Page 47 - L&T Millicent Phillips

Millicent Phillips Redditch Heritage

-2004 Redditch Advertiser Archive - Wednesday, 2nd June

Star still on song at 80

She has performed with some of the greatest stars of the stage and is friends with
Prince Charles, but at her 80th birthday party, Millicent Phillips-Shillaber chose to sing
only for her family and friends in Redditch.

Millicent returned to the town last year after a lifetime in showbusiness, performing
with the likes of Billy Cotton, Jack Payne, Ivy Benson and Arthur Askey.

At her party on Saturday, May 21, the 80 year old performed a rendition of Mick and
Mac and It Had to be You, with her son Keff playing the guitar. The next day, she was
delighted to hear her songs I Love to Whistle and Yours on Desmond Carrington's
Radio 2 show.

Millicent said she had been musical from a young age and used to sing at any given
opportunity.

"I liked to practise singing in rooms with high ceilings - my favourite place being in
grandmother's loo!"

When she was just 10, her beautiful singing voice was recognised by the another
famous Redditch-born entertainer, the opera singer Mavis Bennett and under her
guidance, Millicent moved to London. She joined Bandwagon, a talent show akin to
today's Pop Idol, where the public voted her the winner.

She then performed the first of hundreds of national radio broadcasts at the age of
12 but her seven-year contract was cut short by the onset of the Second World War.

"The arrival of the war was really shattering but I continued to perform, entertaining
the forces in any place bombs weren't being dropped," she said.

"I sang with all the big stars of the day. I always loved the applause at the end of a
show."

Her stage talent eventually earned her the nickname of the English Diana Durban, the
American screen and stage star, and she toured in many of famous impresario Jack
Hilton's shows.

After retiring, Millicent lived with her husband in Harrow, Middlesex, but said she
always missed 'home'. Now living in Birchfield Road, she says she is delighted to be
back, Redditch always being close to her heart.

"My friends are still here and I'm discovering new things about Redditch all the time."

She added:

"I never thought anything of being famous - it didn't even dawn on me that I was
famous.

"But people still recognise me around the town."

Page: 47