Born in Bethnal Green on this day in 1873, Marie Kendall was famous for her Cockney songs and comedy act. She retired in 1939 and died in Clapham in 1964. She was the grandmother of film star, Kay Kendall, who, at one time, was married to Rex Harrison.
I'm sure you remember her well.
The story of Wilson, Keppel and Betty: https://jannaludlow.co.uk/Assets_pdf_files/wilson_keppel_betty.pdf
who filled out theatres twice-nightly plus two matinees per week
with their unique act (apparently a great influence on Johnny Rotten):
Quote: Chappers @ 28th July 2023, 7:13 PMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPka6Eb5Sk
Pity they didn't leave the original soundtrack on the film.
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 28th July 2023, 10:42 PMPity they didn't leave the original soundtrack on the film.
I love Jonathan Richman's Egyptian Reggae which I bought when it came out.
Matt Berry did a marvellous version of The Sand Dance in Toast of London.
With the fifth & final test underway at the Oval, an opportune time to listen to Flotsam & Jetsam's Is 'e an Aussie, Lizzie, is 'e?.
Flotsam and Jetsam were an Anglo-Australian musical comedy duo of the 1920s and 1930s, sometimes considered a forerunner of Flanders and Swann.
Flotsam's real name was Bentley Collingwood Hilliam (1890-1968) and Jetsam's real name was Malcolm McEachern (1883-1945). Hilliam wrote most of their songs, played the piano and sang in a light, high tenor voice. By contrast, McEachern had one of the deepest bass voices on record.
Bob Blackman's own inimitable take on the country & western song Mule Train:
With it being the 55th anniversary of Dad's Army first airing on TV, it will be interesting also to hear Robb Wilton's memories of joining the Home Guard:
Do I know Hitler? How would I know Hitler? I'm not even in the paint business or anything.
Well, how are you going to know which is him if they do land? I've got a tongue in my head haven't I?
Classic!
Marie Lloyd: A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good. With lyrics - so you can join in.
Composed by George Arthurs with lyrics by Fred W. Leigh (who also co-wrote There was I waiting at the church and Don't Dilly Dally), the title has become a popular phrase in the English language.
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 31st July 2023, 10:42 AMWith it being the 55th anniversary of Dad's Army first airing on TV, it will be interesting also to hear Robb Wilton's memories of joining the Home Guard:
Do I know Hitler? How would I know Hitler? I'm not even in the paint business or anything.
Well, how are you going to know which is him if they do land? I've got a tongue in my head haven't I?
Classic!
Roy Clarke based an entire career on this record.
Clarkson Rose was born Arthur C Rose in 1890. He began his career as "A.C Rose - Comedian", making his first appearance on stage in 1905 at the Mechanics Institute, Dudley. He later went on to present his own Summer Show "Twinkle" at seaside resorts for over forty years.
Clarkson Rose first presented "Twinkle" on Ryde Pier in 1921, and was principal comedian in pantomimes from 1918. He first played the Pantomime Dame at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham in 1927 as Mrs Crusoe in "Robinson Crusoe" co-starring with Robb Wilton. The following year he appeared in the Royal Variety Performance at the London Coliseum. He also had the honour of making the final curtain speech at the Lyceum on the night it closed. His last pantomime was at Leicester in 1967. He died on 23 April 1968. He always claimed his favourite role was Widow Twankey.
Rose was possibly the most famous pantomime dame of all and John Inman described him as: "a very grand dame, he was a big man. His dames were very posh, very grand - very masculine but very grand."
During a very active career, Clarkson Rose also produced dozens of songs on 78 rpm records. Here he bemoans his dwindling savings in "I had to go and Draw Another Pound Out". The Jimmy O'Goblin, referred to in the lyrics, is rhyming slang for "sovereign".
Born in 1887, Gillie Potter (real name Hugh William Peel) was famous throughout the 1920s and 1930s for his comic monologues, He began his career on stage with straight acting and then later in Variety; he made a great impression in the Royal Variety Performance of 1930 and then radio and gramophone records brought him to an even wider audience. Here he tells of his experience of Southend-on-Sea, with which anyone familiar with the idiosyncrasies of that Essex seaside resort will surely empathise..
Norman Long (born 26 March 1893) was an English singer, pianist and comic entertainer and one of the earliest stars of BBC Radio.
Having made his first stage appearance at the Lewisham Hippodrome in 1919, billed as "A song, a smile, and a piano", he went on to make his first radio appearance in November 1922, on the newly-established BBC.
He remained a popular radio entertainer over the next 25 years and, from 1925, also made recordings of his own comic songs, mostly released on the Columbia label. These included such titles as "Back I Went to the Ministry of Labour", "Why Is the Bacon So Tough?", and "Never Have a Bath with Your Wristwatch On".
He took part in the first Royal Command Performance to be broadcast, in 1927, and again performed in 1931. He continued to make regular appearances on BBC radio variety shows throughout the Second World War and gave a farewell performance in 1945, retiring to a hotel that he owned in Salcombe, Devon. He died from pneumonia, aged 57, in a nursing home in Torquay
One of his recordings, We Can't Let You Broadcast That, in 1932, made fun of the BBC's policy of banning certain words and phrases and so itself was... ... immediately banned.
Here it is, introduced by - of all people - John Peel:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IkSipWiTBY
And another, The Drage Way, satirises the growing popularity of buying household items on HP when you have no money to buy them outright: