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In loving memory of Tom, Gwen and Kitty, and of my brother Terry, whose ambition in life was to see this book written
Contents
2 The Basement and the Cellars
11 The Cross-Dressers: Girls Who Were Boys
17 The Literati and the Artists
‘Who is to write the history of music hall? What a splendid theme …’
JOHN ROBERTSON, HISTORIAN (1856–1933)
In March 1962, I sat with an old man as he lay dying. He was barely conscious, with familiar half-smiles dancing across his well-worn and gentle face, but I knew where he was in his imagination – where he wanted to be. The lights were bright. A boisterous audience was cheering. Aged eighty-two, and over thirty years since he had left it, he was back on the stage. In life he had few possessions, but he died a richer man than most, with a song in his heart and joy in his soul.
He was my father, Tom.
The men and women who entertained so royally are all dead. They are gone, but not quite forgotten. We know some of their names, and some of their songs, but few people now living saw them onstage. Their magic is now the stuff of myth and legend.
But then, music hall has always been an elusive concept. What exactly is it? Is it a style of singing comic ballads? That is certainly the principal ingredient, but it is far from the whole. Is it a theatre, hosting a mixture of variety? Up to a point, yes – but it is so much more than that.
Even the name is misleading. ‘Music’ hall was never simply music, but encompassed everything from the sublime to the surreal. A typical
