Kurt at 16:20, 22 February 2023

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	{{Infobox person		{{Infobox person
	~~\| name = Suzette Tarri~~
	\| image = Suzette_Tarri.jpg		\| image = Suzette_Tarri.jpg
	\| alt =		\| alt =
	\| caption =		\| caption =
	\| birth_name = Ada Barbara Harriett Tarry		\| birth_name = Ada Barbara Harriett Tarry
	\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1881\|1\|2\|df=y}}		\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1881\|01\|02\|df=y}}
	\| birth_place = [[Hoxton, London]], England		\| birth_place = [[Hoxton, London]], England
	\| death_date = {{Death date and age\|1955\|10\|10\|1881\|1\|2\|df=y}}		\| death_date = {{Death date and age\|1955\|10\|10\|1881\|01\|02\|df=y}}
	\| death_place = [[Southgate, London]], England		\| death_place = [[Southgate, London]], England
	\| nationality = British		\| nationality = British

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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Suzette Tarri
| image = Suzette_Tarri.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Ada Barbara Harriett Tarry
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1881|1|2|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Hoxton, London]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1955|10|10|1881|1|2|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Southgate, London]], England
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| occupation = Comedian, singer
| years_active = 1890s–1954
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Ada Barbara Harriett Tarry''' (2 January 1881 – 10 October 1955), known by her stage name '''Suzette Tarri''', was an English comedian and singer, popular on radio as well as on stage in the 1930s and 1940s.

==Biography==
She was born in [[Hoxton]], London.<ref name=baker>Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78340-066-9}}, pp.25-26</ref> She performed as a child violinist in the 1890s,<ref name=obit>[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/22033011/ "Cockney Comedienne Suzette Tarri Dies", ''The Corpus Christi Caller-Times'', October 10, 1955, p.24]</ref> and made her first stage appearance as a singer in [[Walthamstow]] in 1905. In her early career, she specialised in roles as a [[soubrette#Theatre|theatrical soubrette]], singing light comic songs, and by 1913 was regularly accompanied by her husband, the Scottish singer and comic entertainer Tom Copeland.<ref name=barfe/> She and Copeland made their first appearance on [[BBC Radio]] in 1923.<ref name=bbc/> By 1929, her accompanist was David Jenkins, and by the early 1930s they were billed together in radio performances as a "comedy duo".<ref name=bbc>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=asc&q=%22Suzette+Tarri%22#search "Suzette Tarri", ''BBC Radio Times 1923-2009'']</ref> They later married. When Jenkins moved into music publishing, Tarri continued as a solo act, performing in clubs and theatres.<ref name=baker/>

By her mid-fifties, she developed into a successful "character comedienne"<ref name=bbc/> – as she was billed in the ''[[Radio Times]]'' in 1937 – emphasising her [[Cockney]] background, and typically taking on the persona of an earthy, harassed and gossiping [[working-class]] [[charwoman]] or waitress, often called "Our Ada".<ref name=baker/><ref name=double>Oliver Double, ''Stand Up: On Being a Comedian'', A&C Black, 1997, {{ISBN|0-413-70320-7}}, pp.75-77</ref> Much of her material was drawn from overheard real life conversations.<ref name=baker/> In 1938, she made her first television appearance, on the [[BBC Television]] show ''Variety''.<ref name=bbc/> She was sometimes billed as "Radio's Own Comedienne", and it was claimed that her comic talents, which in fact had developed over several decades, had been "discovered" by the radio producer [[Ernest Longstaffe]].<ref name=baker/> She also made recordings, some with [[Harry Hemsley]], and joined touring shows managed by [[Jack Hylton]]. She continued to end her onstage appearances with a 'straight' performance of her [[signature song]], "[[Red Sails in the Sunset (song)|Red Sails in the Sunset]]".<ref name=kennedy>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LyJi8pge5KsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Man+Who+Wrote+The+Teddy+Bears%27+Picnic.+How+Irish-born+lyricist+and+composer+Jimmy+Kennedy+became+one+of+the+twentieth+century%27s+finest+songwriters&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0waiFgMbsAhWHT8AKHeR8CVIQ6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=Tarri&f=false J. J. Kennedy, ''The Man Who Wrote the Teddy Bears' Picnic'', AuthorHouse, 2011, p.94]</ref>

She remained a popular performer on stage and on radio during the Second World War. She headlined her own 1939 radio programme, ''Tarri Awhile'',<ref name=bbc/> and appeared as a guest on many radio shows such as ''[[ITMA]]'' during the war,<ref name=kennedy/> and afterwards. She featured as the character "Mrs Spam" in the 1943 [[Frank Randle]] film ''[[Somewhere in Civvies]]'',<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b76ec175c "Somewhere in Civvies", ''BFI'']</ref> and won the ''[[Sunday Chronicle]]'''s "Number 1 Comedienne" award in 1945.<ref name=double/> Academic and former [[stand-up]] comedian Oliver Double describes one of her immediate post-war routines about [[rationing]] as "an exceptional piece of stand-up. Without any apparent effort, Tarri manipulates the audience's responses like a conductor controlling an orchestra... The routine uses rationed meat as a way of making sexual innuendo to conjure up some grotesque, almost poetic images."<ref name=double/>

A climax of her career was her appearance on stage at the [[London Palladium]] in 1950, in a show starring [[Danny Kaye]].<ref name=baker/> She continued to perform on stage and on radio, in programmes such as ''[[Workers' Playtime (radio programme)|Workers' Playtime]]'', in the early 1950s. She also appeared on television in ''[[The Good Old Days (British TV series)|The Good Old Days]]'' in 1954.<ref name=bbc/> [[Ken Dodd]] briefly worked with Tarri on stage at the start of his career in the early 1950s. According to Dodd's producer John Fisher, Tarri's use of a [[feather duster]] as a [[Theatrical property|prop]] in her act was the inspiration for Dodd's [[tickling stick]].<ref name=barfe>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1O1-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1704&lpg=PA1704&dq=%22tom+copeland%22+%22suzette+tarri%22&source=bl&ots=Imn0Jt9_zz&sig=ACfU3U2CQNnxpgAavvzRNZ1gf_9zCAefJA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwirkr2_2cPsAhXnUBUIHc5mBrgQ6AEwBHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=%22suzette%20tarri%22&f=false Louis Barfe, ''Happiness and Tears: The Ken Dodd Story'', Head of Zeus Ltd, 2019, pp.1704-1705]</ref>
She was at one time the president of the [[Concert Artistes Association]].<ref>''The Stage Year Book 1956'', p.25</ref>

Her final appearances both on radio and stage came in 1954, by which time she was suffering from cancer. She died in [[Southgate, London]], in 1955, aged 74.<ref name=baker/><ref name=obit/>

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|0850657}}
* {{discogs artist|1760106}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarri, Suzette}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English comedians]]
[[Category:English women comedians]]

Suzette Tarri - Revision history

Kurt at 16:20, 22 February 2023

Kurt: 1 revision imported

en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* External links */move to Category:20th-century English comedians