Betty Knox
Betty Knox (10 May 1906 – 25 January 1963) was an American dancer and journalist. Her early career was in American vaudeville and British variety as the original ‘Betty’ (1928–1941) of
Early life
Knox was born Alice Elizabeth Peden in Salina, Kansas, on 10 May 1906,[1] the daughter of Charley E. Peden and Elizabeth Jane (née Anderson). As a teenager, she ran away from home twice. Aged 16, she fled to Louisiana, fearing arrest after a joyriding incident with a borrowed car.[2] Less than a year later, she eloped with boyfriend Donald Knox to obtain a marriage licence in Omaha, Nebraska.[3] Their daughter Patsy was born in December 1923, though the marriage (if it ever happened) was short-lived.[4]
Dancing career
After several years working as a chorus girl in vaudeville, Knox met Liverpudlian Jack Wilson and Irishman Joe Keppel, a clog dancing double act. She joined the act in 1928 and the trio became known as Wilson, Keppel and Betty. Over the next couple of years they tried out various new routines, before coming up with the idea of wearing Egyptian costumes and performing eccentric dancing in a comic imitation of hieroglyphic wall paintings. This rapidly propelled them to the top of their profession and the trio moved to the UK in 1932, making their British début at the London Palladium.[2]
Knox left her daughter Patsy behind in America, finally bringing her to the UK in late 1937, in Knox's own words, 'so that she could see the war.'[5] In addition to helping to devise new routines for Wilson, Keppel and Betty, Knox also scripted sketches and lyrics for several other variety acts, particularly Tessie O'Shea, for whom she wrote one of her most successful wartime songs, International Rhythm.[6]
Journalism
In 1941, Knox retired from the act and became a journalist on the
In 1943,
Second World War and Nuremberg trials
In July 1944, Knox filed her first story from
After the war, Knox stayed in Germany reporting from the
Later years
By the early 1950s, Knox was running the Press Villa Club, an international press club in Bonn.[20] She later wrote articles for various Canadian newspapers.[21] In her final years, she lived in Düsseldorf[22] with her mother Lizzie and her daughter Patsy. She died in a hospital in Düsseldorf on 25 January 1963, aged 56, from emphysema, carcinoma and pulmonary trouble.[23]
References
- ^ Luke McKernan (2007). "The Wilson, Keppel and Betty Story" (PDF).
- ^ a b Alan Stafford, Wilson, Keppel and Betty: Too Naked for the Nazis – Fantom Publishing (2015) pp 22–27
- ^ Stafford, pp 27–29
- ^ Stafford, p 42
- ^ Stafford, pp 92–93
- ^ Stafford, pp 106–7
- ^ Stafford, pp 108–9
- ^ Ruth M. Pettis. "Mann, Erika (1905–1969)". An Encyclopedia of Gay, Tesbian, transgender, & Queer Culture. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
- ^ Freda Utley (1949). "The Nuremberg Judgments". The High Cost of Vengeance. Henry Regnery Company. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
- ^ Stafford, p 122
- ^ Stafford, p 123
- ^ Stafford, p 124
- ^ Stafford, pp 5–7
- ^ Lara Feigel, The Bitter Taste of Victory: Life, Love and Art in the Ruins of the Reich, Bloomsbury Publishing (2016) Google Books
- ^ a b Freda Utley, The High Cost of Vengeance Henry Regnery Company, Chicago (1948) Chapter 7, pp 188–189
- ^ 'Too Naked for the Nazis wins prize for oddest book title' – The Guardian 18 March 2016
- ^ Ronnie Bray (March 2007). "Herr Göbbels Flunks the Ballet Egyptien Test". Open Writing.
- ^ "The Press: Vigil in Nurnberg". Time. 28 October 1946. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.
- ^ Duncan Gardham, 'MI5's hunt for the 'peripatetic' Nazi Martin Bormann' – The Telegraph 1 September 2009
- ^ Stafford, pp 195–6
- ^ Stafford, p 199
- ^ "Wilson, Keppel and Betty — Curios". That's Entertainment.
- ^ Stafford, p 229