JANET LIND née RITA NUGENT. DANCER, SINGER AND ACTRESS

Janet Lind in 1937

 I was interested to hear an interview with Janet Lind done in Australia in 1979 on YouTube recently. It may be heard at the following link: https://youtu.be/Wyz3T2Zj6YY She started her career in Australia as a dancer under her birth name of Rita Nugent. She arrived in England via a long-running show in Berlin in the 1930s. Without any vocal training and unable to read a note of music, almost by chance she began singing, and changed her name to Janet Lind. She did numerous broadcasts on the BBC, not only as a singer with the big band of Louis Levy, but also as an actress in a number of straight plays.



An early broadcast in October of 1935.

The songs featured in the YouTube broadcast are with Louis Levy's brassy big band. She is primarily remembered today as a regular vocalist with Louis Levy's band. Louis Levy

   1936. A letter in one of the Australian papers.                 


The reason she is featured here is because she also made several recordings with Webster Booth for HMV in 1936 and 1937, and these are very much more pleasing to my ear than the songs she sang with Louis Levy's band. Despite her lack of musical and vocal training she had an excellent natural voice. Click on the links to listen: This Year of Theatreland (1936)
Home and Beauty (1937)

 She flourished as a performer in England in the last half of the 1930s, often singing songs made popular by Jessie Matthews. She was billed as "the girl with a smile in her voice".



Music from the Movies with Louis Levy and his Symphony Orchestra. Janet Lind and Robert Ashley.

21 January 1937.
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                                                 25 July 1939

She returned to Australia with her husband, Mr Hall.  10 October 1940.

8 April 1941 I am not sure how long she continued her theatrical career in Australia, but by the 1970s she was living in Melbourne and running a shop - some people called it an antique shop; others were less complimentary about it. In her 1979 interview she had no trace of an Australian accent which explains why she had taken many straight parts in BBC productions.

Despite her theatrical and vocal success in earlier decades she was casual and deprecating about her achievements. Many other singers who studied singing earnestly would have given a lot to have had such a successful career!


 Jean Collen 16 February 2018.