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| Phyllis Dare |
Phyllis was born Phyllis Haddie Dones on August 15th, 1890, the second daughter of Arthur Dones, a clerk in the divorce court. Phyllis was three and a half years younger than her sister Zena, but they first appeared together under the stage name Dare in a pantomime in 1899 ('The Babes in the Wood' - Phyllis played the girl babe, Zena was understudy to the boy babe), after which their next professional association would not be until 1940 when they undertook a brief tour with Novello's Full House.
Seymour Hicks engaged Phyllis for a child's role in his 'Bluebell in Fairyland' (featuring Hicks himself as Dicky and his actress wife Ellaline Terris as Bluebell) at the Vaudeville Theatre when she was only eleven years old. She was only fifteen when he entrusted her in 1905 with the heroine's role of Angela in 'The Catch of the Season' succeeding Ellaline Terris in a role which had first been played by her sister Zena.
Phyllis then returned to her schooling in the Belgian Ardennes but was soon back on the stage. Still short of her sixteenth birthday she was called upon to succeed Edna May in Leslie Stuart's 'The Belle of Mayfair' at the Vaudeville in 1906 after the American star had flounced out of the production. Producer Stephano Gatti called for Phyllis to take over the large part written for Edna and the young star confirmed herself as one of London's favourites. Soon afterwards she had her first experience of singing a number by Paul A Rubens, a prolific composer for whom she was to work in three more of his musical plays.
Then, in 1907, she played in Peggy in 'The Dairymaids'. Two years later she had her first long run in 'The Arcadians' in her role as Eileen Cavanagh. Her next pieces, Gonda van der Loo in 'The Girl in the Train' (Vaudeville - 1910), Peggy in 'Peggy' (Gaiety - 1910), Prudence in 'The Quaker Girl' (Chatelet Theatre, Paris - 1911 - her first overseas engagement), and Delia Dale in Rubens' The Sunshine Girl (Gaiety - 1912), were all staged by George Edwardes, the father of musical comedy.
After the outbreak of war in 1914 she starred as Sally Hook in a revival of Rubens's Miss Hook of Holland. Phyllis had become engaged to Rubens, but his health deteriorated and in November 1916 the engagement was broken off by mutual consent. Rubens, who had a history of ill-health, was suffering from consumption and felt it would be wrong to marry Phyllis until he was sure of a reasonable chance of being cured.
Rubens died some months later at the age of 40, and Phyllis's stage appearances were few and undistinguinshed, apart from a brief appearance in revue, until the summer of 1919 at the opening of the Winter Gardens when she played Lucienne in 'Kissing Time'. According to the critics her acting and dancing had improved to the point where they were now equal to her singing.
She brought all three aspects of her talent into play as Marianna in Frederick Lonsdale's The 'Lady of the Rose' (1922) and, in effectively her own production of 'The Street Singer' (1924) as Yvette.
She was less well served in the musical plays that followed such as 'Lido Lady' and 'The Yellow Mask'. It became obvious by the end of the 1920s that, at nearly 40, if she was to remain at the top of her profession she must look to the straight stage for her main opportunities.
The wife's role in the first London revival of Lonsdale's straight play 'Aren't We All?' seemed to promise a good fresh start for Phyllis. However, authors and managers had difficulty in seeing her in comedy roles. She hadn't the gaiety, the quietly mocking spirit of her sister Zena.
Phyllis spent much time on tour in the years preceding the Second World War. In 1940 she starred with her sister in a revival of Novello's 'Full House'.
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| Phyllis circa. 1950 |
1949 brought the two sisters together in a musical. In 'King's Rhapsody' Phyllis was the faithful mistress of a Ruritanian prince played by Novello himself. Macqueen-Pope wrote, "Phyllis could have taken as many encores as she liked".
Nearly eighteen months later Novello died while the play was still running, and at the end of seven more months, in October 1951, it closed. Thereafter Zena Dare continued her career, but Phyllis Dare did not.
She spent the years of her retirement mostly in Brighton. She remained unmarried and died in Brighton on 27 April 1975,
c. Alan Courtney - 7 Dec 2003 - Additional comments by Ed. in italics.
Many thanks to Alan for submitting this biography - Ed.