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BESSIE WEBB - HER STORY
CHAPTER TWO - SINGING FOR A LIVING
1) First steps
2) Concert parties
3) Working for Lyons
1) First steps
Aunt Bessie
began to teach me to play the piano and when I had left school she paid for me to go to a teacher. At Sunday School
each Christmas a concert was given and I was asked to sing a song. After the concert was over a lady came to me
and said I ought to have my 
voice trained.
I was now 16 years and was still working at home and not having a happy life. I was only given pocket money of
2 shilling and sixpence a week, today value of 12 1/2 pence.
I spoke to my piano teacher, Miss Clark, and she told me of a friend of hers, a Mr Fenn, who trained voices for
singing. After a few days I plucked up courage and went round to see Mr Fenn. I asked him if he would train my
voice, so he told me to sing some scales and after a while he said yes, he would. I had to give up my piano lessons
as I had no money, only what I earned at my mothers laundry and so I told him that I would like to go to him. So
I went and I think I stayed with him 18 months while he trained my voice.
(In March 1920, her singing teacher, Mr Fenn, entered her
for the Trinity College of Music solo singing examination, which she passed.)
After two years he got me an engagement to sing at a concert at Steinway Hall, London. I was received very well
and I decided I wanted to be a professional singer. I discussed it with Mr Fenn and he said the best thing to do
was to try and get into a Concert party and the best way to do that was to buy a paper called 'The Stage' in which
people advertised for artists. 
I looked through the paper and found there were advertisements
for singers in a concert party but you had to attend an audition which was in London in Oxford Street, or a turning
off Oxford Street. I didn't know where it was but I eventually found my way there and went in and there was a gentleman
sitting there and he asked what I wanted and I told him and he said well they're rehearsing now in New Oxford Street
so if you find your way there you can see a Mr Wright. So off I went again and found New Oxford Street and eventually
I saw Mr Wright and he said, 'well what can you do?', and I said 'well I can sing' and he said 'can you dance?'
and I said, 'well, not really but I can do ballroom dancing'. He said, 'well, let me hear your voice'. So I sang
a song that I had taken with me and he said 'well all right we'll give you a try'. And so I stayed there that day
rehearsing with them. I had to learn a few steps of dancing and to work in sketches. I was quite pleased with myself
at the end of the day and he said 'you'll have to come tomorrow and for a fortnight and rehearse with the show'.
I shall never forget that first day, to find myself with professional people and that I was going to be one of
them really thrilled me.
I went home with a contract in my bag to face my parents and found my mother waiting for me. She said, 'where have
you been? I've been very worried.' I said 'oh I've been rehearsing for a concert party and I'm going to Ilfracombe'.
I didn't know where Ilfracombe was. My father came and he said 'you can't go anywhere you're staying here with
your mother'. I said 'but I am, I've signed a contract' and he said 'you can't sign anything'. My mother was very
pleased for my but my father said I could not go and I had to put up with a lot of abuse from him; I had terrible
rows with him, nevertheless I continued to go to rehearsals and came the day when we went to Ilfracombe.
2) Concert parties
and pantomimes
I had a wonderful time there, we stayed for over three months
and I liked it very very much. It was a wonderful experience and I found myself dancing and acting besides singing,
giving me a good training for the future. Mr Wright said he was very pleased with me and if I wanted to get more
experience to try to get in the chorus of a Pantomime. Eventually, of course, I had to go home. But I wasn't satisfied
so I took the paper again, The Stage, and I found another concert party called the Tweenies and I went to the audition.
While I was there and I'd sung my song they said they would let me know. A gentleman came out and asked me to go
into a room where there was another lady and gentleman, and they said 'would you like to go to the channel islands
Jersey and Guernsey? We'd like to take you as a guest artist, we cannot engage you for the whole of the tour for
the show because we're fully booked'. I said yes I would and so the following week I was engaged to go with them
to Jersey and that was another very nice experience and I might mention that in the show there was a gentleman
who played the violin and his name was Naunton Wayne. His wife was a violinist and she was in the show too. I had a very enjoyable
fortnight with them and they said any time they could fix me up they would do so.
At the end of the summer season, when the concert parties were
packing up, I took the paper again and while I was in a concert party I met...I got very friendly with a girl who
was a pianist and she said she was going into pantomime and why didn't I try which I did and I got into the show
as a... the pantomime was called Sinbad the Sailor and I played second girl in it. We had a very enjoyable time
and I enjoyed that very much.
After that had finished I found another job in a show called Smiling
Through. that didn't run for very long, it wasn't very good but I enjoyed it ver
y much.
During the next three or 4 years I joined concert parties and pantomime touring from one place to another, it was
very enjoyable but very tiring. You were never in one place for very long unless you were in a resident show. One
pantomime I was in was run by the Hanaway Brothers and in that show I played Principal Girl. We had a very good
tour and I thoroughly enjoyed that very, very much.
More on the concert parties plus
reviews of Bessie's work
3) Working for Lyons
When that finished I went back home. I had managed to save a little
money but not very much, it wouldn't last very long, so I thought I had better find something else to do. My father
said he wasn't going to keep me lazing about there and I didn't want to do anything in the laundry which had gone
right down, deteriorated very very badly, with hardly any work. So I was looking 
through the papers and I saw an advert for a soda fountain dispenser for Joe
Lyons. I applied for it and they said I would have to go to school to learn the different ingredients so I took
that on. I went to school and learnt, it was very, very interesting and when the time was up they sent me to a
shop at Clapham, one of their smaller shops and while I was there I had to do the soda fountain and rearrange all
the different coloured glasses on the display counter. I got on with that very well and thoroughly enjoyed it,
I met people and spoke to people. One day the manageress came to me, I had been there about 4 months, she came
to me and she said 'you're getting a promotion, they're wanting you up at the Lyons Corner House'. I thought, 'well
that's fine'. Next morning I we
nt up to
the Lyons Corner House and was interviewed and was put on the second floor of the shop. It was a very big place
and there were 2 soda fountain bars on that floor. I was on one, and someone else was on the other and we were
kept very, very busy. The floor manager got very friendly and he used to come and sit in front of my soda fountain
bar and we got on speaking terms and he was very nice. Anyhow, it came one day that the other young lady on the
other bar was taken ill and I had to do the whole floor by myself. Well, I got on as best I could, and coped, and
he came up and congratulated me and I thanked him very much and we went on like that for a long time. I stayed
there I think about a year until I got fed up with that.
To chapter 3
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