Music hall character acts

Character songs

George Robey as a Mayor in The Sketch magazine, 18t May 1904. Museum no. NAL 131655 PP.10

In the early music halls, songs were central to the performance. Singing was the heart of the music hall act and comic singers its most famous stars. Many songs, and much of the comedy, were a comment on social conditions. They reflected working class life. Marie Lloyd’s hit 'My Old Man Said Follow the Van, and Don’t Dilly-Dally on the Way' was about doing a moonlight flit to avoid paying the rent and Gus Elen’s 'If it Wasn’t for the Houses in Between' was about the overcrowded living conditions in London’s East End.

Music hall songs and jokes were about day to day life: lodgers, mothers-in-law, bailiffs, overdue rent, drink, debt, adversity, unfaithful wives (and husbands), hen-pecked husbands (and wives). Other songs were unashamedly patriotic or sentimental, about true love, mother love, moon and June, idyllic villages, shady trees and wandering streams.

Audiences would return again and again to hear the same song and the same patter. Actors made their name with only one or two songs – they needed very little material if they were successful. There were no recordings or radio or television so people could only hear the song if they went to the music hall.

Character songs, where the performer portrayed an individual or a character type, were interspersed with comic patter or chat with the audience. This was rarely improvised. Other songs, like those sung by the ‘swells’ George Leybourne and The Great Vance, were wish fulfilment songs, about the fashionable social world to which the vast majority of the working class could only aspire.

Great comic singers included Dan Leno, Gus Elen, Marie Lloyd and George Robey. Many great music hall singers went on to star in pantomime.

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Illustrated music cover for 'I Mustn't Let Her See Me All At Once or I'm Going To See My Last New Girl', 19th century. Museum no. HRB.f.153-46

Music sheet cover for 'Our Stores Ltd' sung by Dan Leo, 19th century. Museum no. HBF f.42-17

Music sheet cover for 'If it Wasn’t for the ‘Ouses In Between' sung by Gus Elen, 19th century

Lions Comiques

Lions Comiques were the heart throbs of the Victorian era. They had the same cult status as the boy bands of the 1990s. Known as ‘swells’ these character singers dressed as fashionable, swaggering young men and sang songs about high life and drinking champagne. While their songs boasted about being seen at the most fashionable places, their attitude was distinctly laddish. A critic in the late 19th century remarked that Lions Comiques were men who set women just a little higher than their bottle.

George Leybourne was the most famous Lion Comique. He sang the song ‘Champagne Charlie’. Another such swell was Arthur Lloyd. Leybourne’s greatest rival, The Great Vance, sang songs about fashionable places to be seen, including the Zoological Gardens. It was his song ‘Walking in the Zoo’ that popularised the word zoo. However, George Leybourne’s song ‘Lounging in the Aq’ failed to do the same for the word aquarium.

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Music sheet cover for 'Champagne Charlie', written and sung by George Leybourne, around 1860s

Music sheet cover for 'Walking In The Zoo', sung by The Great Vance, late 19th early 20th century

Music sheet cover for 'I Like to be a Swell', sung by Arthur Lloyd, mid to late 19th century

Malcolm Scott as Camille Clifford, early 20th century. Museum no. TM 1967/A/50

Male and female impersonators

As women began to feature in music hall programmes, male impersonation became a popular turn. Women had played male roles in theatre and opera throughout the 19th century but there was no doubt that they were really women. Vesta Tilley was so successful with her impersonations that rumour spread across London that she was really a man. She even became a trendsetter for male fashion. Her characters included soldiers, sailors, policemen and priests all of whom appeared in immaculately tailored outfits created by the best Savile Row tailors.

Her greatest rival was Hetty King, who was born in 1883. Although they were both great stars, Hetty never saw Vesta Tilley on stage until her farewell performance. Like Vesta, Hetty appeared as a fashionable young man, but her characters also included working class men. She was a keen observer of sailors, soldiers and navvies and prided herself that she portrayed individuals rather than a type. She greatly treasured moments when women would say to her, ‘That’s just like my son’. Her most famous song was ‘All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor’. She was still performing a few months before she died in 1972.

Malcolm Scott was one of the most famous female impersonators. He started his career as a straight actor at the Theatre Royal in Margate in 1886 but soon began to specialise in playing women. His performances were not as caricatured as the typical dame parts in pantomime. Among his best loved characters were Elizabeth I, Nell Gwyn, Boadicea and Salome. Here he is dressed as Camille Clifford, an American actress known as the British Gibson Girl .

