David Gleave, Author at Mona Baptiste

Mona at La Nouvelle Eve in Paris

In 1949, little more than a year after arriving in London, Mona was invited to perform at one of the most prestigious nightclubs in Paris, La Nouvelle Eve. Situated in the Montmartre area, the club is still open and in 2023, for about €100, it is possible to enjoy a ninety minute show and a meal while sipping champagne.

The character of Montmartre has changed little in the intervening years, it is still where the city lets its hair down, hoicks up its skirts and dancing girls see how high they can kick their legs. There are many words that can be used to describe it, some might say ‘vibrant’, others ‘sleazy’. La Nouvelle Eve is, literally, a stone’s throw from the famous Moulin Rouge, also still very much a going concern.

As a working singer Mona would have had to go where the work was and she would have been no stranger to areas like this, St Pauli in Hamburg and Soho in London would have had a very similar vibe. Mona was still only twenty three but international stardom was already beckoning.

Whilst visiting Paris in 2023 we noticed that the trains on the Metro were given names. We like to think that one of the trains we travelled on was named in honour of Mona!

L’Arronge: The place to be seen in Hamburg

While Mona was living at No.6 Hellerstrasse, a neighbour was Gisela Griffel. Gisela was three years older than Mona (20^th May 1923 as opposed to 21^st June 1926) but their career paths had many similarities and they had appeared together in the film ‘Spiel Mit Dem Gluck’. But Gisela gave up showbusiness to support her husband, Paul L’Arronge, in making a success of his business, the L’Arronge, an upmarket coffee shop. L’Arronge was soon the place to be seen in Hamburg and there is no doubt that Mona would have been a frequent visitor.

We don’t have any images of Mona at L’Arronge but there can be little doubt that she would have attended events like the one pictured below (Gisela is at the back surveying the scene from above).

Mona’s Hamburg Home

After taking the UK by storm, Mona soon spread her wings and found even greater success on the continent. Long before the Beatles, Hamburg was a favoured destination for many British artists and Mona was one of them. She was signed up for a number of personal appearances by the German impresario Oskar Liebermann and in 1952 her success as an artist in Germany led Mona to make her home in Hamburg where she took an apartment at 6 Hallerstrasse. She lived here from 1952 for several years, only returning to England because she wanted her son, Marcel, to be educated there.

This was (and still is) an upmarket part of the city. The road is much busier than it would have been in Mona’s day and now faces onto an ugly block of municipal housing but the house itself is much as it was when Mona lived here. A plaque in front of No.8 confirms that 6-8 are indeed original and date from 1886/7.

A new photo and fresh snippets about Mona

Mona Baptiste, on board the Windrush at Tilbury, 22 June 1948 ((c) topfoto.co.uk)

We were thrilled to stumble across a photo of Mona that we hadn’t seen before. It was on the topfoto.co.uk site and captures Mona just before she disembarked from the Empire Windrush. It was taken the day after her 22^nd birthday and shows a young woman eagerly looking forward to her new life.

Since our book was published Mona’s second husband, Liam, has dredged the recesses of his memory and offered us some fresh insights.

There was a well-established story on the internet that Mona found work in a jewellery shop soon after arriving in London and it was here that she was spotted by the wife of the bandleader Ted Heath or someone else connected with the band. But was the story true? Liam has this to say:

Mona wasn’t one for hanging around! I do recall she mentioned working soon after arriving but not any of the details. Her earliest non-performing work was in a jewellers shop where she was very happy with her employer, and which kept her in funds while she hustled for musical work. I think she stayed there for about a year before the career took off.

No mention of Ted Heath but the original story is half confirmed.

A second query we had was how Mona had paid for a 1^st class ticket on the Windrush (£48, about £1200 in today’s money). Again Liam has something to add:

Am quite sure she paid her own Windrush passage as she actually mentioned it at some stage; saving up herself and also getting some contribution from good friend/s She was proud of that being able to purchase first class herself.

Perhaps more will emerge. We can’t wait!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet got your copy, What About the Princess? is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-about-Princess-times-Baptiste/dp/B0B1BNCCBJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ALANUXC5NDAS&keywords=what+about+the+princess&qid=1654861137&sprefix=what+about+the+princess%2Caps%2C1447&sr=8-1

A new ‘first’ appearance

In What About the Princess? The Life and Times of Mona Baptiste we had this to say about her first appearance on the radio after disembarking from the Windrush on 22^nd June: ‘Mona’s first professional engagement in the UK that we have been able to trace was on 9^th August 1948.’

