<P> The Andrews family was "very poor and we lived in a bad slum area of London," Andrews recalled, adding, "That was a very black period in my life ." According to Andrews, her stepfather was violent and an alcoholic . Ted Andrews twice, while drunk, tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter, resulting in Andrews fitting a lock on her door . But, as the stage career of Ted and Barbara Andrews improved, they were able to afford to move to better surroundings, first to Beckenham and then, as the war ended, back to the Andrews' hometown of Hersham . The Andrews family took up residence at the Old Meuse, in West Grove, Hersham, a house (now demolished) where Andrews' maternal grandmother had served as a maid . </P> <P> Andrews' stepfather sponsored lessons for her, first at the Cone - Ripman School (now known commonly as ArtsEd), an independent arts educational school in London, then with concert soprano and voice instructor Madame Lilian Stiles - Allen . "She had an enormous influence on me", Andrews said of Stiles - Allen, adding, "She was my third mother--I've got more mothers and fathers than anyone in the world ." In her memoir Julie Andrews--My Star Pupil, Stiles - Allen records: "The range, accuracy, and tone of Julie's voice amazed me...she had possessed the rare gift of absolute pitch" (though Andrews herself refutes this in her 2008 autobiography Home). According to Andrews: "Madame was sure that I could do Mozart and Rossini, but, to be honest, I never was". Of her own voice, she says "I had a very pure, white, thin voice, a four - octave range--dogs would come for miles around ." After Cone - Ripman School, Andrews continued her academic education at the nearby Woodbrook School, a local state school in Beckenham . </P> <P> Beginning in 1945, and for the next two years, Julie Andrews performed spontaneously and unbilled on stage with her parents . "Then came the day when I was told I must go to bed in the afternoon because I was going to be allowed to sing with Mummy and Pop in the evening," Andrews explained . She would stand on a beer crate to sing into the microphone, sometimes a solo or as a duet with her stepfather, while her mother played piano . "It must have been ghastly, but it seemed to go down all right ." </P> <P> Julie Andrews gained her big break when her stepfather introduced her to Val Parnell, whose Moss Empires controlled prominent venues in London . Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome singing the difficult aria "Je suis Titania" from Mignon as part of a musical revue called "Starlight Roof" on 22 October 1947 . She played the Hippodrome for one year . Andrews recalled: "Starlight Roof" saying, "There was this wonderful American person and comedian, Wally Boag, who made balloon animals . He would say,' Is there any little girl or boy in the audience who would like one of these?' And I would rush up onstage and say,' I'd like one, please .' And then he would chat to me and I'd tell him I sang...I was fortunate in that I absolutely stopped the show cold . I mean, the audience went crazy ." </P>

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