George Robey

Robey in the 1910s

Sir George Robey, CBE (20 September 1869 – 29November 1954),[1] born George Edward Wade, wasan English comedian, singer and actor in musical the-atre, known as one of the greatest music hall performersof the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a come-dian, Robey mixed everyday situations and observationswith comic absurdity. Apart from his music hall acts,he was a popular Christmas pantomime performer in theEnglish provinces, where he excelled in the dame roles.He scored notable successes in musical revues during andafter the First World War, particularly with the song "IfYou Were the Only Girl (In the World)", which he per-formed with Violet Loraine in the revue The Bing BoysAre Here (1916). One of his best-known original charac-ters in his six-decade long career was the Prime Ministerof Mirth.Born in London, Robey came from amiddle-class family.After schooling in England and Germany, and a seriesof office jobs, he made his debut on the London stage,at the age of 21, as the straight man to a comic hypno-tist. He soon developed his own act and appeared at theOxford Music Hall in 1890, where he earned favourablenotices singing “The Simple Pimple” and “He'll Get ItWhere He’s Gone to Now”. In 1892, Robey appeared in

his first pantomime, Whittington Up-to-date in Brighton,which brought him to a wider audience. More provincialengagements followed in Manchester, Birmingham andLiverpool, and he soon became a mainstay of the popularChristmas pantomime scene.Robey’s music hall act matured in the first decade ofthe 1900s, and he undertook a number of foreign tours.He starred in the Royal Command Performance in 1912and regularly entertained before aristocracy. He was anavid sportsman, playing cricket and football at a semi-professional level. During the First World War, heachieved great success in The Bing Boys Are Here (1916)and several other revues. He raised money for manywar charities and was appointed a CBE in 1919. From1918, he created sketches based on his Prime Minister ofMirth character and used a costume he had designed inthe 1890s as a basis for the character’s attire. He made asuccessful transition from music hall to variety shows andstarred in the revue Round in Fifty in 1922, which earnedhim still wider notice. With the exception of his per-formances in revue and pantomime, he appeared as hisPrime Minister of Mirth character in all the other enter-tainment media including variety, music hall and radio.[2]

In 1913 he debuted in film, but he only had modest suc-cess in the medium. He continued to perform in varietytheatre in the inter-war years and, in 1932, starred in He-len!, his first straight theatre role. His appearance broughthim to the attention of many influential directors, includ-ing Sydney Carroll, who signed him to appear on stage asFalstaff inHenry IV, Part 1 in 1935, a role that he later re-peated in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film, Henry V. Duringthe Second World War, Robey raised money for char-ities and promoted recruitment into the forces. By the1950s, his health had deteriorated, and he entered intosemi-retirement. He was knighted a few months beforehis death in 1954.

1 Biography

1.1 Early life

Robey was born at 334 Kennington Road, Kennington,London.[1][n 1] His father, CharlesWade,[6] was a civil en-gineer who spent much of his career on tramline designand construction. Robey’s mother, Elizabeth Mary WadenéeKeene, was a housewife; he also had two sisters.[1][n 2]His paternal ancestors originated from Hampshire; hisuncle, George Wade, married into aristocracy in 1848,

1

2 1 BIOGRAPHY

Kennington Road in 1865

a link which provided a proud topic of conversation forfuture generations of the Wade family.[3] When Robeywas five, his father moved the family to Birkenhead,where he helped in the construction of the Mersey Tun-nels. Robey began his schooling in nearby Hoylake ata dame school.[1][8] Three years later the family movedback to London, near the border between Camberwelland Peckham. At around this time, trams were beingintroduced to the area, providing Charles Wade with aregular, well-paid job.[6]

To fulfil an offer of work,[9] Charles Wade moved thefamily to Germany in 1880, and Robey attended a schoolin Dresden.[8] He devoted his leisure hours to visiting thecity’s museums, art galleries and opera houses and gaineda reasonable fluency in German by the time he was 12.He enjoyed life in the country and was impressed withthe many operatic productions held in the city and theGermans’ high regard for the arts.[10] When he was 14,his father allowed him to move in with a clergyman’sfamily in the German countryside, which he used as abase while studying science at Leipzig University.[11][12]To earn money, he taught English to his landlord’s chil-dren and minded them while their parents were at work.Having successfully enrolled at the university, he studiedart and music[13] and stayed with the family for a further18 months so he could complete his studies before re-turning to England in 1885. He later claimed, apparentlyuntruthfully, to have studied at the University of Cam-bridge.[10][n 3]

At the age of 18 Robey travelled to Birmingham, wherehe worked in a civil engineer’s office. It was here thathe became interested in a career on the stage and of-ten dreamed of starring in his own circus.[15] He learnedto play the mandolin and became a skilled performer onthe instrument. This drew interest from a group of lo-cal musicians and, together with a friend from the groupwho played the guitar, Robey travelled the local area insearch of engagements. Soon afterwards, they were hiredto play at a charity concert at the local church, St Maryand St Ambrose in Edgbaston, a performance that led tomore local bookings. For the next appearance, Robeyperformed an impromptu version of "Killaloo", a comic

ditty taken from the burlesque Miss Esmeralda.[16] Thepositive response from the audience encouraged him togive up playing the mandolin to concentrate instead onsinging comic songs.[17]

1.1.1 London debut

The Royal Aquarium in Westminster, where Robey gave his firstmajor performance

By 1890 Robey had become homesick, and so he re-turned to South London, where he took employmentin a civil engineering company. He also joined a lo-cal branch of the Thirteen Club, whose members, manyof whom were amateur musicians, performed in smallvenues across London.[n 4] Hearing of his talent, thefounder of the club, W. H. Branch, invited Robey to ap-pear at Anderton’s Hotel in Fleet Street, where he per-formed the popular new comic song “Where Did You GetThat Hat?". Robey’s performance secured him a numberof private engagements for which he was paid a guinea anight.[17] By the early months of 1891, Robey was muchin demand, and he decided to change his stage name. Heswapped “Wade” for “Robey” after working for a com-pany in Birmingham that bore the latter name.[17] It wasat around this time that he met E. W. Rogers, an estab-lished music hall composer who wrote songs for MarieLloyd and Jenny Hill. For Robey, Rogers wrote threesongs; “My Hat’s a Brown 'Un”, “The Simple Pimple”and “It Suddenly Dawned Upon Me”.[18]

In 1891 Robey visited the Royal Aquarium inWestminster where he watched “Professor Kennedy”,a burlesque mesmerist from America.[18][19] After theperformance, Robey visited Kennedy in his dressingroom and offered himself as the stooge for his nextappearance. They agreed that Robey, as his youngapprentice, would be “mesmerised” into singing a comicsong.[18] At a later rehearsal, Robey negotiated a deal tosing one of the comic songs that had been written forhim by Rogers. Robey’s turn was a great success, and asa result he secured a permanent theatrical residency atthe venue.[20] Later that year, he appeared as a solo actat the Oxford Music Hall,[21] where he performed “The

1.1 Early life 3

Simple Pimple” and “He'll Get It Where He’s Gone toNow”.[22] The theatrical press soon became aware ofhis act, and The Stage called him a “comedian with apretty sense of humour [who] delivers his songs withconsiderable point and meets with all success”.[23] Inearly 1892, together with his performances at the RoyalAquarium and the Oxford Music Hall, Robey starredalongside Jenny Hill, Bessie Bonehill and Harriet Vernonat the Paragon Theatre of Varieties in Mile End, where,according to his biographer Peter Cotes, he “stole thenotices from experienced troupers”.[2]

That summer, Robey conducted a music hall tour of theEnglish provinces which began in Chatham and took himto Liverpool, at a venue owned by the mother of theinfluential London impresario Oswald Stoll. Throughthis engagement Robey met Stoll, and the two becamelifelong friends.[2] In early December, Robey appearedin five music halls a night, including Gatti’s Under theArches, the Tivoli Music Hall and the London Pavilion.In mid-December, he travelled to Brighton, where heappeared in his first Christmas pantomime, WhittingtonUp-to-Date.[24] Pantomime would become a lucrative andregular source of employment for the comedian. Cotescalls Robey’s festive performances the “cornerstone ofhis comic art”, and the source of “some of his greatestsuccesses.”[24]

1.1.2 Music hall characterisations

During the 1890s Robey created a number of music hallcharacters centred on everyday life. Among them were“The Chinese Laundryman” and “Clarence, the Last ofthe Dandies”.[25] As Clarence, Robey dressed in a top hatand frock coat and carried a malacca cane, the garb of astereotypical Victorian gentleman. For his drag pieces,the comedian established “The Lady Dresser”, a femaletailor who was desperate to out-dress her high class cus-tomers, and “Daisy Dillwater, the District Nurse” who ar-rived on stage with a bicycle to share light-hearted scan-dal and gossip with the audience before hurriedly cyclingoff.[26]

With Robey’s popularity came an eagerness to differen-tiate himself from his music hall rivals, and so he de-vised a signature costume when appearing as himself: anoversized black coat fastened from the neck down withlarge, wooden buttons; black, unkempt, baggy trousersand a partially bald wig with black, whispery strands ofunbrushed, dirty-looking hair that poked below a large,dishevelled top-hat.[2][n 5] He applied thick white facepaint and exaggerated the redness on his cheeks and nosewith bright red make-up; his eye line and eyebrows werealso enhanced with thick, black greasepaint.[28] He helda short, misshaped, wooden walking stick, which wascurved at the top. Robey later used the costume forhis character, The Prime Minister of Mirth. The outfithelped Robey become instantly recognisable on the Lon-don music hall circuit.[2] He next made a start at building

