![]() The following year she was the first woman to perform on British television, singing a specially-commissioned song "Television" (or "Bringing Television to You") at the official launch of BBC television from Alexandra Palace on 2 November 1936. In 1935, Dixon starred as Hope Harcourt in the London production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. In the last, the weak score and lyrics fatally damaged the show, despite the efforts of Stanley Holloway and other cast members The Times observed, "Miss Adele Dixon unfailingly provides what the play chiefly lacks – swiftness, economy and glamour. More characteristic were her singing roles in musical shows such as Wild Violets (1933), Give me a Ring by Guy Bolton and others (1933) and Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Three Sisters (1934). For the most part she played in musicals, but an exception was Ian Hay's farce Orders is Orders in 1932. 1930s – West End and Broadway ĭuring the rest of the 1930s Dixon starred in the West End, and occasionally on tour, in a wide range of roles. ![]() It was one of only two films she made in the 1930s, the other being Calling the Tune (1936), in which she played Julia Harbord. In 1931, Dixon made her first film, in the role of Consuelo Pratt in Uneasy Virtue. Dixon was given the starring female role, Susie, opposite Gielgud as Inigo. The piece was not especially well received, but the composer was impressed.Īfter leaving the Old Vic Company in 1930, Dixon was cast at Addinsell's instigation in a West End musical role, J B Priestley's The Good Companions, adapted for the stage by the author and Edward Knoblock, with music by Addinsell. She also played in works by Sheridan, Molière and Shaw, but the role that shaped the course of her later career was her first singing part, the Sleeping Beauty, in Adam's Opera by Clemence Dane with music by Richard Addinsell. Her roles were mainly Shakespearean – thirteen such, including Hecate in Macbeth (with John Laurie in the title role) in the first season, and Olivia to the Hamlet of the rising star John Gielgud in the second. The month after her wedding, Dixon joined the Old Vic company for two seasons. In August 1928, Dixon married Ernest Schwaiger, a leading jeweller, their marriage lasting until his death in 1976. In her late teens, she was already playing leading adult parts, and, in 1927, she went on a tour to Egypt with Robert Atkins's company, playing Olivia in Twelfth Night, Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, Mariana in Measure for Measure and Bianca in Othello. After further roles as a child actress, she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she studied for two years under the direction of Kenneth Barnes. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child, and was cast in her first professional part as the First Elf in Where the Rainbow Ends in December 1921. ( February 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭixon was born in London, a Cockney, the daughter of a coach maker, Frederick Dixon, and his wife Elizabeth (née Barrett) Dixon. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification. ![]() Her last appearance, before she retired, was in the West End musical Belinda Fair in 1949. Later, she became well known for her appearances in pantomime. Her performance in her first singing role so impressed the composer Richard Addinsell, that he secured her the leading role in the West End adaptation of Priestley's The Good Companions in 1931.Īfter she left the Old Vic in 1930, Dixon played occasionally in non-musical plays, but, in general, her career was on the musical stage, starring in shows by Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Vivian Ellis and others. ![]() ![]() She sang at the start of regular broadcasts of the BBC Television Service on 2 November 1936.Īfter an early start as a child actress, and training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she became a member of the Old Vic, from 1928 to 1930, appearing in a wide range of roles, predominantly in Shakespeare's plays, but also those of Sheridan, Molière and Shaw. Adele Dixon opening the BBC Television Service, 2 November 1936Īdele Dixon (born Adela Helena Dixon 3 June 1908 – 11 April 1992) was an English actress and singer. ![]()
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