ABSTRACT
In October 1922 a young woman, 26-year-old Emmie Muriel Bass, was recruited by Ibbs and Tillett from Chappell's, where she had worked in the box office since 1916. At the start of her work with the agency she featured very little in the affairs of the company, but gradually her importance grew. Letters began to be addressed to her until, by the 1930s, she was beginning to take personal responsibility for certain artists. The daughter of Arthur and Florence Bass, Emmie was 21 years younger than John Tillett, but over the years their relationship became close until they eventually married two years after the death of John's wife Hetty (Esta d'Argo) in February 1939. Hetty had given up singing in the early 1920s and devoted the rest of her life to teaching. Emmie and John only had a married life of seven years, from their wartime wedding on 10 April 1941 until his death on 20 June 1948. Thereafter Emmie Tillett, a Director of the firm since Robert Leigh Ibbs's retirement in 1937, became Managing Director and ran it until her own retirement in 1978, a total of 56 years in the service of the agency. After withdrawing from the day-to-day running of the agency, she was made its Chairman and died four years later on 16 May 1982 at the age of 85.
