Denise Orme - Life and Career

Life and Career

The daughter of Alfred John Smither and Jessicah Henrietta Pococke, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music (where she won the Wessely Violin Exhibition in 1899) and later the Royal College of Music where she was 'discovered' as a singer by George Edwardes.

Orme's first stage appearance was in 1906 in the chorus of The Little Michus at Daly's Theatre in London, later taking the role of Blanche Marie in that production. Later the same year, she appeared in the title role of See See at the Prince of Wales Theatre then appeared in The Merveilleuses into early 1907. In 1906, she also participated in gramophone recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. After the birth of her first daughter, she returned to the stage in The Hon'ble Phil in October 1908, and as Lady Elizabeth Thanet in Our Miss Gibbs at the Gaiety Theatre, London.