Obituary: Mary Cassaday

‘She came from a musical background and music was always a tradition in the family,’ explained her daughter, Hayley James. ‘The family would gather around the piano for singsongs on a Sunday.’

As early as three years old it was apparent that Mary had an exceptional talent for singing.

‘Around the age of four she was delighting local Italian ice cream sellers, singing opera for them for free ice cream. At five she was singing in school performances and gained a strong following at local concerts.’

Joining the Frances Bleasedale School of Dancing wasn’t a great success. However, having heard Mary singing, Frances recommend her to her sister, Jenny Bleasedale, a retired prima donna of the Carl Rosa Opera Company.

Jenny recognised something special in Mary and wanted to train her in the revered Bel Canto technique.

‘And so, at the age of 16, Mary left the amateur world behind and was catapulted into being a fully-fledged professional.’

When an operatic company visited town she auditioned for the operetta The Chocolate Soldier and was accepted. She rose through the ranks and other roles followed in Gay Rosalinda and Die Fledermaus and she won the lead in Lilac Time.

‘Due to a clash in her performing commitments, though, Mary had to turn down her dream role of Carmen,’ said Hayley. ‘Everyone always said she’d be the perfect Carmen.

‘She wanted to do opera, it was her first love, but this was the 1950s and opera wasn’t a big thing, rock ’n’ roll was. She began to wonder if the pop world could possibly be used as a springboard and a way of hopefully, one day, showing her true capabilities.’

Mary was offered a contract to perform as part of The Three Shades, an all-girl, three-part harmony group.

After breaking away from the group many successful solo and theatre performances followed. One night a theatre programme misspelled her name as Mary Marshall. The reviews were so good that she decided to keep it, considering it lucky.

At this time her publicist was Freda ‘Freddie’ Ross, later to become Mrs Tony Hancock, and the record label Decca was showing an interest in her, as was Columbia EMI, and it was for the latter label that Mary was asked to record a demo.

The resulting single, a double-A side of My Island Home and Kiss Kiss Kiss, impressed music legend Joe Meek so much that after the recording he exclaimed: ‘Mary, together we’re going to the top’.

The single garnered five-star reviews in the music press and Columbia continued grooming her for stardom alongside their other young hopeful, Cliff Richard.

‘She toured countries such as Iceland and Cyprus and radio and TV appearances increased. Despite the major disadvantage of being a female in Britain’s then male-dominated music scene she was soon succeeding alongside fellow newcomers such as Matt Munro, Frankie Vaughan and Tommy Steele.

Between contracts she took on parts in adverts and films and appeared in the dungeon scene of the horror film Blood of the Vampire. She met Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield for a publicity shoot and was lined up to double for Gina Lollabrigida in the film Trapeze. Sadly, the actress’s frenetic schedule changing put paid to that.

An offer to audition for the part of Maid Marion in the TV series Robin Hood was turned down as she always believed that her music came first.

At this time the industry was quite often a predatory world and that didn’t sit well with Mary. Neither did being told, constantly, to ‘be patient’ about her career.

But her life was about to change in the shape of Channel Islands-based impresario Sydney James.

‘Dad was looking for a singer in a particular forthcoming show in Guernsey,’ explained Hayley. ‘He was chatting with Trinidadian jazz clarinettist Carl Barriteau at London’s show business club, 142. Carl said to dad: “You’ve just got to meet Mary Marshall. She’ll knock ’em dead”. And he introduced them.

‘As mum was already with Columbia records – and Carl, being a top-notch pro himself who didn’t give praise lightly – dad decided to book her just for the immediate show in Guernsey and see how things went before taking out a long-term contract. But once dad had heard and seen her – she brought the house down at St George’s Hall – he was determined he must have her under contract immediately and demanded excitedly: “Whatever you’ve been offered by Columbia, I’ll double it”.’

In 1960, Mary and Sydney were married and she became co-director of Sydney and Mary James Productions Ltd.

This was the golden age of cabaret and variety shows and at the company’s peak Sydney and Mary’s artists performed to 72,000 people in one season. But they were never too busy for family life and the couple had two daughters, Hayley and Cindy.

‘Mum retired in 1973,’ said Hayley. ‘She said “You’ve got to get out when you’re on top”. Although there was one emergency performance at the White Woods when she was called in for someone who had to cancel.’

Sydney fell ill and Mary spent a long period looking after him. He died in 1985.

‘Much later mum let out part of her house and it had to have a safety check. The then fire chief James Cassaday came to inspect it and they got on famously. They were married in 1994.’

Mary was diagnosed with her illness three years ago.

‘But she hadn’t wanted anyone but family and her closest friends to know as she hated the thought of a big fuss,’ said Hayley.

‘Quite apart from her show business life she was a wonderful, warm human being and in the condolences we’ve received since she passed away the words that often come up are “she was great fun”.’

Mary may be gone but her star still shines brightly in people’s memories, in her recordings and in these wonderful pictures.

. Mary Cassaday (also known as Mary Marshall, nee Hasmall) was born in Bolton, Lancashire on 25 December 1933 and died in Guernsey, Channel Islands on 14 January 2021.