THERE ARE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR GARDEN by Beatrice Lillie

Beatrice Lillie - actress and comedienne, was a companion of Gertrude Lawrence and Tallulah Bankhead. Kind of a rat pack of the 1920's. She was famous for her double entendre and wit in her performances. This is one of her more famous and best routines. Recorded on the Gramophone Shops Varieties label. Enjoy!

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Entertainment

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• Beatrice
• Lillie
• There
• are
• fairies
• at
• the
• bottom
• of
• our
• garden
• 78rpm
• 78
• rpm
• record

[Nataloff]

Thank you! Thank you! I remember when, as a little kid, I was awakened one night by my parents as though the house was on fire. Instead, they dragged me to the TV where Bea Lillie was a guest on the Jack Paar show, and she was crawling on the studio floor looking for fairies on the bottom of her garden. Paar, the audience, my parents, and, soon, I were in complete hysterics. What a shame that so few people know of her today. Thank you for posting this gem.

[msjosephh]

I love this.

[SuperHartline]

You can see her on What's My Line...

[mickey2449]

Few people knew it at the time that Canadian Beatrice Lillie was the wife of England's Sir Robert Peel, 5th Baronet of Tamworth and mother to Sir Robert Peel, 6th Baronet of Tamworth. 

[mickey2449]

Once Beatrice Lillie was having her hair coiffed at Elizabeth Arden in Chicago when the wife of the founder of the Armour meat-packing company entered, noticed her, and complained loudly that she didn't realize there would be chorus girls present or she would not have come. Soon thereafter, as Lillie was leaving and saying goodbye to the manageress in the waiting room, she said,

"You may tell the butcher's wife that Lady Peel has finished."

[14May1]

Wonderful! Does ANYONE have a recording of her routine about the dozen double-damask dinner napkins? My mother has been telling me about this for decades. Thanks.

[livylee]

@Nataloff

That is exactly my story too! I have loved Lady Peel ever since. I cannot find a better indicator of kindred spirit than the appreciation of Beatrice Lillie.

[damerush]

Sorry to ask, but what turntable is that? A Garrard 4HF? Sounds lovely! Thanks!

[xmetbass]

@Nataloff I did'nt have the pleasure of seeing her on Paar's show, but I did hear her on the radio singing "don't go in the lion's cage tonight, mother. I've downloaded Beatrice Kay's rendition of it.

[xenafan234]

Thanks so much for posting this I only knew of her from Throughly Modern Millie.

[GrizzledGeezer]

It's unfortunate that there are so few recordings -- especially motion pictures -- of Beatrice Lillie, one of the 20th century's genuinely unique talents. It is particularly disappointing that "High Spirits" exists only as a sound recording, and no one thought (or had the money) to videotape a performance.

[wordpixman]

I wonder how many people know about the great Cottingley Fairies hoax perpetrated with the help of Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes) with fake photographs of fairies at the bottom of a garden? Google it ... there are plenty of articles about it, including the original photographs and the denoument of the hoax long after Conan Doyle's death.