Gracie Fields Publishes Her Autobiography GRACIE FIELDS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 2

Gracie Fields Publishes Her Autobiography

GRACIE FIELDS

To Britain—and much of the English-speaking world as well—she was “Our Gracie.” And many people over the age of, say, 30 still think of Gracie Fields as just that. Now, at 62, after years of semi-retirement, Gracie is back in the news again with the publication of her autobiography, "Sing As We Go,”

says a London correspondent. Gracie was bom in a room above a fish and chip shop in Rochdale, Lancashire.. At 12, she was working in a mill. But she was ambitious. And so was her mother. Through their combined efforts, Gracie got a

£5-a-week job in a touring revue run by a comedian, Archie Pitt. For nine years she worked with him. Then they were married. Pitt got them a booking in London’s West End. Overnight, Gracie was a star. Within a short time, she was earning £2OO a week at the music hall, £lOO in a straight play, £3OO at the Cafe Royal. And she made gramophone records during the day. They moved into a 20-room

house in Hampstead with a gilded lift, and a marble bathroom for every bedroom, a mauve and gold ■ballroom, chauffeur-driven cars and tiwo cooks. Gracie hated it. She loved the simple life and at length Archie and Gracie parted. Soon after the war began, Gracie was married again—to Monty Banks, an Italian by birth. Italy was about to enter the war. Monty would have been interned in England. So they went to the United States. She was soon back in England singing for the troops—and went around the battlefields of the world, still singing, still cheered.

The war over, Gracie rested. Her husband died and she lived on alone in her house in Capri. Finally she was married again—this time to Boris Alperovici whom Gracie first noticed when he came to mend her gramophone. She still lives in Capri. But she said the other day: “If they brought the sea to Rochdale—and a bit more sun —I’d soon be back.’ ’