“The Prime Minister of Mirth”, whose costume Robey had basedon an earlier design

his repertoire and bought the rights to comic songs andmonologues by several well-established music hall writ-ers, including Sax Rohmer and Bennett Scott. For hisroutines, Robey developed a characteristic delivery de-scribed by Cotes as “a kind ofmachine-gun staccato rattlethrough each polysyllabic line, ending abruptly, and hold-ing the pause while he fixed his audience with his basiliskstare.”[29]

1.1.3 Success in pantomime and the provinces

At the start of 1894, Robey travelled to Manchester toparticipate in the pantomime Jack and Jill,[30][31] wherehe was paid £25 a week for a three-month contract.[30][n 6]He did not appear in Jack and Jill until the third act butpleased the holiday crowds nonetheless.[33] During oneperformance the scenery mechanism failed, which forcedhim to improvise for the first time. Robey fabricated astory that he had just dined with the Lord Mayor beforedetailing exactly what he had eaten. The routine was sucha hit that it was incorporated into the show as part of thescript.[34]

In the final months of 1894, Robey returned to Londonto honour a contract for Augustus Harris at the TheatreRoyal, Drury Lane, the details of which are unknown.[24]In September he starred in a series of stand-up comedy

4 1 BIOGRAPHY

Robey’s make-up design, featuring thick black eyebrows and par-tially bald wig

shows that he would perform every September between1894 and 1899. These short performances, in Englishseaside resorts including Scarborough and Bournemouth,were designed chiefly to enhance his name among provin-cial audiences.[35] For the 1895 and 1896 Christmas pan-tomimes, he appeared in Manchester and Birmingham,respectively, in the title role of Dick Whittington, forwhich he received favourable reviews and praise from au-diences. Despite the show’s success, Robey and his co-stars disliked the experience. The actress Ada Reeve feltthat the production had a bad back-stage atmosphere andwas thankful when the season ended,[36] while the co-median Barry Lupino, was dismayed at having his role,Muffins, considerably reduced.[33]

On 29 April 1898, Robey married his first wife, theAustralian-born musical theatre actress Ethel Hayden,[n 7]at St Clement Danes church in the Strand, London.The congregation was made up of various theatrical col-leagues; J. Pitt Hardacre was his best man, and composerLeslie Stuart was the organist. Robey and Ethel residedbriefly in Circus Road, St John’s Wood, until the birth oftheir first child Edward in 1900.[37] They then moved to83 Finchley Road in Swiss Cottage, Hampstead.[n 8] Fam-

ily life suited Robey; his son Edward recalled many happyexperiences with his father, including the evenings whenhe would accompany him to the half-dozen music halls atwhich he would be appearing each night.[39][n 9]

Robey, Ethel and their son Edward and daughter Eileen in 1903

By the start of the new century, Robey was a big namein pantomime, and he was able to choose his roles. Pan-tomime enjoyed wide popularity until the 1890s, but bythe time Robey had reached his peak, interest in it was onthe wane. A type of character he particularly enjoyed tak-ing on was the pantomime dame, which historically wasplayed by comedians from the music hall.[41] Robey wasinspired by the older comedians Herbert Campbell andDan Leno, and, although post-dating them, he rivalledtheir eccentricity and popularity, earning the festive en-tertainment a new audience. In his 1972 biography ofRobey, Neville Cardus thought that the comedian was “athis fullest as a pantomime Dame.”[42]

In 1902 Robey created the character “The PrehistoricMan”. He dressed as a caveman and spoke of mod-ern political issues, often complaining about the govern-ment “slapping another pound of rock on his taxes”.[25]The character was received favourably by audiences, whofound it easy to relate to his topical observations.[25] Thatyear he released “The Prehistoric Man” and “Not That IWish to Say Anything” on shellac discs using the earlyacoustic recording process.[n 10]

Robey signed a six-year contract in June 1904 to appearannually at, among others, the OxfordMusic Hall in Lon-don, for a fee of £120 a week. The contract also required

1.2 Career peak years 5

him to perform during the spring and autumn seasons be-tween 1910 and 1912. Robey disputed this part of thecontract and stated that he agreed to this only as a per-sonal favour to the music hall manager George AdneyPayne and that it should have become void on Payne’sdeath in 1907. The management of the Oxford counter-claimed and forbade Robey from appearing in any othermusic hall during this period. The matter went to court,where the judge found in Robey’s favour.[45]

Robey was engaged to play the title role in the 1905pantomime Queen of Hearts. The show was consideredrisqué by the theatrical press. In one scene Robey acci-dentally sat on his crown before bellowing “Assistance!Methinks I have sat upon a hedgehog"; in another sketch,the comedian mused, “Then there’s Mrs Simkins, theswank! Many’s the squeeze she’s had of my blue bagon washing day.”[46] Robey scored a further hit with theshow the following year, in Birmingham, which Cotes de-scribes as “the most famous of all famous BirminghamTheatre Royal pantomimes”. Robey incorporated “TheDresser”, a music hall sketch taken from his own reper-toire, into the show.[47] Over the next few years he con-tinued to tour the music hall circuit both in London andthe English provinces[48] and recorded two songs, “WhatAre You Looking at Me For?" and “The Mayor of Mud-cumdyke”, which were later released by the Gramophoneand Typewriter Company.[43]

1.2 Career peak years

1.2.1 Sporting interests and violin-making

Off-stage, Robey led an active lifestyle and was a keenamateur sportsman. Hewas proud of his healthy physiqueand maintained it by performing frequent exercise andfollowing a careful diet. By the time he was in his mid-thirties, he had played as an amateur against Millwall,Chelsea and Fulham football clubs.[n 11] He organised andplayed in many charity football matches throughout Eng-land, which were described by the sporting press as be-ing of a very high standard, and he remained an activefootball player well into his fifties.[50] Robey became as-sociated with cricket by 1895 when he led a team of ama-teur players for a match at Turney Road in Dulwich.[51] InSeptember 1904, while appearing in Hull, he was askedby the cricketer Harry Wrathall to take part in a char-ity cricket match at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club.Robey played so well that Wrathall asked him to returnthe following Saturday to take part in a professional game.That weekend, while waiting in the pavilion before thegame, Robey was approached by an agent for Hull CityA.F.C., who asked the comedian to play in a match thatsame afternoon. Robey agreed, swapped his cricket flan-nels for a football kit and played with the team againstNottingham Forest as an inside right.[52]

By 1903 Robey was playing at a semi-professional level.He was signed as an inside forward by Millwall Foot-

Robey in flannels at a charity event in 1902

ball Club and scored many goals for them.[53] He alsodisplayed a good level of ability in vigoro,[54] an Aus-tralian sport derived from both cricket and baseball whichwas short-lived in England. Two years later he became amember of the Marylebone Cricket Club[55] and playedin minor games for them for many years. He gained areputation at the club for his comic antics on the field,such as raising his eyebrows at the approaching bowler inan attempt to distract him.[56] The writer Neville Carduswas complimentary about Robey’s cricket prowess andcalled him “an elegant player” whose performances onthe cricket field were as entertaining as they were on thestage.[55] Although a versatile player, Robey thought ofhimself as a “medium-paced, right-handed bowler”.[57]

Robey was asked to help organise a charity football matchin 1907 by friends of the Scottish football trainer JamesMiller, who had died the previous year. Robey compileda team of amateur footballers from the theatrical profes-sion and met Miller’s former team Chelsea Football Clubat their home ground. Thematch raised considerable pro-ceeds for Miller’s widow. Robey was proud of the matchand joked: “I just wanted to make sure that Chelsea stayin the first division.”[58][n 12]

In his spare time, Robey made violins, a hobby that hefirst took up during his years in Dresden. He becamea skilled craftsman of the instrument, although he neverintended for them to be played in public. Speaking inthe 1960s, the violinist and composer Yehudi Menuhin,who played one of Robey’s violins for a public perfor-

6 1 BIOGRAPHY

Robey as a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club

mance during that decade, called the comedian’s finishedinstrument “very professional”. He was intrigued by theidea that a man as famous as Robey could produce sucha “beautifully finished” instrument, unbeknown to thepublic.[59] Robey was also an artist, and some of his penand ink self-caricatures are kept at the National PortraitGallery, London.[60]

1.2.2 Oswald Stoll

Robey’s first high-profile invitation came in the firstdecade of the 1900s from Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl ofLonsdale, who hired him as entertainment for a partyhe was hosting at Carlton House Terrace in Westminster.Soon afterwards, the comedian appeared for the first timebefore royalty when King Edward VII had Robey hiredfor several private functions. Robey performed a seriesof songs and monologues and introduced the “Mayor ofMudcumdyke”, all of which was met with much praiseand admiration from the royal watchers. He was laterhired by Edward’s son, the Prince of Wales (the futureKing George V), who arranged a performance at CarltonHouse Terrace for his friend Lord Curzon.[61]