Postcard of a Gibson Girl, early 20th century. Museum no. TM 1973/A/155

The Gibson Girl began life in the 1890s as an American newspaper cartoon and was the creation of the artist and illustrator Charles Dana Gibson. She was a modern woman, fashionable, independent and sporty.

Gibson's pen and ink drawings outlined an ideal of femininity at that time. It was all about the hourglass silhouette, the slender neck and a huge sweep of hair on top. 

The pictures were very well known. So, when a music hall artiste appeared in an elegantly tight corset and paraded up and down, the audience would recognise the style instantly.

This postcard shows Camille Clifford, a famous actress, who appeared as a Gibson Girl in a 1904 West End musical comedy called 'The Prince of Pilsen'.

The exaggerated shape was an easy target for caricature, to even greater effect if it were a man doing the impersonation. Clifford had an impressively curvaceous hour-glass figure which Scott reproduced by wearing a tightly laced corset.

Like Vesta Tilley’s, his performances were never grotesque caricatures of the opposite sex.

Some cross dressing acts aimed to convince the audience that the male performer really was a woman. El Niño Farini, the boy trapeze artist who appeared as Lulu kept his real identity secret. When it was discovered by the general public that he was really a man there was much embarrassment amongst ‘her’ male admirers!

Other performers would reveal their true identity - Barbette the great trapeze artist would take off his wig at the end of his act to gasps from the audience. The public were asked to keep ‘her little secret’ so as not to spoil the illusion for future audiences.

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Postcard of Malcolm Scott as Elizabeth I, late 19th to early 20th century

Music sheet cover for 'I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark' sung by Hetty King, 1907

Music sheet cover for 'The Boys that Mind the Shop' sung by Vesta Tilley, late 19th to early 20th century

Speciality acts

Publicity postcard for The Four Garricks, late 19th to early 20th century

The star performers in music hall were usually character singers and comedians. Speciality acts were interspersed between the songs to provide a contrast. At the height of music hall there were so many inventive and weird acts that it is very hard to classify them. They included ventriloquists, aerial acts, one-legged dancers, adagio acts, jugglers, magicians, cyclists, sword swallowers, acts involving electricity, animal acts, slapstick sketches and illusionists. Many of the acts which we would today associate with circus were originally performed in the music halls.

While many of the great singers of music hall and their songs are still remembered, many speciality acts are forgotten, although they were very famous in their day. One of the biggest stars was Paul Cinquevalli, ‘King of the Jugglers’, who could catch a cannon ball on his neck. He first performed in England in 1885 and became so popular that he topped the bill above Marie Lloyd. His ‘Human Billiard Table’ act was a favourite with King George V and it was included in the first Royal Variety Performance in 1912.

This is a publicity postcard for a comedy music hall act printed in Manchester. Music halls were a nationwide phenomenon. The most successful acts tended to gravitate towards London, but they also  toured the provinces along with performers of all standards.

Many acts were contracted to a particular group of theatres for a season and toured the country to the Empires or the Hippodromes. In an era before radio or television, audiences around the country wanted to see the famous acts and expected  them to perform their routine of the moment. Manchester had several halls including three Hippodromes, the Palace, the Metropole, the Peoples' Music Hall and the Theatre Royal.

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  Bunny Cloud Deerfoot, late 19th century

  Bunny Cloud Deerfoot
  Late 19th century
  Sepia photograph

  In the 1880s 'Wild West' acts became popular in circuses, but this little photograph or 'carte de visite' advertising Bunny Cloud Deerfoot is earlier. At a time before television, when travel was slow and expensive, most people would never have seen an American Indian. This man, who may have been part of an 'exhibition', would have been a rare sight in Britain in the mid-19th century.

   

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  Juggling rifles, late 19th century

  Juggling rifles
  Late 19th century
  Sepia photograph

  As well as the comedians and singers, part of a music hall programme would include dancing, acrobatics or aerial acts. Novelty acts came in all shapes and sizes and might include any of the aforementioned skills, but with some unusual twist to make them more sensational or, as in this case more dangerous - the rifles have bayonets attached.

