Talk:Jessie Matthews

Untitled
Her parents were married 4 OCT 1896 in Church of St. John the Baptist, Gr. Marlborough St., London per family researchers. Questors 22:23, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Having had an interest in Matthew's life and career for many years, I've never before come across a reference to her being jewish, as has been inserted in a recent edit here.

In her autobiography she fondly describes friendships with jewish neighbours without any reference to being of that faith herself, and also makes no mention of it during the section about the Second World War. So either A: Matthews was jewish and went to great lengths to conceal the fact, which would be noteworthy; or B: the Jewish Cronicle is mistaken to have included her in their list, or whoever added this detail to her wikipedia entry was mistaken (e.g. it was intended for another Jesse/Jessica Matthews - it's a fairly common name). Having discussed it with user Mad Jack, who made the most recent edits, we've agreed it's best to amend the entry, because it currently implies that Matthews deliberately concealed this part of her history, and something as significant as that alleged concealment should not be included without certainty.

--PRL1973 23:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Berwick Street and the rivals in love
For some reason only an early, truncated version of my rationale for re-reverting this link seems to have gone into the page history, so I'd better expand briefly here:

Looking at MrTradescant's contribution history to date (external links additions within a brief period all apparently pointing to the same blogsite) I can understand why these external links might be subject to a mass reversion; but this Jessie Matthews/Evelyn Laye article at least looks worth keeping. Apart from anything else it contains fascinating early photos which I have not seen anywhere else on the Web.

The author states that the factual content is largely derived from Michael Thornton's biography of Miss Matthews, which is now out of print. Igenlode (talk) 01:03, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Jessie or Jessica
(pasted from my discussion of this point with Rms125a@hotmail.com)


 * Neither Thornton's biography nor the original newspaper reports that I have seen of the various legal cases in which she was involved appear to suggest that she was officially named Jessica rather than Jessie: in the contexts where full names are quoted she is "Jessie Margaret Matthews" at birth (Thornton, p17), then "Mrs. Jessie Margaret Lytton" ("Times" report of divorce proceedings, 22 Nov 1929 and 12 July 1930) and "Jessie Margaret Lytton, formerly Matthews" (Thornton, p103) at her wedding to Sonnie Hale, and finally "Mrs. Jessie Margaret Monro" at their divorce ("Times" legal column, 4 July 1944). None of the above prove that she wasn't a Jessica, but as 'John Robert Hale Monro' and 'Evelyn Elsie Monro' are given their full legal names in addition to the ones more familiarly used, one would expect Jessie Matthews to have received similar treatment if applicable.


 * Thornton cites her reaction to her daughter's christening of her second child with the names "Jessica Sarah Jane" as being 'I suppose she couldn't quite bring herself to call her Jessie and use my own name" (Thornton, p306-7).

In the absence of a birth certificate (if one exists, Michael Thornton presumably had access to it) I feel that there is considerable doubt as to a birth name of "Jessica Matthews", and have reverted the article as it currently stands to use "Jessie" throughout. (I am aware that the IMDb lists her birth name as Jessica, but its user-contributed content is not always entirely reliable on such points.) Igenlode (talk) 00:17, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Her birth certificate states she was indeed called Jessie. JessieMatthews1907 (talk) 22:20, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

Jessie Matthews siblings
(pasted from discussion with JohnClarknew)

There seems to be some confusion among different sources as to how many siblings she actually had. Matters are further confused by the fact that she had an elder sister who died in childhood, thus making her either the sixth or seventh child according to the system of reckoning used. I wrote:


 * What Thornton's biography actually states is (p5) "Jane [Matthews] would have sixteen children in all, but only eleven of them would survive to maturity. This is the story of the seventh child."
 * As one can note from the use of seventh rather than sixth here, her next eldest sister Margaret died of diptheria, it is implied before Jessie was born. Thornton gives specific names and birthdates for only five of the following siblings -- Lena (1909), Eva (1911), Eddie (1916), Ray (a girl) (1917) and Harry (1919) -- meaning that four further unspecified babies must have died after Jessie's birth. I would guess from the gap in the cited dates that two or three of them probably came between Eva and Eddie in age, and I would guess also from the absence of any reference to the deaths that, like Margaret, they probably died at a very young age and never really 'interacted' with Jessie in the way of, for example, Lena and Eva with whom as a child she had to share a bed.
 * (What Jessie Matthews herself states on the subject, while discussing her mother in her autobiography Over My Shoulder (p15), is "Her heart was big enough for all her children, and before she'd finished she had sixteen, although only eleven of us survived.") —Preceding unsigned comment added by Igenlode (talk • contribs) 13:23, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Apparently Harry, the youngest, had a stillborn twin sister, thus accounting for one of the 'missing' siblings...Igenlode (talk) 21:31, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

What about Rosie? TrottieTrue (talk) 02:55, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Jessie Matthews. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090812113500/http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/04/berwick-street-and-the-rivals-in-love-jessie-matthews-and-evelyn-laye.html to http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/04/berwick-street-and-the-rivals-in-love-jessie-matthews-and-evelyn-laye.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070827051500/http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Matthews.htm to http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Matthews.htm

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Illegitimate daughter?
The currently article refers to Jessie Matthews’ adopted daughter. The BBC documentary says that before the adoption she had given birth to a son who died within a day. But all over the internet is a fairly recent comment, from someone who says he interviewed her illegitimate daughter in South Africa, someone called Billie Washington who lived to a great age. Is there an acceptable source for this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.146.83.158 (talk) 23:32, 6 June 2020 (UTC)


 * I’ve never heard of such a thing. Jessie lost two babies - she seems to have had trouble carrying them. Had there been a biological child, I highly doubt she would have disowned him or her. It was practically Jessie’s greatest wish to have her own child.--TrottieTrue (talk) 03:00, 14 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Ok, it seems this was posted as a comment on a YouTube video:
 * David Forster


 * “Amazing lady, I have just interviewed her illigitimate daughter Billie Washington, in Durban nursing home South Africa at 87yrs, facinating as her mother.”


 * I think he’s mistaken.--TrottieTrue (talk) 03:09, 14 March 2021 (UTC)


 * The year would be circa 1930, based on him making that comment four years ago. So that is feasible - apart from the fact that Jessie would have had to disappear for nine months to hide her large bump! And that was her heyday, when she was regularly recording, making films and appearing on stage. It’s not as if no one would have noticed her being pregnant, and it would have been written about at the time. Her biographer would have picked up on those reports. The biography by Michael Thornton details what she was doing from 1929 to 1931. She was never out of the public eye long enough in that period to hide a pregnancy. She couldn’t have continued performing on stage whilst in the latter stages of her pregnancy either.--TrottieTrue (talk) 16:54, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

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