Biography
Elsie Florence Killick came into the world on 9 December 1904 in London, England, and left it on 15 October 1982 in the same city. Working as a dancer, comedienne and singer, she first encountered Jack Buchanan, whose name would remain forever linked with hers, while performing at the Queen’s Hall Roof Follies Cabaret in London. Having moved from the chorus into leading roles in West End shows that included The Girl For A Boy (1919), The Naughty Princess (1920), My Nieces (1921) and His Girl (1922), she received Buchanan’s offer of the dual parts of flapper and maid in Battling Butler (1922). When she stood in briefly for Sylvia Leslie during the run and won praise, Buchanan advanced her to second lead in Toni (1924), where the pair performed the song-and-dance number ‘Don’t Love Me’. The engagement inaugurated a musical-comedy partnership that West End and cinema audiences cherished for roughly two decades. Randolph stayed in supporting parts through Boodle (1925) and Sunny (1926), yet by the presentation of the casually elegant ‘Fancy Our Meeting’ in That’s A Good Girl (1928) she had secured the principal female role opposite Buchanan. One reviewer remarked on the unconventional balance: ‘Because of her piquancy, she was more of a soubrette than a romantic lead. And she was a brilliant foil for Jack. She could tackle the broadest comedy - even burlesque.’ Buchanan was routinely cast as the suitor of the ingénue, while Randolph traded wisecracks with him and joined him in refined dance sequences throughout the decade’s hits Stand Up And Sing (1931), Mr. Whittington (1934) and This’ll Make You Whistle (1936). Their revue Top Hat And Tails, mounted at the Imperial Theatre Buchanan erected in Brighton, proved less fortunate. Because Randolph never threatened Buchanan’s standing as ‘Britain’s most eligible bachelor’, admirers often voiced disappointment whenever the two appeared separately. Her independent engagements took in musicals such as Madame Pompadour (1924), Peggy-Ann (1927), Follow Through (1929), The Co-Optimists (1930), Wonder Bar (1930) and Charlot’s Char-a-Bang (1935), together with assorted stage comedies. After playing Vittoria in the 1942 revival of the First World War success The Maid Of The Mountains, she and Buchanan rejoined forces in It’s Time To Dance (1943), which completed 259 London performances. The pair also appeared together in four films—Yes, Mr. Brown, That’s A Good Girl, This’ll Make You Whistle and Smash And Grab—and joined other veterans for a nostalgic segment of the twenty-fifth Royal Variety Performance in 1954. Buchanan died three years later, yet Randolph continued working in provincial theatres and later returned to the screen in the non-British productions Reach For The Sky (Czech) and Charleston (Italy). Several of the charming duets she recorded with Buchanan, among them ‘Oceans Of Time’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ (both from Mr. Whittington), ‘The One I’m Looking For’ (That’s A Good Girl), ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ (Stand Up And Sing) and the perennial ‘Fancy Our Meeting’, have been issued on disc.