The Story of Music Hall with Michael Grade

0:00:26 > 0:00:33These sad, evocative ruins are all that's left of the great Britannia Music Hall in Glasgow.

0:00:37 > 0:00:41They feel like the relics of a vanished civilisation,

0:00:41 > 0:00:45mysterious and incomprehensible to us now.

0:00:49 > 0:00:53The Britannia was built in 1857 at the height of the British music hall boom

0:00:53 > 0:00:59and this stage has hosted performances by some of music hall's greatest names.

0:01:01 > 0:01:03Dan Leno, The King's Jester,

0:01:03 > 0:01:06described as the funniest man on Earth.

0:01:07 > 0:01:11Marie Lloyd, the queen of the halls, notorious for her innuendo

0:01:11 > 0:01:17but adored for songs that found laughter in the adversities of working-class life.

0:01:17 > 0:01:19And a 16-year-old Stan Laurel,

0:01:19 > 0:01:24who made an audience laugh for the first time in this room.

0:01:24 > 0:01:28In Victorian Britain, the music hall was ubiquitous.

0:01:28 > 0:01:32Every town, every suburb had its version of this space.

0:01:34 > 0:01:39The period of their heyday was a time of colossal upheaval in British society,

0:01:39 > 0:01:44and the halls were an authentic, creative response to this rapidly-changing world.

0:01:46 > 0:01:54A hilarious, absurdist, mocking commentary on the life and times of the people in song and laughter.

0:01:55 > 0:01:59Mass entertainment has been my family business for generations,

0:01:59 > 0:02:04and I want to trace its evolution back to its earliest roots.

0:02:04 > 0:02:06I'll be visiting the venues,

0:02:06 > 0:02:10the warm, bright, welcoming spaces that grew out of our pub culture.

0:02:10 > 0:02:13Pothouses that became grand palaces,

0:02:13 > 0:02:15where even the King came

0:02:15 > 0:02:17for a good night out.

0:02:17 > 0:02:20I'll be rediscovering the performers and their songs...

0:02:20 > 0:02:24# Champagne Charlie is my name... #

0:02:24 > 0:02:27..and trying to decipher some Victorian innuendo.

0:02:27 > 0:02:31# Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow... #

0:02:31 > 0:02:37I just think they must have been absolutely wonderful, and I really wish I could have met some of them.

0:02:37 > 0:02:38They sound absolutely great.

0:02:38 > 0:02:41I'll be singing the odd verse myself.

0:02:41 > 0:02:46# If it wasn't for the houses in between. #

0:02:46 > 0:02:50And finding out just who frequented the halls.

0:02:50 > 0:02:52A jaunty angle or about there?

0:02:52 > 0:02:55Look at that! Absolutely fantastic.

0:02:58 > 0:03:02So let's have a look at the story of this wonderful institution.

0:03:02 > 0:03:05Its stars, its audiences, the politics behind it,

0:03:05 > 0:03:10and just why it tells us so much about the entertainment we enjoy today.

0:03:40 > 0:03:43Somewhere in this street, about 100 years ago, my grandparents,

0:03:43 > 0:03:49Olga and Isaac, began a new life in two rented rooms above a shoe shop.

0:03:51 > 0:03:56They were Jewish refugees from the Ukraine, and settled here in the East End of London -

0:03:56 > 0:04:00at that time, indisputably the greatest city on Earth.

0:04:02 > 0:04:07Isaac died young and it fell to my Uncle Lou to support the whole family.

0:04:07 > 0:04:11He developed an act, dancing the charleston on a tabletop,

0:04:11 > 0:04:14and his career in entertainment began.

0:04:15 > 0:04:19There must have been hundreds of stories just like his.

0:04:19 > 0:04:23A little talent, carefully nurtured, could offer a route out of poverty.

0:04:23 > 0:04:30When my Uncle Lou was dancing professionally in the 1930s, he was part of the variety business,

0:04:30 > 0:04:34the same business where later I learned my trade as an agent,

0:04:34 > 0:04:36and it really was a business.

0:04:39 > 0:04:45The slick, well-oiled variety industry had its earliest roots in the music halls,

0:04:45 > 0:04:49a largely working-class affair where the main aims were to escape

0:04:49 > 0:04:54the harsh conditions of urban life by having a laugh and having a drink.

0:04:54 > 0:04:59This great enterprise we call the music hall was born in these London streets

0:04:59 > 0:05:04100 years before my Uncle Lou first danced on his tabletop.

0:05:04 > 0:05:08Music hall grew out of many different forms of entertainment

0:05:08 > 0:05:09popular in the 1830s,

0:05:09 > 0:05:11like the pleasure gardens

0:05:11 > 0:05:13where Britain's increasingly urban population

0:05:13 > 0:05:16enjoyed a taste of the countryside

0:05:16 > 0:05:18with refreshments and genteel diversions.

0:05:20 > 0:05:24The pleasure gardens behind the Eagle Tavern in the City Road

0:05:24 > 0:05:27hosted wrestling matches and circus acts

0:05:27 > 0:05:30but also boasted a grand concert room.

0:05:30 > 0:05:33There's still an Eagle pub on the site today,

0:05:33 > 0:05:37celebrated in the nursery rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel.

0:05:38 > 0:05:41The Eagle was later described as the father and mother,

0:05:41 > 0:05:45the dry and the wetness of the music hall.

0:05:45 > 0:05:49Writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet sets the scene.

0:05:49 > 0:05:54So let's assume that you and I decided we were going to The Eagle for the evening.

0:05:54 > 0:05:58I've never been, you're a regular. Tell me what I'm going to see.

0:05:58 > 0:06:00- All kinds of stuff really.- Right.

0:06:00 > 0:06:04Entertainers who purport to be from all over the world.

0:06:04 > 0:06:06Probably from down the road, but you never know.

0:06:06 > 0:06:09The Giraffe Girl with the extended neck,

0:06:09 > 0:06:14- Quang Seely, the young Chinese positionist.- A positionist?

0:06:14 > 0:06:19A positionist, a contortionist of some kind who would bend his body into remarkable surprising shapes.

0:06:19 > 0:06:23Mr Leach, the dwarf equestrian who would jump around on the back

0:06:23 > 0:06:27of a horse and who would impersonate figures of the period

0:06:27 > 0:06:29while sitting on the back of his horse.

0:06:29 > 0:06:34- Comedians?- Well, singers really. Comic songsters.

0:06:34 > 0:06:40Older forms of entertainment are dying away or in some ways being policed out of existence.

0:06:40 > 0:06:42Things like cockfighting.

0:06:42 > 0:06:48The Eagle was certainly famous enough to come to the attention of Charles Dickens,

0:06:48 > 0:06:51and if I could read you a quick reference from Sketches by Boz,

0:06:51 > 0:06:55"Never was anything half so splendid.

0:06:55 > 0:07:01"There was an orchestra for the singers and everybody was eating and drinking as comfortably as possible.

0:07:01 > 0:07:03"Just before the concert commenced,

0:07:03 > 0:07:07"Mr Samuel Wilkins ordered two glasses of rum and water

0:07:07 > 0:07:12"and two slices of lemon, together with a pint of sherry wine for the ladies

0:07:12 > 0:07:14"and some sweet caraway seed biscuits."

0:07:14 > 0:07:16Sounds really good, that, doesn't it?

0:07:16 > 0:07:21So this wasn't a really rough crowd, this wasn't the dregs of society.

0:07:21 > 0:07:24No, no, no. There's a lot of mahogany.

0:07:24 > 0:07:27The quality of the panelling is emphasised.

0:07:27 > 0:07:31Dickens talks about the plate glass here, and that was a big attraction, too.

0:07:31 > 0:07:37It had swinging plate glass doors and they were something that people who came here remarked upon.

0:07:37 > 0:07:40It was by no means a dive. It was somewhere very luxurious.

0:07:40 > 0:07:43What were the audiences like? Who were they?

0:07:43 > 0:07:47This area around here is relatively well-to-do.

0:07:47 > 0:07:49If you look at Booth's poverty map of London,

0:07:49 > 0:07:52there are some wealthy people living around here.

0:07:52 > 0:07:54So the catchment area was quite respectable?

0:07:54 > 0:07:57Relatively. One of the things that map reveals

0:07:57 > 0:08:00is how rich and poor lived cheek by jowl across the city,

0:08:00 > 0:08:05and so in that audience you've also got the people from relatively poorer classes.

0:08:05 > 0:08:09The people who were working in this newly industrialised world

0:08:09 > 0:08:12all need something to do on their days off, on the statutory holidays.

0:08:12 > 0:08:14The Factory Act brought this in.

0:08:14 > 0:08:18There's time that you can't spend at work so it means that...

0:08:18 > 0:08:22- You've got money in your pocket and time off.- Yes.

0:08:22 > 0:08:27- Enter the music hall, go to the pub. - What are you going to do?- There's nothing else to do. How wonderful.

0:08:28 > 0:08:34The 1830s saw the rise of a "10 hour movement", campaigning for a shorter working day,

0:08:34 > 0:08:38and a series of Factory Acts ensured manual labourers

0:08:38 > 0:08:42were guaranteed some leisure time for the first time in history.

0:08:44 > 0:08:47The pub became the centre of community life,

0:08:47 > 0:08:52but the working man wanted to do more than just drink when he got there.

0:08:52 > 0:08:55In the tap rooms and saloon bars, informal glee clubs

0:08:55 > 0:09:00began to give the punters an opportunity for a singsong.

0:09:00 > 0:09:04These developed into song and supper rooms with professional singers

0:09:04 > 0:09:08and proceedings regulated by a chairman.

0:09:08 > 0:09:12One such was the cider sellers in Covent Garden,

0:09:12 > 0:09:16where one of the world's first one-hit wonders, a newspaper compositor from Glasgow

0:09:16 > 0:09:22called WG Ross, sang the grisly Ballad Of Sam Hall.

0:09:22 > 0:09:25# My name it is Sam Hall, Samuel Hall... #

0:09:27 > 0:09:32This is Peter Sellers recreating Ross's performance in 1970.

0:09:33 > 0:09:39# My name it is Sam Hall and I hate you, one and all

0:09:39 > 0:09:42# You're a crowd of muckers all

0:09:42 > 0:09:43# Blast your eyes! #

0:09:43 > 0:09:45AUDIENCE ROARS

0:09:47 > 0:09:52Sam Hall told the story of a murderous chimney sweep

0:09:52 > 0:09:57contemplating his situation the night before he was taken to the gallows at Tyburn.

0:09:57 > 0:10:01# I killed a man, they say,

0:10:01 > 0:10:05# And in Newgate jail I lay,

0:10:05 > 0:10:09# And the final debt must pay

0:10:09 > 0:10:11# Blast your eyes! #

0:10:13 > 0:10:15Ross was a massive hit

0:10:15 > 0:10:19and his success was due to something more than the ability to sing.

0:10:19 > 0:10:26He developed an act built around the character of Sam Hall, and it was artfully done.

0:10:26 > 0:10:29His soot-blackened features, his swaggering despair,

0:10:29 > 0:10:34the use he made of simple props like the rough wooden chair, his cutty pipe,

0:10:34 > 0:10:37and, above all, his bloodcurdling delivery,

0:10:37 > 0:10:39packed the house every night.

0:10:42 > 0:10:48# So it's up the rope I go While you bastards down below

0:10:48 > 0:10:52# Say, "Sam, we told you so!"

0:10:52 > 0:10:54# Blast your eyes! #

0:10:54 > 0:10:59Singers like Ross owed their success to their familiar routine,

0:10:59 > 0:11:02developing a recognisable persona with catchphrases

0:11:02 > 0:11:06that the audiences would happily hear again and again.

0:11:06 > 0:11:10Another early star was Sam Cowell who was drawing crowds

0:11:10 > 0:11:14with an act based on the song Villikins And His Dinah,

0:11:14 > 0:11:19a similarly morbid tale of a rich man whose daughter drinks a cup of cold poison

0:11:19 > 0:11:23when he tries to force her into an arranged marriage.

0:11:24 > 0:11:28Cowell was a fixture at a song and supper room called Evans's,

0:11:28 > 0:11:34which advertised itself as being for "steady young men who admire a high class of music".

0:11:34 > 0:11:40These young men were establishing the idea of a social life, a very modern concept.

0:11:40 > 0:11:44The music they loved was also evolving a modern sound and structure,

0:11:44 > 0:11:46but its roots were still very traditional.

0:11:47 > 0:11:53I join music hall enthusiasts Michael Kilgarriff and Barry Cryer for a bit of a singsong.

0:11:53 > 0:11:56The kind of song really was

0:11:56 > 0:12:00I think still very much redolent of the folk song kind of tradition.

0:12:00 > 0:12:05For instance, Sam Cowell in 1836, he was singing this one, still well remembered.

0:12:05 > 0:12:09# 'Tis of a rich merchant I'm going for to tell

0:12:09 > 0:12:12# Who had for a fortune an uncommon nice young girl

0:12:12 > 0:12:16# Her name it was Dinah, just 16 years old

0:12:16 > 0:12:19# With a very large fortune in silver and gold

0:12:19 > 0:12:22# Sing too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-a! #

0:12:22 > 0:12:23And again!