“The Mayor of Mudcumdyke”, an early character for Robey invariety theatre

In July 1912, at the invitation of the impresario OswaldStoll, Robey took part for the first time in the Royal Com-mand Performance,[62] to which Cotes attributes “one ofthe prime factors in his continuing popularity”.[62] KingGeorgeV andQueenMarywere “delighted” with Robey’scomic sketch, in which he performed the “Mayor ofMud-cumdyke” in public for the first time.[62] Robey found theroyal show to be a less daunting experience than the nu-merous private command performances that he gave dur-ing his career.[61]

At the outbreak of the First World War, Robey wishedto enlist in the army but, now in his 40s, he was too oldfor active service. Instead, he volunteered for the SpecialConstabulary and raised money for charity through hisperformances as a comedian. It was not uncommon forhim to finish at the theatre at 1:00 am and then to patrolas a special constable until 6:00 am, where he would fre-quently help out during zeppelin raids. He combined hiscivilian duties with work for a volunteer motor transportunit towards the end of the war, in which he served asa lieutenant. He committed three nights a week to thecorps while organising performances during the day tobenefit war charities. Robey was a strong supporter oftheMerchant Navy and thought that they were often over-looked when it came to charitable donations. He raised£22,000 at a benefit held at the London Coliseum, whichhe donated in the navy’s favour.[63]

1.2 Career peak years 7

Robey (left), Violet Loraine and Alfred Lester in a publicity shotfor The Bing Boys Are Here (1916)

Film debut and The Bing Boys Are Here Robey’s firstexperience in cinema was in 1913, with two early soundfilm shorts: “And Very Nice Too” and “Good QueenBess”, made in the Kinoplasticon process, where the filmwas synchronised with phonograph records.[64][65] Thenext year, he tried to emulate his music hall colleaguesBilly Merson and Charlie Austin, who had set up Home-land Films and found success with the Squibs series offilms starring Betty Balfour.[66] Robey met filmmakersfrom the Burns Film Company, who engaged him in asilent short entitled “George Robey Turns Anarchist”,[67]in which he played a character who fails to blow up theHouses of Parliament.[68] He continued to appear spo-radically in film throughout the rest of his career, neverachieving more than a modest amount of success.[69]

In 1914, for the first time in many years, Robey appearedin a Christmas pantomime as a male when he was en-gaged to play the title role in Sinbad the Sailor; FredEmney (the father of another comic actor of that name)played the dame role. Although the critics were surprisedby the casting, it appealed to audiences, and the scenesfeaturing Robey and Emney together proved the mostmemorable.[47] During the war the demand for light en-tertainment in the English provinces guaranteed Robeyfrequent bookings and a regular income.[70] His appear-ances in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgowwere as popular as his annual performances in Birming-

ham. His wife Ethel accompanied him on these tours andfrequently starred alongside him.[47]

By the First World War, music hall entertainment hadfallen out of favour with audiences. Theatrical historiansblame the music hall’s decline on the increasing salariesof performers and the halls’ inability to present profitablythe twenty or thirty acts that the audiences expected tosee. Revue appealed to wartime audiences, and Robeydecided to capitalise on the medium’s popularity.[71] Stolloffered Robey a lucrative contract in 1916 to appear in thenew revue The Bing Boys Are Here[72] at the AlhambraTheatre, London.[73] Dividing his time between three orfour music halls a night had become unappealing to thecomedian, and he relished the opportunity to appear ina single theatre.[74] He was cast as Lucius Bing oppositeViolet Loraine, who played his love interest Emma, andthe couple duetted in the show’s signature song "If YouWere the Only Girl (In the World)", which became aninternational success.[75][76]

This London engagement was a new experience forRobey, who had only been familiar with provincial pan-tomimes and week-long, one-man comedy shows. Asidefrom pantomime, he had never taken part in a long-running production,[77] and he had never had to memoriselines precisely or keep to schedules enforced by strict di-rectors and theatre managers.[70] The Bing Boys Are Hereran for 378 performances and occupied the Alhambra formore than a year. The theatrical press praised Robey as“the first actor of the halls”.[34] He made two films to-wards the end of the war: The Anti-frivolity League in1916[78] and Doing His Bit the following year.[79]

1.2.3 Zig-Zag to Joy Bells

Robey left the cast of The Bing Boys during its run, in Jan-uary 1917, to star at the London Hippodrome in Albertde Courville, Dave Stamper and Gene Buck's lavishly-staged revue Zig-Zag!.[80] Robey included a sketch basedon his music hall character “The Prehistoric Man”, withDaphne Pollard playing the role of “She of the TirelessTongue”.[81] In another scene, he played a drunken gen-tleman who accidentally secures a box at the Savoy The-atre instead of an intended hotel room. The audience ap-peared unresponsive to the character, so he changed itmid-performance to that of a naive Yorkshire man. Thechange provoked much amusement, and it became oneof the most popular scenes of the show.[80] Zig-Zag ranfor 648 performances.[81] Stoll again secured Robey forthe Alhambra in 1918 for a sequel, The Bing Boys onBroadway. The show, again co-starring Violet Loraine,matched the popularity of its predecessor and beat theoriginal show’s run with a total of 562 performances.[81]

Robey returned to the London Hippodrome in 1919where he took a leading role in another hit revue, JoyBells. Phyllis Bedells took over from Pollard as his stagepartner, with Anita Elson and Leon Errol as supporting

8 1 BIOGRAPHY

Robey depicted in a collection of Royal Mail stamps issued in1921 in aid of the Scout Movement

dancers. Robey played the role of an old-fashioned fa-ther who is mystified over the changing traditions afterthe First World War. He interpolated two music hallsketches: “No, No, No” centred on turning innocent, ev-eryday sayings into suggestive and provocative maxims,and “The Rest Cure” told the story of a pre-op hospitalpatient who hears worrying stories of malpractice fromhis well-meaning friends who visit him.[82] In the Italiannewspaper La Tribuna, the writer Emilio Cecchi com-mented: “Robey, just by being Robey, makes us laughuntil we weep. We do not want to see either Figaro orOthello; it is quite enough for Robey to appear in travel-ling costume and to turn his eyes in crab-like fashion fromone side of the auditorium to another. Robey’s aspect indealing with his audience is paternal and, one might say,apostolic.”[83] Joy Bells ran for 723 performances.[70]

In the early months of 1919, Robey completed a bookof memoirs, My Rest Cure, which was published laterthat year.[84] During the run of Joy Bells he was awardedthe Legion of Honour for raising £14,000 for the FrenchRed Cross.[70] He declined a knighthood that sameyear because, according to Cotes, he was worried thatthe title would distance him from his working-classaudiences;[85][86] he was appointed a CBE by George Vat Buckingham Palace instead.[87] On the morning of thepenultimate Joy Bells performance, Robey was invited toStoll’s London office, where he was offered a role in anew revue at the Alhambra Theatre. On the journey, hemet the theatre impresario Sir Alfred Butt, who agreedto pay him £100 more, but out of loyalty to Stoll, he de-clined the offer and resumed his £600 a week contract atthe Alhambra.[88] On 28 July 1919, Robey took part inhis second Royal Command Performance, at the LondonColiseum. He and Loraine sang “If You Were the OnlyGirl (In the World)".[89]

1.3 Inter-war years

1.3.1 Films and revues of the early 1920s

A poster for the revue Round in Fifty at the London Hippodromein 1922

A gap in the Alhambra’s schedule allowed Stoll to show-case Robey in a new short film.[90][91] “George Robey’sDay Off” (1919) showed the comedian acting out hisdaily domestic routines to comic effect,[92] but the pic-ture failed at the box office. The British director JohnBaxter concluded that producers did not know how bestto apply Robey’s stage talents to film.[66][93]

By 1920 variety theatre had become popular inBritain,[94] and Robey had completed the successful tran-sition from music hall to variety star. Pantomime, whichrelied on its stars to make up much of the script throughad lib, was also beginning to fall out of favour, and hiscontemporaries were finding it too difficult to create freshmaterial for every performance; for Robey, however, thefestive entertainment continued to be a lucrative sourceof employment.[95][96]

Robey’s first revue of the 1920s was Johnny Jones, whichopened on 1 June 1920 at the Alhambra Theatre. Theshow also featured Ivy St. Helier, Lupino Lane and EricBlore[97] and carried the advertisement “A Robey saladwith musical dressing”.[91] One of the show’s more popu-lar gags was a scene in which Robey picked and ate cher-ries off St. Helier’s hat, before tossing the stones into theorchestra pit which were then met by loud bangs from thebass drum.[97][n 13] A sign of his popularity came in Au-gust 1920 when he was depicted in scouting costume for a

1.3 Inter-war years 9

series of 12 Royal Mail stamps in aid of the Printers Pen-sion Corporation War Orphans and the Prince of WalesBoy Scout Funds.[98][99]

“I think [Robey]'s Mother Goose was, as far as I know,the greatest piece of acting of what is called the 'Dame'that I have ever seen. But then again his Dame Trot inJack and the Beanstalk was great comic acting. It wasincredible. Really a piece of wonderful acting in a fewminutes – acting you would put on the same plane as youwould any great actor of the time.”– Neville Cardus, The Darling of the Halls (1972)[100]

