Good news from London - at all of 92, Dame Vera Lynn - "the Forces Sweetheart" of World War II - has become the oldest living person ever to have a top-20 album in the UK, displacing entries by the likes of U2 and Eminem.
Like many stars who first made it in radio (her coeval thrushes stateside, Kate Smith and the Andrews Sisters, come to mind), Vera had a limited run in films. Engaging if only moderately photogenic, she still comes off rather well, as in this clip from 1943's Rhythm Serenade, in which she smoothly handles the film's Obligatory Getting Dressed scene while singing a fairly routine uptempo number, "It Doesn't Cost a Dime."
She's best known, of course, for her wartime morale-boosters, songs like "We'll Meet Again," "White Cliffs of Dover," and "When the Lights Come on Again," all of which have been known at one time or another to leave me completely undone. This is certainly a lighter moment, but not at all without a dose of charm very much of its time and place. Which isn't something you can say for most work by, say, Eminem...
"Tell me waht's the matter?"
ReplyDelete"I have teeth like Chip n' Dale's spinster sister."