0:12:23 > 0:12:26# Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-a! #

0:12:26 > 0:12:30- Very good.- A very sad end, that song, isn't it?

0:12:30 > 0:12:32Yeah, but they loved it.

0:12:32 > 0:12:35Songs about suicide were hysterical

0:12:35 > 0:12:38because everybody died young, it wasn't a great tragedy.

0:12:38 > 0:12:42- But all the songs told a story. - They told a narrative. They told a through story.

0:12:42 > 0:12:45They would choose a form of popular music

0:12:45 > 0:12:48that seemed very contemporary for them

0:12:48 > 0:12:54so Viennese styles, for example, often influenced some of the earlier songs.

0:12:54 > 0:13:00One of Harry Clifton's most famous songs, Pretty Polly Perkins, is clearly a waltz.

0:13:00 > 0:13:05# Oh, she was as beautiful as a butterfly,

0:13:05 > 0:13:08# And as proud as a Queen

0:13:08 > 0:13:14# Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green... #

0:13:14 > 0:13:20Wherever that song went, it would be adapted for another kind of audience.

0:13:20 > 0:13:23We tend to think of music hall always with a London focus

0:13:23 > 0:13:28but, for example, in Newcastle where they were also very fond of their music hall entertainment,

0:13:28 > 0:13:33Polly Perkins became Cushie Butterfield, a very different type of woman.

0:13:33 > 0:13:39# Oh, she was a big lass and a bonny lass and she likes her beer

0:13:39 > 0:13:44# And I call her Cushie Butterfield and I wish she was here! #

0:13:44 > 0:13:49What became very clear to the publicans who ran these early tavern concert rooms

0:13:49 > 0:13:54was that offering any kind of entertainment would increase the sales of alcohol.

0:13:56 > 0:14:02The comic singers were interspersed with everything from classical recitals to grand opera.

0:14:02 > 0:14:09The Eagle even had its own opera company, staging the latest works by Rossini and Bellini.

0:14:10 > 0:14:14But there was one area that was forbidden to them.

0:14:14 > 0:14:17They were not allowed to stage a play.

0:14:17 > 0:14:21Since Charles II, London theatres needed a royal patent

0:14:21 > 0:14:26to allow them to present legitimate theatre, and the king only handed out two.

0:14:26 > 0:14:32In the 1830s, this was the extent of London's Theatreland.

0:14:32 > 0:14:37The Royal Opera House here or the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, as it was known in those days,

0:14:37 > 0:14:41and just a few yards down the road, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

0:14:41 > 0:14:45Only in these two theatres could you put on a play.

0:14:45 > 0:14:50The management of these two places obviously guarded their monopoly very vigorously.

0:14:50 > 0:14:53I think I'd have done the same if I'd been them.

0:14:53 > 0:14:59London's smaller theatres had been loudly complaining about this injustice for years.

0:14:59 > 0:15:01Staging readings or incomplete plays,

0:15:01 > 0:15:03they risked a visit from the police

0:15:03 > 0:15:07every time they tried some new ruse to get around the legislation.

0:15:07 > 0:15:13Finally, in 1843, the Theatres Act abolished the patent system.

0:15:13 > 0:15:16Any theatre could now apply for a dramatic licence,

0:15:16 > 0:15:19- but they would- not- be allowed to sell liquor,

0:15:19 > 0:15:23and performances would be closely regulated by the Lord Chamberlain.

0:15:23 > 0:15:26Without a licence, there were no regulations at all.

0:15:26 > 0:15:29Drinking and eating were permitted in the auditorium,

0:15:29 > 0:15:34and as long as they steered clear of anything that might constitute a play,

0:15:34 > 0:15:37no-one much minded what was on the stage.

0:15:37 > 0:15:42The immediate effect of this Act was to divide the sober and respectable audience for theatre

0:15:42 > 0:15:47from the more thirsty types who sought their entertainment in the pub tap rooms.

0:15:47 > 0:15:51As drink was integral to the success of these venues,

0:15:51 > 0:15:53it didn't take them long to choose.

0:15:55 > 0:15:58The term "music hall" was first used in 1848,

0:15:58 > 0:16:02when The Grapes tavern in Southwark roofed over their coach yard

0:16:02 > 0:16:05and called it the Surrey Music Hall.

0:16:05 > 0:16:06The name struck a chord.

0:16:06 > 0:16:08The music may have had its rough edges,

0:16:08 > 0:16:11but what had previously been the domain of an elite

0:16:11 > 0:16:15was available at a price that a working-class audience could afford.

0:16:15 > 0:16:17And it was a runaway success.

0:16:17 > 0:16:23In the 1850s, a major building boom got under way.

0:16:23 > 0:16:29In ten years, the number of music and dancing licences issued by the London magistrates

0:16:29 > 0:16:31increased nearly five times.

0:16:31 > 0:16:33And by the middle of the decade,

0:16:33 > 0:16:36nearly 300 premises were in business.

0:16:36 > 0:16:40One of these new music halls has survived,

0:16:40 > 0:16:42hidden away in an alley in Stepney.

0:16:42 > 0:16:45John Wilton bought the pub The Prince of Denmark in 1850,

0:16:45 > 0:16:49and built a concert room in the garden behind.

0:16:49 > 0:16:53Wilton's was rediscovered and rescued from demolition by John Earl

0:16:53 > 0:16:58when he worked for the London County Council planning department in the 1960s.

0:16:58 > 0:17:01This type of hall was always behind a pub.

0:17:01 > 0:17:05Originally, the first hall behind the building -

0:17:05 > 0:17:07it was a little concert room -

0:17:07 > 0:17:11was just the width of the pub. It went across the present room.

0:17:11 > 0:17:14And the publican, Wilton, bought the adjoining houses one by one,

0:17:14 > 0:17:19until he could use all their back gardens to build the hall we're in now.

0:17:19 > 0:17:23So you've very kindly invited me to Wilton's Music Hall in its heyday.

0:17:23 > 0:17:27And we come in through the door. What do I see?

0:17:27 > 0:17:31You'd come into this room, which is much, much bigger than the pub.

0:17:31 > 0:17:34It must have been wonderfully unexpected, the sheer size of it.

0:17:34 > 0:17:37And you'd find a room with a flat floor, like a concert hall,

0:17:37 > 0:17:41and at one end there would be a concert platform.

0:17:41 > 0:17:45There's a chairman sitting at a table with his back to the stage,

0:17:45 > 0:17:47and he has a dressing mirror in front of him

0:17:47 > 0:17:50so that he can see the acts on the stage,

0:17:50 > 0:17:52while at the same time being able to address the audience.

0:17:52 > 0:17:57In front of him you've got ranks of tables, dining tables.

0:17:57 > 0:18:00And then around the hall, beyond the columns,

0:18:00 > 0:18:03and forming a horseshoe right the way round,

0:18:03 > 0:18:06there would be a promenade in which people didn't sit at all.

0:18:06 > 0:18:10Booze was the essential element. That's what kept the place going.

0:18:10 > 0:18:13The earlier music halls didn't even charge for admission.

0:18:13 > 0:18:16By this time, they were charging a few pence,

0:18:16 > 0:18:20but it was pence that you could - you could present a token at the bar.

0:18:20 > 0:18:24It was wet money. And you got a drink to that value. That got you started.

0:18:24 > 0:18:28So essentially, selling booze was a really profitable business,

0:18:28 > 0:18:30if it could build this?

0:18:30 > 0:18:33- How was it lit? - Magnificently.- Really?

0:18:33 > 0:18:35It would be lit by gas,

0:18:35 > 0:18:39and in the centre would be a giant chandelier - the sun burner.

0:18:39 > 0:18:42It had a huge flue above it, a concentric flue.

0:18:42 > 0:18:44It was one flue inside another.

0:18:44 > 0:18:48The outer flue got hot, and sucked air up the middle one.

0:18:48 > 0:18:52- So the air was continually changing. - Cos everyone was smoking down there?

0:18:52 > 0:18:54Everyone was smoking. Cigars and pipes.

0:18:54 > 0:18:58And the blaze of the music hall was a great attraction in itself.

0:18:58 > 0:19:00And the warmth - the place was heated.

0:19:00 > 0:19:03And for poor people in this area,

0:19:03 > 0:19:06walking into a warmed room was really something in itself.

0:19:06 > 0:19:08A beautifully comfortable place.

0:19:09 > 0:19:13The entertainment would have started in the early evening,

0:19:13 > 0:19:15and stretched to midnight and beyond.

0:19:15 > 0:19:19One continuous programme, covering a wide variety of performers.

0:19:20 > 0:19:24Musical recitals would have been mixed with novelty acts, jugglers and conjurors.

0:19:24 > 0:19:28But the star turns were always the comic singers.

0:19:30 > 0:19:31# Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.

0:19:31 > 0:19:33# 'Ullo John, got a new motor?

0:19:33 > 0:19:35# 'Ullo John, got a new motor?... #

0:19:35 > 0:19:40- There is- so- much about comedy that's timeless.

0:19:40 > 0:19:43What I was doing, even though I was talking about drugs,

0:19:43 > 0:19:46and politics, and surrealism, and so on and so forth.

0:19:46 > 0:19:49Really, technically speaking, I was the same

0:19:49 > 0:19:51as any music hall comedian.

0:19:51 > 0:19:55I never actually thought about creating a persona for myself,

0:19:55 > 0:19:58but I think I just did it kind of naturally.

0:19:58 > 0:20:01When I started performing at the Comedy Store,

0:20:01 > 0:20:03I wore a leather jacket and chinos.

0:20:03 > 0:20:05And my hair wasn't that short.

0:20:05 > 0:20:08But very quickly, I started going on stage, and it was matching.

0:20:08 > 0:20:11Cos it was during the kind-of two-tone revival.

0:20:11 > 0:20:14I wore this kind of silk suit that I bought in an Oxfam shop.

0:20:14 > 0:20:15And something happened.

0:20:15 > 0:20:19I think partly because I'd started making money as a comic, I got fat very quickly!

0:20:19 > 0:20:21And the suit got really tight.

0:20:21 > 0:20:24# Things can't get a lot better... #

0:20:24 > 0:20:30One of the things I was very keen on was that kind of cabaret thing.

0:20:30 > 0:20:33And that took place in venues where drink was served.

0:20:33 > 0:20:35# Ah, cheers, thanks a lot!

0:20:35 > 0:20:36# Oh, nice one, yeah

0:20:36 > 0:20:38# All right, what you having? #

0:20:38 > 0:20:41In the music hall... Of course, the music halls were

0:20:41 > 0:20:45in a way that a variety wasn't, that alcohol was central to the music hall.

0:20:45 > 0:20:47- Central to the economics!- Yeah!

0:20:48 > 0:20:53The clubs that grew out of the alternative comedy movement in the 1980s

0:20:53 > 0:20:55are the closest thing we have today

0:20:55 > 0:20:57to the atmosphere of the original music halls.

0:20:58 > 0:21:02The acts on the stage competed with a very mobile audience,

0:21:02 > 0:21:05promenading, eating, drinking

0:21:05 > 0:21:08and having a good time amongst themselves.

0:21:08 > 0:21:12This is the Banana Comedy Club in Balham, South London,

0:21:12 > 0:21:15where I met a professor of stand-up comedy.

0:21:15 > 0:21:19Imagine explaining Eric Morecambe to somebody who's never seen him.

0:21:19 > 0:21:22It's all in the looks, the connection with the audience.

0:21:23 > 0:21:27The further back you go, the harder it is to get what they were doing.

0:21:27 > 0:21:30And you get to early performers like WG Ross,

0:21:30 > 0:21:32and it's so tantalising.

0:21:32 > 0:21:35You have the accounts. You have photos and, in some cases, drawings.

0:21:35 > 0:21:39You have music. But we can't know what they were actually like. What we do know

0:21:39 > 0:21:43is that they must have been very gripping, magnetic performers.

0:21:43 > 0:21:47The success of these performers seems to have relied

0:21:47 > 0:21:50on getting a balance between the singing and the patter.

0:21:50 > 0:21:54Any form of popular entertainment which is defined by the effect you have on the audience...

0:21:54 > 0:21:56anything you can do to involve them is good.

0:21:56 > 0:21:59If they join in with the chorus, that's brilliant.

0:21:59 > 0:22:03If they go away singing your song, they're advertising your wares, for future shows.

0:22:05 > 0:22:08In a way, music hall is the ancestor of both pop music

0:22:08 > 0:22:10and stand-up comedy.

0:22:10 > 0:22:13And there were some that veered more towards the songs.

0:22:13 > 0:22:17The songs were important, and people would sing along while they performed them.

0:22:17 > 0:22:19For others, it was about the comedy.

0:22:19 > 0:22:23But essentially, they started with comic songs, character songs.

0:22:23 > 0:22:26And they would develop a little bit of patter in between.

0:22:26 > 0:22:29It's a bit like what happened in the folk clubs in the '70s

0:22:29 > 0:22:33with people like Billy Connolly, and Mike Harding, and Jasper Carrott,

0:22:33 > 0:22:34in that they started as singers,

0:22:34 > 0:22:38and then gradually the talking, the funnies, between the songs,

0:22:38 > 0:22:39became more important.

0:22:39 > 0:22:43It's a particular kind of performance, where what you're trying to do

0:22:43 > 0:22:46is grab hold of an audience. You're playing straight out to them.

