Jenny Howard (the Poor Man's Gracie Fields) - Six songs (1932-1936)

The British-born performer, Jenny Howard was born in 1902 and initially made her name in her native England as ‘the poor man’s Gracie Fields’ - recording covers of Fields’s songs for a cut-price label and impersonating the star onstage. She came to Australia with her husband, actor and producer Percy King, in 1929 and performed together on the Tivoli circuit before returning to England where she made the film "Dodging the Dole" (1936). In 1940 they returned to Australia, entertaining soldiers and doing the Tivoli rounds again where Jenny Howard was billed as ‘the famous English comedy star’. During World War II she raised an enormous amount of money for Britain, and performed in concert party tours to Papua New Guinea. In the last years of the war she was engaged as a comedienne at the Cremorne Theatre, Brisbane. In later life, she specialised in pantomime ‘principal boys’ and entertained Allied troops in Korea in the 1950s. Back in Australia, she toured in The "Jenny Howard Show" for the Sorlie Revue company. She died in Tweed Heads aged ninety-four.

She is heard here in six commercial recordings dating from 1932 to 1936.

1. There's Another Trumpet Playing In The Sky
2. Daddy Don't Love Mummy Any More
3. He's Dead But He Won't Lie Down
4. Our Up-to-date Cookery School
5. My Young Man Is Ever So Nice
6. Let's Have A Tiddley At The Milk Bar