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More from James Messini about the S.S Dolly (see below)...
Now my cousin Dolly (real name Dorothy) was named after my Grandma Dolly (real name Dorothy) and it struck me that the ship must have been named after my Grandma. Trivial, perhaps, but another small piece of info which seems to confirm the existence of the ship, as it is unlikely that anybody outside our family would have known about my Grandma's pet name.
Mesene, Messini or Messinis...
June 2008, E-mail from James Messini (Jimmy's son) - "I have been communicating with my cousin Dolly in California. She tells me that her mum (my Aunt Hytho) told her, definitely, that the family name was originally Messinis (anglicised spelling). Hytho had also told me that, but we didn't discuss it further. Dolly also said that our grandfather had changed the name to Mesene for "business reasons" when he settled in Cardiff, with no explanation as to why. My dad changed the spelling to Messini for professional reasons, as I have previously explained (perhaps for as simple a reason as ensuring people pronounced it correctly and not as "Mezeen", though this is a wild guess). He then changed it back to Mesene, during the war, as he thought Messini sounded Italian and Italy was an enemy at that time. This is definite, as that's what he told my mum".
Colin Brown remembers Jimmy...
The facts that emerged from a telephone chat with Colin Brown: He said that he had worked with EMI/Decca records for many years and is currently working on a series of nostalgia type CD re-issues to come out next summer (2008). One of them is a 2CD set involving Jimmy Mesene with Al Bowlly on one CD and Jimmy with Nat Gonella on the other. His father had been in the "business" with Mesene and Bowlly when they were doing their double act in 1939/41. He himself had also been in the "biz" as an actor although he had quit in 1949.
He reckoned he first met Jimmy when he was six or seven (about 1939). This means he was only about sixteen when he left acting. Colin Brown said his father knew Nat Gonella and he himself continued this friendship through to the 1960s.
Colin Brown continues "I first met Jimmy when I went with my father to a block of flats on the Watford by pass. This was the flat of Phyllis Robins, (with whom Jimmy had an affair)". (Note: this fits into the time scale between the end of Jimmy's first marriage and his second marriage in 1942. "She was a couple of years younger than Jimmy and was a "fast piece" . Jimmy, like others before, was besotted. She sang with the Henry Hall band who were big on BBC radio and she also appeared in musical films in the 1930s, possibly with Jimmy. It was a big scandal at the time.
I liked Jimmy who was very friendly towards me although I was only six or seven and he asked me if I collected records. When I said I had a few, Jimmy laughed and said "I don't suppose you have any of my rubbish". Jimmy was like a friendly uncle whenever I subsequently saw him but I hated Al Bowlly who always ignored me and never spoke to me. I remember Jimmy as medium height with dark hair. He spoke with an accent that my father told me was Italian and Nat Gonella later said that he thought Jimmy was Italian. I also saw Jimmy at an office in Soho that he said was the office of the Mesene Shipping company. (Note: This does not fit in at all because the Mesene Shipping business was supposedly finished in the 1920s). I did not see Jimmy again after 1941 when the double act finished and I never spoke to him again (I was then about nine or ten)". Everything else that follows was told to him by Nat Gonella...
It was always rumoured that Jimmy's father paid a bandleader to take him on to get him into show business - nobody now knows who the bandleader was. It was true that Jimmy could speak a number of languages - the Gonella band made regular trips to Europe and they always relied on Jimmy to do the talking, he was invaluable. Nobody knew where he learnt all the languages.
Jimmy was a superb guitar player and played on many records, depping for other people, for which he never received credit on the label. The musicians in the Lew Stone band reckoned he was the best they had ever heard. Everybody agreed that he must have had tuition, but he never let on where or how he had learnt.
Nat liked Jimmy and put up with a lot from him. As is well known Jimmy had a serious drink problem and would "get off his head" at regular intervals while performing. When he was like this he would only sing in that comic opera style. The audience in the dance hall's and theatres loved him and would egg him on to even sillier singing.
Parlophone would not give Jimmy a recording contract because of his bad reputation, but Nat gave him exposure by letting him sing under his contract and those records have on them "Jimmy Mesene introduced by Nat Gonella".
Jimmy had to finish with Nat when most of the band including Nat were called up into the Army (1940). Jimmy was well known in the business by then as a drunk and nobody would employ him. His partnership with Al Bowlly was a last resort for both of them and although Jimmy did make a few more records, bandleaders would not have his name on their record labels as vocalist, nobody wanted to be seen to be associated with him. On his last record with the Mantovani Orchestra, (a big name at the time), Jimmy was on the label as the "Lonely Troubadour", the Decca studio log says Mantovani would not let him be named.