0:22:46 > 0:22:50And if you don't do it properly, you know, you're going to come unstuck.

0:22:50 > 0:22:55Because in the music hall, if you read accounts of audience behaviour, they didn't sit there politely.

0:22:59 > 0:23:03Some audiences were less polite than others, though.

0:23:03 > 0:23:07# I belong to Glasgow

0:23:07 > 0:23:09# Dear old Glasgow town... #

0:23:09 > 0:23:11The Glasgow Britannia

0:23:11 > 0:23:15was one of the city's most popular halls in its Victorian heyday.

0:23:15 > 0:23:20But it closed in 1938, and quietly began to fall apart.

0:23:20 > 0:23:25# But when I get a couple of drinks on a Saturday

0:23:25 > 0:23:28# Glasgow belongs to me... #

0:23:30 > 0:23:34In London, the acts may have been booed and hissed from time to time,

0:23:34 > 0:23:36but a Glasgow audience

0:23:36 > 0:23:39showed its appreciation in a more tangible form.

0:23:39 > 0:23:45Leading the efforts to bring this venerable old hall back to life is Judith Bowers.

0:23:45 > 0:23:48I mean, they always talk about a Glasgow audience

0:23:48 > 0:23:50as being the toughest audience.

0:23:50 > 0:23:52And in fact, they actually say, in Glasgow,

0:23:52 > 0:23:54they left no turn un-stoned!

0:23:54 > 0:23:57You know. And it's absolutely true. They were wild.

0:23:57 > 0:24:01They were really the people that lived and worked in this area.

0:24:01 > 0:24:05The poorest of the poor, working in factories, the mills, the shipyards.

0:24:05 > 0:24:08And they were coming in here to blow off steam.

0:24:08 > 0:24:12One third of the audience were boys aged between 9 and 13.

0:24:12 > 0:24:14What were they doing there?

0:24:14 > 0:24:17Well, they would come in here for their sport, really.

0:24:17 > 0:24:19And they sat in the front of the balcony,

0:24:19 > 0:24:22against the proscenium arch there.

0:24:22 > 0:24:24And in that area, they left graffiti,

0:24:24 > 0:24:26carved into the woodwork at the front.

0:24:26 > 0:24:28And we've found things like lots of marbles,

0:24:28 > 0:24:31bits of penny whistle, bits of tin whistle.

0:24:31 > 0:24:34And we think the reason they liked the front of the balcony

0:24:34 > 0:24:37is because it over-hung the apron in front of the stage.

0:24:37 > 0:24:39And from there, they could wee over the edge

0:24:39 > 0:24:41and hit the comic on the apron.

0:24:41 > 0:24:45And of course, the boys that couldn't get into the front of the balcony

0:24:45 > 0:24:47would position themselves around the back.

0:24:47 > 0:24:49And from there, they could throw horse manure.

0:24:49 > 0:24:52You could shove it in your pockets before coming in,

0:24:52 > 0:24:54and keep your hands warm. Cos it generates its own heat.

0:24:54 > 0:24:57The ladies allegedly used to bring in their own ammunition,

0:24:57 > 0:25:00which was also free and readily available.

0:25:00 > 0:25:03And that was the fish heads and fish guts from the fish market.

0:25:03 > 0:25:06So to survive, the artists themselves -

0:25:06 > 0:25:09- it was a battle for survival on the stage.- It was. You had to be good.

0:25:09 > 0:25:11So, in amongst the debris when you came here,

0:25:11 > 0:25:14you found all kinds of clues.

0:25:14 > 0:25:16We identify where people sat in the building

0:25:16 > 0:25:18through what they've left behind.

0:25:18 > 0:25:21We've got a few little buttons here.

0:25:21 > 0:25:24- These are fly buttons? - These are fly buttons, yeah.

0:25:24 > 0:25:27So people were either having a pee, or doing something...

0:25:27 > 0:25:29Or doing something naughty.

0:25:29 > 0:25:33And judging by the fact these were all found along with a business card

0:25:33 > 0:25:37for Dr Temple, "for diseases peculiar to men"

0:25:37 > 0:25:39I'll leave you to make your own mind up!

0:25:39 > 0:25:43The connection between theatres and prostitution was an ancient one,

0:25:43 > 0:25:47and the music halls were particularly popular

0:25:47 > 0:25:52with a better class of predatory young men, known as mashers, on the hunt for prostitutes.

0:25:52 > 0:25:56Rather half-hearted efforts were made to curb the trade,

0:25:56 > 0:25:58but it thrived nonetheless.

0:25:58 > 0:26:00The mashers. Tell us who the mashers were.

0:26:00 > 0:26:05- Well, they were more your toffs, you know.- The toffs did come?

0:26:05 > 0:26:07Yeah, the toffs did come here to slum it.

0:26:07 > 0:26:10Were the mashers coming for the entertainment,

0:26:10 > 0:26:11or for the prostitutes?

0:26:11 > 0:26:13Both. Bit of both, I think.

0:26:13 > 0:26:16- Prostitutes would ply their wares in and around, inside.- Yeah.

0:26:16 > 0:26:20- Then where would they complete the transaction, as it were? - Probably where they were.

0:26:20 > 0:26:24There was plenty of distraction going on for the rest of the audience.

0:26:24 > 0:26:28And there were 1,500 people shoved in this small space. So, you know -

0:26:28 > 0:26:32you could probably get away with a lot up there and nobody would notice.

0:26:32 > 0:26:34And don't forget the fact that smoking

0:26:34 > 0:26:36was notoriously bad in this building.

0:26:36 > 0:26:40The smoke was so thick the audience complained they couldn't see the act on stage.

0:26:40 > 0:26:44# But when I get a couple of drinks on a Saturday,

0:26:44 > 0:26:48# Glasgow belongs to me! #

0:26:50 > 0:26:52A visit to the Glasgow Britannia was probably

0:26:52 > 0:26:56as disreputable an experience as a music hall could provide.

0:26:57 > 0:27:01The Victorian reformers deplored the failure of the halls

0:27:01 > 0:27:05to achieve their great objective to improve the lower orders.

0:27:07 > 0:27:09"We were told," moaned one newspaper,

0:27:09 > 0:27:12"that many people who now spend the hours of the night

0:27:12 > 0:27:15"in dissolute indulgence at the public houses

0:27:15 > 0:27:18"would in time be weaned from their evil doings."

0:27:19 > 0:27:23"Those who attended the halls," complained another,

0:27:23 > 0:27:25"were like the biblical sinners

0:27:25 > 0:27:29"who would rather be drowned than get up and walk into the ark."

0:27:31 > 0:27:33But though it seemed an impossible goal,

0:27:33 > 0:27:36respectability WAS coming to the music hall.

0:27:39 > 0:27:44In Victorian times, this narrow lane just south of the River Thames

0:27:44 > 0:27:47was a marshy neighbourhood of slum housing,

0:27:47 > 0:27:51criss-crossed by railway lines leading in to the new Waterloo Station.

0:27:53 > 0:27:57Right here, under these Eurostar rail tracks, is the site

0:27:57 > 0:28:01of probably the most important building in the whole of our story -

0:28:01 > 0:28:02the Canterbury Music Hall.

0:28:04 > 0:28:09In 1849, The Canterbury was a modest pub with a skittle alley.

0:28:09 > 0:28:12It changed hands that year, and its new owner

0:28:12 > 0:28:16immediately set about an ambitious programme of improvements.

0:28:16 > 0:28:23The word "impresario" was the Italian word to describe people who managed opera companies.

0:28:23 > 0:28:26But about this time, the meaning broadened to include anybody

0:28:26 > 0:28:29who invested in the music hall or in show business.

0:28:29 > 0:28:33The word perfectly describes the man who built the Canterbury,

0:28:33 > 0:28:35Charles Morton.

0:28:36 > 0:28:41It was Morton who grasped the potential of the halls like no-one else.

0:28:41 > 0:28:44He had seen the runaway business being done in the East End,

0:28:44 > 0:28:49but he instinctively recognised the need to package this phenomenon for a wider audience.

0:28:50 > 0:28:53He wanted to cleanse music hall of its unsavoury reputation,

0:28:53 > 0:28:56and make it safe for the middle classes.

0:28:58 > 0:29:01To begin with, he seemed to be following a well-worn path.

0:29:01 > 0:29:04This area was not obviously any more appealing

0:29:04 > 0:29:06than the East End slums.

0:29:06 > 0:29:10But Morton gained a London-wide reputation for the Canterbury

0:29:10 > 0:29:12by paying top rates to attract

0:29:12 > 0:29:15the very best vocal and comic talents to his hall

0:29:15 > 0:29:18in the unlikely setting of Lambeth Marsh.

0:29:18 > 0:29:20It worked.

0:29:20 > 0:29:24The location was close enough to the West End

0:29:24 > 0:29:25to draw in new audiences.

0:29:27 > 0:29:29And once you were inside The Canterbury,

0:29:29 > 0:29:32you knew you were in a different kind of establishment.

0:29:32 > 0:29:35Morton didn't stint on the decoration.

0:29:35 > 0:29:37It was a full-blown visual feast,

0:29:37 > 0:29:40with all the lavish ornamentation

0:29:40 > 0:29:42we've come to associate with the Victorians.

0:29:47 > 0:29:51Rather more functional, but equally impressive,

0:29:51 > 0:29:54are the store rooms of the Victoria and Albert Museum in West London.

0:29:59 > 0:30:02Cathy, what are you pulling out for us from these treasures?

0:30:02 > 0:30:06This is our earliest box on the Canterbury Music Hall.

0:30:06 > 0:30:07Morton's great enterprise,

0:30:07 > 0:30:11which really kicked everything off because he did so well.

0:30:11 > 0:30:14And everybody else wanted to imitate him.

0:30:14 > 0:30:17- The great man himself. - Look at those whiskers!

0:30:17 > 0:30:19He's got a kind face, hasn't he?

0:30:19 > 0:30:21"Respectfully yours."

0:30:21 > 0:30:26He began to see the value in a little bit of respectability.

0:30:26 > 0:30:29Oh, yes, absolutely, because they weren't very respectable places.

0:30:29 > 0:30:32But the very innovative thing that Morton did

0:30:32 > 0:30:37was to have evenings for women because he realised that women were excluded.

0:30:37 > 0:30:42It certainly worked. So from Ladies' Thursdays,

0:30:42 > 0:30:45there were then two ladies evenings until ladies could be there

0:30:45 > 0:30:48all the time, as is absolutely right and proper.

0:30:48 > 0:30:52- With greater respectability came greater profitability.- Yes.

0:30:52 > 0:30:55And the other thing he did was to have an art gallery there.

0:30:55 > 0:30:58I mean, how respectable are we becoming now?

0:30:58 > 0:31:03Morton actually had his own collection of paintings

0:31:03 > 0:31:07- by ancient and modern masters.- Were they ancient and modern masters?

0:31:07 > 0:31:12- Anybody we've heard of?- No, they were. Gainsborough. Hogarth.- Wow!

0:31:12 > 0:31:16Whoever bought this programme has annotated it with comments.

0:31:16 > 0:31:20- "Good idea," it says.- The Culprit.

0:31:20 > 0:31:25- And this one says "ugly, especially..."- The women. - "Especially the women."- Yes.

0:31:25 > 0:31:30Morton's idea of picture galleries wasn't tokenism.

0:31:30 > 0:31:32- They were a genuine attraction. - Absolutely.

0:31:32 > 0:31:37Of course, this is only 30 years after the National Gallery opened in London as well.

0:31:37 > 0:31:42So Morton is being very grandiose in having his own gallery.

0:31:42 > 0:31:49And on the back you will see the Royal Academy over the Water, Canterbury Hall, Westminster Road.

0:31:49 > 0:31:54"Suppers, etc, until 12 o'clock." Oh, we've got the menu here.

0:31:54 > 0:31:57That's wonderful. "The one shilling supper."

0:31:57 > 0:31:59What have we got for dinner tonight, lads?

0:31:59 > 0:32:04Cold roast beef, boiled fowl and bacon, haricot mutton, kidneys.

0:32:04 > 0:32:09Boiled cod and egg sauce. Eugh! It must have been a heck of a kitchen they were running.

0:32:09 > 0:32:13What treasure are we going to find underneath here? What's this?

0:32:13 > 0:32:17- Canterbury Hall. Verdi opera, Macbeth, every evening.- Yes.

0:32:17 > 0:32:20- You see, improving. - Nice and bloodthirsty, though!

0:32:21 > 0:32:27- What's this? July 1st, can you read that? 18...- 59.- 1859, yes.

0:32:27 > 0:32:31"Not the least remarkable sign of the spread of a taste for music in England

0:32:31 > 0:32:35"is to be found in the rapid growth of music halls for the people."

0:32:35 > 0:32:40- Here we are, this is a whole... - "Sprung from the concerts at supper taverns,

0:32:40 > 0:32:43"the music halls have provided a purer class of entertainment

0:32:43 > 0:32:47"which are nightly resorted to by mechanics and their wives

0:32:47 > 0:32:50"and by the middle classes,

0:32:50 > 0:32:53"who find provided for them the most excellent programmes

0:32:53 > 0:32:56"with artists fully competent to do justice to them."

