Elsie Carlisle

Carlisle was also backed by Ambrose when she performed solo, and duetted with Sam Browne, being hailed as one of the band's best singers.

[1][7] Carlisle's performance of "Home, James, and Don't Spare the Horses" with the Ambrose orchestra might have helped to popularise this phrase.

However, Carlisle's greatest claim to fame is that Cole Porter personally requested her to introduce his composition "What is This Thing Called Love?

Two Pathé films are available on YouTube: a 1931 short with her singing "Alone and Afraid" and "My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes", and an entire reel of Radio Parade (1933).

"[10] The following month, she was billed in These Radio Times, a "history of Everyman's entertainment" on the BBC Light Programme.

[9][15] At the age of 16, Carlisle fell pregnant, and on 16 June 1913, she gave birth to an illegitimate son, Basil Albert.

His father was Wilfred Malpas, a 23-year old decorator, whom Carlisle married on 8 August 1914 at St. Edmund's Roman Catholic Church in Miles Platting, Manchester, when she was 18.

[18][19] Two songs performed by Carlisle (accompanied by Ambrose) were featured in the Dennis Potter television series Pennies From Heaven in 1978.