Billie Carleton (4 September 1896 – 28 November 1918) was an English
musical comedy
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...
actress during the First World War. She began her professional stage career at age 15 and was playing roles in the West End by age 18. She appeared in the hit musical '' The Boy'' (1917), which led to a starring role in ''
The Freedom of the Seas
Freedom of the seas ( la, mare liberum, lit. "free sea") is a principle in the law of the sea. It stresses freedom to navigate the oceans. It also disapproves of war fought in water. The freedom is to be breached only in a necessary inter ...
'' in 1918. At the age of 22, she was found dead, apparently of a drug overdose.
Life and career
Born Florence Leonora Stewart in Bloomsbury, London, daughter of a chorus singer named Margaret Stewart and an unknown father, Carleton was raised by her aunt, Catherine Joliffe. Carleton left home at 15 to work on the stage and received her first break when the impresario C.B. Cochran promoted her from the chorus to a role in his 1914
revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own dur ...
''Watch Your Step''. According to Cochran, despite having a weak voice, Carleton had a good stage presence, and her delicate beauty charmed the audience. When he was informed during the run of the show that Carleton was attending opium parties, Cochran fired her. He gave her another chance in 1917, when she took over the leading role from
Gertie Millar
Gertrude Ward, Countess of Dudley ( Millar; 21 February 1879 – 25 April 1952), known as Gertie Millar, was an English actress and singer of the early 20th century, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies.
Beginning her care ...
in his show ''
Houp La!
''Houp La!'' is an Edwardian musical comedy extravaganza, with music by Nat D. Ayer and Howard Talbot, lyrics by Percy Greenbank and Hugh E. Wright, and a book by Fred Thompson and Hugh E. Wright. The story combines the comic financial troubles ...
'' She made little impression in the part, which she took on only a week before the show closed."Theatres", The Times, 15 February 1917, p. 8 and 17 February 1917, p. 8
Carleton soon appeared for
André Charlot
André Eugène Maurice Charlot (26 July 1882 – 20 May 1956) was a French impresario known primarily for the successful musical revues he staged in London between 1912 and 1937. He also worked as a character actor in numerous films.
Early li ...
in another revue ''Some More Samples!'' Although the critics again noted her weak voice, she had better success in this, and was engaged for the part of Joy Chatterton, a
flapper
Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered accepta ...
in the hit musical farce '' The Boy'' when it opened at the
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...
in August 1917. In May 1918, she appeared in ''Fair and Warmer'', this time playing a maid to
Fay Compton
Virginia Lilian Emmeline Compton-Mackenzie, (; 18 September 1894 – 12 December 1978), known professionally as Fay Compton, was an English actress. She appeared in several films, and made many broadcasts, but was best known for her stage per ...
's flapper. Then in August, she took the starring role of Phyllis Harcourt in ''
The Freedom of the Seas
Freedom of the seas ( la, mare liberum, lit. "free sea") is a principle in the law of the sea. It stresses freedom to navigate the oceans. It also disapproves of war fought in water. The freedom is to be breached only in a necessary inter ...
On 27 November 1918, she left the theatre after performing and, wearing a daringly diaphanous outfit designed by her friend Reggie de Veulle, attended the Victory Ball at the Royal Albert Hall.Hoare, pp. 38–39 It was one of many such events held to commemorate the end of the war earlier in the month, but being under the patronage of a large number of aristocratic ladies, it was a particularly long and splendid affair, lasting into the small hours. The next day Carleton's maid found her dead in bed in her
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August ...
suite, apparently killed by an overdose of cocaine.Kohn, p. 40
A coroner's inquest found that Carleton had died of a cocaine overdose "supplied to her by Reginald de Veulle in a culpable and negligent manner".Kohn, p. 95 De Veulle was charged with manslaughter and conspiracy to supply a prohibited drug under Regulation 40b of the
Defence of the Realm Act 1914
The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after it entered the First World War and was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war, such as the p ...
, which had been passed in 1916 and made possession of both cocaine and opium illegal for the first time in Britain. The trial was held before Mr Justice Salter, with Sir Richard Muir for the prosecution. De Veulle was acquitted of the first charge but pleaded guilty to the second, and was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Reports of the trial exposed details of Carleton's private life and those of her friends, particularly de Veulle, who previously had been involved in a homosexual blackmail case and had dressed in women's clothes. Although the milieu in which she moved was stigmatised as immoral and sordid, and although she had been the kept mistress of a man twenty years her senior, Carleton was seen largely as an innocent victim.
Ada Song Ping You was a Scotswoman who had married a Chinese man (Song Ping You) from whom she learned to use opium. After Carleton's death, You was sentenced to five months in jail with hard labour for preparing opium for smoking and supplying it to Carleton. The author Marek Kohn, however, argues that Carleton did not die from cocaine but from legal depressants taken to deal with her cocaine hangover.
In art and literature
Noël Coward, who had known both Carleton and de Veulle, acknowledged her story as a source for his first successful play, ''
The Vortex
''The Vortex'' is a play in three acts by the English writer and actor Noël Coward. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the ...
''. In
Sax Rohmer
Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...