The revue Robey en Casserole (1921) was next for Robey,during which he led a troupe of dancers in a musicalpiece called the “Policemen Ballet”. Each dancer wasdressed in a mock police uniform on top and a tutu be-low. The show was the first failure for the comedianunder Stoll’s management. That December Robey ap-peared in his only London pantomime, Jack and theBeanstalk, at the Hippodrome.[97][101] His biographer,Peter Cotes, remembered the comedian’s interpretationof Dame Trot as “enormously funny: a bucolic caricatureof a woman, sturdy and fruity, leathery and forbidding”and thought that Robey’s comic timing was “in a class ofits own.”[34][n 14] In March 1922 Robey remained at theHippodrome in the revue Round in Fifty, a modernisedversion of Round the World in Eighty Days, which provedto be another hit for the London theatre, and a personalfavourite of the comedian.[97][n 15]

1.3.2 Marriage breakdown and foreign tours

Stoll brought Robey to cinema audiences a further fourtimes during 1923. The first two films were writtenwith the intention of showcasing the comedian’s pan-tomime talents: One Arabian Night was a reworkingof Aladdin and co-starred Lionelle Howard and EdwardO'Neill,[104] while Harlequinade visited the roots ofpantomime.[66][105] One of Robey’s more notable rolesunder Stoll was Sancho Panza in Maurice Elvey's 1923filmDon Quixote,[106] for which he received a fee of £700a week.[93] The amount of time he spent working awayfrom home led to the breakdown of his marriage, and heseparated from Ethel in 1923.[38] He had a brief affairwith one of his leading ladies and walked out of the fam-ily home.[37]

Robey made a return to the London Hippodrome in 1924in the revue Leap Year in which he co-starred with LaddieCliff, Betty Chester and Vera Pearce. Leap Year was setin South Africa, Australia and Canada, and was writtento appeal to the tourists who were visiting London fromthe Commonwealth countries. Robey was much to theirtastes, and his rendition of “My Old Dutch” helped theshow achieve another long run of 421 performances. SkyHigh was next and opened at the London Palladium inMarch 1925. The chorus dancer Marie Blanche was his

co-star, a partnership that caused the gossip columnists tocomment on the performers’ alleged romance two yearspreviously. Despite the rumours Blanche continued as hisleading lady for the next four years, and Sky High lastedfor 309 performances on the West End stage.[107]

The year 1926 was lacking in variety entertainment, afact largely attributed to the UK general strike that hadoccurred in May of that year.[107] The strike was unex-pected by Robey, who had signed the previous year tostar in a series of variety dates for Moss Empires. Thecontract was lucrative, made more so by the comedian’swillingness to manage his own bookings. He took theshow to the provinces under the title of Bits and Piecesand employed a company of 25 artists as well as engi-neers and support staff. Despite the economic hardshipsof Britain in 1926, large numbers of people turned outto see the show.[108] He returned to Birmingham, a citywhere he was held in great affection, and where he wassure the audiences would embrace his new show. How-ever, censors demanded that he omit the provocative song“I Stopped, I Looked, I Listened” and that he heavily editthe sketch “The Cheat”. The restrictions failed to dampenthe audiences’ enthusiasm, and Bits and Pieces enjoyedrave reviews. It ran until Christmas and earned a six-month extension.[108]

In the spring of 1927 Robey embraced the opportu-nity to tour abroad, when he and his company tookBits and Pieces to South Africa, where it was receivedfavourably.[108] By the time he had left Cape Town, hehad played to over 60,000 people and had travelled inexcess of 15,000 miles.[109][n 16] Upon his return to Eng-land in October, he took Bits and Pieces to Bradford.[110]In August 1928, Robey and his company travelled toCanada, where they played to packed audiences for threemonths.[111] It was there that he produced a new re-vue, Between Ourselves, in Vancouver,[112][113] whichwas staged especially for the country’s armed forces.[111]The Canadians were enthusiastic about Robey; he wasawarded the freedom of the city in London, Ontario,made a chieftain of the Sarcee tribe,[n 17] and wasan honorary guest at a cricket match in Edmonton,Alberta.[111] He described the tour as “one of unbro-ken happiness.”[111] In the late 1920s Robey also wroteand starred in two Phonofilm sound-on-film productions,Safety First (1928) and Mrs. Mephistopheles (1929).[64]

In early 1929 Robey returned to South Africa and thenCanada for another tour with Bits and Pieces, after whichhe started another series of variety dates back in Eng-land. Among the towns he visited was Woolwich, wherehe performed to packed audiences over the course of aweek.[112] Here he met the theatre managers Frank andAgnes Littler,[n 18] with the latter briefly becoming hismanager.[112][113] In 1932 Robey appeared in his firstsound film, The Temperance Fête,[115] and followed thiswith Marry Me, which was, according to his biogra-pher A. E. Wilson, one of the most successful musi-cal films of the comedian’s career.[93] The film tells the

10 1 BIOGRAPHY

story of a sound recordist in a gramophone companywho romances a colleague when she becomes the familyhousekeeper.[116]

By the later months of 1932, Robey had formed a roman-tic relationship with the Littlers’ daughter Blanche (1897–1981), who then took over as his manager. The couplegrew close during the filming of Don Quixote, a remakeof the comedian’s 1923 success as Sancho Panza. Unlikeits predecessor, Don Quixote had an ambitious script, bigbudget and an authentic foreign setting.[n 19] Robey, how-ever, resented having to grow a beard for the role and dis-liked the French climate and gruelling 12-week filmingschedule.[118] He refused to act out his character’s deathscene in a farcical way and also objected to the latenessof the “dreadfully banal” scripts,[n 20] which were oftenwritten the night before filming.[119]

1.3.3 Venture into legitimate theatre

The producer C.B. Cochran engaged Robey for the Adelphi The-atre’s operetta Helen! in 1932

Until 1932 Robey had never played in legitimate the-atre, although he read Shakespeare from an early age.[120]That year he took the part of King Menelaus in He-len!,[121] which was an English-language adaptation byA. P. Herbert of Offenbach’s operetta La belle Hélène.The show’s producer C. B. Cochran, a longstanding ad-mirer of Robey, engaged a prestigious cast for the produc-tion, including Evelyn Laye andW. H. Berry, with chore-ography by Léonide Massine and sets by Oliver Messel.The operetta opened on 30 January 1932, becoming theAdelphi Theatre's most successful show of the year.[122]The critic Harold Conway wrote that while Robey hadreached the pinnacle of his career as a variety star, which

only required him to rely on his “breezy, cheeky person-ality”, he had reservations about the comedian’s ability to“integrate himself with the other stars ... to learn manypages of dialogue, and to remember countless cues.”[123]

After the run of Helen!, Robey briefly resumed his com-mitments to the variety stage before signing a contract toappear at the Savoy Theatre as Bold Ben Blister in theoperetta Jolly Roger, which premiered in March 1933.The production had a run of bad luck, including an ac-tors’ strike which was caused by Robey’s refusal to jointhe actors’ union Equity. The dispute was settled when hewas included as a co-producer of the show, thus exclud-ing him as a full-time actor.[124] Robey made a substantialdonation to the union, and the production went ahead.[125]Despite its troubles, the show was a success and receivedmuch praise from the press. Harold Conway of the DailyMail called the piece “one of the outstanding triumphs ofpersonality witnessed in a London theatre”.[126] Later thatyear, Robey completed his final autobiography, LookingBack on Life. The literary critic Graham Sutton admiredRobey for his honest and frank account, and thought thathe was “at his best when most personal.”[127][128]

Shakespearean roles According to Wilson, Robeyrevered Shakespeare and had an “excellent readingknowledge of the Bard” even though the comedian hadnever seen a Shakespeare play. As a child, he had com-mitted to memory the “ghost” scene in Hamlet.[129] Writ-ing in 1933, Cochran expressed the opinion that Robeyhad been a victim of a largely conservative and “snob-bish” attitude from theatre managers, that the comedianwas “cut out for Shakespeare”, and that if he had been fre-quently engaged in playing the Bard’s works, then “Shake-speare would probably have been popular.”[130] In 1934,the theatre director Sydney Carroll offered Robey thechance to appear as Nick Bottom inAMidsummer Night’sDream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, but heinitially declined the offer, citing a hectic schedule,[131]including a conflict with his appearance in that year’sRoyal Variety Performance on 8 May.[89] He was alsoconcerned that he would not be taken seriously by legit-imate theatre critics and knew that he would not be ableto include a comic sketch or to engage in his customaryresourceful gagging.[131] In the same year, Robey starredin a film version of the hit musical Chu Chin Chow. TheNew York Times called him “a lovable and laughable AliBaba”.[132]

At the start of 1935 Robey accepted his first Shake-spearean role, as Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1, which sur-prised the press and worried fans who thought that hemight retire the Prime Minister of Mirth. The theatri-cal press were sceptical of a music hall performer tak-ing on such a distinguished role; Carroll, the play’s pro-ducer, vehemently defended his casting choice.[133] Car-roll later admitted taking a gamble on employing Robeybut wrote that the comedian “has unlimited courage inchallenging criticism and risking his reputation on a ven-

1.4 Later career 1936–50 11

ture of this kind; he takes both his past and his future inboth hands and is faced with the alternative of dashingthem into the depths or lifting them to a height hithertoundreamt of.”[134] Carroll further opined that "[Robey]has never failed in anything he has undertaken. He is oneof the most intelligent and capable of actors.”[135]

