More than 90 years after Mazie Phillips – the proprietress of famed New York City movie theatre, the Venice – began her diary, it is discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story. So who was Mazie Phillips? Diary extracts, interwoven with voices from past and present, paint a picture of her adventurous life – played out during the Jazz Age, when romance and booze were aplenty. But the Great Depression looms.
Saint Mazie
First Broadcast:
Monday - Friday, 15th-26th June 2015 at 22:45 on BBC Radio 4
Production Credits:
Writer: Jami Attenberg
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Readers: Samantha Spiro (Mazie), Kerry Shale & Teresa Gallagher
Broadcast Assistant: Holly Slater
Sound Engineer: David Thomas
Producer: Karen Rose
Music: Take Me Back To New York Town by Billy Murray, Livery Stable Blues by Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Just A Baby’s Prayer At Twilight by Henry Burr, When Alexander Takes His Ragtime Band To France by Marion Harris, Prohibition Blues by The Missourians, Me And My Gin by Bessie Smith, We’ll Do Our Share (While You’re Over There) by The Peerless Quartet, Ive Got My Captain Working For Me Now by Al Johnson, I Don’t Want To Get Well by Van and Schenck, You Cant Beat Us by Arthur Fields, Easy Come Easy Go by Ruth Etting, My Man by Fanny Brice, Thats My Weakness Now by Helen Kane, Swingin Them Jingle Bells by Fats Waller & His Rhythm, Masculine Women and Feminine Men by The Savoy Havana Band, St James Infirmary by Louis Armstrong, Aint Misbehavin by Louis Armstrong, Mei Hou Wang (The Monkeys Dance) by The Chao Zhou Ensemble, Brother Can You Spare A Dime? by Bing Crosby, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out by Bessie Smith, Baby Wont You Please Come Home? by Eva Taylor, I Aint Got Nobody by Louis Armstrong, Im Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter by Fats Waller & His Rhythm, Would You Like To Take A Walk? by Annette Hanshaw and I Get A Kick Out Of You by Ethel Merman