The One and Only Phyllis Dixey

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In 1978 Thames Television produced a drama documentary on the life on Phyllis Dixey. The documentary was televised and had a memorable performance by Lesley Anne-Down in the role of an adult Phyllis Dixey.

In 1954 the last overseas tour was made to Norway, which was a complete failure. This ended with the theatre management not paying for the last week that Phyllis appeared at the Oslo theatre and a loan was made by the British Consul to get the theatre company home. 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. In 1990, Philip combined his love of British film with his interest in wartime thrillers in the novel Friedrich Harris: Shooting the Hero, a tongue-in-cheek fantasy to plant an Irish-German Nazi agent among the crew filming the battle of Agincourt (in Ireland) for Laurence Olivier’s film of Henry V in 1944. The agent, Harris, working for Joseph Goebbels, is tasked with either persuading Olivier to come over to the Germans to help fight Bolshevism, or, failing that, assassinating him. Needless to say, an ample supply of Guinness and the course of the war thwarted the plan. Hazel Ballan was so intrigued by the description of Phyllis in Maurice’s article above that she has used her extensive genealogical skills to uncover a few more items about the One and Only: Phyllis Selina Dixey (1914-1964).

Napoleon (2023)

Philip Purser worked as a freelance journalist, contributing columns to the Oldie and writing obituaries for the Guardian. Photograph: Martyn Goddard His first experience of television drama came when his second novel, a downbeat story of espionage and defectors, Four Days to the Fireworks, published in 1964, was adapted the following year in ITV’s Play of the Week series, with Denholm Elliott starring. Philip then adapted the story Calf Love for the BBC’s Wednesday Play slot (1966), and contributed an episode to ITV’s successful drama series A Family at War (1971). 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] His Bafta-nominated drama documentary The One and Only Phyllis Dixey (1978) for Thames TV celebrated the life of the woman once labelled “Britain’s queen of striptease”.

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. She then worked as a researcher with Rediffusion Television and its successor broadcaster, Thames TV. She mostly made children’s programmes, but in 1978 she was the associate producer on the film The One and Only Phyllis Dixey, about the famous fan dancer and entertainer; she also co-authored, with Philip Purser, a book based on the film. In search of more professional autonomy, she returned to college in 1977 to train as a film director at the National Film School. Phyllis and her brother were first educated at Fircroft Road Elementary School Tooting before the family moved to Surbiton Surrey.By 1947 the tastes of the London audience had changed, and Phyllis Dixey was forced to return to the provinces. She was not able to adapt to the direction that the public required; leaving the stage in the late 1950s, bankrupt. [4] In the early 1960s she worked as a cook at Loseley Park near Guildford. She died of cancer in 1964, aged 50, [4] in Epsom, Surrey. [5] Posthumous [ edit ] In 1959 Dixey and Tracy declared bankruptcy. She became a professional cook and Tracy became a milkman. In 1961 she discovered that she had breast cancer. It killed her in 1964.

NOTE: The opening title captions this as “Peek-A-Boo with Lesley-Anne-Down as The One and Only Phyllis Dixey” and indeed that is how it was billed in listing magazines and newspapers but it is the latter part that this production seems to be more commonly known as. 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:

Wish (2023)

During this time the well know photographer Roye produced a book of Phyllis Dixey figure studies. This was the “ Phyllis Dixey Album” and was followed shortly by another book, “ Phyllis in Censorland“. 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. Phyllis Dixey is not forgotten today, her legacy in revue theatre was glamour and style. A play on Phyllis Dixey called, “ Barely Phyllis” was produced in March, 2009 and staged at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield.