As a Highland Chieftain , Dan Leno sang a burlesque Scots song , in the chorus of which he set out to describe a gathering of the clans :sx His memory had failed him .sx He looked worried , searched his mind for the name , and then tried the effect of repeating the chorus :sx Again he stuck , and again he puzzled his poor weary brain .sx He tried all sorts of devices , such as muttering the words below his breath .sx Once more he began , but the result was the same .sx He stamped his foot .sx " I know there were some more men , " he said to himself .sx But , although he thought more painfully hard than ever , he could not remember the name of the clan .sx Half in resignation and half apologetically he said to the conductor , " Never mind !sx Go on with the dance !sx " .sx He threw himself body and soul into the energetic steps of the Highland Fling .sx All his previous anxiety vanished as he performed the exhilarating dance .sx Then suddenly joy came into his eyes .sx He abruptly stopped dancing and clapped his hands for the orchestra to cease playing .sx Coming down to the footlights , he said to the conductor , in a tone of triumph :sx MacFarlane's men !sx He did not finish the dance , nor did he utter another word before he went off the stage .sx The resemblance between this turn and one of Grock's is very interesting , as it shows how , without copying , of course , a device that was used by the greatest music-hall comedian of his time was used later by the greatest music-hall clown .sx It was not a line that eluded Grock , but his normal dexterity in the trick of throwing the bow of his violin into the air , smiling at the audience , and at the same time gracefully catching the bow as it descended .sx He tried to do this before playing , and to his great surprise and annoyance he failed .sx He made several other fruitless attempts , and then he retired behind a screen .sx The repeated appearance of the bow above the screen indicated that he was practising .sx He came out again cheerlessly .sx Anxiously he threw the bow into the air and missed it .sx Once again he practised behind the screen and .sx again he emerged moodily .sx Then he found that he had left his violin behind .sx When he had secured that he realised that he had now forgotten the bow .sx And so on through a new series of worries which drove the original one from his head .sx At last he solved all his fresh perplexities .sx In his joy he thoughtlessly threw the bow into the air and , without realising that he was doing in a care-free manner what he had failed to achieve by taking thought , he caught it with ease and grace .sx Leno and Grock both expanded in these items the philosophy enunciated by Grimaldi in Tippetywichet :sx X .sx Jenny Hill , " The Vital Spark , " began her career by singing in public-house entertainments .sx By the time she had reached her early twenties , however , she was appearing at the principal music-halls .sx For the next twenty-five years , until near the end of the century , she was for comedy or pathos the greatest actress on the music-hall stage .sx She was one of the first to play sketches in the halls , these including such varied specimens as The Little Stowaway , On the Continong , The East-End Girl and What Cher , 'Arry .sx The first lady artiste to visit America , she had a wonderful success .sx Lottie Collins created a furore in 1891 by her singing and dancing of Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay .sx So abandoned was her dancing , and so often did she give encores , that once or twice , when she came off the stage at the Grand Theatre , Islington , where she was appearing in the pantomime Dick Whittington , she fainted .sx Here are two of the verses :sx In the same pantomime , Dick Whittington , Harry Randall , unawed by the tremendous success of Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay , came on immediately after Lottie Collins with a parody to the same music .sx He did a comic dance round the stage .sx Instead of the parody being overshadowed by the brilliance of the original - and it might easily have ended in a fiasco - it also was a big success .sx In a few evenings Lottie Collins and Harry Randall were singing verses as a duet .sx It was in this pantomime that Harry Randall introduced a very clever piece of business in connexion with George Beauchamp's Git Yer 'Air Cut which was being sung every-where .sx He describes it himself in Harry Randall :sx Old Time Comedian :sx On my first entrance , my hair reached to the nape of my neck , and immediately the trombone in the band blared .sx out bars of Git Yer 'Air Cut !sx I glared at him indignantly and brought in my " gag" :sx " I shall give you such a smack in the face in a minute !sx " with the accent well on the " smack , " and at every subsequent entrance this business was repeated by different members of the orchestra , as my hair became gradually shorter .sx ( What a lot of wigs I had to provide !sx ) Finally , in the last scene , when the whole of the band rose and ejected the tune at me , I took off my hat , appeared entirely bald and remarked that I'd had it " shampushed .sx " Domestic affairs entered into many of the songs of Harry Randall , as into those of music-hall comedians in general .sx They saw the humour in real life ; and a song with a chorus like this deals with an eternal part of existence :sx For an example of the song that dealt with subjects far removed from London life - although of course most good songs , whatever their setting and subject , have an inter-national appeal - one may turn to Eugene Stratton , the singing , dancing and whistling burnt-cork minstrel .sx He was a serious , even an earnest artiste , and evoked rapt attention .sx There was humour in his impersonations , and often a touch of " divinest melancholy .sx " Melancholy is a thing which pleases everyone if it is not dealt out too liberally .sx Where it is present the high-brows feel that they are having value for the expenditure of their valuable time ; and even ordinary people like at times to feel reasonably sad