0:33:00 > 0:33:05Morton was making a fortune and his next step was to move into the West End.

0:33:07 > 0:33:10The Oxford Music Hall, a larger and grander version of the Canterbury,

0:33:10 > 0:33:16opened here on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road in 1861.

0:33:18 > 0:33:23Morton's successful business model was quickly copied by others.

0:33:23 > 0:33:27This is Weston's in Holborn, operating on very similar lines.

0:33:27 > 0:33:31Morton's practice of paying premium rates for the top performers

0:33:31 > 0:33:34saw them start to earn sizeable salaries

0:33:34 > 0:33:38and we begin to see the birth of a modern star system.

0:33:39 > 0:33:44One of the first to benefit from this development was George Leybourne,

0:33:44 > 0:33:47better known today by the name of his most famous song,

0:33:47 > 0:33:49Champagne Charlie.

0:33:50 > 0:33:52Chris Beeching has written a biography of George

0:33:52 > 0:33:55and also performs a one-man Leybourne tribute act

0:33:55 > 0:34:00which includes a more authentic version of the great man's nose.

0:34:00 > 0:34:04When he was put under contract with the Canterbury,

0:34:04 > 0:34:07George could actually earn £120 a week.

0:34:07 > 0:34:09The people in the gallery he was playing to,

0:34:09 > 0:34:13- they were earning £20 a year. - A year!

0:34:14 > 0:34:19The mainstay of Leybourne's act was the satirical portrayal of the upper-class young man about town,

0:34:19 > 0:34:23frequently seen slumming it in the audience at the music hall.

0:34:26 > 0:34:30# As you may suppose When you look at my clothes

0:34:30 > 0:34:32# I'm prince of all nautical swells

0:34:32 > 0:34:35# And the fellas I meet... #

0:34:35 > 0:34:38They were known colloquially as dudes, mashers and toffs,

0:34:38 > 0:34:40or most commonly, swells.

0:34:41 > 0:34:45# The fellas look upon me with a jealous eye

0:34:45 > 0:34:49# The ladies all adore me as they saunter by

0:34:49 > 0:34:53# They titter and they blush Then after me they rush

0:34:53 > 0:34:57# For heaviest of heavy seaside swells am I. #

0:35:00 > 0:35:03I think he latched onto the upper-class chappies.

0:35:03 > 0:35:08- These Piccadilly weepers, right. - Is that what they're called?

0:35:08 > 0:35:12They're called Piccadilly weepers and this is a Piccadilly window.

0:35:14 > 0:35:16- Wonderful.- Yes. Marvellous.

0:35:16 > 0:35:20These had become awfully popular, tremendously popular.

0:35:22 > 0:35:25Decked out in a full set of Piccadilly weepers,

0:35:25 > 0:35:30it was Champagne Charlie that launched Leybourne into the big-time.

0:35:30 > 0:35:33- Did he write Champagne Charlie? - Yes, he wrote the words.

0:35:33 > 0:35:37He was quite clever at playing a naughty double game on songs.

0:35:37 > 0:35:43There's the PRFG game. It's private rooms for gentlemen,

0:35:43 > 0:35:46which were the rooms hired by the hour.

0:35:46 > 0:35:51# The thing I most excel in is the PRFG game

0:35:52 > 0:35:57# A noise all night, in bed all day

0:35:57 > 0:36:01# And swimming in champagne

0:36:01 > 0:36:05# For Champagne Charlie is my name

0:36:07 > 0:36:10# Champagne Charlie is my name... #

0:36:10 > 0:36:15'He had wonderful long legs as well.

0:36:15 > 0:36:20'Women fainted at his legs, the length of his legs.

0:36:20 > 0:36:21'Great charisma.'

0:36:21 > 0:36:24# Champagne Charlie is my name

0:36:24 > 0:36:29# Good for any game at night, boys

0:36:29 > 0:36:31# Come and join me... #

0:36:31 > 0:36:33According to the song lyric,

0:36:33 > 0:36:36Moet was Charlie's favourite brand of bubbly.

0:36:36 > 0:36:40And Leybourne was rumoured to be paid by the firm to push their wares

0:36:40 > 0:36:43and live a champagne lifestyle offstage as well.

0:36:44 > 0:36:47A rivalry developed with another comic singer

0:36:47 > 0:36:51known as The Great Vance, who promoted Clicquot in similar terms.

0:36:53 > 0:36:58- What we have here is the birth of celebrity endorsement.- Exactly.

0:36:58 > 0:37:02- And a brand war. We've got Clicquot versus Moet.- Yes.

0:37:02 > 0:37:04- Vance versus Leybourne.- Yes. Yes.

0:37:04 > 0:37:08Now, you're going to have the unenviable task of turning me into a toff.

0:37:08 > 0:37:14If I bend this, I'm sure you'll be able to iron it flat afterwards.

0:37:14 > 0:37:18- I have a man that sees to that.- Oh, really? Of course you do.- My agent.

0:37:18 > 0:37:23- Of course. Of course. Put the cravat on.- Is that Victorian Velcro? - Very Victorian!

0:37:23 > 0:37:27- There we are, Michael.- There we go. Hope it fits. Nice material.

0:37:27 > 0:37:30- Yes, very nice.- I had a sofa like this. A three-piece suite, actually.

0:37:30 > 0:37:34- Really? How lovely. A frock coat.- Frock coat.

0:37:34 > 0:37:37- This is what the toffs wore, is it? - Yes.- I like this.- It looks splendid.

0:37:37 > 0:37:44- And here is your crowning glory, the hat.- A jaunty angle? Or about there? What do you think?

0:37:44 > 0:37:47Look at this. The heaviest of swells.

0:37:47 > 0:37:50Fantastic! Look at that. Absolutely fantastic.

0:37:56 > 0:38:00Leybourne became a particular target of the highbrow press,

0:38:00 > 0:38:03who deplored the direction the music halls were taking.

0:38:03 > 0:38:06"A man appears on the platform dressed in outlandish clothes

0:38:06 > 0:38:11"and ornamented with whiskers of ferocious length and hideous hue,

0:38:11 > 0:38:15"who proceeds to sing verse after verse of pointless twaddle,"

0:38:15 > 0:38:17wrote one reviewer.

0:38:17 > 0:38:21"The female performers were even more maddening," he added.

0:38:21 > 0:38:24# Mother told me that I should

0:38:24 > 0:38:28# Do my utmost to be good. #

0:38:28 > 0:38:32Mother's Advice was typical of the mildly suggestive material

0:38:32 > 0:38:36that played on Victorian fears of moral turpitude.

0:38:36 > 0:38:41# Mother said whate'er you do

0:38:41 > 0:38:45# Don't let boys climb trees with you

0:38:45 > 0:38:50# I'm glad I took my mother's advice

0:38:50 > 0:38:54# Mother's advice, mother's advice

0:38:54 > 0:39:00# They don't climb trees with me Oh, no

0:39:00 > 0:39:04# They help me up and wait below. #

0:39:08 > 0:39:13But the most successful women performers developed a very sophisticated humour,

0:39:13 > 0:39:16based on the day-to-day preoccupations of their audience.

0:39:16 > 0:39:20Drink, marriage, money worries, the seaside holiday, the lodger.

0:39:20 > 0:39:25And that great concern in Victorian Britain, their social status.

0:39:26 > 0:39:31Bessie Bellwood, one of the most rumbustious of all the music hall styles.

0:39:31 > 0:39:34She had a song called What Cheer 'Ria

0:39:34 > 0:39:38and the idea was that she had a vegetable stall and she'd had a particularly good week

0:39:38 > 0:39:42so she decides to treat herself in the music hall.

0:39:42 > 0:39:45Instead of going up into the gallery with her chums,

0:39:45 > 0:39:49she splashes out on a seat in the stalls right by the chairman.

0:39:49 > 0:39:53It has a very lengthy verse where she explains who she is,

0:39:53 > 0:39:55sets the narrative in motion.

0:39:55 > 0:39:59# I am a girl what's doing very well in the vegetable line

0:39:59 > 0:40:04# And as I'd saved a bob or two I thought I'd cut to shine. #

0:40:04 > 0:40:08And then she explains that she goes and buys some toggery,

0:40:08 > 0:40:10these here the very clothes that you see,

0:40:10 > 0:40:15and with a shilling that she's got from selling her vegetables,

0:40:15 > 0:40:19she decides to go and sit in the stalls of the music hall.

0:40:19 > 0:40:25And of course her chums see her and they give her the rouse,

0:40:25 > 0:40:27something like this.

0:40:27 > 0:40:30# What cheer, 'Ria! 'Ria's on the job

0:40:30 > 0:40:33# What cheer, 'Ria! Did you speculate a bob?

0:40:33 > 0:40:36# 'Ria, she's a toff And she looks immensikoff

0:40:36 > 0:40:40# And they all shouted What cheer, 'Ria! #

0:40:40 > 0:40:44Her friends now decide they're going to play some tricks.

0:40:44 > 0:40:50So they throw an orange down, which lands in some beer,

0:40:50 > 0:40:53it shoots up, goes over her dress.

0:40:53 > 0:40:54She ends up rushing out.

0:40:54 > 0:40:58A man with a false leg stuck his leg out

0:40:58 > 0:41:02and she tripped over the false leg so lands smack on her face. Total ignominy.

0:41:02 > 0:41:09So she explains in some spoken patter to this song that they went and fetched the chucker out.

0:41:09 > 0:41:13And he said, "Come on, 'Ria, you've been kicking up a pretty fuss.

0:41:13 > 0:41:17"Come on outside." I said, "Shan't, shan't, shan't!"

0:41:17 > 0:41:20Almost like a Barbara Windsor moment.

0:41:20 > 0:41:23The moral of the song really is, well, know your place.

0:41:23 > 0:41:25She had no place being downstairs.

0:41:25 > 0:41:28Even if you've got the money, you don't belong there.

0:41:29 > 0:41:32Bessie Bellwood began her career as a rabbit skinner

0:41:32 > 0:41:35working in The Cup near Waterloo Station.

0:41:35 > 0:41:40This seems to have been an ideal preparation for life on the music hall stage.

0:41:41 > 0:41:45She reacted aggressively to insults, real or imagined.

0:41:45 > 0:41:48Once, she was arrested in the Tottenham Court Road

0:41:48 > 0:41:52for knocking flat a cab man who she felt had slighted her gentleman friend.

0:41:52 > 0:41:56Her most notorious talent, though, was for dealing with hecklers.

0:41:57 > 0:42:01Jerome K Jerome describes seeing her in action.

0:42:01 > 0:42:05"At the end, she gathered herself together for one supreme effort

0:42:05 > 0:42:09"and hurled at him an insult so bitter with scorn

0:42:09 > 0:42:13"that strongmen drew and held their breath while it passed over them,

0:42:13 > 0:42:16"and women hid their faces and shivered.

0:42:16 > 0:42:18"Then she folded her arms and stood silent

0:42:18 > 0:42:22"and the house, from floor-to-ceiling, rose and cheered her

0:42:22 > 0:42:25"until there was no more breath left in its lungs."

0:42:25 > 0:42:28- She must have been a hell of a performer.- She sounds brilliant.

0:42:28 > 0:42:32- A woman after your own heart. - Big-time! Yeah, absolutely.

0:42:32 > 0:42:34When you are in a comedy club and they're all drunk

0:42:34 > 0:42:37and shouting abuse at you, as a woman,

0:42:37 > 0:42:40what comes back to you is previous occurrences

0:42:40 > 0:42:42where that's happened to you

0:42:42 > 0:42:45and you were helpless and you couldn't do anything.

0:42:45 > 0:42:49So that anger sort of wells up again, a bit, and you sort of think,

0:42:49 > 0:42:50"How dare they?"

0:42:50 > 0:42:53But here I am now, I've got the chance to answer them back.

0:42:53 > 0:42:57I'm sure you think you've had it tough with some audiences today,

0:42:57 > 0:43:00but you've had the advantage of technology.

0:43:00 > 0:43:06In the days of the music hall, no microphone and the whole place was one light.

0:43:06 > 0:43:10- They could see them all.- Is it good to be able to see the heckler?

0:43:10 > 0:43:13Well, it's good to the extent that if you can see them,

0:43:13 > 0:43:16you can pick on some physical attribute they've got.

0:43:16 > 0:43:19- Or lack of attribute. - Or lack of attributes, that's right.

0:43:19 > 0:43:24Erm, on the other hand, as a performer, it's not great generally.

0:43:24 > 0:43:28I prefer to not see the audience because when you can see them,

0:43:28 > 0:43:32they somehow become more sort of human to you

0:43:32 > 0:43:35and you actually want to be able to be nasty to them

0:43:35 > 0:43:36if they're nasty to you.

0:43:36 > 0:43:40I find it quite hard if you can see them.

0:43:40 > 0:43:46And every comedian that I know lives in fear of being destroyed by a heckler.

0:43:46 > 0:43:52The thing about audiences is as a group I think they're not a kind group of people.

0:43:52 > 0:43:56If you start to falter or look like you're struggling,

0:43:56 > 0:43:59they don't buoy you up with their love. They want to kill you.

