Solo Gallery

Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay - sung by Lottie Collins

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song. The song's first known public performance was in Henry J. Sayers 1891 revue Tuxedo, which was performed in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the version sung by Lottie Collins (1865-1910) in London music halls in 1892 (as shown in this drawing by Phil May of the same year). She would sing the first verse demurely and then launch into the chorus and an uninhibited and exhausting skirt dance with high kicks (especially on the word "BOOM") that exposed her stockings held up by sparkling garters, and bare thighs. At the height of the craze, Collins was performing the song five times nightly at different venues in London !!! Date: 1892

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Pantomime artist Will Evans with his children

Will Evans (1866 -1931) was an eccentric comedian who performed in pantomime from a young age, and appeared on the music halls in the 1890s. His most famous solo sketches were Papering A House and Whitewashing A Ceiling. Seen here with his two children at the piano.
circa 1911

© Mary Evans Picture Library/The Pete Frost Collection

1911, