Jessie Matthews recorded live in Hobart, Tasmania in 1953, accompanied by Heather Murdoch on piano, singing the song she debuted twenty-five years earlier - Let's Do It by Cole Porter. Jessie was having an affair with a Tasmanian businessman at this time and came down to Hobart from her temporary home in Melbourne, where she was running a drama school. "Out of the blue I was asked to fly to Tasmania and there adjudicate in a Drama Festival to be held in Hobart... The tall contemporary buildings rose against the soft green hills and apple orchards of Hobart. 'Everyone in town's here today,' the Mayor told me proudly as he escorted me to my seat on the platform." I think the song must have been recorded at the ABC radio studios in Elizabeth Street. The song is set to photos of Hobart in the 1950s, taken from the Archives of Tasmania's online photo database: http://portal.archives.tas.gov.au/menu.aspx?search=7

Comments

1. Very pleasant version and the photos make it even better. Thanks!
2. great pictures do u have anymore old footage of hobart?
3. Any more radio performances of Jessie?
4. Wow... thankyou. I never realised Jessie Matthews visited Tasmania. The Eastern Shore looks strangley devoid of real estate!