Helen Clare (born Nelly Harrison; 29 November 1916 – 15 September 2018) was a British singer who was well known in the 1930s and 1940s through her work in variety, radio, television and recording.
[3] She began performing in cinemas, often dressed to look like Baby Peggy, a popular child star in Hollywood, and progressed to appearing in pantomimes in Perth, as well as Australia's major population centres of Melbourne and Sydney.
Harrison, "a diminutive child-prodigy, sang fluently and correctly, with shades and roulades, all in a tiny voice, the valse-air from Edward German's comic opera Tom Jones", the review added.
[8] In February 1937, she began broadcasting throughout Britain on the BBC National Programme with Jack Jackson's band, who were resident at the Dorchester Hotel in London.
[9] Jackson had spotted her the previous year, and Clare became a household name, taking bookings from the Radio Normandie, Lyon and Luxembourg stations.
[6] That year, she sang George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me" in Cabaret Cartoons, a television programme produced by Cecil Madden.
On 22 June that year, she made her recording debut at a Rex session with Jay Wilbur and his Band, when Clare sang a duet with Jack Cooper, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", which had been introduced by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film Shall We Dance.
In December 1937, the Popular Music and Film Song Weekly wrote of Clare:"…there are relatively few dance-band crooners who possess what the professors would describe as a 'real voice'.
She broadcast with the BBC's in-house orchestras and those led by such notable bandleaders as Carroll Gibbons, Henry Hall, Billy Ternent and Jack Hylton.
[10] Offered the chance to work with bandleader Jack Payne, she broadcast with him for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), singing songs such as "I'll Walk Beside You", a popular hit during the war.
She also appeared in BBC programmes such as Music While You Work, Calling Forces Gibraltar and Workers' Playtime singing requests for the troops and their loved ones.
[3][12] In early 1944, she recorded vocals at three sessions with Harry Leader and his Band for Regal Zonophone, who were based at the Astoria Ballroom in London.
In addition to ENSA, Clare also performed for the Overseas Recorded Broadcasting Service, which made radio programmes for British forces stationed abroad.
[15] Clare was taken to the Grosvenor House Hotel for a celebration of her 100th birthday, in a visit featured on Holding Back the Years, a BBC One programme hosted by Ainsley Harriott.
"[6] In 1939, following the start of the Second World War, Clare lived at 88 Maida Vale (later a Grade II listed building) in the area of the same name, then part of the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone, west London.