Elsie & Doris Waters' Page
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"Aren't we all?"
1 - Mrs. Stanley Holloway
2 - Aren't we all
3 - High society
4 - Bert's darts club dinner
5 - Gert and Daisy and the knot-hole
6 - Gert and Daisy write a letter
7 - Hiccups
8 - I only met her on Sunday
9 - In the parlour when the company's gone
10 - London Pride - Part 1 - Cockneys at heart
11 - London Pride - Part 2 - and proud of it too
12 - Pals
13 - Park yourself close to me
14 - The coronation girls
15 - The tale of a hat
16 - Huntin'
17 - Wedding bells
18 - Gert and Daisy and the tandem
Total runing time 61 minutes 31 seconds
These tracks are taken direct from 78 rpm records and in order to maintain the authentic sound,
have not been engineered in any way.
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Not available
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Please send your cheque or postal order to:
Chris Gavin, PO Box 368, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire AB34 5LZ |
An additional charge may be required to send overseas, please email Chris
Gavin for information. |
Elsie Waters (1895-1990) and Doris
Waters (1904-1978) were an English radio and stage variety double-act, best known for
their brilliant comic songs and sketches and for their Cockney characters Gert and Daisy. They were popular mainly
in the 1930s and 1940s, and they wrote all their own material. An oddity on the comedy scene in those days, they
were actually women dressed as women. As Gert and Daisy they carried on a quick fire conversation of one liners.
While they were bemoaning such things as rationing their brother Jack Warner was keeping the streets of Dock Green
safe, "Evening All".
Among their best compositions are two comic songs about Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), which survive on 78 rpm
recordings: Parlophone R 1008, which comprises the songs Good Queen Bess and Barriers in Walworth Road, and dates
from 1930, and Columbia FB 1827, which comprises At the Court of Good Queen Bess and Darts with Gert and Daisy,
and dates from 1937.
Good Queen Bess features the catchy lines "Why did they call her `Good Queen Bess'? / Good? Yes ... more or
less" and "Her father, dear old Henry, / On divorce was rather lax. / He had his little wives all bobbed
and shingled- / With an axe!"
Whereas in Good Queen Bess, Elsie and Doris Waters are Elizabeth's commentators, in At the Court of Good Queen
Bess they are her courtiers. They sing, "We're a couple of bits of crackling / From the court of Good Queen
Bess" and "Lizzie was a spinster, / And she looked it more or less. / When Raleigh she refused to wed,
/ He taught her how to smoke instead." In both songs, the satire is gentle and genial.
Stephen Dixon writes:
When I knew them in the 1970s, the sisters lived in a large bungalow near Steyning in Sussex. There was a huge
picture window in the living-room, looking out onto gorgeous countryside. They called the view their Constable
painting. The first time we met I had been sent by The Guardian to interview them and when I arrived after a long
journey - I lived near Manchester - Elsie and Doris refused to do the interview until they had cooked me a meal
of smoked haddock. "You look very peaky," said Elsie. "We can't talk until you have a proper meal
inside you."
As that story shows, they were the loveliest women: charming, humorous, gracious, considerate. We kept in touch
over the years after that first meeting, and they always seemed to be flatteringly interested in my comparatively
mundane life, rather like two kindly distant aunties. They sent little gifts when my children were born, and wrote
that they would bring them luck.
Elsie and Doris lived in semi-retirement, and seemed to be quite well-off. They would do the occasional nostalgia
show, but weren't pushed unless they felt a project was right for them. They had an odd attitude to their brother,
the actor Jack Warner, and didn't like to talk about him. I mentioned that he was doing his one-man show, in which
he told stories and impersonated Maurice Chevalier, near where I lived. "Silly old fool," they said.
"At his age!"
On another occasion, I went to Steyning with a photographer, and had the wonderful experience of watching Elsie
and Doris transform themselves into Gert and Daisy for the pictures, sorting out their old hats and other props
and getting into character at the kitchen table. I still have copies of those pictures: Daisy reading the tea-leaves
while Gert stares into the cup with amazement. I saw their famous Cockney gossips come to life in front of my eyes
in that kitchen, and I felt privileged.
The last time I met them was a few years later, and the occasion was sadder. Elsie was as bright and bubbly as
ever, but Doris was subdued and said very little. I realised she had suffered a stroke or some other debilitating
illness, and Elsie was 'covering' and filling-in for her - finishing sentences Doris found hard to articulate and
trying to make it seem natural. They obviously wanted to give the impression that everything was normal, so of
course I respected that and said nothing. They were proud women with great natural dignity.
Shortly afterwards Doris died. I wrote to Elsie expressing my sorrow. I wrote that Doris would always be remembered
with laughter, and that was a fine epitaph. I asked Elsie not to reply at all if she didn't feel up to it but in
fact she did - three hand-written pages saying how much Doris had meant to her as a sister and partner.
Now my comment about being remembered with laughter applies to them both - and thank goodness we can still experience
their insightful, quirky, unpatronising humour through the handful of movies they made in the 1940s, and the many
fine recordings of their songs and routines.