Auction artefact #3: Ethel Smith

Okay, I'll give the record-box revelations a little break after this (although I still have a radio that looks like a Bible and fold-up opera glasses to come!), but I had to share the wonder of Ethel Smith.

The cover isn't exactly in mint condition but you get a sense of her effervescence:

Ethel Smith (was there ever a less glamorous name for an entertainer?) had until this afternoon completely passed me by, but I'm a convert. Like Klaus Wunderlich, she played the organ. Unlike Klaus, she holds the cheese and reaches for the gin; Society Cha Cha Cha in particular is just screaming out for a round of Gibsons.
It's all a bit kitsch, sure, but whereas so much organ music can be funereal (or make you want to kill yourself, as in Klaus' case, which is much the same thing), Ethel's playing is just so perky. As well as highly accomplished of course.

This discovery prompted a YouTube search and I found a slice of 1948 Disney/Ethel fabulousness (just wait until you hit around 2:30, it only gets better):



I still can't work out how to fit it into this little screen, but who cares?

Update: I think I recognise this dress (see album cover).