Dolly (Marion) Masel

Vale: Dolly (Marion) MASEL (1909-2010)

Dolly was born Marion Mendelson to Russian/Polish parents on 18th October 1909 in Sheffield Great Britain. Her family came to Australia when Dolly was three, with siblings Anne and Harry and her second sister Jean was born later in their new home. Petite and elegant, quick-witted and lively it was never hard to see where Dolly’s pet name came from.

 The Mendelsons were a musical family with Dolly and Jean both becoming professional singers. Dolly conducted a monthly music and singing program for the A.B.C. and sang in operas such as Die Fledermaus and The Tales of Hoffman. For a few years after her marriage in 1931 to Brigadier Philip Masel, she lived in the UK and Vale Marion (Dolly) Masel (1909 – 2010) performed for the BBC. Back in Perth she was a star of the Concert Artists at His Majesty’s Theatre and is remembered for the lead in “Our Miss Gibbs”, a musical comedy that portrayed a character very like Dolly herself, always ready to burst into song and light up the moment.

Dolly’s hobby was bridge. She played at WABC a minimum of three times a week for many years and was an excellent player with successes in club and state events. A member of several interstate teams, she was selected in 1972 to represent Australia at the Far East Tournament in Singapore with partner Min Freedman and Ushi Houston and Sue Hobley. As now, club games were highly competitive and many a partnership foundered on disagreements over problem hands. Saturday afternoon was the social day. With no bar, games were followed by drinks at someone’s home. Males were few and it was mostly the immaculately-dressed ladies who went to great trouble providing scrumptious nibbles and good scotch – the preferred drink by most.

Dolly stopped playing bridge at the club in her 90s but continued to enjoy life with her family, daughter Judith, son-in-law Kenneth Arkwright and their two grandsons. Her death aged 100 on 4th January 2010, in some ways marks the end of an era of style and elegance.

Vale Dolly

 Published in September 2010 Edition of Trumps Plus