Henry IV, Part I opened on 28 February at Her Majesty’sTheatre, and Robey proved himself to be a capableShakespearean actor,[136] though his Shakespearean de-but was marred initially by an inability to remember hislines. A journalist from The Daily Express thought thatRobey seemed uncomfortable, displayed a halting deliv-ery and was “far from word perfect”.[137] Writing in TheObserver, the critic Ivor Brown said of Robey’s portrayal:“In no performance within mymemory has the actor beenmore obviously the afflicted servant of his lines and moreobviously the omnipotent master of the situation”.[138]Another journalist, writing in the Daily Mirror, thoughtthat Robey “gave 25 percent of Shakespeare and 75 per-cent of himself.”[139]

In any case, such was Robey’s popularity in the role thatthe German theatre and film producer Max Reinhardt de-clared that should the opportunity arise for a film ver-sion, the comedian would be his perfect choice as Falstaff.Cotes described Robey as having “a great vitality and im-mense command of the [role]. He never faltered, he hadto take his audience by the throat and make them atten-tive at once because he couldn't play himself in.”[140] Al-though he was eager to be taken seriously as a legitimateactor, Robey provided a subtle nod in the direction of hiscomic career by using the wooden cane intended for thePrime Minister of Mirth for the majority of his scenes asFalstaff.[141] The poet John Betjeman responded to thecritics’ early scepticism: “Variety artistes are a separateworld from the legitimate stage. They are separate too,from ballet, opera, and musical comedy. It is possible forvariety artists to appear in all of these. Indeed, no onewho saw will ever forget the superb pathos and humourof George Robey’s Falstaff”.[142] Later, in 1935, BlancheLittler persuaded Robey to accept Carroll’s earlier offerto play Bottom, and the comedian cancelled three weeks’worth of dates. The press were complimentary of his per-formance, and he later attributed his success to Littler andher encouragement.[131]

1.4 Later career 1936–50

1.4.1 Radio and television debut

Robey made his radio debut in 1936 when he was inter-viewed for The Spice of Life programme for the BBC.He spoke about his private life and his time spent onthe music hall circuit, which he described as the “mostenjoyable experience” of his life. The usually reservedRobey admitted that privately he was not a sociable per-son and that he often grew tired of his audiences whileperforming on stage, but that he got his biggest thrill

from making others laugh. He also declared a love forthe outdoors[143] and mentioned that, to relax, he woulddraw “comic scribbles” of himself as the Prime MinisterofMirth,[60] which he would occasionally give to fans. Asa result of the interview he received more than a thousandfan letters from listeners. Wilson thought that Robey’s“perfect diction and intimate manner made him an idealbroadcast speaker”.[143] The press commented favourablyon his performance, with one reporter from Variety Lifewriting: “I doubt whether any speaker other than a stageidol could have used, as Robey did, the first person sin-gular almost incessantly for half an hour without causingsomething akin to resentment. ... The comedian’s talkwas brilliantly conceived and written.”[144]

In the later months of 1936, Robey repeated his radiosuccess with a thirty-minute programme entitled “Music-Hall”, recorded for American audiences, to honour thetenth birthday of the National Broadcasting Corporation.In it, he presented a montage of his characterisationsas well as impressions of other famous acts of the day.A second programme, which he recorded the followingyear, featured the comedian speaking fondly of cricketand of the many well-known players whom he had met onhis frequent visits to the Oval and Lord’s cricket groundsover his fifty-year association.[145]

In the summer of 1938 Robey appeared in the film A GirlMust Live, directed by Carol Reed, in which he playedthe role of Horace Blount.[146] A report in the Kinemato-graph Weekly commented that the 69-year-old comedianwas still able to “stand up to the screen by day and vari-ety by night.”[147] A journalist for The Times opined thatRobey’s performance as an elderly furrier, the love inter-est of both Margaret Lockwood and Lilli Palmer, was “aperfect study in bewildered embarrassment”.[148]

Robey made his television debut in August 1938[149] butwas unenthused with the medium and only made rare ap-pearances. The BBC producer Grace Wyndham Goldiewas dismayed at how little of his “comic quality” was con-veyed on the small screen. Goldie thought that Robey’scomic abilities were not limited to his voice and dependedlargely on the relation between his facial expressions andhis witty words. She felt that he should “be forbidden, byhis own angel, if nobody else, to approach the ordinarymicrophone”. Nonetheless, Goldie remained optimisticabout Robey’s future television career.[150] The journalistL. Marsland Gander disagreed and thought that Robey’smethods were “really too slow for television”.[150]

That November, and with his divorce from Ethelfinalised,[151] Robey married Blanche Littler, who wasmore than two decades his junior,[152] at MaryleboneTown Hall.[153] At Christmas, he fractured three ribs andbruised his spine when he accidentally fell into the or-chestra pit while appearing in the 1938–39 pantomimeRobinson Crusoe in Birmingham.[154] He attributed thefall to his face mask which gave him a limited view of thestage. The critic Harold Conwaywas less forgiving, blam-

12 1 BIOGRAPHY

ing the accident on the comedian’s “lost self-confidence”and opining that the accident was the start of Robey’s pro-fessional decline.[155]

1.4.2 Second World War

Aware of demand for his act in Australia, Robey con-ducted a second tour of the country at the start of 1939.While he was appearing at the Tivoli Theatre in Syd-ney, war broke out with Germany. Robey returned toEngland and concentrated his efforts on entertaining toraise money for the war effort.[156] He signed up with theEntertainments National Service Association (ENSA) forwhom he appeared in a wide range of shows and also inhis own one-man engagements. Hewould sometimes turnup unannounced to perform at hospitals, munition facto-ries, airfields, anti-aircraft posts and other venues wherethere was an audience of just a few people.[157]

During the 1940s, Robey appeared predominantly introop concerts as himself[115] but caused controversy byjokingly supporting the Nazis and belittling black peo-ple during his act. His intentions were to gently pokefun at the "Little Englanders", but audiences thought thathe was sympathising with Nazism. His jocular view thata defeat for Hitler would mean a victory for bolshevismwas highlighted in a series of controversial interviews,which caused himmuch embarrassment when challengedand which he regretted afterwards. His views becameknown in the press as “Robeyisms”, which drew increas-ing criticism, but his Prime Minister of Mirth remainedpopular, and he used the character to divert the negativepublicity.[158] Cotes wrote that Robeywas not a politician,merely a jingoist, who “lived long enough to feel [that] hislittle-Englander outlook [was causing him] acute embar-rassment, and his army of admirers deep dismay.”[157]

Robey starred in the film Salute John Citizen in 1942, di-rected by Maurice Elvey and co-starring Edward Rigbyand Stanley Holloway, about the effects that the war hadon a normal British family.[159] In a 1944 review of thefilm, Robey was described as being “convincing in [an]important role” but the film itself had “dull momentsin the simple tale”.[160] That Christmas, Robey travelledto Bristol, where he starred in the pantomime RobinsonCrusoe.[115] A further four films followed in 1943, oneof which promoted war propaganda while the other twodisplayed the popular medium of cine-variety.[161][n 21]Cine-variety introduced Robey to the Astoria in Fins-bury Park, London, a venue which was used to huge au-diences and big-name acts and was described as “a super-cinema”.[163]

During the early months of 1944, Robey returned to therole of Falstaff when he appeared in the film version ofHenry V, produced by Eagle-Lion Films. The Ameri-can film critic Bosley Crowther had mixed opinions ofthe film. Writing in The New York Times in 1946, hethought that it showcased “a fine group of British film

craftsmen and actors”, who contributed to “a stunninglybrilliant and intriguing screen spectacle”. Despite that,he considered the film’s additional screenplay poor andcalled Falstaff’s deathbed scene “non-essential and just abit grotesque.”[164] Late in 1944, he appeared in Burnleyin a show entitled Vive Paree alongside Janice Hart andFrank O'Brian.[165] In 1945, Robey starred in two mi-nor film roles, as “Old Sam” in The Trojan Brothers, ashort comedy film in which two actors experience vari-ous problems as a pantomime horse,[166] and as “Vogel”in the musical romance Waltz Time.[167] He spent 1947touring England,[168] while the following spring he un-dertook a provincial tour of Frederick Bowyer’s fairy playThe Windmill Man, which he also co-produced with hiswife.[169]

1.5 Last years

1.5.1 Decline in health

In June 1951, now aged 81, Robey starred in a midnightgala performance at the London Palladium in aid of thefamily of Sid Field who had died that year. For the fi-nale, Robey performed “I Stopped, I Looked, I Listened”and “If You Were the Only Girl in the World"; the restof the three-hour performance featured celebrities fromthe radio, television and film mediums.[170] The Ameri-can comedian Danny Kaye, who was also engaged for theperformance, called Robey a “great, great artist”.[171][n 22]The same month, Robey returned to Birmingham, wherehe opened a garden party at St. Mary and St. AmbroseChurch, a venue in which he had appeared at the begin-ning of his career. On 25 September he appeared for theBBC on an edition of the radio series Desert Island Discsfor which he chose among others “Mondo ladro”, Fal-staff’s rueful complaint about the wicked world in Verdi'sopera Falstaff.[173][n 23] For the rest of the year Robeymade a number of personal appearances opening fetesand attending charity events.[172]