   

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  Paul Cinquevalli with autograph, late 19th to early 20th century. Museum no. TM 1966/A/153

  Paul Cinquevalli with autograph
  Late 19th to early 20th century
  Sepia photograph with autograph in purple crayon
  Museum no. TM 1966/A/153

  Paul Cinquevalli was the most famous juggler of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His career in the circus had started at the age of 12 when he was spotted in a gymnastic display at his Berlin  school by a trapeze artist called Cinquevalli. Cinquevalli suggested that Paul become a professional gymnast but Paul's father had already decided that his son would be a musician. Within a week Paul was on the way to Russia, having run away with the circus. In Russia, Cinquevalli appeared as 'The Little Flying Devil' but after a fall from a trapeze, he had to give up acrobatics and decided to become a juggler. He first appeared in England in 1885 and was such a success that he settled in London. He appeared in circuses, music halls and pantomimes and was among the acts invited to appear in the music hall's first ever Royal Command Performance in 1912.

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  Roller skating on a drum, late 19th century

  Roller skating on a drum
  Late 19th century
  Sepia photograph

  Music hall acts were often developed from popular sports. Roller-skating became all the rage in the late 19th century. The first roller-skates had been invented by Joseph Merlin who demonstrated them in London in 1760. He sailed across a ballroom playing a violin, but, unable to turn or stop, crashed into a mirror at the side of the stage and caused himself considerable damage. It was not until 1863 that a new design took off and soon people were roller-skating all over Western Europe. Like ice skating, it was a sport that could be enjoyed by women as well as men.

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  Family of acrobats, photographed by Elliot & Fry

  Family of acrobats
  Photographed by Elliot & Fry
  Late 19th century

  This publicity photograph advertising a music hall act is one of hundreds in the Theatre Museum's collections. Some commercially issued photographs from this period are identified with the name of the performers, but many, such as this one, simply have the name of the photographer. Once music hall had become widespread, it needed more acts than the original singers and comedians. Acrobats and other acts that we now associate with circuses rather than theatres, were therefore brought into the programmes. These acrobats wear a version of the fitted tunic named after the famous trapeze artist Jules Leotard, which gives maximum freedom to the body and which is still worn by dancers  today. These family members are probably 'Risley' acrobats, named after Professor Risley who appeared with his sons at the Haymarket and Drury Lane in the 1840s in an act in which the children were 'flung about in the air'.

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  Peter Donald and Meta Carson, late 19th to early 20th century

  Peter Donald and Meta Carson
  Printed by J. & W. Griffin Limited
  Late 19th to early 20th century
  Black and white photograph

  This is a publicity postcard for a Scottish music hall act from the early 20th century. Music hall was as popular in the major Scottish cities as in the rest of Great Britain. Scotland produced many performers who were specifically Scottish and rarely travelled south of the border. All the big English stars appeared in Scotland, although there was always a lingering prejudice against them, and the Glasgow Empire was especially feared for its hostile reception of English comedians. Many Scottish acts stressed their origins in their material and 'traditional' costume of kilts and sporrans. The wearing of the tartan had been banned after the Jacobite rebellion in 1746 but was reintroduced as a symbol of Scotland's romantic past by the novelist Sir Walter Scott to celebrate King George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822.

Aerial acts

Aerial acts would take place on a system of ropes over the stalls. In 1861 the great Léotard, who invented the flying trapeze act, set up his equipment at the Alhambra Theatre, where he created a furore, and gave rise to the song 'The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze’. Tightrope walker Blondin walked from one balcony of the Canterbury Music Hall to the other.

Aerial acts became very popular in music halls. They included trapeze and tightrope acts. Pansy Chinery, one of The Flying Zedoras, was shot though a paper target to be caught by her sister on a trapeze. Many of the aerial, wire walking and animal acts had hitherto been performed at fairs or in the pleasure gardens of London, many of which had been closed by the mid-19th century.

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Jules Leotard, mid 19th century. Museum no. S.146:671-2007

Charles Blondin carrying his manager on his back, mid to late 19th century. Museum no. S.146:715-2007

Newspaper illustration of Pansy Chinery's accident, 1890s

Adagio

Adagio acts were a cross between dance and acrobatics where the women were thrown, spun and swung around by the men. The most famous act was by the Ganjou Brothers and Juanita, called Romance in Porcelain. They performed from the 1930s until they disbanded in 1956 and were among the highest paid variety acts of the 1940s. Many similar acrobatic throws and spins can now be seen in dance and ice skating routines.