In 1945 at the end of the war Gonella reformed his band and Jimmy went to see him and asked if he could come back into the band. Nat noticing how he had gone downhill declined the offer. For similar reasons he also refused to re-sign Pat Smuts. As we already know that was the end of the line for Jimmy and he left the UK. Gonella never heard a word about Jimmy after that. It seems certain that he did not go into the music business in Canada because the musicians in the bands were always changing, many did a spell in Canada and somebody would have come across him. Nat had never known a lot about him, thought he was Italian, but reckoned he always had plenty of money. There was always rumours that Jimmy came from a wealthy background. It is thought that he might have gone into some form of teaching in Canada - he was
a brilliant musician, and was fluent in a number of languages. He was very personable, people instinctively liked him and he was generous.
Jimmy Mesene's father...
(From an article by Ray Pallett and Terry Brown):
Details of his parents are sketchy, but what is known, is that his father John was born in Cardiff but was of Greek descent. John married an Irish woman in 1906, again in Cardiff. The story that John Mesene was a Maltese millionaire is patently untrue, another that says he was a Greek shipping magnate would be nearer the truth although a great exaggeration. Mesene Senior was indeed in shipping (sometimes being described as a ship's chandler) and owned a freighter, the S.S. Dolly built by D. Dobson & Co. in 1899. He probably based his operation in Cardiff, because transportation contract work was readily available and well paid. The Dolly operated into the twenties until it was stranded on reefs in the Dardenelles in November 1927. It's unclear what happened to the ship, other than a Lloyd's report that a salvage steamer was standing by and a newspaper quote from Jimmy much later in life that his father had lost a quarter of a million pounds with his shipping business and that one day he would get it back. In actual fact, Jimmy's father went broke during the depression and committed suicide.
Emigration to the USA...
More interesting information from Leon Martel - "I've been doing a bit of digging. I found the passenger manifest for the SS 'Deed' which sailed from Sunderland on 27th September, 1947 and arrived at Port Arthur, Texas on 19th October, 1947. On board were Demetre Mesene with his wife, Hilda Noel Mesene, this was of course Jimmy and his wife and shows that they left the UK for Texas originally. No child accompanied them, so I don't think his son left with them. There is no date of birth but his age is given as 38 years 8 months. His occupation is given as music composer. What is more interesting is that his ethnic background is stated as Greek/Irish and her's as Irish. Jimmy's place of birth is given as Cardiff, South Wales.
Did you know that Jimmy was a bankrupt?...
Leon Martel - The following is taken from the London Gazette under the Bankruptcy Acts 1914 and 1926, Receiving Orders, for 10th January 1936.
'Anulling, Revoking or Rescinding Order - Mesene, Demetre, known as Jimmy Messini, described in the receiving order as James Messini, 18, Monmouth Road, London, W2. Vocalist and musician. Adjudication dated June 26th, 1935, annulled. Receiving Order dated dated May 8 1935 rescinded. Petition filed January 1, 1935 dismissed. Date of annulment, rescision and dismissal Dec. 18, 1935. Grounds - that it appears to the court that all debts of the debtor have been repaid'.
In other words, Jimmy filed for or was declared Bankrupt on January 1st, 1935 but he'd paid off his debts by December 1935".
Jimmy's death and the Hawthorn-Dale cemetery...
Jimmy Mesene died on 28th August 1969 in Montreal but there was no news item in the press or report in any music related magazine or periodical. Doug Wilkins wrote in 'Memory Lane' in 1988 that he was making enquires through Lyman Potts in Canada to track down where Jimmy was buried. He eventually uncovered a few facts. Jimmy had died on the way to hospital and he had a Montreal address although he could not find out how long he had lived in the city. The name on the death certificate was James Mesene. At the time of his death he was still married to Hilda who died three years after him, there were no children of the marriage. He was 61 years of age
Jimmy is buried in Hawthorn-Dale Cemetery and his grave can be visited. It is the second largest non-Catholic cemetery on the island of Montreal and is one of the largest cemeteries in the Province of Quebec. Located on the eastern end of the island in the district of Pointe Aux Trembles on Sherbrooke Street East, Hawthorn-Dale Cemetery has been the final resting place for thousands of Montrealers and area residents since the cemetery first opened in 1910. There was a tendancy for many of the poorer residents of the island of Montreal to be buried there. As a result, there are numerous individuals for whom there is no memorial stone. This was true particularily for the 1920s and 1930s.
Address and contacts :15005 rue Sherbrooke Est, Montreal, Quebec H1A 3X1 Tel: (514) 498-7682 Fax: (514) 498-7909. There are numerous web sites giving details and search facilities - any search engine will oblige with web addresses...
The Masked Singer...
The first solo record made by Jimmy was on the 10th May 1933. It was made for Decca (F-3556) and Jimmy was billed as "The Masked Singer", vocal with orch. accomp. The titles recorded were "My Love Song" and "Dear Stranger". They have been added to the discographies while we try to get more information.
From Jimmy's nephew
Jimmy had an encyclopaedic memory of football matches
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