Robey took part in the Festival of Variety for the BBCin 1951,[174] which paid tribute to the British music hall.For his performance, he adopted an ad-lib style ratherthan use a script.[172] His wife sat at the side of the stage,ready to provide support should he need it. Accordingto Wilson, Robey’s turn earned the loudest applause ofthe evening.[175] The following month Robey undertooka long provincial tour in the variety showDo You Remem-ber? under the management of Bernard Delfont. Afteran evening’s performance in Sheffield, he was asked by alocal newspaper reporter if he considered retiring. Thecomedian quipped: “Me retire? Good gracious, I'm tooold for that. I could not think of starting a new careerat my age!"[176] In December, he opened the LansburyLodge home for retired cricketers in Poplar, East Lon-don; he considered the ceremony to be one of the “hap-piest memories of his life.”[177]

By early 1952, Robey was becoming noticeably frail, and

13

he lost interest in many of his sporting pastimes. In-stead, he stayed at home and drew comic sketches fea-turing the Prime Minister of Mirth.[178] In May he filmedThe Pickwick Papers, in which he played the role of oldTonyWeller, a part which he had initially turned down onhealth grounds.[179] The following year, and in aid of thegames fund, he starred as Clown in a short pantomime atthe Olympic Variety Show at the Victoria Palace Theatre.Organisers asked for him to appear in the Prime Minis-ter of Mirth costume instead of the usual clown garb, arequest the comedian was happy to fulfil.[180]

1.5.2 Knighthood and death

In the early months of 1954, Robey accepted a knight-hood which was conferred on him by Queen ElizabethThe Queen Mother at Buckingham Palace.[181] Duringthe following weeks, his health declined; he became con-fined to a wheelchair and spent the majority of his timeat home under the care of his wife. In May he openeda British Red Cross fete in Seaford, East Sussex, and, amonth later, made his last public appearance, on televi-sion as a panellist in the English version of The Name’sthe Same. Wilson called Robey’s performance “pathetic”and thought that he appeared with only “a hint of hisold self”.[182] By June he had become housebound andquietly celebrated his 85th birthday surrounded by fam-ily; visiting friends were organised into appointments byhis wife Blanche, but theatrical colleagues were barred incase they caused the comedian too much excitement.[183]

Robey suffered a stroke on 20 November and re-mained in a semi-coma for just over a week. He diedon 29 November 1954 at his home in Saltdean, EastSussex,[184][185] and was cremated at the Downs Crema-torium in Brighton.[186] Blanche continued to live on theSussex coast until her death at age 83 in 1981.[187]

2 Tributes and legacy

News of Robey’s death prompted tributes from the press,who printed illustrations, anecdotes and reminders of hisstage performances and charitable activities. “Knight-hood notwithstanding, George Robey long agomade him-self a place as an entertainer and artist of the people”,declared a reporter from the Daily Worker,[188] while acritic for theDaily Mail wrote: “Personality has become awildly misused word since his heyday, but George Robeybreathed it in every pore.”[189] In Robey’s obituary in TheSpectator, Compton Mackenzie called the comedian “oneof the last great figures of the late Victorian and Edwar-dian music-hall.”[190]

In December 1954, a memorial service for Robey washeld at St Paul’s Cathedral. The diverse congregationconsisted of royalty, actors, hospital workers, stage per-sonnel, students and taxi drivers, among others. The

Bishop of Stepney, Joost de Blank, said: “We have losta great English music hall artist, one of the greatest thiscountry has known in the late nineteenth and twenti-eth centuries.”[191] Performers gave readings at the ser-vice, including the comedian Leslie Henson, who calledRobey “that great obstinate bullock of variety”.[21] In hislifetime, Robey helped to earn more than £2,000,000for charitable causes, with £500,000 of that figure be-ing raised during the First World War.[85][192] In recogni-tion of his efforts, the Merchant Seaman’s ConvalescentHome in Limpsfield, Surrey, named a ward after him,and managerial staff at the Royal Sussex Hospital laterbought a new dialysis machine in his memory.[193] In the1960s, a public house in Finsbury Park, North London,was named “The George Robey” after the comedian.[194]

Robey’s comic delivery influenced other comedians, butopinions of his effectiveness as a comic vary. The ra-dio personality Robb Wilton acknowledged learning a lotfrom him, and although he felt that Robey “was not veryfunny”, he could time a comic situation perfectly.[35] Sim-ilarly, the comedian Charlie Chester admitted that, as acomedian, Robey “still didn't make me laugh,” althoughhe described him as “a legend” whose Prime Ministerof Mirth character used a beautiful make-up design.[195]Robey’s biographer Peter Cotes disagreed with these as-sessments, praising the comedian’s “droll like humour”and comparing it in greatness to Chaplin’s miming andGrock's clowning.[196] Cotes wrote: “His Mayor, Profes-sor of Music, Saracen, Dame Trot, Queen of Hearts, Dis-trict Nurse, Pro’s Landlady, and of course his immortalPrimeMinister, were all absurdities: rich, outsize in primand pride, gloriously disapproving bureaucratic petty of-ficialdom at its worst, best and funniest.”[197]

Violet Loraine called her former co-star “one of the great-est comedians the world has ever known”,[198] while thetheatrical producer Basil Dean opined that “George was agreat artist, one of the last and [sic] the really big figures ofhis era. They don't breed them like that now.”[198] The ac-tor John Gielgud, who remembered meeting Robey at theAlhambra Theatre in 1953, called the comedian “charm-ing, gracious [and] one of the few really great ones” of themusic hall era.[198] Upon his death, Robey’s costume forthe Prime Minister of Mirth was donated to the LondonMuseum, where it is on permanent display.[193]

3 Notes and references

Notes

[1] Robey would later claim that he was born in the more af-fluent area of Herne Hill, although this was incorrect. Hisbirthplace in Kennington is a three-storey house above ashop, which was then a hardware outlet owned byWilliamBrown.[3] In the 1860s, Kennington Road was a wealthyarea mainly inhabited by successful tradesmen and busi-nessmen. By the 1880s, the area had fallen into a decline

14 3 NOTES AND REFERENCES

and was considered by locals to be one of the most impov-erished areas in London.[4] The comedian Charlie Chap-lin, who had a poor and deprived upbringing, was born inthe same street 18 years after Robey.[5]

[2] Robey’s parents each died during the First World War;his father of a heart attack and his mother as a result of aninjury she had sustained during an air raid.[7]

[3] Robey’s time at Leipzig University was cut short as hisfather had to return to England to work. There is noevidence that Robey enrolled at Cambridge or any otherEnglish university as fees in Victorian England were tooexpensive for someone like Charles Wade.[14] However,members of the theatrical community were convinced ofhis attendance at Cambridge.[10] The theatre critic MaxBeerbohm wrote that Robey was one of the few distin-guished men to emerge from the campus, but the Englishwriter Neville Cardus was more sceptical, wondering howsomeone from the University of Cambridge could end upin themusic hall.[14] Robey’s biographer, Peter Cotes, con-cludes that he likely played alongwith the assumptions thathe was a Cambridge graduate to fit in with the higher cir-cles of society.[10]

[4] Founded by W. H. Blanch, the Thirteen Club chargedmembers a fee of half a crown a year. The club members,including both amateur and professional performers, weredevoted to the idea of flouting superstition while stagingconcerts in public houses and halls across London.[17]

[5] He swapped the top hat for a small bowler in 1924.[27]

[6] Robey considered the fee to be generous. Cecilia Loftus,a well-established music hall performer, was paid £80 aweek for an engagement that year.[32]

[7] Ethel Hayden was born inMelbourne in 1877. She arrivedin London at an early age and was starring in The CircusGirl at the Gaiety Theatre at the time of her marriage toRobey.[37] A star in her own right, Ethel often accompa-nied her husband on stage in his various pantomimes andmusic hall sketches.[38]

[8] Swiss Cottage now forms part of the London Borough ofCamden.

[9] Edward showed some talent for the stage and appearedin a few minor roles as a child. He gave up acting in histeenage years.[37] He studied law at the University of Cam-bridge and then with the barrister Edward Marshall Hall,who sponsored him when he came to the bar in 1925. Ed-ward became the Chief Prosecutor in the John GeorgeHaigh case; was a member of the British legal team at theNuremberg war trials and was appointed a MetropolitanMagistrate in 1954.[40]

[10] The songs were released by the Gramophone and Type-writer Company,[43] one of the early recording companies,which became the parent organisation for the His Master’sVoice (HMV) label.[44]

[11] In 1912 Robey wrote a story entitled Football in the Year2000 for Fulham Football Club’s in-house magazine inwhich he predicted that players would be flown to matchesand paid in tobacco and would be influential in stoppingwars and resolving national rivalries.[49]

[12] In the later months of 1908, while appearing as Dame Trotin Jack and the Beanstalk in Birmingham, Robey ran thequickest time in both the 100 and 220-yard sprint at a trackin Small Heath.[56]

[13] The show featured the songs “It Wouldn't Surprise Me aBit” and “A Little House, A Little Home”.[91]

[14] The production also featured Clarice Mayne as Jack. JayLaurier and Tom Walls warmed the audience before themain performance.[102]

[15] Written by Sax Rohmer and Julian and Laurie Wylie,Round in Fifty told the story of Phileas Fogg, who travelledthe world for a bet. The revue featured a musical score byJames Tate and Herman Finck and was one of the firstproductions to feature an accompanying projected filmsequence (it showed Phileas racing an Atlantic liner in amotor boat). Co-stars includedWallace and Barry Lupinoand Alec Kellaway. It ran for 471 performances.[103]

[16] 15,000 miles (24,000 km)

