'Hetty King: Performer' is a fairly lacklustre documentary about a performer with a fascinating history. Unfortunately, this 1970 documentary was made very late in its subject's life (Hetty King was born in 1883), when she was long past the peak of her abilities. Although Hetty King was a performer for an astonishing 75 years, she spent nearly her entire career in the variety halls, rather than in movies or television ... so this documentary is not able to supply film clips from her vintage years.
Hetty King was that comparative rarety, a male impersonator. In male drag, she came swaggering out onto the stage dressed as a jolly Jack Tar, singing 'All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor'. As part of her turn, she filled a pipe with tobacco, struck a wooden match on her own backside, lit the pipe and smoked it while performing her monologue. Later, when she got too old to convincingly portray a sailor, she continued her male impersonations by switching to men's formal attire, black tie and top hat.
As seen here, accompanied by a few insert shots of publicity photos from her peak years on the Moss Empire circuit, Hetty King is surprisingly convincing as a man. She is, however, quite short ... and a bit portly with it, although this wasn't true during her peak years. To augment her height somewhat, she wears very slight high heels beneath her male attire. The end result is that she looks about as manly as Jimmy Clitheroe. She offers a few anecdotes about her years as the starting act for pop idol Frankie Vaughan, circa 1959 at the time of his big hit 'Green Door'.
A surprising postscript, not mentioned in this film: Hetty King continued her long career well into the last year of her life. She gave her final performance at Eastbourne in the summer of 1972, aged 89! It's unfortunate that this amazing performer didn't make film or television appearances much earlier in her life, when she had more vigour. I'll rate 'Hetty King: Performer' 6 points out of 10.
Hetty King was that comparative rarety, a male impersonator. In male drag, she came swaggering out onto the stage dressed as a jolly Jack Tar, singing 'All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor'. As part of her turn, she filled a pipe with tobacco, struck a wooden match on her own backside, lit the pipe and smoked it while performing her monologue. Later, when she got too old to convincingly portray a sailor, she continued her male impersonations by switching to men's formal attire, black tie and top hat.
As seen here, accompanied by a few insert shots of publicity photos from her peak years on the Moss Empire circuit, Hetty King is surprisingly convincing as a man. She is, however, quite short ... and a bit portly with it, although this wasn't true during her peak years. To augment her height somewhat, she wears very slight high heels beneath her male attire. The end result is that she looks about as manly as Jimmy Clitheroe. She offers a few anecdotes about her years as the starting act for pop idol Frankie Vaughan, circa 1959 at the time of his big hit 'Green Door'.
A surprising postscript, not mentioned in this film: Hetty King continued her long career well into the last year of her life. She gave her final performance at Eastbourne in the summer of 1972, aged 89! It's unfortunate that this amazing performer didn't make film or television appearances much earlier in her life, when she had more vigour. I'll rate 'Hetty King: Performer' 6 points out of 10.