about someone else's troubles .sx Eugene Stratton had , therefore , excellent opportunities , and his ability made him worthy of them .sx He , was particularly fortunate in securing songs from Leslie Stuart , .sx the famous composer of Florodora , who , among other songs , provided him with the words and music of The Lily of Laguna :sx Vesta Tilley , the male impersonator par excellence , began to take-off men at the early age of three or four .sx Her first appearance was made in Nottingham , where her father was the chairman of a music-hall .sx Until she was fourteen she sang in Midland halls , and then , as the " Great Little Tilley , " she came to London and conquered it .sx She was now billed as " The London Idol .sx " At the age of seventeen she was principal boy in the Birmingham pantomime Beauty and the Beast , and the following year she filled the same role in Sinbad the Sailor at Drury Lane .sx The halls , however , were her first love , and she remained faithful to them , for during a long career she made only a few appearances in pantomime .sx Her impersonations of young men were impeccable as regards art , refinement and brightness .sx Young men looked at her and saw themselves .sx They were startled , but never hurt , for , like most geniuses , while she was portraying the weaknesses of human nature there was a twinkle in her eye .sx There was , however , a suspicion of a tear in it when she .sx appeared as a swaggering young recruit and sang perhaps the best of her songs , Jolly Good Luck to the Girl Who Loves a Soldier .sx How she dealt with the more ordinary affairs of male life is shown in the following lines from The Seaside Sultan :sx Marie Lloyd , the greatest of the comediennes - " Our Marie , " " dear Marie , " " The Queen of Comedy , " to mention only a few of the terms applied to her - began at the Grecian , or Eagle , which was attached to the famous Eagle Tavern .sx This was in 1885 , when she was only fifteen years of age , and with dazzling suddenness she was soon at the top .sx She retained her popularity until the very end , for when she died in 1922 , a few days after a very successful performance , she was booked up for some years ahead .sx Her first real success was in a song made famous earlier by Jenny Hill - The Boy that I love sits up in the Gallery .sx She was seldom fortunate enough to secure good songs .sx " It is very difficult , " she said when she was famous , " to get a good song-that is a song to suit .sx I receive on an average quite ten new songs every morning , but they generally consist of the most inane stuff imaginable .sx " Here is part of one that she accepted .sx Any song of Marie Lloyd's is interesting , and itwill indicate how little she depended upon art in her songs and how much upon her own marvellous genius as a humorous interpreter of character :sx Not a few of her performances contained the sort of stuff which , according to one's outlook on life , one calls indecent or healthily opposed to false sentiment .sx She was warned by the management of the suddenly-reformed Pavilion .sx On the other hand she has been praised for the very same thing by a reputable critic .sx With all due deference to the writer ( to whom every student of popular entertainments is indebted ) , it is necessary to comment upon his remarks ; especially as something has already been said about the inveterate Puritans who took up the very opposite attitude .sx He praised Marie Lloyd as one who " was , quite unconsciously , a woman with a mission in life .sx .. She blasted false sentiment .sx .. She was a social reformer , in her way , as courageous as Ibsen .sx " Who desires that our popular entertainers should be social reformers in any sort of way ?sx Reformers like Ibsen deliberately , and rightly , shock us by putting new ideas into our lethargic heads , but the business of an entertainer , trite though the remark may be , is to be entertaining .sx An entertainer may be reformative , just as a reformer may be entertaining .sx But something is wrong when , consciously or unconsciously having a mission in life , an entertainer earns the right to have it said of her that she was a social reformer , in her way , as courageous as Ibsen .sx Like must be compared to like .sx An entertainer who is compared to a stern reformer has outstepped the .sx bounds of her profession - or the person who praises by making the comparison , like those who dispraise by making other unfitting comparisons , would seem , for once , to have made a mistake .sx Not in the halls , the theatre nor the cinema has ceruleanism ever done any good - apart , of course , from the pleasure which it has given the audience .sx Unintelligent artistes who use it only succeed in offending the judicious and in catering to the low tastes , or , if you like , broad-mindedness , of the others .sx A Marie Lloyd , first and foremost an entertainer , indulges in it because the audience is already " broad-minded " enough to laugh at it ; not because , consciously or not , she desires that they should become so .sx When Marie Lloyd found that a particular East-End audience was hissing her , she ran off weeping .sx This was not the attitude of a courageous reformer .sx It was that of an entertainer who had failed to do what she set out to do .sx She returned and gave an unprovocative character study which made them at once take the lovable artiste to their hearts .sx This was the volte-face of one who was determined to achieve her purpose , even if it meant altering her own attitude to suit that of her audience .sx Indeed , the ability to alter one's attitude in this way is one of the most precious qualities that an artiste can possess .sx It was not lacking in the marvellous artistic equipment of the great comedienne .sx So much for the praise of Marie Lloyd as a reformer .sx Perhaps , however , she was being praised , as regards courage , for her defiance of the " inveterate Puritans and newspapers .sx " If so , the courage was not very apparent .sx She was absolutely sure of retaining the support of her audiences .sx