[17] During the elaborate ceremony, Robeywas given an eagle-feathered head-dress and the tribal name of “Dit-ony-Chusaw”, which translates to “Chief Eagle Plume”.[111]

[18] Frank Rolison Littler (1879–1940) married AgnesRicheux, the widow of the impresario Jules Richeux,in 1914. The three children from the Richeux mar-riage all adopted the surname “Littler”, and the twosons, Prince Littler and Emile, both became well-knownimpresarios.[114]

[19] The 1932 version was filmed in Grasse in the southof France. The earlier film was shot in Cumberland;Robey was in the English-language version, one of threeversions.[117]

[20] In the opinion of Wilson, p. 155

[21] Cine-variety achieved popularity in the 1920s and incor-porated the talking motion picture with variety theatre.Many variety theatres were converted into cinemas andshowcased the talents of variety comedians, which boughtthem to a wider audience.[162]

[22] Other participants included Vivien Leigh, LaurenceOlivier, Tommy Trinder and the Crazy Gang.[172]

[23] Robey’s other choices for the programme were: 1.Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite: “Dance of the SugarPlum Fairy”. 2. Noël Coward – “I'll See You Again”. 3.Grieg – “Piano Concerto in AMinor”. 4. Gilbert and Sul-livan – The Gondoliers. 5. Fritz Kreisler – “Liebesfreud”.6. Ivor Novello – Glamorous Night. 7. Elgar – “Land ofHope and Glory”.[173]

References

[1] Harding, James. “Robey, George”, Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 10May 2014. (subscription or UK public library member-ship required)

[2] Cotes, p. 42.

15

[3] Cotes, p. 16.

[4] Cotes, pp. 16–17.

[5] Cotes, p. 17.

[6] Cotes, p. 18.

[7] Wilson, p. 38.

[8] Cotes, p. 19.

[9] Wilson, pp. 25–26.

[10] Cotes, p. 20.

[11] Cotes, pp. 19–20.

[12] Wilson, p. 26.

[13] Baker, p. 272.

[14] Cotes, p. 21.

[15] Cotes, p. 22.

[16] Cotes, p. 23.

[17] Cotes, p. 24.

[18] Cotes, p. 25.

[19] The Royal Aquarium (Arthur Lloyd theatre history), ac-cessed 26 May 2008.

[20] Cotes, pp. 25–26.

[21] Cotes, p. 6.

[22] Cotes, pp. 13–14.

[23] “Mr George Robey”, The Stage, 22 October 1891, p. 4.

[24] Cotes, p. 41.

[25] Cotes, p. 51.

[26] Cotes, pp. 52–53.

[27] Cotes, p. 105.

[28] Cotes, p. 14.

[29] Cotes, p. 43.

[30] Cotes, pp. 66–67.

[31] “A Theatre Case”, West Gippsland Gazette, 27 January1903, p. 4.

[32] Maloney, “The Scottish 'pro’s”, p. 106.

[33] Cotes, p. 67.

[34] Cotes, p. 70.

[35] Cotes, p. 47.

[36] Reeve, Ada. Quoted in Cotes, p. 67.

[37] Cotes, p. 58.

[38] Cotes, p. 59.

[39] Cotes, pp. 58–59.

[40] Cotes, p. 62.

[41] Cotes, p. 63.

[42] Cardus, Neville. Quoted in Cotes, p. xi.

[43] “George Robey – WINDYCDR17 – The Prime Minis-ter of Mirth”, Windyridge Music Hall CDs, accessed 24February 2014.

[44] “Columbia Graphophone-H.M.V. Merger In England byMorgan Deal Indicated”, The New York Times, 27 April1930.

[45] “Comedian’s £200 a week: Mr George Robey Succeedsin the Lawsuit”, The Register, 29 March 1910, p. 3.

[46] Cotes, p. 69.

[47] Cotes, p. 68.

[48] Cotes, p. 192.

[49] Horrall, “Football”, p. 163

[50] Cotes, p. 136.

[51] “E Swanborough’s XI v G Robey’s XI”, Cricket Archive,accessed 15 April 2014.

[52] Wilson, p. 108.

[53] Wilson, p. 103.

[54] Cotes, p. 140.

[55] Cotes, p. 138.

[56] Cotes, p. 139.

[57] Robey, George. Quoted in Cotes, p. 139.

[58] Cotes, p. 137.

[59] Cotes, p. 153.

[60] “George Robey (1869–1954), Comedian”, National Por-trait Gallery, accessed 8 May 2014.

[61] Cotes, p. 75.

[62] Cotes, p. 48.

[63] Cotes, p. 80.

[64] “George Robey”, Osobnosti.cz, accessed 2 June 2014

[65] Parrill, "'Good Queen Bess’ (1913)", p. 91

[66] Cotes, p. 104.

[67] George Robey Turns Anarchist, British Film Institute, ac-cessed 1 February 2014.

[68] St. Pierre, p. 37.

[69] Cotes, p. 102.

[70] Cotes, p. 82.

[71] Wilson, p. 109.

16 3 NOTES AND REFERENCES

[72] Cotes, pp. 83–85.

[73] Cotes, p. 195.

[74] Wilson, p. 110.

[75] “The Bing Boys Are Here”, Exeter and Plymouth Gazette,1 May 1916, p. 2.

[76] Fazan, p. 30.

[77] Cotes, p. 83.

[78] The Anti-frivolity League, British Film Institute, accessed1 February 2014.

[79] Doing His Bit, British Film Institute, accessed 1 February2014.

[80] Stone, p. 27.

[81] Cotes, p. 85.

[82] Stone, p. 28.

[83] Cecchi, Emilio. La Tribuna, quoted in Wilson, p. 111.

[84] Robey, George. My Rest Cure, Frederick A. Stokes, 1919,Archive.org, accessed 14 February 2014.

[85] “George Robey”, Hull Daily Mail, 18 September 1942, p.1.

[86] Cotes, p. 170.

[87] Cotes, p. 87.

[88] Wilson, p. 111.

[89] Cotes, p. 74.

[90] “Stoll Picture Productions”, British Film Institute, ac-cessed 5 February 2014.

[91] Wilson, p. 112.

[92] George Robey’s Day Off, British Film Institute, accessed1 February 2014.

[93] Wilson, p. 151.

[94] “Variety Theatre”, Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed25 December 2013.

[95] Cotes, p. 71.

[96] Cotes, pp. 71–72.

[97] Cotes, p. 88.

[98] “George Robey and the Printers”, The Devon and ExeterGazette, 27 August 1920, p. 15.

[99] “The Prince ofWales and the 1937 Coronation”, ScoutingMilestones, accessed 27 January 2014.

[100] Quoted in Cotes, p. 66.

[101] Cotes, p. 66.

[102] Wilson, p. 114.

[103] Cotes, p. 89.

[104] "One Arabian Night", British Film Institute, accessed 2February 2014.

[105] "Harlequinade", British Film Institute, accessed 2 Febru-ary 2014.

[106] “Chaplin-In-Context”, British Film Institute, p. 2, ac-cessed 4 January 2014.

[107] Cotes, p. 90.

[108] Cotes, p. 91.

[109] Wilson, p. 122.

[110] Wilson, pp. 122–123.

[111] Wilson, p. 123.

[112] Cotes, p. 92.

[113] Wilson, p. 121.

[114] Morley, Sheridan. “Littler, Prince Frank”, Oxford Dictio-nary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, ac-cessed 10 May 2014. (subscription or UK public librarymembership required)

[115] Cotes, p. 193.

[116] Marry Me, British Film Institute, accessed 23 February2014.

[117] Wilson, p. 152.

[118] Wilson, pp. 151–152.

[119] Wilson, p. 155.

[120] Cotes, p. 119.

[121] “Sir George Robey”, Britannica, accessed 31 January2014.

[122] Cotes, p. 94.

[123] Cotes, p. 95.

[124] Wilson, p. 129.

[125] Wilson, pp. 129–130.

[126] Quoted in Wilson, p. 130.

[127] Cotes, p. 199.

[128] Sutton, Graham. “The Bookman’s Table": Looking Backon Life, by George Robey”, The Bookman, p. 132, No.506, Vol. 85, November 1933, accessed 7 May 2014.

[129] Wilson, pp. 137–138.

[130] Cotes, p. 116.

[131] Wilson, p. 137.

[132] “Chu Chin Chow (1934): A Robust Operetta”. The NewYork Times, 22 September 1934, accessed 2 August 2010

[133] Cotes, p. 118.

[134] Quoted in Wilson, p. 135.

17

[135] Quoted in Wilson, p. 136.

[136] Wilson, p. 135.

[137] “George Robey Would Be a Great Falstaff—If Only HeCould Gag!", The Daily Express, 1 March 1935, p. 1.

[138] “Henry IV, Part I”, The Observer, 3 March 1935, p. 17.

[139] “It Takes Three Years to Equal This Robey”,DailyMirror,1 March 1935, p. 1.

[140] Cotes, p. 117.

[141] Cotes, p. 123.

[142] Quoted in Cotes, p. 120.

[143] Wilson, p. 158.

[144] Anonymous reporter from Variety Life, quoted in Wilson,pp. 158–159.

[145] Wilson, p. 159.

[146] A Girl Must Live, British Film Institute, accessed 11February 2014.

[147] Quote taken fromKinematographWeekly; Wilson, p. 157.

[148] Quoted in Wilson, p. 157.

[149] Cotes, p. 114.

