Marie Lloyd – The Bystander – 6th December 1908

Marie Lloyd – The Sketch – Wednesday 25th December 1895

EAST AND WEST WITH MARIE LLOYD.

 

There is probably no more popular artist with music-hall audiences at the present than Miss Marie Lloyd. I had received orders to write an interview with her for one of the large New York dailies, and, through force of circumstances, I was perforce compelled to conduct the said interview in her brougham, as she drove her nightly round of five halls.

It was of great interest to watch the varied tastes of the different audiences. In the East at the Varieties, Hoxton, or the Queen’s, Poplar the songs that seemed most admired were of a very different calibre to those that were the favourites at the Tivoli and Pavilion, in the West, while the audiences at Sadler’s Wells seemed a sort of half-way house between the two extremes.

The first song of the evening was sung on the stage of the Varieties, Hoxton, and of the three songs sung “Near Thing,” “The Rich Girl and the Poor Girl,” and the Bicycle song the second made far and away the biggest hit. The last song, in which the lively chantrice appears in the “rational dress,” seemed to strike some of the fairer members of the audience with dismay, and I overheard one buxom-looking lady observe to her escort her firm resolve not to adopt the fashion.

From the Varieties to the Queen’s, Poplar, was a not very long drive, and as Miss Lloyd made her appearance she was familiarly greeted with shouts of “Bravo, Marie!” “Wot cher, Marie?” and other equally friendly ejaculations. As at Hoxton, so at Poplar. The different methods of the rich girl and the poor ditto seemed to suit the sympathies of the members of the audiences far better than the adventures of the unfortunate cyclist, though their loyalty to their arch favourite compelled them to give her the same unstinted applause for the latter. En route to Sadler’s Wells a rather touching little incident happened, as, coming up the Mile End Road, a bevy of small girls suddenly appeared alongside of the brougham, and, with a yell of “Good luck, Marie!” something was seen flying into the brougham window, which, unfortunately, hit Miss Lloyd and cut her mouth, though not severely. On examination, it proved to be a huge box of expensive sweets, with a note, from several young girls in the district. This was not the only present she got that night, as at the stage-door of the Varieties she was presented by some East-End girls with a huge cut-glass bottle of scent, and much delighted they were when she started to kiss them all round. But to resume the journey at Sadler’s Wells. “Trilby,” or rather, Marie Lloyd’s version of Du Maurier’s heroine, was substituted for one of the other songs, and, though as a song it went well, few of the audience, I ween, knew much of the “lady of the altogether.” I had various inquiries among the audience as to who Trilby was, and why she wore no shoes. The Bicycle song, on the other hand, was thoroughly understood and appreciated, as was another innovation, entitled, “What‘s that for?” From “the Wells,” whose glorious days of the Phelpsess have long, alas departed, a move was made to the Tivoli, and thence to the Pavilion. How different the class of audiences at these two places, how thoroughly they understood and appreciated every line of Trilby O’Ferrall up to date, the Cyclist, and the Baby song; but though the applause at both these places for Marie Lloyd’s songs was magnificent, it was no warmer, and certainly not so uproarious, as that in the East-End halls, where the “gods” knew her kindness of heart, and that, for weeks past, and through the winter months, Marie Lloyd is, out of the riches she makes by her singing, paying nightly for one hundred and fifty beds for the homeless and destitute of “Darker London.”

The Sketch – Wednesday 25^th December 1895