A thimbleful of a voice?

"It’s a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate." Julie London

It is the centenary today of the birth of the Queen of the sultry laid-back style we call "Sunday Music". A pin-up girl during WW2, the young Gayle Peck was inevitably destined to become a star. Born into a vaudeville performing family, Miss Peck was working as a lift attendant when she was "discovered" by Hollywood agent Sue Carol.

However, it took a few more years before the renamed Julie London emerged into the musical spotlight with the multi-million-selling Cry Me A River - an eternal standard of the late-night music genre.

Her movie career never really made the same kind of impact and, as with so many of her contemporaries, Miss London turned to TV - with numerous special guest appearances on shows hosted by Bob Hope, Pat Boone, Dina Shore, Jack Benny and the like, as well as her own TV specials. She was one of the stars of US paramedic drama series Emergency! for many years before she retired from regular performing.

But what a legacy she left..!

Julie London - Let There Be Love

Julie London - Perfidia

Julie London - Cry Me A River

Julie London (26th September 1926 – 18th October 2000)

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PS:

On this most gloriously sunny late summery day, we're off en masse to go and sit in the function room of The Perseverance in Holborn/Bloomsbury for another of our lengthy drinking sessions film clubs.

Shame it's not in a beer garden, really...

Whoa, whoa!

Another tiresome week ebbs away...

...and it's time to get our party togs on! It's payday, John-John and I are off to see Avengers: Endgame Encore in Leicester Square tonight, and tomorrow it's another "gathering of the clans" for a film day to mark History Boy's birthday. Bring. It. On!

To get us there, here's something from the vaults, having just entered our Top Ten way back in 1977 - Thank Disco It's Friday!

Emotions - The Best of My Love

Thirty-nine years?! Sigh.

Have a good weekend, dear reader!

Thought for the Day

Indeed.

You would never demean yourself by trying to enjoy being at work

Bored at work? Have you considered hating one of, or all of, your co-workers for reasons they would consider petty but you call unforgivable? This should get you started:

Iain’s lunch had a mild odour
He sits within your line of sight and if that wasn’t bad enough, he dared bring in something more exotic than a cheese sandwich for his dirty little midday meal. And he made you watch. Begin with passive-aggressive sniffing and coughing, and glow with inner fury whenever he strays toward the microwave for eight years thereafter.

Marie used the printer for too long
Despite the fact that everything is now on G-suite, Microsoft 365, or East 17 these days, a fellow employee was at the printer the one and only time you needed to use it. Hogging it. Did she gracefully step aside when confronted with your urgent hover? She did not. So you must deliberately go slowly when she’s waiting behind you from now until 2032.

Louise laughed too hard at a manager’s joke
Pathetic little suck-up. Guffawing, in a meeting, when everyone knows they’re not for fun or productivity but to engender despair, self-loathing and the urge to put one’s hand into a blender. You would never demean yourself by trying to enjoy being at work and it’s well worth resenting that cow for doing so.

Connor drank the last of the milk
It may seem like a small, impolite accident, but this devastating betrayal is in fact worse than Kim Philby, Judas and David Harbour all combined. Two pints is more than a quid now. Act swiftly, rally others to your cause and judge what pitiful over-sweetened pseudo-beverage your nemesis wasted the precious liquid on.

Jill sat at your desk
Technically it isn’t your desk because of hot-desking. But while its ownership might not be recognised in a court of law, spiritually and emotionally it is your safe harbour and your home. And she thinks she can steal it? Fuck about with her chair when she isn’t looking.

That girl who didn’t know who you were
That disrespectful intern is the epitome of why their generation don’t deserve jobs or to ever retire, with their fucking iced coffees. How dare they not recognise how supremely important you are? You’ll make sure that Ava, or whatever her name is, won’t go far. Oh, she’s left.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Of Di's revenge, scary spiders, ancient silver, a TV icon, BB and "I won't lie to you"

Princess Diana's "revenge frock" is on display this week at Sotheby's in London, ahead of its sale at auction in New York in December - with a sale estimate of $150,000–300,000 (£110,000–220,000)! [click to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader...

• Arachnophobia news: The huge Wasp Spider - native to the continent - has been spotted for the first time in Cheshire, the furthest north in Britain it has been recorded. Harmless, apparently, but you probably wouldn't want to walk face first into its web while pegging out the washing!
• Cross my palm with silver news: An amateur detectorist in Germany has discovered a horde of Roman silver coins, weighing almost 7lb (3.1 kg) - the biggest ever such discovery in the country's history. Don't spend it all at once, Mein Herr!

• Waiting for God no more news: RIP the lovely Stephanie Cole, beloved actress here at Dolores Delargo Towers, not least for her roles in Tenko, Talking Heads and Waiting for God; she also appeared in Doc Martin, and even Coronation Street. All our old faves are dropping like flies, it seems...
• Sex kitten's slippers, anyone? news: An auction of French screen legend Brigitte Bardot's personal items fetched nearly €1 million (£858,000, $1.15m) in Paris on Monday, almost 20 times the estimate. There was some right old tat among the 284 items that were for sale - I wonder who bought her old typewriter, or paid seven grand for two dog collars?
• Tidy! news: Happy 60th birthday to the simply faboo Ruth Jones, comedienne, actress - and creator of one of the best characters on telly in the last decade, Nessa!

The Best of Nessa [Gavin & Stacey]

• And finally: It's the Autumn Equinox tonight! It's all downhill from here, folks - the days are officially shorter than the nights from tomorrow until March... Dammit.

And the weather? Very warm and sunny in London, and the signs are good for the rest of the week. On Friday, it's forecast to hit 26C/78F! Hurrah!

Lo que pidas muy barato lo doy*

Grrrr... Back to the office. Back to reality.

After a very pleasant weekend - Saturday doing fuck all, and yesterday spent absorbing the joyful musings of an erudite panel on the meaning and influence of divas on the lives of generations of gay men (and lesbians and others in the "alphabet soup" of labels these days) at the Southbank Centre - it's time for a wake-up call!

Who better to provide it on a Tacky Music Monday than one of those very divas - Spain's finest, one of our cherished Patron Saints, "La Leyenda" Señorita Sara Montiel (and her safety gays)?!

Sara Montiel - Rumba Chamelona

Fab-u-lous!

Have a good week, dear reader...

[* "Lo que pidas muy barato lo doy" = "I sell it really cheap" in Spanish; a lyric from the song]

Pictures came and broke your heart

Being adored must be such a burden for a diva

The Madam, John-John and I are off early (for a Sunday) for a most intriguing event this afternoon - a panel discussion at the Southbank Centre hosted by our old friend Rupert Smith titled "Why Do Benders Love Divas?".

Why indeed? We know already, of course, but it'll be interesting to hear what panellists Neil Bartlett, Sadie Lee, David McAlmont and Travis Alabanza have to say about it.

Meanwhile, speaking of "divas"...

...how about a little "Sunday Music", courtesy of our "house band" - and a vocalist who takes on the legendary Freddie Mercury's vocal theatrics very well, but on a most unlikely song indeed:

Postmodern Jukebox ft. Cunio - Video Killed The Radio Star (Buggles - Queen/Freddie Mercury style cover)

Enjoy!