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Adagio Dancers, early 20th century

Letty Lind as Donna Elto in 'Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue', 1889. Museum no. S.136:420-2007

The Jackson Sisters, early 20th century. Museum no. TM 1974/A/38

Magic acts

Alhambra Theatre programme featuring Houdini, printed by Weiners Limited, London, 1900

Magicians and illusionists were popular acts. J.N. Maskelyne and his son Nevil Maskelyne ran the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly which specialised in magic and illusion. Here they developed acts that still intrigue audiences today, such as sawing a woman in half.

In 1893 they were joined at the Egyptian Hall by David Devant, who performed illusions such as ‘Vice Versa’ where he changed a man into a woman. He also performed the first stage performance in London of the Indian Rope Trick. Devant was the magician at the first Royal Variety Performance in 1912.

Houdini, the great American escapologist, was also very popular in Britain, appearing at the Alhambra Theatre in 1900 billed as ‘The Handcuff King’. His act included escaping from handcuffs provided by the local police.

Harry Houdini was born in Hungary in 1874, but he made his name as an escapologist in America. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a rope escape act in New York.

Houdini was a great self-publicist, challenging police departments in any town he visited to try to restrain him or lock him up. Whilst appearing at the Alhambra Theatre, Houdini escaped from regulation handcuffs fitted by Scotland Yard. Houdini could remove himself from a straitjacket while hanging from the end of a crane, escape from a high security prison cell in 30 seconds, and emerge from the inside of a burglar proof safe in 14 minutes. His most daring act was the 'Water Torture Cell' where his legs were secured in stocks and he was lowered headfirst into a tank of water. He escaped in three minutes.

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Egyptian Hall Theatre poster, around 1890

Egyptian Hall poster featuring Rubini, late 19th century. Museum no. S.5-1983

'The Great Barrie Originator' poster, around 1920

Cyclists

The Kaufmann Troupe of Trick Bicyclists, 19th century

Cycling acts developed when cycling became fashionable in the late 19th century. Cycling troupes would perform tricks on one or two wheels.

The Elliotts and the Seven Musical Savonas were famous in the 1880s for being the only cycling band. Later they split into two contrasting acts. The first was a trick cycling act, the second was The World’s Only Saxophone Band, playing over 50 instruments between the seven of them. Hatsley, The Boy Wonder, rode a unicycle on the high wire while playing the trombone.

Kaufmann’s Cycling Beauties were an all female formation cycling team who appeared wearing full Edwardian fashionable dress or tight-fitting short-legged garments that look surprisingly like modern sportswear.

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Trick cyclist balancing on candles, late 19th century

Trick cyclist balancing on a bottle on a bike, late 19th century

Trick cyclist on a drum, late 19th century

Other acts

'Electric' acts, exploiting the new invention of electricity, also made an appearance in the halls. Volta would electrify himself and then light gas jets with the tips of his fingers or set fire to handkerchiefs by touch. The Victorina Troupe developed the sword swallowing act to include swallowing a bayonet fitted to a loaded gun. Miss Victorina swallowed a lit electric light bulb which shone through her flesh.

By the early 20th century the Bioscope began to feature on programmes. This was the film and projector system of the day and short films and newsreels became a part of the music hall experience.

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  American Xylophone Artists souvenir postcard, late 19th to early 20th century

  American Xylophone Artists souvenir postcard
  Late 19th to early 20th century

  In an era when some people spent their whole lives in their hometown, an act advertised as 'from America' would seem exotic to a British music hall audience. Without the television and radio we take for granted, new sights and sounds were harder to come by. A touring act, such as the Martin Brothers advertised on this postcard, would be bringing new experiences to audiences eager for novelty. With a combination of unusual instruments and American style this pair of xylophonists could be pretty sure of getting an enthusiastic reception.

   

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  Ethel Beech, late 19th century

  Ethel Beech
  Late 19th century
  Sepia photograph

  In the early days of music hall, the bills were primarily made up of singers. Dance, apart from simple steps during a song, was not really possible on the small stages. As the halls increased in size and number, dancers came to figure highly on the bills from ballet to acrobatics, from step dancing to strange 'novelty' acts. Ethel Beech, with her full Edwardian hair, crowned with an elegant feather, and her spangle-decorated dress, with its amazing frou-frou underskirts framing her shapely legs, was  typical of hundreds of such dancers. At a time when day dresses still covered the feet, a shapely leg and ankle was a major factor in a dancer's popularity.

