Lennie Deane, the Panto Star from West Hampstead

While searching old newspapers, I came across this story of a child actress who became a major pantomime star in the late 1920’s.

                        Lennie Deane aged 11.

In 1914 Lennie Deane first appeared on the West End stage when she was 10. The following year she was one of the Babes in The Wood at the Aldwych. Each year she appeared in Christmas pantomimes such as Puss in Boots, Cinderella, and Dick Whittington. 

She was very popular as a singer and dancer and became a star in the 1920s at major theatres such as the London Palladium. 

Here is a silent clip of her as Cinderella at the Palladium in 1926.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yThsaLtYJP0

Lennie toured the country performing in pantomime and musicals where she was a big hit as Rose Marie.

She was born in November 1904 as Selina Solomon, the daughter of a commercial traveller in fine art. By 1919 the family were living at Flat 6 Alexandra Mansions, overlooking West End Green at the heart of West Hampstead. 

In August 1930, Lennie was appearing in Eastbourne in the musical Hold Everything, when she met Lionel Russell Scott, a motor car salesman from Hove. Five days later they became engaged, and Lionel gave her a £40 diamond ring (worth about £2,600 today). Lennie was excited about the marriage and was prepared to give up the theatre and her £20 week salary. 

But things quickly went wrong. When she visited Lionel at his parent’s home in October, he refused to eat lunch with her and sat reading a paper. The following morning, she asked him why he had treated her so badly and said, ‘If you do not want to be engaged you had better take your ring back’. She tried to hand it to him, but he refused to take it and the ring fell on the floor. That night she went to his room and asked what he meant by his strange behaviour. He said, ‘Shut up, and get out of the room. I hate the sight of you’. He hit her and tried to push her out of the room. 

Selina sued Lionel for breach of promise, and in court in October 1931 she said that at the beginning he was ‘very sweet and kind’. ‘We got on marvelously well and I was carried away’. 

Lionel gave evidence and said that in October the previous year he was not feeling well. He said Lennie threw the ring at him. At 2am in the morning he was awoken by a blow on the head and found her standing beside the bed with her fist raised. He said she was hysterical. There was a struggle and he admitted he may have pushed her in the face, but he did not hit her. 

When asked why he did not reply to a letter from Selina after the ring incident, Lionel said ‘Because I got the writ on the same day’. At this point the judge said sternly, ‘Listen, you are in great danger of going to jail. Why do you lie to me like that? You say that you got the writ on 12 October when in fact it was not issued until 23 October.’ Lionel said he was confused about the dates.

When the judge summed up, he told the jury they might think Mr Scott’s conduct was that of ‘an utter, calculating blackguard’. The jury believed Selina’s version of the events and awarded her £300 damages, worth about £19,500 today. 

Lennie carried on with her career until September 1934 when she married the ‘light comedian’ Trevelyan Bryce-Wilson. He also gave up the stage and became a printer’s traveler. They did not have children, but the marriage seemed to be a happy one. In 1972 Trevelyan died at Flat 6 at 88 Hall Road in St John’s Wood, and Selina died there aged 99 in 2003.