0:43:59 > 0:44:02So, you know, once you're struggling,

0:44:02 > 0:44:06you're really in trouble because then, the room drops away,

0:44:06 > 0:44:09the atmosphere changes and you can see them all sitting there,

0:44:09 > 0:44:13you know, saying, "What are you going to do about it?

0:44:13 > 0:44:17"Come on, dance, monkey, dance."

0:44:17 > 0:44:21Reading the accounts of the time, it seems to me that the women who succeeded

0:44:21 > 0:44:25became known as seriocomics.

0:44:25 > 0:44:28In other words, their songs, their patter,

0:44:28 > 0:44:30was drawn from life experience.

0:44:30 > 0:44:34I think that's the difference between men and women, in some ways,

0:44:34 > 0:44:37not just in comedy, but generally.

0:44:37 > 0:44:41I think women use their own personal experience much more.

0:44:41 > 0:44:46They're much more cooperative with each other, they talk about their troubles,

0:44:46 > 0:44:50whereas men feel that they can't tell everyone.

0:44:50 > 0:44:56So men will sort of tend to talk about more objective, external things in their life

0:44:56 > 0:45:00whereas women will use their own personal experience,

0:45:00 > 0:45:04either they've been let down by a bloke or their marriage has gone wrong.

0:45:04 > 0:45:08I just think that's a natural way for women to communicate

0:45:08 > 0:45:13so the push must have been so much harder to make for them

0:45:13 > 0:45:15and I think they must have been absolutely wonderful

0:45:15 > 0:45:20and I just really wish I could have met some of them, they sound absolutely great.

0:45:23 > 0:45:27In 1861, the year that Morton built the Oxford,

0:45:27 > 0:45:31the magnificent Alhambra opened its doors.

0:45:31 > 0:45:36# Give my regards to Leicester Square... #

0:45:36 > 0:45:38It stood on the site now occupied

0:45:38 > 0:45:42by the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square.

0:45:43 > 0:45:47Seriocomic singers were not the only female attractions here.

0:45:47 > 0:45:51In keeping with its enthusiasm for opera and picture galleries,

0:45:51 > 0:45:56the music hall was about to come to the rescue of another great cultural institution.

0:45:58 > 0:46:02I met John Earl again on the site where the Alhambra had stood.

0:46:02 > 0:46:05One of the most exciting things about this period,

0:46:05 > 0:46:07to me at least,

0:46:07 > 0:46:10is the fact that music halls became the home of the ballet.

0:46:10 > 0:46:13Any music hall that was large enough to have a stage

0:46:13 > 0:46:17would mount ballets of some sort, and at the Alhambra,

0:46:17 > 0:46:19they were particularly spectacular.

0:46:19 > 0:46:24- The ballet had been pretty well ditched by the Royal Opera House... - Really?- ..and Her Majesty's.

0:46:24 > 0:46:28This is not the elite ballet for the upper classes.

0:46:28 > 0:46:31It was called, at the time, "ballet for the million",

0:46:31 > 0:46:33and I think that's a very good description.

0:46:39 > 0:46:43And ballet for the million meant lovely legs.

0:46:43 > 0:46:47Most of the ballets that were performed at this sort of music hall are now forgotten

0:46:47 > 0:46:52because they were ephemeral, but that doesn't mean they were rubbish.

0:46:52 > 0:46:57- I've put a cutting in here. This is an illustration...- That is gorgeous.

0:46:57 > 0:47:00It's a huge set, for one thing, and a very expert set, too.

0:47:00 > 0:47:03We had some of the best scene painters in the world in London.

0:47:03 > 0:47:08- We still do.- We still do, yes. It's the sheer size of that set.

0:47:08 > 0:47:11- Huge, huge production.- And the number of people on the stage.

0:47:11 > 0:47:13The music hall had kept the ballet alive.

0:47:13 > 0:47:18When the Russian Ballet arrived, they were astonished to find a ballet audience in London.

0:47:21 > 0:47:25The music hall seemed able to absorb and adapt any form of entertainment

0:47:25 > 0:47:29and produce their own unique version for mass consumption.

0:47:30 > 0:47:35In the 1870s, they even became something of a political debating chamber.

0:47:35 > 0:47:40The popularity of the music halls at all levels of Victorian society

0:47:40 > 0:47:44meant that they offered a real barometer of national opinion

0:47:44 > 0:47:45on the important matters of the day.

0:47:45 > 0:47:48The tone of the halls was conservative,

0:47:48 > 0:47:50with a small C and a large C.

0:47:50 > 0:47:54They were working-class Tories, like me.

0:47:55 > 0:47:58The leader of the Conservative Party, Benjamin Disraeli,

0:47:58 > 0:48:02was enjoying a period of popular support from the working classes

0:48:02 > 0:48:06for legislation which restricted the amount of time they could spend at work.

0:48:07 > 0:48:11Gladstone's Liberal Party, on the other hand, were distrusted

0:48:11 > 0:48:15for trying to restrict the amount of time they could spend in the pub.

0:48:15 > 0:48:19The British drinking man hated to be lectured on his refreshments.

0:48:19 > 0:48:24Gladstone was seen as a killjoy, and Disraeli became their hero.

0:48:24 > 0:48:27Music hall audiences were also fiercely patriotic,

0:48:27 > 0:48:30and Disraeli scored again in 1877

0:48:30 > 0:48:35when he took a very strong line on Russian imperialism in the Balkans.

0:48:37 > 0:48:41The Russian declaration of war against the Ottoman Empire

0:48:41 > 0:48:44became known as the Eastern Crisis,

0:48:44 > 0:48:49and polarised public opinion for and against British intervention.

0:48:49 > 0:48:51In the library of The Garrick Club,

0:48:51 > 0:48:55there is a complete set of the theatrical newspaper The Era,

0:48:55 > 0:48:58which widely reported these events.

0:48:58 > 0:49:01To the great surprise of the establishment,

0:49:01 > 0:49:04this debate got an airing on the stage of the music halls.

0:49:04 > 0:49:08Historian Michael Diamond has dug out a few cuttings.

0:49:10 > 0:49:14In the 1870s, the first great period

0:49:14 > 0:49:17of political agitation on the music halls broke out.

0:49:17 > 0:49:20Britain must be strong. Disraeli was pro-Turkish,

0:49:20 > 0:49:23Gladstone was against the Turks and for the Russians,

0:49:23 > 0:49:28and this really whipped up the music halls into a frenzy,

0:49:28 > 0:49:33so you got, above all, one of the most famous music hall songs of all,

0:49:33 > 0:49:35"We don't want to fight, but by jingo if we do,

0:49:35 > 0:49:38"we've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money, too."

0:49:38 > 0:49:42# We don't want to fight But by jingo if we do

0:49:42 > 0:49:44# We've got the men We've got the ships

0:49:44 > 0:49:46# And got the money too

0:49:46 > 0:49:49# We've fought the Bear before

0:49:49 > 0:49:51# And while we're Britons true

0:49:51 > 0:49:57# The Russians shall not have Constantinople. #

0:49:57 > 0:50:00The end of that song is a little weak, isn't it?!

0:50:00 > 0:50:03It doesn't rhyme, of course, but trying to find a rhyme

0:50:03 > 0:50:06for Constantinople is probably a lost cause!

0:50:06 > 0:50:11This unleashed a whole succession of songs of this kind

0:50:11 > 0:50:14about the Russian bear, the turkey,

0:50:14 > 0:50:17the Russian bear wanted to eat the turkey,

0:50:17 > 0:50:20the British lion stopped the Russian bear from eating the turkey.

0:50:20 > 0:50:22Then you've got the French cock

0:50:22 > 0:50:26and the Austrian and German eagles thrown in,

0:50:26 > 0:50:31and there's a sort of zoological subsection of music hall song

0:50:31 > 0:50:34- which was incredibly popular. - But politically driven?

0:50:34 > 0:50:37And politically driven, and it's worth remembering that, of course,

0:50:37 > 0:50:40a lot of the people who went to music halls didn't have the vote,

0:50:40 > 0:50:43and at the next election after this furore,

0:50:43 > 0:50:46Disraelian Conservatives lost.

0:50:46 > 0:50:48The music halls would've liked to have thought

0:50:48 > 0:50:51that the politicians were hanging on their every word.

0:50:51 > 0:50:56Actually, the class system in the country didn't mean that they took much notice.

0:50:58 > 0:51:02By the 1880s, music halls were part of the very fabric of Victorian life,

0:51:02 > 0:51:05and if you lived in urban Britain at this time,

0:51:05 > 0:51:08you wouldn't have had to walk very far to visit one.

0:51:08 > 0:51:14A Parliamentary report in 1888 noted that London had 50 theatres,

0:51:14 > 0:51:1835 concert halls, and 473 music halls.

0:51:20 > 0:51:26But there was a risk associated with an evening out at the halls - fire.

0:51:26 > 0:51:28Morton suffered more than most.

0:51:28 > 0:51:32The Oxford went up in flames in February 1868,

0:51:32 > 0:51:36and its replacement met the same fate only four years later.

0:51:36 > 0:51:42The Alhambra, which he also managed, burnt down in December 1882.

0:51:42 > 0:51:46The final straw was the fire at the Theatre Royal in Exeter,

0:51:46 > 0:51:49in which 190 people died.

0:51:49 > 0:51:54Legislation followed, and over 200 halls were closed down

0:51:54 > 0:51:57as they failed to obtain the necessary certificate of suitability.

0:51:59 > 0:52:03Those that survived underwent profound changes.

0:52:04 > 0:52:08The City Varieties in Leeds is undergoing a major restoration at present,

0:52:08 > 0:52:12but it's a good place to see how the new building regulations

0:52:12 > 0:52:15altered the experience of visiting a music hall.

0:52:15 > 0:52:20Dave Wilmore is a theatre historian working on the project.

0:52:22 > 0:52:24Oh, wow!

0:52:24 > 0:52:27Oh, breathtaking.

0:52:31 > 0:52:34If you look at the built record of music halls and theatres

0:52:34 > 0:52:38in the 19th century, I think the average life of the theatre,

0:52:38 > 0:52:40the expectancy of it, is about 15 years.

0:52:40 > 0:52:43That's either because you want to rebuild it and make it bigger

0:52:43 > 0:52:47because it's a commercial success, or, more likely, it burns down,

0:52:47 > 0:52:50which just tells you how fantastic it is that this is a survivor.

0:52:50 > 0:52:54Originally, it was this flat-floored music hall with tables, loose chairs...

0:52:54 > 0:52:58- Lots of booze?- Lots of booze, lots of activity.- Bar at the back?

0:52:58 > 0:53:01Yeah, probably not even licensed to a capacity.

0:53:01 > 0:53:04If people turned up, they'd sell a ticket and let them in.

0:53:04 > 0:53:07- No health and safety? - Not really, not at all.

0:53:07 > 0:53:09Loose seating was clearly dangerous.

0:53:09 > 0:53:13In the event of panic, people run and the loose seats get knocked over.

0:53:13 > 0:53:16So you go from a free-for-all

0:53:16 > 0:53:18to rows of formal seats as we understand the theatre today?

0:53:18 > 0:53:22Indeed, and I suppose if you're wearing your commercial hat,

0:53:22 > 0:53:24you can probably get more people in

0:53:24 > 0:53:27than having a more laissez-faire seating arrangement

0:53:27 > 0:53:29around little circular tables.

0:53:31 > 0:53:37Between 1953 and 1983, this theatre was the home of The Good Old Days,

0:53:37 > 0:53:40a series which recreated the atmosphere of the music halls.

0:53:40 > 0:53:45It was chaired in a very personal style by Leonard Sachs.

0:53:45 > 0:53:49And now, ladies and gentlemen, born in Leeds...

0:53:49 > 0:53:52CHEERING

0:53:52 > 0:53:56..now illustrious London luminary,

0:53:56 > 0:53:59Mr Barry Cryer!

0:53:59 > 0:54:02APPLAUSE

0:54:03 > 0:54:07# My girl's a Yorkshire girl

0:54:07 > 0:54:11# Yorkshire through and through... #

0:54:11 > 0:54:13This notion of the chairman,

0:54:13 > 0:54:17the Leonard Sachs character in The Good Old Days, was that for real?

0:54:17 > 0:54:18Absolutely, there was a chairman.

0:54:18 > 0:54:21In the early days he was probably the licensee,

0:54:21 > 0:54:26and then at some point later, the licensee becomes less important

0:54:26 > 0:54:30and at that point I think the chairman starts to become less of a character,

0:54:30 > 0:54:34then you start to find that, with the fixing down of the seating,

0:54:34 > 0:54:37the whole feeling of the performance changes.

0:54:37 > 0:54:41And we have the changing in lighting conditions in the auditorium.

0:54:41 > 0:54:46Here, you would've had the transition from gas, in the early days, to electricity,

0:54:46 > 0:54:50and you can control electricity much easier than you can gas.

0:54:50 > 0:54:56It does allow you to introduce the concept of blackouts in performance.

0:54:57 > 0:55:01Almost overnight, the whole atmosphere of the halls changed.

0:55:01 > 0:55:04The brightly-lit room with its loose tables and chairs

0:55:04 > 0:55:09was replaced by fixed seating in a darkened auditorium.

0:55:09 > 0:55:11The theatre and the music hall,

0:55:11 > 0:55:15who had gone their separate ways after the Theatres Act in 1843,

0:55:15 > 0:55:19found their paths converging some 40 years later.

