La Wandissima

It's been a packed weekend, dear reader - the V&A's spectacular Diva exhibition on Saturday [more of that later, no doubt], followed by a very rainy day at Kew Gardens with Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex. I feel I really need another day off to recover...

But life determines otherwise, so here, to help ease us into the grind yet again on this Tacky Music Monday is a diva [in fact three of them] shamefully not featured in that exhibition, in a post I did @decadeago:

It has been ages since I featured that campest-of-camp grande signora of Italian entertainment, described in The Guardian as "a rather camp Latin mix of Mae West and Mistinguette", Miss Wanda Osiris.

But it is Tacky Music Monday, after all (and we always need cheering up at the start of a working week) - so here she is, in full "Norma Desmond" drag (and a bit croaky, but we always forgive an old broad many sins), topping a bill that includes two of our favourite Italian divas Mina Mazzini and Raffaella Carra, performing in a typically understated number, A Capocabana:

Wonderful...

Facts about Wanda Osiris:

• Born Anna Menzio on 3rd June 1905 in Rome, she was 16 when she joined a vaudeville company, something that was almost unheard of during those strict times.
• Often nicknamed "La Wandissima", she went on to become one of Italy's most successful stage performers of the 1920s to the 1950s.
• Ground-breakingly flamboyant, she was credited with being the first to use chorus boys in her act. [She invented "safety gays"!!]
• Among her myriad revues was Carousel of Variety in which she appeared with (among others) Josephine Baker and Anna Magnani.
• She retired in the mid-'60s and after that only occasionally performed on television.

Wanda Osiris died on 11th November 1994, aged 89 - her obituary (in Italian, of course).

Have a good week, dear reader.