Florence Elsie Waters (19 August 1893–14 June 1990) and her sister Doris Ethel Waters (20 December 1899–18 August 1978) were English comic actresses and singers who performed as a double act. They are remembered for creating the comedy characters Gert and Daisy, and have been described as "the most successful female double-act in the history of British music hall and variety".
Early lives and career
They were born in Bromley-by-Bow, east London, the daughters of amateur singers Maud and Ted Waters–a funeral furnisher–who encouraged all their six children to learn musical instruments. Elsie learned the violin, and Doris the piano and tubular bells, and the entire family performed together as E.W. Waters' Bijou Orchestra. Another sibling, Horace John "Jack" Waters (1895–1981), became a leading entertainer and actor from the 1930s onwards, using the stage name Jack Warner.
Elsie and Doris Waters both attended Coborn School for Girls in Bow, and were choristers at St. Leonard's Church. They studied at the Guildhall School of Music, before joining a theatrical company in Southwold, Suffolk. As singers, musicians, and comic entertainers, they started to perform widely in concert parties, at functions, and on variety bills, and made their first appearance on BBC Radio in 1927. From 1929, they made commercial recordings for the Parlophone label.
Gert and Daisy
For one recording, in 1930, they were short of material. Interviewed in the 1970s, Elsie Waters said: "We thought: what on earth can we do? Anyway, we decided to do a talking record for a change. Well, what shall we talk about? Well, we thought, people like wedding bells, so Doll [Doris] sat down and she wrote a little tune and I put some words to it. We called it 'Wedding Bells' and we did a little bit of chat, and that was the first of Gert and Daisy. After we had done it, we forgot all about it.” Their banter as Gert and Daisy, drawing on the conversations they had overheard when growing up in the East End, became an immediate success, and audiences requested them to repeat and develop it.
In their performances as Gert (Elsie) and Daisy (Doris), they are credited with developing a new style of observational and naturalistic comedy, with gossipy and sometimes surreal asides delivered in a conversational matter-of-fact way, but sometimes replete with misunderstandings, malapropisms and innuendo. The conversations were critical of Daisy's mythical husband Bert, and Gert's supposed long-standing fiancé Wally, along with their supposed neighbour Mrs Butler. Their scripts were written mostly by Elsie Waters with contributions from her sister. They claimed never to have repeated the same sketch or song and toured the country, appearing regularly on radio in shows such as Henry Hall's Guest Night.
Doris Waters later commented: "We wouldn’t say what they wouldn’t say. We know them too well, you see. Having been brought up in the East End of London, we know the way they think." Elsie added: "Gert and Daisy have never quarrelled. They have never been drunk. 'Bert' was always fond of a drink, but not us. We’ve always been the homely types, which people enjoy. People can identify with us... All good comedy should have truth. Unless Gert and Daisy speak the truth, it’s no good."
They appeared in their first Royal Variety Performance in 1934, and became amongst the highest paid British entertainers of the period. During the Second World War, they broadcast cookery and home maintenance hints, gave cookery demonstrations, and were given special passes to make regular trips to entertain troops stationed around the world. Gert and Daisy were favourites of Winston Churchill, and had elephants named after them at London Zoo. They performed regularly in radio's Workers' Playtime, and their high profile was used by German propagandists such as Lord Haw Haw, who said in one broadcast that "the people of Grimsby must not think that Gert and Daisy can save them from the might of the Luftwaffe." The two women appeared in three films together: Gert and Daisy's Weekend (1941), Gert and Daisy Clean Up (1942) and It's in the Bag (1944), which were all produced by Butcher's Film Service. After the end of the war, they were both awarded OBEs in the King's Birthday Honours List in 1946.