0:55:20 > 0:55:23But none of these changes had any effect

0:55:23 > 0:55:26on the popularity of the entertainment on offer.

0:55:26 > 0:55:29The music halls held up a mirror to their audience,

0:55:29 > 0:55:34reflecting a comical, sentimental vision of their own working lives.

0:55:34 > 0:55:39The Cockney coster became a regular turn in the 1880s.

0:55:39 > 0:55:42A costermonger was an itinerant fruit and veg seller,

0:55:42 > 0:55:46a romantic working-class stereotype that could be admired by all.

0:55:47 > 0:55:53The most successful costers had questionable qualifications as Cockneys.

0:55:53 > 0:55:57One of the first was The Great Vance, whose Costermonger Joe

0:55:57 > 0:56:00disguised his former profession as a solicitor's clerk.

0:56:01 > 0:56:05Or Albert Chevalier, who was dubbed the costers' laureate,

0:56:05 > 0:56:09even though he was born on the Royal Crescent in Notting Hill.

0:56:09 > 0:56:14A more authentic model was Gus Elen, formerly an egg packer

0:56:14 > 0:56:19who had a massive hit with If It Wasn't For The 'Ouses In Between.

0:56:20 > 0:56:25It was supposed to be a parody on the '90s middle classes' mania for gardens,

0:56:25 > 0:56:29trying to ape the upper classes, I suppose, with their estates,

0:56:29 > 0:56:33and this is a song about a Cockney who presumably had a barrow.

0:56:33 > 0:56:35He didn't have a garden, he had a backyard.

0:56:35 > 0:56:39# If you saw my little backyard "Wot a pretty spot," you'd cry

0:56:39 > 0:56:42# It's a picture on a sunny summer day

0:56:42 > 0:56:46# With the turnip tops and cabbages wot people doesn't buy

0:56:46 > 0:56:50# On a Sunday market I make 'em look all gay

0:56:50 > 0:56:54# The neighbours finks I grows 'em And you'd fancy you're in Kent

0:56:54 > 0:56:58# Or in Epsom if you gaze into the mews

0:56:58 > 0:57:02# It's a wonder as the landlord doesn't want to raise the rent

0:57:02 > 0:57:09# Because we've got such nobby distant vie-e-ews

0:57:09 > 0:57:14# Oh, it really is a wery pretty garden

0:57:14 > 0:57:19ALL SING TOGETHER: # And Chingford to the eastward could be seen

0:57:19 > 0:57:22# With a ladder and some glasses

0:57:22 > 0:57:25# You could see to 'Ackney Marshes

0:57:25 > 0:57:32# If it wasn't for the 'ouses in between. #

0:57:33 > 0:57:36- Very good.- Gus Elen, yes. - Good lyric, isn't it?

0:57:36 > 0:57:39The coster was just one amongst a gallery

0:57:39 > 0:57:42of familiar stock characters that appeared on every bill.

0:57:42 > 0:57:47Irish and Scottish acts were particularly popular.

0:57:47 > 0:57:52We're going to go Roamin' In The Gloamin' by the bonnie banks of Clyde.

0:57:52 > 0:57:57Harry Lauder became the most famous Scotsman in the world,

0:57:57 > 0:58:00singing his own compositions like Roamin' In The Gloamin'.

0:58:00 > 0:58:04# I've seen lots of bonnie lassies Travellin' far and wide

0:58:04 > 0:58:09# But my heart is centred now On bonnie Kate McBride... #

0:58:09 > 0:58:13Lauder, a former miner, was often criticised in Scotland

0:58:13 > 0:58:15as a crude caricature of a Scot,

0:58:15 > 0:58:18and the stereotypical tight-fisted Scotsman

0:58:18 > 0:58:21may owe a great deal to Lauder's stage act.

0:58:21 > 0:58:23# Roamin' in the gloamin'

0:58:23 > 0:58:26# On the bonnie banks o' Clyde... #

0:58:26 > 0:58:31In his early days, he was just as likely to perform as an Irishman.

0:58:31 > 0:58:35English audiences, unfamiliar with the nuances of the accent,

0:58:35 > 0:58:37seemed just as happy either way.

0:58:37 > 0:58:43# Oh, it's lovely roamin' in the gloamin'! #

0:58:43 > 0:58:45You have to start with the stereotype,

0:58:45 > 0:58:47with a character that everybody will recognise.

0:58:47 > 0:58:52You've only got a very short time, a turn, well...seven minutes?

0:58:52 > 0:58:56You can't build up some character from nowhere.

0:58:56 > 0:58:58You can't come on and have people think,

0:58:58 > 0:59:00"Oh, what might this be meant to represent?"

0:59:00 > 0:59:03That's not going to work, so you come on

0:59:03 > 0:59:07dressed as a stage Irishman with a shillelagh and a crushed hat

0:59:07 > 0:59:10and collapsing corduroy trousers, and they know who you are.

0:59:13 > 0:59:17The biggest stars of music hall were by now becoming household names,

0:59:17 > 0:59:21better known than the Prime Minister, and usually more popular.

0:59:23 > 0:59:26David Drummond, who runs a small shop just off Charing Cross Road,

0:59:26 > 0:59:30has a treasure trove of material related to these performers.

0:59:32 > 0:59:36This shop really is an Aladdin's cave of music hall ephemera.

0:59:36 > 0:59:40Mention almost any performer from the heyday of the halls

0:59:40 > 0:59:43and David will have something tucked away to show you.

0:59:44 > 0:59:49- What do we know about Little Titch? - His real name was Harry Relph.

0:59:49 > 0:59:54- He was more of a physical comedian? - Yes, but first of all he was small.

0:59:55 > 0:59:58He was most famous for these big boots.

1:00:00 > 1:00:03And I have somewhere his date book,

1:00:03 > 1:00:07and there is not one free date the entire year.

1:00:08 > 1:00:12Oh, that looks like a contract. I'd recognise a contract anywhere!

1:00:12 > 1:00:17This is a contract for Little Titch to appear...

1:00:17 > 1:00:20- Star comedian, it says.- Yeah.

1:00:20 > 1:00:25- Look at the salary.- £225 per week.

1:00:25 > 1:00:26What would that be now?

1:00:26 > 1:00:28MICHAEL SIGHS

1:00:28 > 1:00:2920,000?

1:00:29 > 1:00:34Little Titch's contemporary Dan Leno, a full nine inches taller,

1:00:34 > 1:00:36started his career as a clog dancer

1:00:36 > 1:00:41but eventually became the most popular comedian on the halls.

1:00:42 > 1:00:48- Her Mother's At The Bottom Of It All. - There's a world of truth in that!

1:00:48 > 1:00:52There's tiny bits of patter in between the verses here.

1:00:52 > 1:00:55"Oh, they do beat me, and of course you daren't hit a woman.

1:00:55 > 1:00:58"Well, I know I daren't!" That got a big laugh, I bet.

1:00:58 > 1:01:00Terrible material!

1:01:00 > 1:01:03"I don't know what I wanted to get married for..."

1:01:03 > 1:01:06- With respect, I think it's the way you perform it!- Maybe.

1:01:06 > 1:01:09"My life's one long wretchedness,

1:01:09 > 1:01:14"and it's all through a woman with a cold black eye." Wonderful.

1:01:14 > 1:01:18Another hugely popular music hall staple

1:01:18 > 1:01:22were the male impersonators, female comic singers who dressed as men.

1:01:22 > 1:01:27A woman wearing trousers was considered quite shocking at the time,

1:01:27 > 1:01:31but, once again, the music halls seemed to get away with it.

1:01:31 > 1:01:37- Ah, well, there we are, they've got Vesta Tilley here.- Wow, look at that.

1:01:37 > 1:01:41And there she is as a fine gentleman.

1:01:41 > 1:01:43You wouldn't want to cross her, would you?

1:01:43 > 1:01:45What you might be interested in,

1:01:45 > 1:01:48that is Vesta Tilley's waistcoat.

1:01:48 > 1:01:51- It's very frail.- Fine silk.

1:01:51 > 1:01:55She probably flattened her boobs, didn't she, for the effect?

1:01:55 > 1:01:58- She certainly wasn't petite if that fitted her.- No, no.

1:02:03 > 1:02:06Vesta Tilley was real music hall nobility,

1:02:06 > 1:02:09the best remembered male impersonator on the halls,

1:02:09 > 1:02:13eventually becoming Lady de Frece when her husband was knighted.

1:02:13 > 1:02:17But she was already something of a toff in her onstage persona.

1:02:19 > 1:02:24If you contrast Vesta Tilley with the male on the music halls,

1:02:24 > 1:02:31he is the idol of the young men, in fact, in the audience,

1:02:31 > 1:02:35the clerks who have just got enough money together

1:02:35 > 1:02:38to come to the West End music hall.

1:02:38 > 1:02:42He struts on with an explosive champagne bottle

1:02:42 > 1:02:45and songs about being drunk,

1:02:45 > 1:02:49and songs about the number of women that he's mashed,

1:02:49 > 1:02:55and lots of aggressive masculinity and huge mutton chop whiskers,

1:02:55 > 1:03:00and stomping about being, OK, quite sexy, but quite scary.

1:03:00 > 1:03:05Whereas Vesta Tilley's young men, you'd want to pet.

1:03:05 > 1:03:09They're little boys, doing their best to be like that,

1:03:09 > 1:03:12but not really like that, and they're so much more romantic,

1:03:12 > 1:03:16and they're so much less threatening.

1:03:18 > 1:03:24Music hall audiences loved seeing threat reduced to comic caricature,

1:03:24 > 1:03:27but looking back at their portrayal of black people

1:03:27 > 1:03:29is quite shocking for us today.

1:03:31 > 1:03:36When black American minstrel troops arrived in London in the 1840s,

1:03:36 > 1:03:38they became hugely popular.

1:03:38 > 1:03:41The music halls appropriated the musical style,

1:03:41 > 1:03:45but the songs were performed by white men in blackface make-up.

1:03:47 > 1:03:51One of the most obviously appalling things to us

1:03:51 > 1:03:54is the way that it was absolutely central

1:03:54 > 1:03:56to an enormous amount of Victorian entertainment

1:03:56 > 1:03:59that white men blacked their faces and pretended to be black men.

1:03:59 > 1:04:03We have all kinds of problems about that, obviously,

1:04:03 > 1:04:07but one of our problems is that we cannot imagine what,

1:04:07 > 1:04:11to a Victorian audience, it would mean to see somebody with a black face.

1:04:11 > 1:04:14There were not many people with black faces around.

1:04:14 > 1:04:16In America, it was very different, of course.

1:04:16 > 1:04:21In America, the impersonating of black people by white people

1:04:21 > 1:04:23was all connected with slavery.

1:04:23 > 1:04:29In the music halls, the absolutely ubiquitous black-face act

1:04:29 > 1:04:31moves away from being the kind of thing

1:04:31 > 1:04:33that the Americans originally brought

1:04:33 > 1:04:37to being a kind of broad clowning, so it's a mask.

1:04:37 > 1:04:42Then it taps into very deep roots in British culture of folk masking,

1:04:42 > 1:04:47of people blacking their faces to burn the ricks,

1:04:47 > 1:04:52to dance, to carry out strange antique rituals.

1:04:52 > 1:04:56All of those things sit behind it for the British audience, I think.

1:04:56 > 1:05:00People knew so little of what the lives were like

1:05:00 > 1:05:03of African-Americans on the Southern plantations

1:05:03 > 1:05:09that it could not be seen as really attacking them personally.

1:05:09 > 1:05:12What I think happens with black-faced minstrelsy

1:05:12 > 1:05:17is that there's a mixture of fear in the reception of the music,

1:05:17 > 1:05:21that people don't understand what black people are like.

1:05:21 > 1:05:23They're very attracted to the music,

1:05:23 > 1:05:25and then you find that an instrument

1:05:25 > 1:05:30that previously would be seen as a mark of degradation,

1:05:30 > 1:05:33like the banjo, goes more and more upmarket

1:05:33 > 1:05:36until, by the time we're in the later century,

1:05:36 > 1:05:40even the Prince of Wales wants to learn to play the banjo,

1:05:40 > 1:05:44and he hires a black banjo player, James Bohee,

1:05:44 > 1:05:46to teach him to play the banjo!

1:05:48 > 1:05:51By the 1890s, British imperialism,

1:05:51 > 1:05:55and confidence in its positive benefits for the world,

1:05:55 > 1:05:57was at its height.

1:05:57 > 1:05:59The word "Empire" was everywhere,

1:05:59 > 1:06:02and Edward Moss, a theatrical impresario from Scotland,

1:06:02 > 1:06:06chose it for his new chain of large music hall theatres.

1:06:06 > 1:06:11At the same time, another chain was established by Oswald Stoll

1:06:11 > 1:06:13from his base in Liverpool.

1:06:13 > 1:06:17These two organisations either built new theatres

1:06:17 > 1:06:19or took over existing venues

1:06:19 > 1:06:23until they had a considerable grip on music hall entertainment in the provinces.

1:06:23 > 1:06:26They became known as the syndicates,

1:06:26 > 1:06:29and they introduced another seismic change

1:06:29 > 1:06:31in the way the music hall operated.

