Phyllis Dixey
Phyllis Dixey (10 February 1914 – 2 June 1964) was an English singer, actress, dancer and
Early life and career
Phyllis Selina Dixey was born in Merton, Surrey to Ernest Dixey and Phyllis Selina Haycroft. She had one elder brother, Ernest Dixey (b. 1912).[1] In 1938, she married Jack Tracey.[2]
In 1942, she formed her own company of girls and rented the
Last years
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
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]
In 2011, English Heritage made plans to erect a blue plaque at Dixey's former home at Wentworth Court in Surbiton; however, the installation of the plaque was turned down by the residents' association of the building due to the proposed title 'Striptease Artiste' being used on the plaque.[4]
Filmography
- Love Up the Pole (1936)
- Dual Alibi (1947)
References
- ^ "Ancestry". www.ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916-2005 for Phyllis S Dixey. Ancestry.com (subscription required)
- ISBN 9780955339820.
- ^ a b c Jasper Copping "English Heritage plans a really 'blue' plaque for stripper", Sunday Telegraph, 13 November 2011
- ^ Cemetery Residents, EpsomandEwellHistoryExplorer.org.uk. Accessed 20 November 2022.
- ^ Jerry Roberts Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors, Lanham Maryland & Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press, 2009, p.600
- Roger Wilmut Kindly Leave the Stage: Story of Variety, 1919-60, 1985, Methuen, ISBN 0-413-59290-1
- Philip Purser and Jenny Wilkes: "The One And Only Phyllis Dixey", 1978, Futura Publications, London; ISBN 0-7088-1436-0
- "Phyllis Dixey Her Show-Her Home", 29 January 1944. Illustrated Magazine.
- Roye: "Phyllis Dixey Album The Spotlight on Beauty Series No.3". The Camera Studies Club, Elstree.
- Roye: "Phyllis in Censorland", 1942, Elstree Publications Ltd. and The Camera Studies Club, a larger edition 1950s.
- British Pathe film. Meet Phyllis Dixey; released 30-10-1944