Anne Lenner

Early life and education

Violet Green, known professionally as Anne Lenner, was born on 24 December 1912 in Aylestone, Leicester. Her father, Arthur Green, performed as Tom Lenner and toured with her mother, Florence Wright. She attended King Richard’s Road school. Lenner had five sisters: Florence (later Judy Shirley), Maidie, Ida, Rosa (stage name Sally Rose), and Ivy (later Shirley Lenner, who sang with Joe Loss). All but Maidie, who married a property millionaire, entered show business. She also had two brothers: Herbert, who died young, and Arthur, a cobbler.

Career

Lenner's first stage appearance was in a family production billed as "Tom Lenner and his Chicks." Later she teamed up with Ida to form "The Lenner Sisters," performing in Leicester at the de Montfort Hotel, the City Cinema, tea dances at the Palais de Danse in Belgrave Gate, and Sundays at Aylestone Boathouse. The act ended when Ida married and started a double-act with her husband. Her elder sister Jud paid for Lenner to have dancing lessons so she could understudy Judy in a production at the Loughborough Theatre.

Lenner began performing solo at charity shows, benefits, and social clubs. By 1933 she was offered engagements in London, appearing at Jack's Club and the Cabaret Club, where she had to perform with a megaphone. In 1934 at Murray's Club in Soho's Beak Street, she was heard by Savoy Hotel bandleader Carroll Gibbons. Gibbons was so impressed that he invited her to record with his group for a Radio Luxembourg broadcast sponsored by Hartley's Jam.

The session was booked for 9:30am the next morning, but Lenner was late. Gibbons booked another session later that day. The broadcasts were successful, and Lenner was given a three-year contract to sing with Gibbons at the Savoy Hotel. The Savoy management initially objected to a female vocalist, but Gibbons refused to give in, and she stayed with the band for seven years.

Apart from the Hartley's Jam programme, Lenner also appeared with Gibbons in the Ovaltineys, becoming known to millions of children as "Auntie Anne." She sang with a gentle "Mayfair" accent based on received pronunciation and did not project her voice. With her soft pure voice, she was ideal for the Savoy Orpheans and became extremely popular with Savoy patrons, record buyers, and radio audiences. She recorded over 150 titles with Gibbons, both with the full band and with a smaller contingent he called his "Boy Friends."

It was with the Boy Friends that Lenner made the Hartley's Jam broadcasts, introduced by Jimmy Dyrenforth as the "girl friend." Lenner left the Savoy Hotel in 1941 to spend more time with her husband, but kept up broadcasting and recording dates with the Savoy Orpheans. She appeared on BBC radio in the weekly series Composer Cavalcade with the BBC Concert Orchestra, sharing singing spots with Denny Dennis, George Melachrino, and Sam Costa. She was in demand for ENSA shows and sang at official Government functions, performing in front of Winston Churchill and General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

She appeared in the 1940 British comedy film Garrison Follies, and her singing voice was dubbed for actress Ann Todd. During the war years she sang with other bands including Jay Wilbur, Jack White, Louis Levy, and Frank Weir at the Astor Club, where George Shearing was in the band. After the war she did troop shows in Austria, Germany, and Italy, one with her trio which included Spike Milligan on vocals and guitar. She never sang in the USA; a tour was planned but halted by the outbreak of the war.

Back in the UK, she sang solo and teamed up with Bob Harvey for a double-act called "Just The Two of Us." Lenner noticed the entertainment world changing and decided to retire. Following a chance meeting with an admirer from the Savoy days, she got a job as a telephonist in the Civil Service, working for the security services. She produced the annual Civil Service show on several occasions.

Personal life and death

Lenner married a dance producer named Piddock, whom she met while appearing in a review he produced. They had a son, Jeffrey, who went into show business under the name Jeffrey Lenner. Jeffrey was educated at Bedford School but ran away to join the Ice Follies while in the 6th Form. He found it difficult to obtain work after returning from Australia, where he had hosted his own television programme.

Around the outbreak of World War II, Lenner married for a second time, to up-and-coming actor Gordon Little, who was in the Navy, stationed at Portsmouth. Lenner rented a house in Warsash, Hampshire, to be near her husband, who commanded a torpedo boat during the war. The couple hosted many parties. Lenner and a friend, Eustace Hoey, opened the Ward Room club in Curzon Street, London, for her husband and his Navy friends.

The marriage ended soon after the war, and she did not remarry. During the 1970s and 1980s she worked for Post Office Telephones at their sales offices in Mayfair and Oxford Street, and made a live BBC broadcast from the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the late 1970s. She retired from British Telecom in the 1980s. Lenner died at Barnet Hospital on 4 June 1997, aged 84.

Gibbons' widow Joan recalled that Lenner was a marvellous raconteur with a quick brain and strong sense of humour, who suffered from failing eyesight late in life.