The Indestructible Bea Lillie

I once went to A Marvelous Party (with Lulu and Nana and Nell). It lasted for better than three years, from the day my Smith roommate and I “liberated” that particular Bea Lillie-Noel Coward record from an unwary friend to its sorrowful bequest, a thousand or more playings later, to two (almost worthy) sophomores. Well, just the other night I went to another Marvelous Party, Beatrice Lillie and Noel Coward again co-hosts, and you can put me down right now as a reactivated Beatrice-maniac.

Lordy, but that woman is funny. The long thin face. The Supercilious nose. The outlandish hairdos. The costumes (Maison Delirium Tremens). The flat-heeled, spine-crunching walk. The yards of jingling, jangling beads. The more-in-sorrow-than-in-anything-else look. The precise, clipped speech. Above all, the timing, the sense of the ridiculous that thrusts a golden handful — Charlie Chaplin, Cantinflas, Fernan-del, Danny Kaye, yes and Beatrice Lillie, too—into the exclusive winner’s circle in the Comedian Sweepstake.

PL

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Priscilla L. Buckley

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I once went to A Marvelous Party (with Lulu and Nana and Nell). It lasted for better than three years, from the day my Smith roommate and I “liberated” that particular Bea Lillie-Noel Coward record from an unwary friend to its sorrowful bequest, a thousand or more playings later, to two (almost worthy) sophomores. Well, just the other night I went to another Marvelous Party, Beatrice Lillie and Noel Coward again co-hosts, and you can put me down right now as a reactivated Beatrice-maniac.

Lordy, but that woman is funny. The long thin face. The Supercilious nose. The outlandish hairdos. The costumes (Maison Delirium Tremens). The flat-heeled, spine-crunching walk. The yards of jingling, jangling beads. The more-in-sorrow-than-in-anything-else look. The precise, clipped speech. Above all, the timing, the sense of the ridiculous that thrusts a golden handful — Charlie Chaplin, Cantinflas, Fernan-del, Danny Kaye, yes and Beatrice Lillie, too—into the exclusive winner’s circle in the Comedian Sweepstake.