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Domestic Recordings - Betty BoltonPresumed recorded: 1934-1935 |
Contents: [ The "Marcus Games" Discs, | Eleven New Video Recordings, | Betty Bolton | The 'Other' Women, | The 'Baritone', | It's Quiz Time! ]
Betty Bolton (26 Jan 1906 - 2 April 2005)
Betty Bolton publicity shot from her private collection |
Betty was a prominent British actress/singer performing in the 1920s
and 1930s. Born in 1906, she started her
performing career during the Great War. A highly regarded contralto, she made many audio
recordings, including her popular 1931 version of "Ten Cents a Dance". She
appeared in a few films and performed in several revues on the London stage.
She bridged the period of vaudeville with that of film, radio and
television, appearing in all of these formats. Betty retired from a very successful career in
1936. In features, she had a distinctive round face with straight sleek dark hair styled into a distinctive kiss curl around her ear held by a white clasp visible in both these publicity photographs. |
Betty Bolton "Charlot Revue" from her private collection |
Off-screen shot in "Television" June 1934 |
The photograph on the left was made directly off screen in 1934 during reception of
one of her performances. The extract from the newly restored recording on the right looks more
like her than the photo on the left. Both the shine of the sleek dark hair, the style of
the hair with kiss curl and appearance of two white clasps holding the kiss curl are very
obvious throughout the full recording. On 13th June 1998, Betty saw for the first time these restored pictures. She confirmed that the subject was indeed her but was unable to place a broadcast date. From the panning action of the camera and from the mirror-drum characteristics, it places the recording between 1932 and 1935 and probably comes from the late part of that period. The performance on disc is absolutely stunning and, though silent, shows what an excellent and natural television performer Miss Bolton was. With thanks to Betty Bolton, Ray Herbert and Judyth Knight for
supplying information and photographs. Both the animated GIF and the RealVideo sequences
have been reduced in resolution for the web and do not reproduce the full resolution and
tonality of the restored material. |
restored sequence Click image for RealVideo of complete recording. |
More on the "Marcus Games" Discs
Other Pages
Main Index, | The World's FIRST TV Recordings, | Early Television History, | The Earliest Recording of Broadcast TV: Silvatone 1933, | The First Recording to be Sold - Major Radiovision 1934
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Last updated by Don McLean on 01-Jan-2007