Born Ella Maria Lingham on this date (10 April) in 1854, Nelly Power was a child star, comedienne, mimic, principle boy in pantomime and male impersonator. She was one of the biggest stars of the music halls. Vesta Tilley was her understudy. Marie Lloyd, Jenny Hill and others went on to cover her song The Boy in the Gallery. She died from pleurisy on 19 January 1887, aged only 32, and was buried at Abney Park cemetery in Stoke Newington, near the grave of George Leybourne. Her funeral attracted over 3,000 mourners and a further great crowd at the start of the procession from her home, 97 Southgate Road, where a blue plaque was erected in 2017 by the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

A Blue Fire Theatre Production about Nelly Power, titled "Marie Lloyd Stole My Life", was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2019. Here is brief excerpt:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXA4m7I8DgE

And here, from the Islington Guided Walks website is a brief synopsis of her life and her connection with that area:

www.islingtonguidedwalks.com/the-stolen-life-of-nelly-power/

A traditional cockney sing-song and knees-up at the old Joanna:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfknFpWbng

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbh0Eqz0bU8

Born on yesterday's date (14 April) in 1933, and died aged 87 on 7 September 2020, Doreen Hermitage was a performer, choreographer, stalwart of the Players' Theatre, regular presence on the BBC's The Good Old Days and past chairman of the British Music Hall Society. Here she is doing a turn as Vesta Victoria in the Good Old Days of 6 August 1980:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwLHC4sA1n8

Just a reminder that...

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 12th March 2024, 7:47 PM

If anyone is in the vicinity of Elizabeth Street, Blackpool on Friday 19 April, the British Music Hall Society will be unveiling a Blue Plaque to Music Hall performer Victoria Monks.

Victoria Annie Monks, born in Blackpool on 1 November 1884, was a music hall singer of the Edwardian and First World War eras... ...

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Also, the Friends of Layton Cemetery www.laytonfriends.org are offering their 'The Greatest Showmen' Tour at 2pm on Sunday 21st April. Layton is Blackpool's Victorian Cemetery which opened in 1873 and is the resting place of many performers including Walter Munro (1856-1914), Dave Morris (1896-1960), Alphonsine, the spiral ascensionist (1856-1947), Ohmy King (c1852-1931) and more recently Joe Longthorne (1955-2019). Victoria Monks is commemorated on the Monks family grave there.

Cicely Courtneidge (later to become Dame Cicely Courtneidge and "Mum" in the first series of On The Buses - see my post on page 3 of this thread)

and her husband, Jack Hulbert with If I had Napoleon's Hat:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuUEhb-lskI

Born on 19 April 1865, Harry Castling was one of the great lyricists of the Music Hall although he "could not play a note on the piano", according to his obituary in the Gloucester Citizen of 28 December 1933. He nevertheless had many hits, including What Ho (collaborating with Charles Bignall), She Bumps (with A.J. Mills), Just Like The Ivy (again with A.J. Mills), Are We To Part Like This, Bill? (with Charles Collins), Lily Morris's Don't Have Any More, Mrs. Moore (with James Walsh) - introduced here by Jimmy Parry:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBkTVrPZwU&t=71s

and probably his most famous, and most enduring, of all, Let's All go Down the Strand (with C W Murphy). Note no bananas involved in this early recording by Harry Fay:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyERlpn5UGE

Like many of the songwriters of those days, Castling was destitute in his later years. British song writer Fred Godfrey's youngest daughter Peggie (1912-2001) remembered that she and her mother ran into him in 1933, much the worse for wear, in a Lyons Corner House in London and bought him something to eat. He died in Camberwell on Boxing Day 1933, leaving three daughters.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 12th March 2024, 7:47 PM

If anyone is in the vicinity of Elizabeth Street, Blackpool on Friday 19 April, the British Music Hall Society will be unveiling a Blue Plaque to Music Hall performer Victoria Monks.

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And this is BBC Radio Lancashire's interview with the British Music Hall Society's Alison Young prior to the unveiling: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hscq93

A collection of photos, costumes and documents from Jeanne Mackinnon, Wilson and Keppel's last ever Betty, is to be auctioned in a single lot at Richard Winterton Auctioneers, Lichfield Auction Centre on Monday 20 May.

www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/staffordshire/lichfield/2024/04/23/unique-archive-of-sand-dance-legends-goes-to-auction-in-lichfield/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3FiZDpvsvZDcaTBcArl3CyDnL-w5HoZ2vHKt0LPVARcq-21I8p_JldQA_aem_AbLw663kjFy6hDclSBqZOJew3w6wOBIzj9iTztEXy5J1u3o6KGbfFq3iOW3PfT49bTBVYrfmxoS3YCitx91U9qMj

The auction catalogue can be viewed online via www.richardwinterton.co.uk/auction-dates a week before the sale.