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Evelyn Mary Dove (11 January 1902 – 7 March 1987) was a British singer and actress, who early in her career drew comparisons with Josephine Baker.Samuel A. Floyd Jr, "The Negro Renaissance: Harlem and Chicago Flowerings", in Darlene Clark Hine, John McCluskey Jr (eds), The Black Chicago Renaissance, University of Illinois Press, 2012, p. 22. Of Sierra Leone Creole and English parentage, Dove is recognized as a "trailblazing performer": in 1939, she made history as the first black singer to feature on BBC Radio,Aidan Milan, "Who is Evelyn Dove, how did she die and why is she today’s Google Doodle?", Metro, 11 January 2019. building a solid reputation not only through her work in Britain but also internationally, travelling to France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, the United States, India and Spain.Howard Rye, "Southern Syncopated Orchestra: The Roster", Black Music Research Journal, Volume 30, Number 1, Spring 2010. She was featured as a Google Doodle on what would have been her 117th birthday in 2019. "Evelyn Dove’s 117th Birthday", Doodles Archive, Google, 11 January 2019.
When in 1925 the all-Black revue Chocolate Kiddies toured Europe from New York, she joined the cast, replacing Lottie Gee,Chip Deffaa, Voices of the Jazz Age: Profiles of Eight Vintage Jazzmen, Illini Books/University of Illinois Press, 1992, p. 14. who had to return to the US, and the show toured western Europe for a year, before going to the USSR to play in Leningrad and Moscow, where the audience included Stalin, according to Stephen Bourne, who has researched and written about Dove for the Dictionary of National Biography and elsewhere.
Dove's career burgeoned internationally in the 1920s and '30s. She was performing at London's Mile End Empire in June 1926, then five months later Evelyn Dove and Her Plantation Creoles – "the only singing and dancing act of its kind in Europe" – appeared at Wintergarten in Berlin, and her revue appeared in the Netherlands in February 1927. She was very popular in Italy, where she lived for some years, before in 1932 going to France to replace Josephine Baker starring in a revue at the Casino de Paris.Stephen Bourne, "The Untold Story Of Britain's First Black Female Superstar", The Voice, 30 March 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2024. She subsequently went to the US, where in 1936 she was the headline cabaret act at the famous Harlem nightclub Connie's Inn. In New York she was photographed by the celebrated photographer Carl Van Vechten. "Evelyn Dove wearing a mantilla and carrying a folding fan". Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 27 December 1935. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Her travels also took her to Bombay, India, where on 7 October 1937 The Evening News of India reviewed her opening-night performance at the Harbour Bar:
A memo from producer Eric Fawcett to a colleague on 6 June 1947 states:Stephen Bourne, "Spirit of a Dove", Pride, July 1999, pp. 112–113.
Dove appeared regularly on such popular music and variety radio programmes as Rhapsody in Black, Calling the West Indies, Variety Bandbox, Music For You, Caribbean Carnival, and Mississippi Nights. Radio Times listings, BBC. Particularly successful was the series Serenade in Sepia (1945–47), for which she made more than 50 broadcasts with Trinidadian folk-singer Edric Connor, attracting so many listeners that the BBC decided to make a television version.Stephen Bourne, Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television, Continuum, 2001, pp. 62, 82.
In 1947, Dove and Connor – along with other artists including Mable Lee, Cyril Blake and his Calypso Band, Buddy Bradley, Winifred Atwell, and Adelaide Hall – performed in Variety in Sepia, an early example of a UK television special dedicated to Black talent, which was filmed live on 7 October 1947 at the RadiOlympia Theatre, Alexandra Palace, London, and aired on BBC TV. "Variety in Sepia (1947)", Internet Movie Database.
Evelyn Dove died of pneumonia at Horton Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, aged 85, on 7 March 1987, registered as "Evelyn Dove, otherwise Brantley" (she had married her third husband William Newton Brantley, in 1958, having previously been married to Felix John Basil Inglis Allen in 1941). "Evelyn Mary Luke (born Dove), 1902 – 1987" at MyHeritage.
On 18 September 1993, Moira Stuart featured Evelyn Dove in Salutations, a BBC Radio 2 series celebrating black British and British-based musical entertainers who came to fame between the 1930s and 1950s. "Salutations", Radio Times, Issue 3637, 16 September 1993, p. 90.
A biography by Stephen Bourne, entitled Evelyn Dove: Britain's Black Cabaret Queen, was published in October 2016 by Jacaranda Books. "Camberwell Author Pens Book on 'Britain's Black Cabaret Queen, Southwark News, 19 October 2016. Evelyn Dove: Britain's Black Cabaret Queen at Amazon. "Evelyn Dove: Britain’s Black Cabaret Queen", International Musician, 1 June 2017. Bourne appeared on the BBC's Antiques Road Show being interviewed about Dove by Emma Dabiri. "Antiques Roadshow - Evelyn Dove", History of the BBC, BBC, 12 April 2021.Jeanne Rathbone, "Evelyn Dove 1902-1987 cabaret singer lived in Battersea", sheelanagigcomedienne, 16 September 2022.
On 11 January 2019, which would have been Dove's 117th birthday, Google celebrated her life in one of their first "Google Doodle" of the year.David Hughes, "Evelyn Dove: Why is a Google Doodle marking the singer’s 117th birthday?", i News, 11 January 2019. "Evelyn Dove: Who is the British singer and actress on today’s Google Doodle?", Classic FM, 11 January 2019.Chelsea Ritschel, "Evelyn Dove: Who was the groundbreaking singer and why is her legacy so important?", The Independent, 11 January 2019.Daisy Naylor, "Who is Evelyn Dove? Google Doodle celebrates British singer on her 117th birthday", Daily Mirror, 11 January 2019.
On 29 September 2023, a Nubian Jak/Battersea Society commemorative blue plaque was unveiled outside a house in Barnard Road, Battersea, where Dove had live when young. "Evelyn Dove Commemorative Plaque Unveiling", The Battersea Society, 29 September 2023.
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