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  'Juliette's Wonder Sealions', early 20th century

  'Juliette's Wonder Sealions'
  Early 20th century
  Black and white photograph

  Many acts that we would nowadays associate with circus appeared in music hall, like this sealion act, photographed in the early 1900s. Sealions are intelligent animals, and learn tricks quickly, such as how to balance a ball on their nose. Their trainers reward them with fish. They can be fussy - some sealions like one kind of fish, some another. According to the circus manager Dick Chipperfield, they also have a taste for stones although this can be fatal. He discovered that coal did them no harm and could be given as an alternative. Sealions also require a lot of attention and one trainer even allowed his sealion to share his bed.

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  Miss Elsie Southgate, late 19th century

  Miss Elsie Southgate
  Late 19th century
  Black and white photograph

  As a result of the efforts of certain theatre managers, notably Oswald Stoll music hall became increasingly respectable over the years. Performers from ballet and theatre such as the actress Sarah Bernhardt and the ballerina Anna Pavlova began to appear on the music hall stages. Elsie Southgate was a classically trained violinist born in 1890. She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at ten, and was a concert performer from the age of fifteen. Over the next twenty years she appeared in variety theatres all over the country as well as continuing her concert playing.

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  The Romps, late 19th century

  The Romps
  Photographed by Bellow and Stocks Company
  Late 19th century
  Black and white photograph

  In the search for audience appeal, numerous acts have involved children, here dressed as Pierrots. The first Pierrot troupe was formed in 1886 and until the 1920s they were hugely popular, appearing in music halls and, especially at sea-side towns all over Britain, often setting up their booths on the beach. Their entertainments consisted of songs, dances and comedy sketches. Their traditional white baggy costume, decorated down the front with large black pompoms and 'dunce's' hat, showed their  development from the Pierrot character in the Commedia dell'arte.

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  'Thora the Ventriloquist' souvenir postcard, late 19th century

  'Thora the Ventriloquist' souvenir postcard
  Late 19th century

  Ventriloquism has existed since Roman times, but did not become a popular and common form of entertainment until much later. Le Sieur Themet, an 18th century French ventriloquist pretended to be trapped in a mill at night and imitated the sound of a hunt approaching and then fading into the distance - hounds, horses, horns and all. Early 19th century acts often involved the performer talking to people off stage, or to a group of life-sized dolls which appeared to speak and argue. In 1896 Fred Russell appeared at London's Palace Theatre with a cheeky cockney coster doll that sat on his knee. The single doll on the performer's knee is now the most familiar type of ventriloquist act. Thora was  one of the very few female ventriloquists, working with a doll called Hugh Thorn.

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  The Three Revolving Eugenes souvenir postcard, late 19th century

  The Three Revolving Eugenes souvenir postcard
  Late 19th century
  Black and white photolithograph

  This souvenir postcard of the Eugenes shows the three of them safely on the ground. The diagram above gives some idea of how audiences were more used to seeing them. The Revolving Eugenes  were stage aerialists. Their act combined tightrope and trapeze work and, as there were three of them, both types could happen simultaneously. So, in the picture, the gentleman cycles on a grid of tightropes, while the ladies swing elegantly beneath him.

   

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  The Pasquali Brothers, late 19th century

  The Pasquali Brothers
  Late 19th century
  Black and white photograph

  The muscular Pasquali Brothers were one of many strongman acts on the music hall circuits. Combining their power with acrobatic skills must have increased their popularity. Strongmen always went down well with audiences. There was plenty for women to admire, and men to strive for. The training they did to get their muscular physiques was the forerunner of today's huge fitness industry.  Some of those early pioneers influenced the development of formal strength training. Such techniques are now part of everyday life for all professional sportspeople, as well as many amateurs. One of the earliest showmen to gain international fame with a strongman act was Felice Napoli. He was an Italian circus and fairground performer, born in 1820. The Pasquali Brothers may not have been Italian at all. However, in this particular form of entertainment an appropriate name could help an act be  accepted by an audience that wanted novelty mixed with tradition.