A brilliant stage comedienne, Bea Lillie could turn every audience upside down with laughter. Her good friend Noel Coward supplied material, including one Bea performed as a successful lady in the British government who became rich by accepting items in her family’s pawnshop, where she belted out, “Today I’m wearing three white feathers…yesterday it was three brass balls.” In the Broadway hit Inside USA she famously appeared with a long string of pearls. Flung over her shoulder, once in motion the pearls continued twirling like a hula-hoop around her body. When Bea stepped away from the string she would proceed to sing, “I was dancing with my darling, it was Tennessee Williams.” From then on twirling beads were a part of her act; so too was her appearance as a mermaid on a rock and an Indian selling souvenirs at a railroad stop. Cole Porter supplied her with such pleasers as “I’ve Been to a Marvelous Party” and “World Weary.” In 1964 she performed in High Spirits based on Noel Coward’s farce Blithe Spirit; her final film was Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1967.

This native Britain and Broadway star married into the aristocracy in her home country, becoming Lady Peel. Once at home in London she was having some dresses made. Taking her turn with the modiste and ahead of Mrs. Swift of Chicago’s meat-packing family, Mrs. Swift, unaccustomed to being kept waiting sent an assistant to, “Tell that actress out there that she is delaying Mrs. Swift.” Emerging from the dressing room in her own good time, Bea retorted, loudly enough for everyone to hear, “And tell the butcher’s wife that Lady Peel has now finished.”

-- Max Wilk

This album, Queen Bea, was released in 1979 on DRG Records. The image comes for 1952 drawing of Lillie, Reginald Gardner, and Kenneth Walton rehearsing in her apartment for An Evening With Bea Lillie.