So glad we added that caveat about it being the first we could trace (!) because, sure enough, there is now evidence of an earlier appearance. In Jamaica The Gleaner reported on 6^th July that Mona would be featuring in Calling the West Indies on the BBC World Service.

So, Mona was actually featuring on the radio just two weeks after arriving in England. She must surely have been known to people at the BBC before leaving Trinidad, it is difficult to imagine she could have got on the air so soon otherwise.

Taking a look at a couple of the other items: For those with an interest in cricket we can report that Australia thrashed Gloucestershire in their tour match at Bristol. Australia scored 774 runs for 7 wickets before declaring and bowling the county side out for 279 and 132.

Although he was born in South Africa, the pianist Isadore Goodman spent much of his adult life in Australia. After World War Two Goodman performed in England but, in spite of a Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at St James Palace in October 1948, he never really established himself and returned to Australia in 1955.

The music of Michael Krein’s Saxophone Quartet can be found on Spotify (and no doubt on other similar services) where a channel devoted to his music has a devoted following of seven listeners.

The Parliamentary Review at 7.15 most probably reported on the debates in the House of Commons that week on the subject of European economic co-operation, a topic that remains equally relevant (some might say more relevant) today, over seventy years later.

Zopf und zigarre (pigtail and cigar)

During our research for What About The Princess? The Life and Times of Mona Baptiste we came across many photos of Mona. The one below is a nice image but the low quality means it was unsuitable for inclusion in the book.

The picture shows Mona (on the right) with her sister Grace (who used the name Shari Razul Khan professionally). The article is undated but it gives Grace’s age as 19 and suggests the photo was taken in Hanover. We know that can’t be right. Grace was born in May 1929 and didn’t leave Trinidad until 1950 so the likelihood is that the photo dates from 1950 or 1951. The fun the two sisters are having is evident in spite of the poor quality of the image.

Happy New Year … for 1950!

Have you ever stood at a stage door hoping to get a glimpse of your favourite star or, better still, their autograph? Clearly, at the end of 1949 (or perhaps very early in 1950) someone waited for Mona to emerge and he (or she) was rewarded with a signature.

This page, taken from an autograph book, demonstrates that at least one fan thought Mona’s signature was worth waiting for.

On the reverse of this page is the signature of film star Richard Todd who was at the height of his power in 1949/50. It was about this time that he appeared in the stage show The Hasty Heart in London and on Broadway and he starred in the 1949 film version of the show. He was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor for his portrayal of the character Lachie. The following year Todd appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Stage Fright alongside stars like Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman and Alistair Sim.

Todd went on to enjoy a long and successful career including a role in the 1962 film The Longest Day. During World War Two, Todd had been an officer in the 7th Battalion (LI) The Parachute Regiment and it was this Battalion that made contact with Major Howard at the Orne Bridge now called Pegasus Bridge – Todd was the officer who made contact. In the film Todd played Major Howard and the meeting between Howard and Todd was one of the scenes in the film.

Having wished the unknown fan ‘good luck for 1950’, Mona herself went from strength to strength in that year with numerous radio and TV appearances as well as stage shows but it wasn’t until 1953 that she followed Todd onto the silver screen. You can read more Mona’s multi-faceted career in What About The Princess? The Life and Times of Mona Baptiste.

On the Ken Dodd Show

It’s easy to forget how big a star Ken Dodd was in the 1950s and for several decades after that. He has been described as ‘the last great musical hall entertainer’ and he continued to perform right up until the year before his death in 2018 – a long career as well as a successful one.

So, to be the headline act on the bill of the Ken Dodd show was a big deal and, in May 1961, Mona flew in from Germany to do just that (and this was not the only time she appeared on his show).

You can find a number of dates given for the year of Mona’s birth on the internet, the correct answer is definitely not 1930 as stated in the programme! In ‘What about the Princess – The life and times of Mona Baptiste’ we clear up the confusion once and for all – Mona was born on 21^st June 1926.

What about the Princess?

We knew we wanted to write about the life and times of Mona Baptiste but as we found out more about her life the anecdotes and material piled up. One little story particular caught our attention.

Mona was touring as vocalist with Cab Kaye’s band. As was often the case in those days it could be difficult for black musicians to find accommodation when they were on tour (the difficulty of finding accommodation was not unique to musicians of course). Checking into a hotel in Nottingham, Mona became aware that her needs were being overlooked, black women may sympathise with the feeling of invisibility that Mona must have experienced. She felt the need to give Cab a nudge ‘what about the Princess?’ she asked.

And there we had it, the perfect title for our book!