Obituary78 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Economist</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>19</strong>th <strong>2014</strong>disgrace. But she was proud that her talentshad let her escape it. Her best memory ofthe show came from the first-night party,when she overheard a grandee saying“That girl’s absolutely perfect for the part—you can always tell class when you see it.”Eleanor DrewEleanorDrew (née Nellie Darlison), starof“Salad Days”, died on March 31st, aged 91VIVACITY and mischief were in short was a dull job, and the young Nellie keptsupply in post-war Britain. In a world her spirits up by singing along to the radiomarked by austerity and the survival of show “Music While You Work”.fussiness and pomposity, “Salad Days”, a A supervisor was perhaps her first realseemingly nonsensical love story, struck a fan. “You’re wasted here,” he told her.chord. Its five-year run in the West End was When she brushed his compliments aside,rivalled only by “My Fair Lady”, the musicalversion of George Bernard Shaw’s singing lessons and pestered her to give it ahe found a newspaper advertisement for“Pygmalion”.try. But the lessons were halfa crown each:But the enchanted world of parks and 12.5p in decimal money, or 21 cents, far tooOxford quads in which “Salad Days” was much for a factory worker. She turned toset was as foreign to its star, Eleanor Drew, go, but once the teacher heard her sing, heas London high society was to Eliza Doolittle.Though few knew it, London’s most ten lessons. And when he’d taught her, heoffered a big discount: 15 shillings (75p) forpopular musical actress had been born helped her get a job: only in the chorus ofNellie Darlison, within earshot of Bow “<strong>The</strong> Quaker Girl” to start with, but still aBells. Her formal education ended not foothold in a new world. Nellie Darlisonwith a summer ball or finishing school, but became Eleanor Drew: auburn hair shining,eyes flashing, and with a cut-glasswhen she left school at16. As a toddler, sheentertained neighboursand guestsbysingingcomicsongs:a favourite was“Felixkept to be deployed when needed.posh accent, acquired in elocution lessons,on Walking”, about the misadventures of It all helped to make her a perfect Jane.the cartoon character Felix the Cat. As the <strong>The</strong> main role in “Salad Days” is the poshestof daughters, harum-scarum and un-tips mounted up, her mother tookher fromtheir two-room tenement to tea-houses punctual, revelling in summer, sunshineand cafés in the gritty, greasy East End, and falling in love with her new boyfriend:where the little girl would stand on a table “as young and as green as the leaves on theand sing for her fatherless family’s supper. tree, for these are our salad days”. MissA scholarship to a grammar school, and Drew did not conceal her background—the civil service exam, took her out of that how could she, when her hit song ranlife—but not far enough. She ended up as a “Sometimes we may pretend to forget, butquality controller in a munitions factory. It of course we never will”. Her past was no<strong>The</strong> queen’s favourite song<strong>The</strong> musical—jotted down in three weeksby Julian Slade for a short end-of-seasonrun at the Bristol Old Vic—was an accidentalsuccess. Miss Drew and the rest of thecast came to London expecting a short run.Within months she and they were stars.No thanks to the critics. <strong>The</strong>y praisedher poise and voice (the show makes demandson its female lead which today’sprofessionals, reared on simpler songs,find challenging). But by the grittier standardsoflater years, the feathery music andundergraduate banter seemed ridiculous.In <strong>19</strong>59 Jerome Robbins, then the toast ofAmerica, visited Britain to try out his sizzlingnew production and get a feel for thecompetition. Told of the plot and lyrics ofLondon’s longest-running musical, his responsewas, “You’re kidding.” As a barbedentry in the “Cambridge Companion tothe Musical” notes: “How could you explainto one ofthe creators ofsuch a sociallyaware show as “West Side Story” that itsmain rival, seen by some five million people,concerned a magic piano?”Such snooty incomprehension missedthe edge and depth behind “Salad Days”,with its digs about censorship, secrecy,class divisions, and most of all the stiflingpressures of conformity and parental control.“We said we wouldn’t look back”, apoignant reflection on memory, nostalgiaand the passing of years, is said to be thequeen’s favourite song; Miss Drew sang itto her at the Royal Variety Performance in<strong>19</strong>55, and bands have played it at royalevents ever since.But the show’s record-breaking successwasthe end ofhercareer. <strong>The</strong> producers refusedto release her from her contract for arole she yearned for in a new musical,which had been specially written for her.Her next show turned out to be designedfor failure, for mysterious tax reasons.<strong>The</strong>n came one with an all-star cast whichproved fatally plagued by squabbles. Justas she had left the East End ten years earlier,it was time to move on. <strong>The</strong> fun, shesaid, had gone out of it. Better to enjoy herthree children (another came soon afterwards),and her third marriage, at last ahappy one, to another singer, Jon Barkwith,who survives her.She sang for the rest of her life, thoughnot professionally. She ran an antiquesshop and then a successful hotel in Wales,much favoured by London showbiz typeswanting a break from the pressured worldthat Miss Drew had already left behind her,lightly, gracefully and decisively. 7
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