Olga Rutherford
Olga Rutherford real name Olga Irene Griffiths was born in Cardiff on the 29th August 1912. When her father joined the army her mother decided that staying home looking after 3 young children was not what she had planned. Olga was placed in the National children’s home along with her brother Jack and younger sister Doreen. Whilst her mother whose stage name ‘Billie Rutherford’ was touring across England in variety shows, Olga and her brother Jack were having a tough upbringing in care. The youngest child Doreen was rescued by a relative and had a reasonably happy childhood. Jack was sent to Canada by the children’s home and lost touch with his siblings and Olga decided to follow her mother into show business using ‘Olga Rutherford’ as her stage name. The strange thing was that Olga didn’t even know who her mother was; as a child as she was told that ‘Billie Rutherford’ was her aunt. She only found out that Billie was in fact her mother when she was adult! Olga travelled the country in variety and cabaret. In ‘Women of the World’ 1933 she did a smoking act! She married a trombone player called Frederick Charles Greenslade in 1934 and the couple then toured together. From her photos I can place where she was but not always the names of the shows, 1929 Manchester, 1930 Liverpool, 1933 Brighton (Birds of the Night co.) 1934 Blackpool, also Cardiff Empire, 1939 Southampton with Tessie O’Shea and the Crazy Gang. Fred divorced her when she found she was pregnant by club owner Joe Davis and their son Jack Eric Davis was born in 1945, they married in 1950 but this marriage didn’t last either when he left her for another woman. Olga took work as a demonstrator in exhibitions such as the Ideal Home. As other relatives had left for Australia she decided to try her luck there and stayed for 4 years before returning home to England. She married again in 1976 to Peter Gold but had no luck with this marriage as he left her and stole most of her jewellery too! She died in Ealing in 1987 after a massive stroke aged 75.