[150] Quoted in Cotes, p. 114.

[151] Wilson, p. 197.

[152] “George Robey Married”, Derby Daily Telegraph, 28November 1938, p. 1.

[153] “Noted Comedian Weds”, Montreal Gazette, 1 December1938, p. 7.

[154] “George Robey: More Restful Night But Still In Pain”,Derby Daily Telegraph, 4 January 1939, p. 1.

[155] Cotes, pp. 159–160.

[156] Cotes, pp. 162–163.

[157] Cotes, p. 163.

[158] Cotes, pp. 163–164.

[159] Salute John Citizen, British Film Institute, accessed 18March 2014.

[160] “Salute John Citizen”, The Australian Women’s Weekly,29 January 1944, p. 19.

[161] “George Robey”, British Film Institute, accessed 18March 2014.

[162] “Music Hall and Variety”, Britannica, accessed 18 March2014.

[163] Cotes, p. 164.

[164] Crowther, Bosley. “The Screen: Henry V (1944)", TheNew York Times, 18 June 1946, accessed 24 March 2014.

[165] “Vive Paree”, Burnley Express, 18 November 1944, p. 1.

[166] The Trojan Brothers, British Film Institute, accessed 24February 2014.

[167] Waltz Time, British Film Institute, accessed 24 March2014.

[168] Wilson, p. 220.

[169] Fazan, p. 22.

[170] Wilson, p. 221.

[171] Wilson, pp. 221–222.

[172] Wilson, p. 222.

[173] “Desert Island Discs: George Robey”, BBC, accessed 17March 2014.

[174] Fisher, p. 117.

[175] Wilson, p. 223.

[176] Quoted in Wilson, p. 224.

[177] Quoted in Wilson, p. 225.

[178] Wilson, p. 226.

[179] Wilson, p. 227.

[180] Cotes, p. 194.

[181] “George Robey Knighted”, The Advocate, 18 February1954, p. 1, accessed 6 December 2013.

[182] Wilson, p. 238.

[183] Wilson, p. 239.

[184] Wilson, p. 240.

[185] “Prime Minister of Mirth: A Comic Genius – Death ofSir George Robey”, The Glasgow Herald, 30 November1954, p. 8.

[186] “Music Hall and Variety Artistes Burial Places” (ArthurLloyd theatre history), accessed 14 February 2014.

[187] “Names on the buses – 712 George Robey”, Brighton &Hove Bus Company, accessed 10 February 2014.

[188] Quoted in Wilson, p. 240.

[189] Wilson, Cecil. Quoted in Wilson, p. 240.

[190] “Sidelight: Compton Mackenzie”, The Spectator(archive), 10 December 1954, p. 18.

[191] Cotes, p. 3.

[192] “Sir George Robey: The Prime Minister of Mirth”, it’s-behind-you.com, accessed 8 December 2013.

[193] Cotes, p. 7.

[194] Cotes, p. 160.

[195] Cotes, p. 167.

[196] Cotes, p. 4.

[197] Cotes, p. 179.

[198] Quoted in Wilson, p. 242.

18 5 EXTERNAL LINKS

4 Sources• Baker, Richard Anthony (2005). British Music Hall:

An Illustrated History. London: Sutton PublishingLtd. ISBN 0-7509-3685-1.

• Cotes, Peter (1972). George Robey: The Darling ofthe Halls. London: Cassell & Company Ltd. ISBN978-0-304-93844-5.

• Fazan, Eleanor (2013). Fiz: And Some Theatre Gi-ants. Victoria, British Columbia: Friesen Press.ISBN 978-1-4602-0102-2.

• Fisher, John (2013). Funny Way to Be a Hero. Lon-don: Preface Press. ISBN 978-1-84809-313-3.

• Horrall, Andrew (2001). Popular Culture in Londonc. 1890–1918: The Transformation of Entertain-ment. Manchester: Manchester University Press.ISBN 978-0-7190-5782-3.

• Maloney, John (2003). Scotland and the Music Hall1850–1914. Manchester: Manchester UniversityPress. ISBN 978-0-7190-6147-9.

• Parrill, Sue and William B. Robison (2013). TheTudors on Film and Television. McFarland. ISBN978-1-4766-0031-4.

• Stone, Harry (2009). The Century of Musical Com-edy and Revue. Indiana: AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4343-8865-0.

• St. Pierre, Paul Matthew (2009). Music Hall Mime-sis in British Film, 1895–1960: On the Halls on theScreen. Vancouver: Associated University Presse.ISBN 978-0-8386-4191-0.

• Wilson, Albert Edward (1956). Prime Minister ofMirth. The biography of Sir George Robey, C.B.E.With plates, including portraits. Michigan: OdhamPress. OCLC 1731822.

5 External links• George Robey at the Internet Movie Database

• Brief biography at The English Music Hall

• Robey at Its Behind You

• “If You Were the Only Girl (in the World)" sung byLoraine and Robey, 1916

• Ye Olde Tree and Crown

• Robey at Pathe News

19

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1 Text• George Robey Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%20Robey?oldid=635912063 Contributors: Paul Barlow, Mervyn, Ganymead,Kappa, Oldelpaso, Thefourdotelipsis, Gareth E Kegg, RussBot, Caerwine, Crisco 1492, Nikkimaria, SmackBot, PeeJay2K3, Ian Rose,SteveO, Colonies Chris, DavidSol, Johncmullen1960, Tim riley, Ohconfucius, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, BrownHairedGirl, John, Regan123,Fuzzy510, Mr Stephen, AlbertSM, Drinibot, Brownlee, Ssilvers, ErikaG, Dr. Blofeld, Kbthompson, Tjmayerinsf, Dsp13, Rothorpe,RFWilmut, Magioladitis, Jack1956, Plastikspork, Sun Creator, Brianboulton, Lord Cornwallis, Cg2p0B0u8m, Itsinbrighton, Lightbot,AnomieBOT, Ruby2010, Full-date unlinking bot, Lightlowemon, Cassianto, GabeMc, Faolin42, GoingBatty, K6ka, BabbaQ, ClueBotNG, SchroCat, Cyberbot II, ChrisGualtieri, Viewmont Viking, VIAFbot, Zziccardi, TFA Protector Bot, Beryl reid fan, Cranberry Prod-ucts, Hinmatóowyalahtqit, Kharris9787, Wiki aministrators arefaggits, , and Anonymous: 20

6.2 Images• File:CBCochrane.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/CBCochrane.jpg License: ? Contributors: ? Original artist:?

• File:Cscr-featured.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Cscr-featured.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Originalartist: ?

• File:George_Robey_MCC.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/George_Robey_MCC.jpg License: Pub-lic domain Contributors: Ebay online auction website Original artist: Unknown

• File:George_Robey_and_family,_1903.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/George_Robey_and_family%2C_1903.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Sketch, 2 September 1903, p. 233. Original artist: Foulsham and Banfield

• File:George_Robey_as_The_Prime_Minister_of_Mirth.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/George_Robey_as_The_Prime_Minister_of_Mirth.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.oldukphotos.com/film-actors/george-robey-music-hall-comedian-and-film-star.htm Original artist: Unknown. The post card was published and distributed by theLondon based Rotary Photographic Company who were established in 1901, but had a registered portrait studio as early as 1897. Manyphotographers for the company worked on a freelance basis and seldom ever received a credit for their work. As the publisher, rights wereoften held by the company who ceased trading in April 1916 and as such, this photo is now believed out of copyright.

• File:George_Robey_as_the_Mayor.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/George_Robey_as_the_Mayor.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Sketch, 18 May 1904, p. 167. Also at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Original artist:Unknown. The post card was published and distributed by the London based Rotary Photographic Company who were established in 1901,but had a registered portrait studio as early as 1897. Many photographers for the company worked on a freelance basis and seldom everreceived a credit for their work. As the publisher, rights were often held by the company who ceased trading in April 1916 and as such, thisphoto is now believed out of copyright.

• File:George_Robey_by_H._Walter_Barnett.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/George_Robey_by_H._Walter_Barnett.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: National Portrait Gallery, London: NPG x45299Original artist: HenryWalterBarnett

• File:George_Robey_face.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/George_Robey_face.jpg License: Publicdomain Contributors: The Devon and Exeter Gazette, Saturday 9 August 1930, p. 5 Original artist: Unknown. The photograph can only befound within the source and not online. The photo was unattributed within the article from which it comes and was taken, presumably, bya freelanced photographer.

• File:George_Robey_in_flannels.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/George_Robey_in_flannels.jpg Li-cense: Public domain Contributors: Black & White Budget, Volume VII, edition 153, 13 September 1902, p. 1. Original artist: Unknown

• File:Kennington_Road,_London_c._1865.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Kennington_Road%2C_London_c._1865.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Scan from The London Illustrated News, 9 December 1865, p. 561. Originalartist: Unknown

• File:Robey,_Loraine_and_Lester.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Robey%2C_Loraine_and_Lester.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: National Portrait Gallery Original artist: Wrather & Buys

• File:Robey_stamps_1921.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Robey_stamps_1921.jpg License: Publicdomain Contributors: http://www.scoutingmilestones.co.uk/events Original artist: The Royal Mail

• File:Round_In_Fifty_theatre_poster.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Round_In_Fifty_theatre_poster.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Jazz Age Club website Original artist: Unknown. This is the only image on the net and noforwarding author has been listed.

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