The "Queen of Screamers"

Mamma mia!

Our Patron Saint of Extreme Eye-Shadow, Signorina Mina Mazzini is 85 years old today!

From the first time I featured her over at my Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle blog back in 2010:

A pioneer in many ways, Signorina Mazzini escaped the poverty and conventional society of her native Cremona in the late 50s to become a rock'n'roll singer, touring Italy and the Mediterranean. In a scandalous media frenzy for its day, Mina's attempt to hit the big time on TV was almost scuppered by conservative Catholic outrage at her unmarried pregnancy, and for a while she was banished from the screens. But you can't keep a good diva down for long, and by the mid-1960s the "Queen of Screamers", as she was known, became a chart-topping phenomenon.

Mina's songs were hugely significant in European pop - she pioneered several of Bacharach & David's numbers (translated into Italian, natch), becoming an equivalent of Dionne Warwick (or maybe Cilla Black) in her homeland as a consequence. Even Dusty Springfield acknowledged her as one of her influences!

Her Grande Grande Grande became Shirley Bassey's anthemic Never Never Never, Piano became Softly As I Leave You and was a hit for both Matt Monro and Frank Sinatra, and Dalida (no less!) scored a massive hit when she recorded a French version of Mina's Paroles, Paroles with Alain Delon...

Having retired from hosting and appearing on numerous Italian TV shows, Mina is currently living out her retirement in Switzerland. She remains adored in Italy, and her music is widely used in film soundtracks to this day.

Not one to be kept silent, however - though she was ostensibly "retired" back then, she actually never stopped recording and releasing albums (almost every year), the most recent of which she released last November!

How can anyone possibly even try to do justice to a career that has spanned eight decades? Let's just stick to a few selected highlights...

Mina - Tintarella di luna

Mina - Grande Grande Grande

Mina - Io vivrò senza te

Mina - Se telefonando

Mina - Ta-ra-ta-ta

Tanti felici ritorni, Mina Anna Mazzini (born 25th March 1940)!

It's sprung!

In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;
In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from Locksley Hall.

Yes, today marks that long-awaited moment: the Vernal Equinox, known in some parts as "The First Day of Spring"!

Everything's on the up from now on, dear reader...

The End of an Era

Sad news. Icon of the UK drag scene, one of the oldest performing drag queens in the world, Maisie Trollette has departed - feathers, sequins, high heels and acid tongue in hand - at the age of 91, to reign supreme in the Gay Pride Drag Tent on Fabulon!

Born David Raven in the oh-so-twee artistic haven of St Ives in Cornwall, raised in the rural flatlands of Suffolk, he finally left the closeted life behind in 1960 for the bright lights of London. There he met fellow entertainer James Court and founded the legendary Trollettes, who ascended to become a dominant force in blacked-out-window gay venues like The Black Cap in Camden and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern for decades.

Like so many queens in that oppressive era, David/Maisie and his life partner, banker Don Coull, gravitated to the much more gay-friendy environs of the south coast resort of Brighton and opened a bed-and-breakfast guesthouse (that ran for many years), all the while travelling up and down the country with the Trollettes, with another faboo old drag queen Phil Starr, and as a solo act.

She was still performing well into her 80s - a career of more than 50 years - and, in recognition of her longevity, a biographical film was released in 2021.
[We still haven't yet seen it, as it only seems to be on subscription services and has never been released on DVD or on terrestrial TV.]

Maisie trailer

We saw Maisie perform on many occasions, and she was a stalwart of Gay Prides in Brighton and London (raising thousands for charities supporting people with AIDS and other causes through such performances). Here are some classic moments from the old girl:

Maisie Trollette at the Vauxhall Tavern Circa 1987

Phil Starr (with Maisie Trollette) - The Old Bazaar at Cairo:

David Raven (AKA Maisie Trollette) on trolling

Maisie Trollette - When I Fall In Love

Another glittering star has dimmed, and the loss is palpable.

There'll never be another! - RIP, Maisie Trollette (David Raven, 16th August 1933 – 12th March 2025)

On the Jukebox this weekend at Dolores Delargo Towers

Bell'arte del canto, in verità

The lovely operatic diva Mirella Freni would have been 95 years old last week. She was widely lauded throughout her 50-year career for her near-perfect bel canto soprano voice, specialising in roles such as "Mimi" in Puccini's La Boheme and "Juliette" in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, rather than the more dramatic coloratura roles that many of her mid-20th century contemporaries chose to tackle.