1:06:31 > 1:06:35Back in the Garrick library, The Era gives us a good idea

1:06:35 > 1:06:38of how the system worked.

1:06:38 > 1:06:40To fill their chains of theatres with new acts,

1:06:40 > 1:06:44Stoll and Moss built up their own roster of performers

1:06:44 > 1:06:47who went from town to town each week.

1:06:47 > 1:06:50And instead of one long show across the whole evening,

1:06:50 > 1:06:53they discovered they could double their money

1:06:53 > 1:06:55by dividing it into two houses.

1:06:55 > 1:06:58Of course, that would have to work like clockwork,

1:06:58 > 1:07:02and the secret to that lies in these pages here.

1:07:03 > 1:07:07The syndicates would publish a list of the acts appearing

1:07:07 > 1:07:09at the Empires the following week,

1:07:09 > 1:07:13along with travel information, rehearsal times and stage calls

1:07:13 > 1:07:15for the two nightly performances.

1:07:15 > 1:07:19It was an intricately detailed operation on a massive scale,

1:07:19 > 1:07:22ensuring a completely new roster of acts

1:07:22 > 1:07:24would appear in each theatre every week.

1:07:29 > 1:07:33Any last vestiges the music hall had of its folksy origins,

1:07:33 > 1:07:37jolly amateur evenings in the back room of the pub, had gone for ever.

1:07:37 > 1:07:42This was now big business and the big boys had taken over.

1:07:42 > 1:07:46Using their conglomerate muscle, Stoll and Moss wanted to ensure

1:07:46 > 1:07:52their middle-class audience would find nothing vulgar to offend them at their Empires.

1:07:52 > 1:07:56But the double entendre had developed for a reason

1:07:56 > 1:07:59and it proved almost impossible to stamp out.

1:07:59 > 1:08:04Tell us about "Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow", which is a perfectly innocent lyric, isn't it?

1:08:04 > 1:08:07No, it's not. It's not really.

1:08:07 > 1:08:08Not to the Victorians.

1:08:08 > 1:08:11It was innuendo.

1:08:11 > 1:08:13She's talking about her cat

1:08:13 > 1:08:18and how it comes to school with her each day and sits upon the form

1:08:18 > 1:08:20because her cat is her lady's bits

1:08:20 > 1:08:25and she wants a bow-wow which is a reference to the man's bits.

1:08:25 > 1:08:29# I love my little cat I do

1:08:29 > 1:08:31# Its fur is oh so warm

1:08:31 > 1:08:34# It comes with me to school each day

1:08:34 > 1:08:36# And sits upon the form

1:08:36 > 1:08:37# When teacher asks

1:08:37 > 1:08:39# Why do you bring

1:08:39 > 1:08:41# That little pet of yours?

1:08:41 > 1:08:44# I tell her that I bring my cat

1:08:44 > 1:08:49# Along with me because

1:08:50 > 1:08:53# Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow

1:08:53 > 1:08:57# Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow

1:08:57 > 1:08:59# I've got a little cat

1:08:59 > 1:09:01# And I'm very fond of that

1:09:01 > 1:09:05# But I'd rather have a bow-wow-wow. #

1:09:06 > 1:09:12Sometimes however the double meaning was very clumsily disguised.

1:09:14 > 1:09:18I have brought along a song which in my experience

1:09:18 > 1:09:21is just about the dirtiest I've ever come across.

1:09:21 > 1:09:26It's all about double entendre. It's called "The Tuner's Opportunity",

1:09:26 > 1:09:29cos every middle-class, lower middle-class family had a piano.

1:09:29 > 1:09:31So you had your piano tuner.

1:09:31 > 1:09:35- Tuner's opportunity?- Get it?

1:09:35 > 1:09:38# Miss Crotchety Quaver was sweet 17

1:09:38 > 1:09:40# And a player of infinite skill

1:09:40 > 1:09:43# She could play all the day All the evening as well

1:09:43 > 1:09:45# Making all the neighbourhood ill

1:09:45 > 1:09:47# And to keep her piano in tune

1:09:47 > 1:09:49# She would have a good tuner

1:09:49 > 1:09:51# Constantly there

1:09:51 > 1:09:53# And he'd pull up her instrument

1:09:53 > 1:09:55# Three times a week

1:09:55 > 1:09:57# Just to keep it In proper repair... #

1:09:57 > 1:09:58HE LAUGHS

1:09:58 > 1:10:01# And first he tuned it gently

1:10:01 > 1:10:03# Then he tuned it strong

1:10:03 > 1:10:04# Then he'd touch a short note

1:10:04 > 1:10:06# Then he'd pass a long

1:10:06 > 1:10:08# Then he'd go with vengeance

1:10:08 > 1:10:09# Enough to break the key

1:10:09 > 1:10:11# At length he tuned whenever he got

1:10:11 > 1:10:13# An opportunity. #

1:10:13 > 1:10:17- And that's just the first verse. - Wonderful. It goes on from there?

1:10:17 > 1:10:19It goes on, yes.

1:10:20 > 1:10:23It seemed that the more Victorian society

1:10:23 > 1:10:27tried to put a lid on sexuality, the more demand built up.

1:10:31 > 1:10:37Exotic dancing girls became a regular feature of music hall entertainment.

1:10:40 > 1:10:45The Alhambra became as famous for its can-can girls as it had been for its ballet.

1:10:45 > 1:10:50It briefly lost its licence when a dancer called Wiry Sal,

1:10:50 > 1:10:53"raised her foot higher than her head several times

1:10:53 > 1:10:56"towards the audience and was much applauded."

1:10:58 > 1:11:01The can-can became a truly global phenomenon.

1:11:01 > 1:11:06And in 1891, a young English girl called Lottie Collins

1:11:06 > 1:11:09saw a version of it being performed in New York

1:11:09 > 1:11:13to a very catchy new song called "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay".

1:11:13 > 1:11:18She brought it home with her to London and became an overnight sensation.

1:11:18 > 1:11:20# A sweet-tuxedo girl you see

1:11:20 > 1:11:22# A queen of swell society

1:11:22 > 1:11:24# Just the type you'd like... #

1:11:24 > 1:11:27Lottie would begin the first verse very demurely,

1:11:27 > 1:11:31then explode into the chorus with her legs kicking,

1:11:31 > 1:11:34and skirts swirling, to expose an indecent amount of stocking,

1:11:34 > 1:11:37suspender, bare thigh and more.

1:11:37 > 1:11:38# Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay

1:11:38 > 1:11:40# Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay... #

1:11:40 > 1:11:45The naughty Nineties were in full swing.

1:11:45 > 1:11:49The very epitome of naughtiness however was not a chance glimpse

1:11:49 > 1:11:51of Lottie's stocking tops,

1:11:51 > 1:11:55but the legendary wink of another East Ender, Marie Lloyd.

1:11:57 > 1:12:01Marie's career began on the stage of The Eagle when she was 14.

1:12:01 > 1:12:03And it was obvious from the outset

1:12:03 > 1:12:06that she possessed a great deal of charm and charisma.

1:12:08 > 1:12:10Innuendo was not hard to detect in songs like,

1:12:10 > 1:12:14"She'd never had her ticket punched before",

1:12:14 > 1:12:18which told the story of a country girl arriving at Euston for the first time.

1:12:18 > 1:12:21On a similar theme, in "Oh! Mr Porter",

1:12:21 > 1:12:24a young woman accidentally catches the wrong train.

1:12:24 > 1:12:26But the message is that she has

1:12:26 > 1:12:28"gone too far".

1:12:29 > 1:12:32# Oh, Mr Porter

1:12:32 > 1:12:34# What shall I do?

1:12:34 > 1:12:37# I want to go to Birmingham

1:12:37 > 1:12:38# They're taking me on to Crewe

1:12:38 > 1:12:40# Send me back to London

1:12:40 > 1:12:43# As quickly as you can

1:12:43 > 1:12:45# Oh, Mr Porter

1:12:45 > 1:12:48# What a silly girl I am. #

1:12:49 > 1:12:52The rapid spread of the railways across Victorian Britain

1:12:52 > 1:12:56offered a rich new vein of sexual metaphor

1:12:56 > 1:13:00which was enthusiastically embraced by the music hall songwriters.

1:13:00 > 1:13:03The moral crusaders knew it was rude

1:13:03 > 1:13:06but how do you outlaw a song about shunting?

1:13:06 > 1:13:11These music hall performers, they got these stories told about them,

1:13:11 > 1:13:14sometimes they were very rude.

1:13:14 > 1:13:17One is that Marie Lloyd sang her song called

1:13:17 > 1:13:21"She sits amongst the cabbages and peas",

1:13:21 > 1:13:24and she was told she couldn't sing this so she altered it to

1:13:24 > 1:13:27"She sits amongst the cabbages and leeks".

1:13:27 > 1:13:30And if ever people talk about Marie Lloyd now,

1:13:30 > 1:13:33they quote this song, but there never was such a song,

1:13:33 > 1:13:35and certainly Marie never sung it.

1:13:35 > 1:13:40Now my grandma, who was very much a typical Victorian person,

1:13:40 > 1:13:46who was very straight-laced, she loved Marie Lloyd.

1:13:46 > 1:13:50And she said, "The thing about Marie Lloyd was her personality.

1:13:50 > 1:13:54"She was so warm and she was able to project to the audience."

1:13:54 > 1:13:57And she had a lot of vulgar innuendo

1:13:57 > 1:14:00but nothing really offensive.

1:14:00 > 1:14:04And that was one of the things that Marie was so successful.

1:14:04 > 1:14:06Other people probably had better songs

1:14:06 > 1:14:09but they didn't have the personality that Marie had.

1:14:10 > 1:14:14Marie Lloyd became and probably remains the greatest star

1:14:14 > 1:14:16the music hall ever produced.

1:14:16 > 1:14:20# Up to the West End right in the Best End... #

1:14:20 > 1:14:23But there'd always been a section of Victorian society

1:14:23 > 1:14:26who felt she represented the worst sort of vulgarity

1:14:26 > 1:14:30and that music halls corrupted the minds of their audience.

1:14:30 > 1:14:36In the 1890s, these moral guardians began to make their presence felt.

1:14:36 > 1:14:40The National Vigilance Association was formed to encourage

1:14:40 > 1:14:45the suppression of criminal vice and public immorality.

1:14:45 > 1:14:47And they saw plenty of that in the music halls,

1:14:47 > 1:14:50both on the stage and off.

1:14:50 > 1:14:56It wasn't just the ballerinas' legs or the can-can girls' garters,

1:14:56 > 1:15:00there was a new vogue for living statues, or pose plastique.

1:15:00 > 1:15:04This involved a group of figures who would pose stock still on stage

1:15:04 > 1:15:08in the attitude of classical statuary or famous paintings.

1:15:08 > 1:15:12They almost invariably included a virtually naked female Venus,

1:15:12 > 1:15:14if not several.

1:15:14 > 1:15:18These disreputable performances were seen to encourage

1:15:18 > 1:15:22the public immorality they sought to stamp out.

1:15:22 > 1:15:25A prominent voice in the vigilance movement

1:15:25 > 1:15:29was a Mrs Laura Ormiston Chant who devoted herself to the cause.

1:15:31 > 1:15:37Mrs Ormiston Chant spent the warm summer evenings of 1894

1:15:37 > 1:15:40patrolling the five-shilling tier promenade

1:15:40 > 1:15:43of the Empire Leicester Square here,

1:15:43 > 1:15:47making copious notes of the contact between the sexes.

1:15:47 > 1:15:50The promenade bars were the last vestiges

1:15:50 > 1:15:54of the old informal nature of the original music halls.

1:15:54 > 1:15:59But they had become notorious places where prostitutes plied their trade.

1:15:59 > 1:16:04Mrs Ormiston Chant discounted from her survey accompanied ladies,

1:16:04 > 1:16:07those without make-up and those who avoided the gaze of gentleman

1:16:07 > 1:16:10with whom they were unacquainted.

1:16:10 > 1:16:13Once this minority were excluded, it was plain that there were

1:16:13 > 1:16:17a great many women who were there for the very worst of reasons.

1:16:19 > 1:16:22Her evidence to the licensing authorities

1:16:22 > 1:16:24briefly closed down the Empire.

1:16:24 > 1:16:28"We have no right to sanction on the stage that which if it were done

1:16:28 > 1:16:33"in the street would compel a policeman to lock the offender up.

1:16:33 > 1:16:37"The place at night is the habitual resort of prostitutes

1:16:37 > 1:16:41"in pursuit of their traffic and that portions of the entertainment

1:16:41 > 1:16:44"are most objectionable, obnoxious and against the best interest

1:16:44 > 1:16:48"and moral well-being of the community at large."

1:16:48 > 1:16:51The theatre was closed until a screen was erected

1:16:51 > 1:16:54between the promenade and the auditorium.

1:16:54 > 1:16:57A vocal opponent of this was a young Sandhurst cadet

1:16:57 > 1:16:59by the name of Winston Churchill.

1:17:01 > 1:17:05"Did you see the papers about the riot at the Empire last Saturday?

1:17:05 > 1:17:08"It was I who led to the rioters," he boasted to his brother.

