce's stage debut. The 1939 opening night
reviews were glowing in their praise of Joyce Grenfell. One remarked
"These monlogues are the best thing of their kind since Miss Ruth
Draper, the difference being that Miss Draper's are too long and Miss
Grenfell's are too short." The revered American monologist Ruth Draper
was a cousin by marriage to Joyce's Reggie. The mind boggles at these
coincidences.
During the turbulent years of WW2 Joyce
Grenfell toured the Middle East, India and North Africa entertaining
troops. This also was in her family blood. As a youngster during WW1 she
had witnessed first-hand the medical care, and the entertainment
provided for troops at the Astor's estate which had been turned into a
convalescent home. Joyce's popularity as a stage performer and as a
radio personality convinced movie producers that there might be
something there for them and in the 40s Joyce made the first of her 25
motion picture appearances, with bits leading to progressively larger
roles. Let's look at a few of them.
A Run for Your Money (1949)
This
gentle Ealing comedy is a particular favourite of mine. Donald Houston
and Meredith Edwards play Welsh brothers who have won a prize trip to
London. Alec Guinness is the newspaper reporter detailed to chaperone
the two fish out of water who have a myriad of adventures in the big
town. Joyce is a very posh boutique manager anxious to make a sale.
Stage Fright (1950)
In
Alfred Hitchcock's backstage murder mystery, Joyce is a volunteer
carnival barker at a fund raiser who exhorts one and all to "Come and
shoot the lovely ducks". She is ever so sincere and ever so helpful,
and ever so detrimental to Alastair Sim's obvious haste.
Another
great favourite. Joyce is gawky games mistress Miss Gossage, employed
by a girl's school that is forced to reside with a boy's school due to
bureaucratic ineptitude. Margaret Rutherford and Alastair Sim as the
respective school heads have too much to deal with, including poor,
over-worked, never-does-anything-right Miss Gossage.
The Pickwick Papers (1952)
In
this perfectly cast adaption of Dickens classic comedy, Joyce is Mrs.
Leo Hunter, the pretentious hostess and authoress of Ode to an Expiring
Frog. Surely Joyce was just as author Dickens and illustrator "Phiz" envisioned.
Joyce's hotel proprietress
is nothing if not the perfect embodiment of "the customer is always
right".
She tried to explain the deficits of the only room for let to
the couple with the poorest showing in the vintage car rally. Is it her
fault they didn't listen?
The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954)
In
the first of five films based on cartoonist Ronald Searle's fevered
imagination Joyce is Sgt. Ruby Gates. Sgt. Ruby Gates is placed
undercover as a teacher to investigate the possibly illegal activities
at St. Trinian's girl's school. The headmistress' (Alastair Sim)
brother (also Alastair Sim) is a sharp bookie who has found more than
willing accomplices in the wild students of St. Trinian's. They are the
original "girls gone wild". Imhotep (1932s
The Mummy) thinks he suffered for
Ankh-es-en-amon! No one ever suffered for love like
Ruby Gates, trying
to bust this case for her beloved Supt. Bird, who is seemingly oblivious
to her torment. Joyce played Sgt. Gates again in
Blue Murder at St.
Trinian's (1957) and
The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's (1960).
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
The
classic, biting, thoughtful screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky provides many
opportunities for the cast to shine, especially Joyce Grenfell as
Emily's (Julie Andrews) mother, Mrs. Barham. Joyce's touching
performance of a not-so-dotty woman coping with life and death is one
for the ages. Surely it was worthy of an Academy Award nomination and,
just as surely, the Academy missed the boat. Pictured above with James Garner.
In 1955
and 1958 Joyce appeared on Broadway in presentations of her One Woman
Show. During those times she appeared eight times on The Ed Sullivan
Show. She continued with stage programs, including two successful tours in Australia throughout the 60s. Joyce also continued to be a popular radio and television guest and panelist. Surrounded by family and friends, Joyce Grenfell, a staunch Christian Scientist, passed from cancer in November of 1979.
First Flight is
one of Joyce's excellent character studies, full of life, humour and understanding.
Joyce
Grenfell's monologues, poems and songs have been collected in several
volumes including Stately as a Galleon, George Don't Do That and Hats
Off. Recordings of her delightful songs, written in collaboration with the celebrated Richard Addinsell, are still available for our enjoyment.
A candid and enthusiastic letter writer, you can learn about Joyce
through her own words in the collections Darling Ma (Letters to Her
Mother 1932-1944) and Joyce and Ginnie (The Letters of Joyce Grenfell
and Virginia Graham), edited by Janie Hampton, family friend and author
of the biography Joyce Grenfell.
Joyce wrote two volumes of
autobiography Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure and In Pleasant
Places. Also of interest is The Time of My Life: Entertaining the
Troops - Her Wartime Journal. In the 1990s actress/comedienne Maureen Lipman performed Joyce's monologues in Re-Joyce! A Celebration Of the Work Of Joyce Grenfell. Her deft impersonation can also be found on YouTube. The world cannot have enough Joyce Grenfell.
