Lita Roza

I once slept in the same bed as Lita Roza, but not necessarily at the same time.

In the late 80s and early 90s I was enmired in a civil service job which entailed travelling all over England annoying people and staying in seedy boarding houses. I and my colleagues maintained a database of accommodations which could provide a reasonable level of utilities and still allow us to save some money from our rather frugal expenses allowance. My boss, who was a frightful bully even though, in his better moods, he seemed to like me, later reminisced: “Preston, that paid for your new kitchen; Beverley – that was the loft extension, wasn’t it?”

When I had to go to Carlisle the database provided me with an address. It was a very cosy billet and the landlady was a very sweet elderly human. As soon as I walked through the front door with my impedimenta, I noticed a framed photograph on the telephone table. I asked “is that Lita Roza?” She said, “It is. She often used to stay here. She was a lovely person”. My landlady got a bit tearful.

Lita was a successful artiste in the pre-Beatles days of 1950s Britain. She was the first Liverpool artiste to get to number one. I saw her live a few times. She was exotic and glamourous. Wikipedia puts it like this: “She owed her sultry looks and passion to her father, an amateur accordionist and pianist of Filipino descent who played in Liverpool nightclubs.”

Lilian Patricia Lita Roza was born in Liverpool on 14 March 1926, the eldest of seven children. She began work at an early age to support the family. When she was 12, she passed an audition for juvenile dancers and appeared in a pantomime. By the time she was 15 was working with the comedian, and fellow scouser, Ted Ray (whom I also saw live). When she was 16, she got a job as a singer in the New Yorker club in Southport (I spent a lot of time in Southport in my civil service days) for £5 a week. Soon afterwards she signed up with the Harry Roy Orchestra in London, moving on to work with other bands of the era, such as Edmundo Ros (not an Irishman called Edmund O’Ross).

At 18, she left show biz and moved to Miami with her American husband. After the marriage failed, she went back to England and became the lead singer with the Ted Heath (not the Tory prime minister) Band. By 1954, she was popular enough to leave the band and pursue a solo recording career.

She appeared in a film that sounds interesting. Cast a Dark Shadow is a 1955 British film noir directed by Lewis Gilbert (of Alfie fame). The black-and-white film was based on the play Murder Mistaken by Janet Green. The story concerns a young wife-murderer, played by Dirk Bogarde.

It is very sad that Lita Roza’s legacy is that the biggest success she had was “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”, which was a cover version of Patti Page’s (who could also do better) original. Lita Roza disliked her chart-topping single so much she never performed it live.

She did some good stuff with the Ted Heath band and there is a clip on YouTube of her performing with the Ronnie Scott big band along with Cleo Laine and Marion Montgomery. Pity she did not get the chance to do more jazz.

She died at her home in London on 14 August 2008 at the age of 82.