1:17:08 > 1:17:12He and his colleagues tore down the wooden canvas screens

1:17:12 > 1:17:14and he climbed up onto the debris

1:17:14 > 1:17:18and addressed the theatre audience on the subject of liberty.

1:17:18 > 1:17:20He described it as his true maiden speech.

1:17:20 > 1:17:24Churchill may have gone on to greater things

1:17:24 > 1:17:30but it was Mrs Ormiston Chant who more accurately reflected the mood of the age.

1:17:30 > 1:17:33Respectability was becoming a Victorian obsession

1:17:33 > 1:17:37and was the cornerstone of the success of the syndicates.

1:17:42 > 1:17:47In Leeds in 1898, the Empire Palace Theatre opened.

1:17:48 > 1:17:51It was built by the newly-formed Moss Empire syndicate,

1:17:51 > 1:17:55an amalgamation of the Stoll and Moss organisations.

1:17:55 > 1:17:59Though they were still very much a provincial operation,

1:17:59 > 1:18:02it was a clear sign of their confidence and ambition.

1:18:04 > 1:18:09Determined to place music hall at the heart of mainstream city life,

1:18:09 > 1:18:12alongside the theatre they built a hotel

1:18:12 > 1:18:16and one of the world's first purpose-built shopping malls,

1:18:16 > 1:18:20a far cry from the city varieties across the street.

1:18:20 > 1:18:23The theatre itself is now a department store,

1:18:23 > 1:18:25but Barry Cryer remembers it well.

1:18:25 > 1:18:29One of my earliest memories was being taken to the theatre with my mother.

1:18:29 > 1:18:31We had the City Varieties,

1:18:31 > 1:18:34no decent woman would be seen there.

1:18:34 > 1:18:37So we go now and again to the Empire,

1:18:37 > 1:18:39number one Moss Empire.

1:18:39 > 1:18:42I remember the atmosphere. It was brash and colourful

1:18:42 > 1:18:44and noisy and people arriving,

1:18:44 > 1:18:45and then you went into the auditorium.

1:18:45 > 1:18:47It was just magical.

1:18:47 > 1:18:49Then the curtain goes up and it gets even better.

1:18:49 > 1:18:51The bands strike up and all that.

1:18:51 > 1:18:54And I sat next to my mother in this theatre

1:18:54 > 1:18:57watching her twinkling away, loving every minute of it.

1:18:57 > 1:18:59It was superb.

1:19:01 > 1:19:04The architect who designed every part of this bold development,

1:19:04 > 1:19:09from the Grand Theatre to the last square of mosaic in the pavements,

1:19:09 > 1:19:10was Frank Matcham.

1:19:12 > 1:19:16Matcham was undoubtedly a genius who could thread his way

1:19:16 > 1:19:19through the increasingly complex Victorian building regulations

1:19:19 > 1:19:23and still produce a stunning, thrilling and magical space.

1:19:27 > 1:19:32These arcades earned Leeds the title "the Milan of the North of England".

1:19:38 > 1:19:41Moss Empire's progress towards London

1:19:41 > 1:19:44was like the stealthy approach of an invading army

1:19:44 > 1:19:49who first establish outposts in the suburbs before the final push.

1:19:49 > 1:19:55One of these was the Hackney Empire, another Matcham masterpiece.

1:19:57 > 1:20:01He was extraordinarily inventive as an architect.

1:20:01 > 1:20:07Hackney is a stylistic mash-up of Moorish Indo-Romanesque baroque.

1:20:07 > 1:20:11But a Victorian theatre-goer's enjoyment of this opulence

1:20:11 > 1:20:14was very much affected by their social class.

1:20:14 > 1:20:19Othman Read has worked at the Empire for 20 years.

1:20:19 > 1:20:22Where we are in the gallery was generally poor people,

1:20:22 > 1:20:24very working-class people. There used to be a sign up here,

1:20:24 > 1:20:29"No spitting or swearing. Offenders will be ejected by order."

1:20:29 > 1:20:31I mean, that gives you some idea of the sort of people

1:20:31 > 1:20:35- who they expected in the gallery. - But they had their own entrance?

1:20:35 > 1:20:40Absolutely. Their entrance was at the rear of the theatre. It was only them who could come in through it.

1:20:40 > 1:20:42So who came in the front of the theatre?

1:20:42 > 1:20:46The front was reserved solely for the dress circle

1:20:46 > 1:20:50and the front stalls, the armchairs.

1:20:50 > 1:20:55Back of the stalls area was actually a separate entrance called the pit

1:20:55 > 1:21:00where you'd have people selling goods and services, no doubt!

1:21:00 > 1:21:02Goods and services?!

1:21:02 > 1:21:05Which were easily accessible to gentlemen in the front rows...

1:21:05 > 1:21:06Say no more.

1:21:06 > 1:21:10..without having to leave to go to another floor to be seen amongst,

1:21:10 > 1:21:12clearly amongst, a lower class of people.

1:21:12 > 1:21:16How long it did it take to build this magnificent edifice?

1:21:16 > 1:21:21At the turn of the century, 36 weeks from scratch.

1:21:21 > 1:21:24That is without the modern technology we'd have now.

1:21:24 > 1:21:27By today's standards, you couldn't paint it in that time.

1:21:27 > 1:21:29You couldn't paint it in 36 weeks?!

1:21:29 > 1:21:32There's very little you'd get done in 36 weeks now.

1:21:32 > 1:21:35It was absolutely state-of-the-art when it was built.

1:21:35 > 1:21:39- It was one of the first cantilevered balconies.- Really?

1:21:39 > 1:21:42Pre-stressed concrete balconies, no pillars,

1:21:42 > 1:21:44which is where the incredible sight lines come from

1:21:44 > 1:21:47because you have unobstructed views from every floor.

1:21:47 > 1:21:50A couple of years ago, we had Madness doing a reunion gig in here.

1:21:50 > 1:21:55You had about 300 guys, reliving their youth, in their mid 30s,

1:21:55 > 1:21:59jumping up and down and you could see it literally flex.

1:21:59 > 1:22:02- This is down in the dress circle? - This is the dress circle.

1:22:02 > 1:22:06It must have been flexing by about four inches up and down.

1:22:06 > 1:22:08- The whole of it.- Wow.

1:22:08 > 1:22:10If you really want to understand

1:22:10 > 1:22:14why Frank Matcham was the greatest theatre architect that ever lived,

1:22:14 > 1:22:17you only have to sit here where I'm sitting,

1:22:17 > 1:22:22the worst seat in the house, I have got a fabulous view of everything.

1:22:22 > 1:22:26And yet, in all Matcham's theatres, as far as one can tell,

1:22:26 > 1:22:28there were never problems with the sound.

1:22:28 > 1:22:32I think there's a lot more science actually applied to it than he's given credit for.

1:22:32 > 1:22:36The stage itself acts as a speaker.

1:22:36 > 1:22:39The shape of the auditorium acts as a cone, if you like.

1:22:39 > 1:22:44How did he know that stuff? I'd rather like to test that.

1:22:44 > 1:22:48Would you mind going on the stage and asking me a question very quietly?

1:22:48 > 1:22:50And I'll see if I can hear it from back here.

1:22:50 > 1:22:53- Absolutely. It would be a pleasure. - OK, thank you.

1:22:55 > 1:22:57Don't do any of my material now!

1:22:57 > 1:22:59OTHMAN LAUGHS

1:23:05 > 1:23:08- Can you hear me?- I can.

1:23:08 > 1:23:09I can hear you.

1:23:09 > 1:23:12Othman, the two domes on either side of the proscenium,

1:23:12 > 1:23:14what are they made of?

1:23:14 > 1:23:18It is all plasterwork, all of it is Rococo plasterwork.

1:23:18 > 1:23:21What's amazing is there's no echo,

1:23:21 > 1:23:24there's no reverb, so there's incredible crystal clarity.

1:23:24 > 1:23:27I can hear every syllable. Amazing.

1:23:29 > 1:23:33The Hackney Empire was the technological wonder of the age,

1:23:33 > 1:23:36one of the first theatres to be built with a projection box

1:23:36 > 1:23:40to show the new bioscope movies.

1:23:40 > 1:23:43The bioscope had begun as a fairground attraction

1:23:43 > 1:23:46but was now a feature of every music hall bill,

1:23:46 > 1:23:52an ominous development that would have far-reaching consequences.

1:23:52 > 1:23:57In 1912, at the Palace Theatre, Oswald Stoll received

1:23:57 > 1:24:00his ultimate accolade when he was invited to arrange

1:24:00 > 1:24:05the Royal Music Hall Performance by Command of His Majesty.

1:24:05 > 1:24:08Stoll wanted to make it a night to remember

1:24:08 > 1:24:11and decorated the theatre with three million roses,

1:24:11 > 1:24:15most of them clustered around the royal box

1:24:15 > 1:24:17which looked like a florist shop.

1:24:17 > 1:24:20The event was staged in front of George V

1:24:20 > 1:24:24and a smattering of other related minor European royalty.

1:24:26 > 1:24:30On a hot July night, the King himself, for the very first time,

1:24:30 > 1:24:34came to see the stars of the music hall on their home turf.

1:24:34 > 1:24:39His father, Edward VII, loved dressing up for a party

1:24:39 > 1:24:44and often invited music hall stars to perform at his private soiree.

1:24:44 > 1:24:46But by coming to the theatre himself,

1:24:46 > 1:24:51his son was publicly acknowledging that music hall was finally

1:24:51 > 1:24:54and undeniably respectable.

1:24:54 > 1:25:01142 artists were specially chosen to appear on this stage.

1:25:01 > 1:25:05It was a balanced bill representing all facets of the music hall.

1:25:05 > 1:25:07There was one pointed omission...

1:25:07 > 1:25:09Marie Lloyd.

1:25:10 > 1:25:14This newly-won respectability was too precious to be put at risk

1:25:14 > 1:25:17by the legendary wink.

1:25:17 > 1:25:22She staged a rival performance the same evening at the London Pavilion.

1:25:22 > 1:25:26"By order of the British public", said the poster.

1:25:26 > 1:25:29But she needn't have worried. Back up the road at the Palace,

1:25:29 > 1:25:32things weren't going at all according to plan.

1:25:32 > 1:25:36The theatre was packed with specially-invited bigwigs

1:25:36 > 1:25:39and there was none of the usual rapport with the performers

1:25:39 > 1:25:42on which the music hall stars relied.

1:25:42 > 1:25:45A young comedienne called Fanny Fields

1:25:45 > 1:25:47nervously told the audience that,

1:25:47 > 1:25:50"I'm suffering just as much as you are."

1:25:51 > 1:25:56In a strange twist, this high-water mark of music hall fortunes

1:25:56 > 1:26:00also seemed to emphasise how little this performance had in common

1:26:00 > 1:26:03with the original spirit of its birth.

1:26:03 > 1:26:06Having achieved the common admiration of the King

1:26:06 > 1:26:09and the costermonger, the music hall may have gained in status

1:26:09 > 1:26:13but it had lost any connection with its roots.

1:26:18 > 1:26:22In 1914, when the First World War broke out,

1:26:22 > 1:26:26the minor royals who attended the Command performance

1:26:26 > 1:26:29found themselves on opposite sides of the barbed wire.

1:26:29 > 1:26:34The troops dug trenches whilst singing the music hall's greatest hits.

1:26:34 > 1:26:40But back in Blighty, the war closed many of the halls for the duration.

1:26:40 > 1:26:43The male impersonators were hugely popular,

1:26:43 > 1:26:45turning out in military uniform.

1:26:45 > 1:26:50Vesta Tilley earned the nickname, Britain's best recruiting sergeant,

1:26:50 > 1:26:53and distributed chocolate to the Tommies.

1:26:53 > 1:26:57But songs like "Good luck to the girl who loves a soldier"

1:26:57 > 1:27:00expressed a very different sentiment

1:27:00 > 1:27:02to the jingo songs of 40 years earlier.

1:27:02 > 1:27:08And when the war was over, the halls, like everything else, had changed.

1:27:10 > 1:27:16In 1919, the King visited Frank Matcham's magnificent London Coliseum,

1:27:16 > 1:27:19the grandest theatre in Moss Empire's chain,

1:27:19 > 1:27:23but it was to attend the Royal Variety Performance.

1:27:23 > 1:27:27Variety, the sanitised child of the music hall

1:27:27 > 1:27:30had quietly replaced its unruly parent.

1:27:33 > 1:27:37There were other competitors for the punters' pennies.

1:27:37 > 1:27:39Stars could now be heard on the gramophone,

1:27:39 > 1:27:41radio was just around the corner

1:27:41 > 1:27:46and most significantly, cinema had hit the big-time.

1:27:52 > 1:27:57We're at the back of the balcony at the Britannia Glasgow

1:27:57 > 1:27:59and this is a projection booth

1:27:59 > 1:28:03which was just hacked into the back of the building

1:28:03 > 1:28:06so they could project the great novelty

1:28:06 > 1:28:10of the bioscope moving pictures onto the stage.

1:28:10 > 1:28:14What began as a minor attraction at the bottom of the bill

1:28:14 > 1:28:17had become the headlining act.

1:28:17 > 1:28:20And at some point in these inter-war years,

1:28:20 > 1:28:26people began to refer to the music hall in the past tense.

1:28:41 > 1:28:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd