MARIE LLOYD ,ENGLISH SINGER BORN 1870 FEBRUARY 12 - 1922 OCTOBER 7

 

MARIE LLOYD ,ENGLISH SINGER BORN 

1870 FEBRUARY 12 - 1922 OCTOBER 7

Marie Lloyd, original name Matilda Alice Victoria Wood, (born Feb. 12, 1870, London—died Oct. 7, 1922, London), foremost English music-hall artiste of the late 19th century, who became well known in the London, or Cockney, low comedy then popular. She first appeared in 1885 at the Eagle Music Hall under the name Bella Delmare. Six weeks later she adopted her permanent stage name.T.S. Eliot wrote that her deep popular appeal stemmed from her ability to capture and express the spirit of the English common people. In her songs and sketches she introduced to the public a series of studies in Cockney humour, sympathetic to the little man and often risqué. Her best acts included “Everything in the Garden’s Lovely,” “Oh, Mr. Porter,” and “One of the Ruins that Cromwell Knocked About a Bit.”

MARIE LLOYD   (1870-1922)

“Lord Callaghan once quoted a pop singer, but it was Marie Lloyd, who died in 1922. In any case, T.S.Eliot wrote an essay on her. This might be thought of as one of the first cases, before the 1960s, of an intellectual creative artist flattering mass taste, were it not for Eliot’s tone (“Among all of that small number of music-hall performers, whose names are familiar to what is called the lower class, Marie Lloyd had far the strongest hold on popular affection”). So Lord Callaghan cannot be accused of brandishing a name known to the youth of his time.”

According to The Spectator (London) of 4th October 2008

Lord Callaghan enquired of his staff the name of the singer of “There was I waiting at the church”.  He intended to incorporate the song title in his speech at the Brighton Conference of 1978. Joe Haines advised him, correctly, that the singer was Vesta Victoria. “His civil servants insisted on Marie Lloyd, not because they knew, but because everyone had heard of her, whilst Vesta Victoria was obscure. So Marie Lloyd it had to be”

Wikiquote gives the quotation as follows:

“The commentators have fixed the month for me, they have chosen the date and the day. But I advise them: “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.” Remember what happened to Marie Lloyd. She fixed the day and the date, and she told us what happened. As far as I remember it went like this: ‘There was I, waiting at the church–’ (laughter). Perhaps you recall how it went on. ‘All at once he sent me round a note. Here’s the very note. This is what he wrote: “Can’t get away to marry you today, my wife won’t let me.”‘ Now let me just make clear that I have promised nobody that I shall be at the altar in October? Nobody at all.”