Lillile Daltry

Lillie Daltry is a pseudonym that lacks the usual give-away crass puns or silly hints, leading at least a few collectors of dusty material from the '20s to believe there really was such a person. Unfortunately, as nice as it would have been for there to have been an attractive British singer named Lillie Daltry, there was no such person. It was one of many fake names taken on by the talented and prolific Peggy English, although not as obvious as Peggy Britten or as off the wall as Harlem Hannah, a guise she took on in the '30s. English became Britten in 1926 in order to sneak in a recording session for the Cameo label. She also recorded as both Jane Gray and Jane Shaw during this period. As Peggy English's fame spread among the English themselves, opportunities developed for her to also record cover or competing versions of her own material for release abroad. This is where Lillie Daltry came in, bumping into Nora West along the way, although the bump would only have been symbolic since neither artist actually existed--West was another pseudonym as well. Under whatever name, the singer often made use of the superior pianist and songwriter Rube Bloom as her accompanist. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide