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T. W. Connor
Thomas Widdicombe (1865 – 24 January 1936), who wrote under the name T. W. Connor, was an English writer of popular songs and monologues for music hall performers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was born in Hoxton, in the East End of London. He married in 1885, and according to official records worked for most of his life as an administrative officer in the Port of London. He also had a parallel career as a songwriter, and wrote lyrics and music for over 200 songs. One of his most successful early songs was "She Was One of the Early Birds", sung in 1895 by George Beauchamp (1862–1900).Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , pp.153, 227 Connor also wrote "A Little Bit of Cucumber", recorded by Harry Champion in 1915 and later revived by Stanley Holloway; "I Had No Mother to Guide Me", performed by George Formby Sr.; and many successful songs by other performers including Gus Elen, Tom Costello, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monologues
In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media (plays, films, etc.), as well as in non-dramatic media such as poetry. Monologues share much in common with several other literary devices including soliloquies, apostrophes, and asides. There are, however, distinctions between each of these devices. Similar literary devices Monologues are similar to poems, epiphanies, and others, in that, they involve one 'voice' speaking but there are differences between them. For example, a soliloquy involves a character relating their thoughts and feelings to themself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters. A monologue is the thoughts of a person spoken out lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gus Elen
Ernest Augustus Elen (22 July 1862 – 17 February 1940) was an English music hall singer and comedian. He achieved success from 1891, performing cockney songs including "Arf a Pint of Ale", "It's a Great Big Shame", "Down the Road" and "If It Wasn't for the 'Ouses in Between" in a career lasting over thirty years. Born in Pimlico, London, Elen had worked as a barman and a draper's assistant and had packed eggs for the Co-op before becoming a singer. He began busking at an early age and found a position singing in a minstrel troupe. His solo success began in 1891 when he started performing in public houses, singing songs in a manner similar to many cockney fruit sellers of the time, known as costermongers - from the old word ' costard', meaning apple. Because of this, he became known as a "coster comedian". For the stage persona he had created, Elen dressed in a coster uniform of striped jersey, peaked cap turned towards one ear and a short clay pipe in the side of his mouth. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1865 Births
Events January–March * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War : Second Battle of Fort Fisher: United States forces launch a major amphibious assault against the last seaport held by the Confederates, Fort Fisher, North Carolina. * January 15 – American Civil War: United States forces capture Fort Fisher. * January 31 ** The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (conditional prohibition of slavery and involuntary servitude) passes narrowly, in the House of Representatives. ** American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief. * February ** American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns, as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces. * February 3 – American Civil War : Hampton Roads Conference: Union and Confederate leaders discuss peace terms. * February 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hackney, London
Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Historically it was within the county of Middlesex. In the past it was also referred to as ''Hackney Proper'' to distinguish it from the village which subsequently developed in the vicinity of Mare Street, the term ''Hackney Proper'' being applied to the wider district. Hackney is a large district, whose long established boundaries encompass the sub-districts of Homerton, Dalston (including Kingsland and Shacklewell), De Beauvoir Town, Upper and Lower Clapton, Stamford Hill, Hackney Central, Hackney Wick, South Hackney and West Hackney. Governance Hackney was an administrative unit with consistent boundaries from the early Middle Ages to the creation of the larger modern borough in 1965. It was based for many ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Bennett (comedian)
William Robertson Russell Bennett DCM MM (21 November 1887 – 30 June 1942) was a British comedian who specialised in parodies of dramatic monologues and was billed as "Almost a Gentleman".Midwinter (2004) Life Bennett's father, John Bennett, and his performing partner, Robert Martell, formed a music hall slapstick comedy duo. Billy Bennett trained as an acrobat but was initially reluctant to follow his father on the stage, instead enlisting in the army. Bennett briefly left the army to become a comedian but soon re-enlisted at the start of World War I, where he enjoyed a distinguished career in the 16th Lancers and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre.Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, , pp.67-70 In 1919, he began his stage career, appearing with Mark Lupino and in Fred Karno's army. Bennett's favourite act was to mock and parody the dramatic monologues of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Randall (actor)
