Elisabeth Welch

From the jazz age theatres of 1920s New York to Parisian cabaret, Elisabeth Welch brought her glamorous renditions in her distinctive style to London’s West End. Born in 1904 in New York to the son of a former slave and Native American grandmother and a Scottish Irish mother, Welch grew up watching the artists come and go through the stage door at the local theatre close to the family’s home on 63rd Street. Having danced alongside world famous dancers such as Josephine Baker and commanding critically acclaimed one-woman performances, which won her an Obie, a special award of the of the New York Critics’ Outer Circle and a Tony nomination, Welch introduced the Charleston making her an internationally recognised hit. With a life-long career on the stage, television and radio, Welch was described as a ‘national treasure’ and her beauty, wit and conviction for entertaining people made her a compelling subject for Brockhurst.