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Anne Ziegler, the widow and singing partner of Webster Booth, died in Llandudno, North Wales, on 13 October 2003, at the age of ninety-three. Her death brought an end to an era of British entertainment before and after the Second World War. Her death brought an end to an era for me also.
I was seventeen when I first met Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth at the end of 1960. They were in the same age group as my parents, their top-flight stage career in Britain behind them. Anne and Webster made a great and lasting impression on me, first as teachers and mentors, and then as life-long friends.
During the five years I studied singing with them I kept detailed diaries, and although several of these diaries were destroyed, I immediately wrote a full account of the “lost years” in an attempt to replace these memories while they were still fresh in my mind. I have a complete collection of their letters to me, covering a forty year period.
I was too young to have seen them at the height of their fame, but even before I met them, I knew at once that they were a shining couple, their gifts and personalities setting them apart from humdrum lesser mortals. More than sixty years later I hold the same opinion of them.
One of the most memorable periods of my life was when Anne and Webster asked me to act as Webster’s studio accompanist when Anne (who usually accompanied their singing pupils) was away. I was all of 19 years old at the time. In 1990 I went to the United Kingdom for a holiday after my father’s death and spent a very happy few days with Anne at her home in Penrhyn Bay, North Wales. She was kind enough to leave me a bequest in her will which I received in 2003 shortly after her death.
When I was writing my book about my association with Anne and Webster, the late Mrs Freda Davies of Port Elizabeth passed on her correspondence with them to me. For several years Mrs Davies lived on the top floor of their home in Knysna with her father, Mr Fred Cropper, and they became close friends.
Although I have a great collection of photographs it was almost impossible to find out who the photographers were, or from whom copyright clearance could be obtained. Most of the photographers in the early photographs were dead; the press agencies and photographic studios no longer existed. The late Sally Rayner, the executrix of Anne’s estate, gave me permission to use suitable photographs in my book and elsewhere on the internet.
The book, Sweethearts of Song: a Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth was published in 2006 and was recently revised and updated. Other books succeeded it, including a 4 volume work of A Scattered Garland: Gleanings from the lives of Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler, which covers their careers through the early days, top of the tree, time in South Africa and back home again. All these books are available at https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/duettists/
Jean Collen
1 April 2021
WEBSTER BOOTH-ANNE ZIEGLER 