Billy Bunter
Thursday 31st August 2023 12:31pm [Edited]
The Sussex Coast
4,591 posts
Vesta Tilley (born Matilda Alice Powles 13 May 1864 - 16 September 1952) was the best-known male impersonator of her era. Her career lasted from 1869 until 1920. Her father was Henry Powles, known as Harry Ball, a musician who became master of ceremonies at the Theatre Royal, Gloucester and later the St George's Hall in Nottingham.. By 1872, he had quit his job to manage Tilley's career full-time and she was supporting the family
As well as being a music hall star, she also found success as a principal boy in pantomime, At the age of 13, she played Robinson Crusoe at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth but became best known for playing Dick Whittington. By the 1890s, Tilley was England's highest earning woman. She was also a star in the vaudeville circuit in the United States, touring a total of six times earning up to $600 per week. In 1890 she married Walter de Frece at Brixton Registry Office - a theatre impresario who became her new manager and songwriter.
By 1912, music hall entertainments had become accepted and a Royal Command Performance was organised. Tilley sang a favourite song, "The Piccadilly Johnny with the Little Glass Eye" wearing trousers as part of her act, which scandalised the attending Queen Mary. During the First World War she was known as "England's greatest recruiting sergeant", singing patriotic songs while dressed in khaki fatigues like a soldier and promoting enlistment drives.
Becoming Lady de Frece in 1919, after her husband was knighted, she decided to retire and made a year-long farewell tour from which all profits went to children's hospitals. Her last performance was in 1920 at the Coliseum Theatre, London. She then supported her husband when he became a Member of Parliament and later retired with him to Monte Carlo. She died in 1952 and is buried at Putney Vale Cemetery next to her husband, who had died in 1935. A black granite memorial marks the spot.
Here are a couple of Edison recordings of Vesta Tilley:
When the Right Girl Comes Along
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEhMzOFjJjs
and I'm Following in Father's Footsteps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXl-WE0HVns
Her life story was commemorated in the 1957 film After the Ball, starring Pat Kirkwood as Vesta and Laurence Harvey as her husband, also with a brief appearance by Ballard Berkeley of Fawlty Towers fame and which shows up on TPTV periodically.