Perhaps for this reason, her name is less familiar to the world outside the operatic milieu than, say, Dame Joan Sutherland or Montserrat Caballe. She should be better-remembered, in my opinion, as these examples of the lady's estimable talents demonstrate:

Mirella Freni - Mi chiamano Mimì [La Boheme, G.Puccini]

Mirella Freni - Io son l'umile ancella [Adriana Lecouvreur, F. Cilea]

Mirella Freni - Un bel dì vedremo [Madama Butterfly, G.Puccini]

Beautiful.

Mirella Freni (born Mirella Fregni, 27th February 1935 – 9th February 2020)

What is it, muesli?

Remarkably, sharing a birthday with some of the "Best of British", including Kenneth Williams, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Christine Keeler, Nigel Planer, Judy Cornwell, Dame Sheila Hancock, Sir John Mills, Lord Baden-Powell, the Duchess of Kent, Genesis P-Orridge and, erm, James Blunt; as well as George Washington, Marni Nixon, Drew Barrymore (who is 50!), Luis Buñuel, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Kyle MacLachlan, Edward Gorey, Guy Mitchell, Jonathan Demme, Ted Kennedy, Niki Lauda, Steve Irwin, Ellen Greene, Lea Salonga, Arthur Schopenhauer and, erm, Dolly the sheep; our beloved Dame Julie Walters celebrates her 75th birthday today!

All hail.

One of our all-time favourite actresses here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Dame Julie has turned her hand to a little bit of everything, from drama to comedy to musicals, and in her long career quite rightly earned herself that well-trodden epithet "national treasure".

So without further ado, here's a random selection of favourite bits from her career...

Victoria Wood and Julie Walters - Marjorie and Joan: Double Glazing [Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV]

Julie Walters and Michael Caine - Educating Rita: Ibsen

Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story

Victoria Wood and Juie Walters - Turkish Bath

Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston - Two Soups [Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV]

Dinnerladies

Personal Services: "Dolly!"

Acorn Antiques episode 5 [Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV]

An inspiration in my life...

Many, many happy returns, Dame Julia Mary Walters DBE (born 22nd February 1950)

Queens at play

RIP, the beauteous Geneviève Page, who has departed for Fabulon, aged 97.

I wonder who won that card game, her or Sophia?

The higher the hair...

Oh, to be a fly on the wall - #943 in a series...

Romy Schneider and Sophia Loren

Jayne Mansfield, Liza Minnelli, Mitzi Gaynor, Kaye Ballard

Edith Piaf reading the palm of Django Reinhardt

Ramon Novarro and Robert Montgomery

Divine makes her thoughts known on the Trumps

I was a Lady before I was a Dame

"My mother said to me, ‘You’re no oil painting, my girl, but you have the spark. Thank God you’ve got my legs and not your father’s!’”

"I have always resented the comments that it was I who was the homewrecker of Larry's marriage to Vivien Leigh. Danny Kaye was attached to Larry far earlier than I."

Sad news. Another of our eminent Dames has departed these shores to preside over Fabulon - Dame Joan Plowright.

Never the huge international star her late husband Sir Laurence Olivier became, her world was that of one of the pre-eminent doyennes of the theatre. In her own words:

"You do films if the roof needs mending."

As well as being a fine actress, and instrumental in the overhaul of British theatre - first in the "Angry Young Men" era at The Royal Court, then (as Mrs Olivier) she played a pivotal role in the establishment of The National Theatre - she was also a very witty and entertaining raconteuse, as our late friend Alistair and I discovered when we went to "An Evening With..." the Great Dame back in 2014.

And here she, is, having a great time with her old chums and fellow Dames in one of the most charming documentaries we watched in the last decade:

Nothing Like A Dame [known as Tea with the Dames in the USA] - Who was the First Dame?

RIP, Dame Joan Ann Plowright, the Baroness Olivier.

The Surrealist

RIP, David Lynch (20th January 1946 – 16th January 2025)

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme

Genius.

That face

"I love that face, that face, it just isn't fair
You must forgive the way that I stare
But never will these eyes behold a sight that could replace
That face, that face, that face."

In a final flourish of attention-grabbing - surely what her entire tragic, plastic-surgery-enhanced existence was all about - the final entry in 2024's "Book of the Dead" has departed for the "Beauty Salon Reject Area" of Fabulon. RIP, Miss Jocelyn Wildenstein (née Jocelyne Périsset, 5th August 1940 – 31st December 2024)!

Banging in the New Year

London Fireworks, New Year 2025

Once again, London's fireworks display was utterly breathtaking! But what were all those graphics in the middle of the London Eye all about? Were they really there - or were they AI? We should be told...

Happy New Year, dear reader!