No other excuse: Race, class and gender in British Music Hall comedic performance 1914–1949

Huxley, David; James, David

doi:10.1386/cost.3.1.17_1

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…In particular, this is based on articles in Red Letter, a magazine that we have used before in our research on British music hall performers. (Huxley and James 2012).…”

Section: Guest Editorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guest Editorial

Huxley

James

2013

Early Popular Visual Culture

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“…In particular, this is based on articles in Red Letter, a magazine that we have used before in our research on British music hall performers. (Huxley and James 2012).…”

Section: Guest Editorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guest Editorial

Huxley

James

2013

Early Popular Visual Culture

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“…perhaps more surprisingly. that there was a clear prejudice against what were then called 'Hebrew comedians' (Huxley and James 2012). Further research has indicated that there was some backlash against this unthinking racism, even in the early part of the century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women used to be funny: Music hall and the threat of cinema, 1911–49

Huxley

James

2013

Early Popular Visual Culture

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This article addresses the dual topics of female comedians in early twentiethcentury British music hall, and also the industry's attempts to halt a decline brought about by the increasing popularity of cinema. In particular, it establishes that a great number of female performers were highly successful up to, and beyond, the First World War. The nature of the performance of three female comedians from this era -Marie Lloyd, Anna Dorothy and Millie Payne -is examined in detail, demonstrating that many female performers specialised in risqué material and the use of the 'double entendre'. The trade journal The Performer is also examined to explore how Variety performers viewed the threat of the 'talkies' and took action to try and curtail it.

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“…We found that every week from around 1902 to the First World War, the Red Letter reviewed a Music Hall act in a much more detailed way than you can find in periodicals such as The Performer, The Encore or other professional magazines. We published some of our research in both the Comedy Studies Journal (Huxley and James, 2012) and guest-edited an issue of Early Popular Visual Culture (Huxley and James, 2013), and we have really only scratched the surface of the material we unearthed. We have talked about a whole range of acts such as Pansy Montague, who was billed as 'La Milo' and whose act consisted of coming on stage painted white and posing semi-naked as famous statues from history.…”

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confidence: 99%