Harry Randall (born Thomas William Randall; 22 March 1857 – 18 May 1932) was an English comic actor in music halls and pantomime. After performing as an amateur from age 11, he made his first professional music hall appearance in 1883, quickly gaining notice. By the 1890s, he was a popular pantomime dame. With Dan Leno, Herbert Campbell and Fred Williams, he formed a theatre management company, operating and building several theatres, including the Grand Theatre, Clapham. The enterprise failed after a few years. In 1903 Randall appeared for the first time at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with Leno and Campbell. After their deaths in 1904, he continued in the dame roles for several more years at Drury Lane and also performed in music halls. He retired in 1913. Early life Randall was born in High Holborn in London in 1857. His father, a bootmaker, initially wanted his son to work as a stone engraver, but Randall wasn't enthusiastic about this career. Randall became an am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Costello (music Hall)
Tom Costello (born Thomas Costellow, 30 April 1863 – 8 November 1943) was a music hall comedian and singer. His birthplace is variously given as Birmingham or Ireland. ''Tom Costello'', ''The Music Hall Guild'' Retrieved 11 April 2017 He worked as an engraver before making his first stage appearance in in 1883, and later the same year started performing in music halls in and south London. One of his earliest successes was in performing |
George Formby Sr
George Formby (born James Lawler Booth; 4 October 1875 – 8 February 1921) was an English comedian and singer in musical theatre, known as one of the greatest music hall performers of the early 20th century. His comedy played upon Lancashire stereotypes, and he was popular around Britain. His nickname, "The Wigan Nightingale", was coined because of the way he would use his bronchial cough as a comedic device in his act. Formby was born into poverty in the industrial North West England; his mother was an alcoholic and part-time prostitute, and during much of his youth he was maltreated. To earn money he would sing for pennies on street corners, before he joined a singing duo in his teens. He began to develop his own act during the 1890s and built up a following in Lancashire. He also developed a series of stage characters, including that of "John Willie", which is described by the cultural historian Jeffrey Richards as "the archetypal gormless Lancashire lad ... hen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Britain between bold and scandalous ''Music Hall'' and subsequent, more respectable ''Variety'' differ. Music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts, and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. In North America vaudeville was in some ways analogous to British music hall, featuring rousing songs and comic acts. Originating in saloon bars within public houses during the 1830s, music hall entertainment became increasingly popular with audiences. So much so, that during the 1850s some public houses were demolished, and specialised music hall theatres developed in their place. These theatres were designed chiefly so that people could consume food ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles Stanley Holloway on stage and screen, on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in ''My Fair Lady''. He was also renowned for his Songs and monologues of Stanley Holloway, comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career. Born in London, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He made early stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, after which he had his first major theatre success starring in ''Kissing Time'' when the musical transferred to the West End theatre, West End from Broadway theatre, Broadway. In 1921, he joined a Concert party (entertainment), concert party, ''The Co-Optimists'', and his career began to flourish. At first, he was employed chiefly as a singer, but his skills as an actor and re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Champion
William Henry Crump (17 April 1865 – 14 January 1942), better known by the stage name Harry Champion, was an English music hall composer, singer and comedian, whose onstage persona appealed chiefly to the working class communities of East End of London, East London. His best-known recordings include "Boiled Beef and Carrots" (1909), "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (1910), "Any Old Iron (song), Any Old Iron" (1911) and "A Little Bit of Cucumber" (1915). Champion was born in Bethnal Green, East London. He made his stage debut at the age of 17 at the Royal Victoria Music Hall in Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, in July 1882. He initially appeared as Will Conray and went on to appear in small music halls in the East End. In 1887 he changed his stage name to Harry Champion and started to perform in other parts of London where he built up a wide repertoire of songs. His trademark style was singing at a fast tempo and often about the joys of food. After more than four decades on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
