By Glen Williams
Pictures: David Hahn
Her name may not be recorded on the honour roles, but Dorothy Stewart’s heartfelt words can still be heard every Anzac Day.
On any given Anzac Day you’ll hear the strains of Now Is The Hour ringing out with gusto from beer-stained bars and RSL Clubs across Australia and New Zealand. The chorus’s pleading refrain, “Oh please remember me,” is often sung through nostalgic tears with voice-cracking emotion.
This wartime anthem was a hopeful soundtrack for the many soldiers, sailors, airmen and women, nurses and service personnel taken away to war.
Made a worldwide smash hit by the likes of Dame Vera Lynn, Bing Crosby and Gracie Fields, Now Is The Hour holds a special place in the hearts of Greg Musgrove and his mother Laurette as it was Laurette’s aunty, Dorothy Stewart, who wrote the lyrics to the song.
“She was a woman well ahead of her time,” says Greg, 39. “Born in Melbourne in 1892, she started playing the piano and acting and realised she wanted to pursue a career in show business. She knew if she was going to make it big she’d have to head to America, so she bit the bullet in the early 1920s and went. She was a real pioneer.”
Dorothy, or Dolly as her family call her, hit the big time in New York. “She was living the dream,” says Laurette, 62. “She had an apartment on Manhattan Island ? a big apartment with a massive picture window, by which she set up a grand piano and started writing songs.
“Pretty soon she became good friends with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny and Bob Hope. They were all nobodies back then, but like Dolly they all had big dreams.”
Dolly began writing songs, and she was also working for Australian theatre producers J.C. Williamson, scouting between Broadway and London’s West End, looking for shows she could buy the rights to and bring to Australia.
“Dolly was responsible for bringing Paint Your Wagon; Annie Get Your Gun; Kiss Me, Kate and Call Me Madam to Australia. She really succeeded in a tough show biz field that was dominated by men. Her talent won out.”
For the full story, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale April 20).
Now is the hour
When we must say goodbye.
Soon you’ll be sailing
Far across the sea.
While you’re away,
Oh please remember me.
When you return,
You’ll find me waiting here.
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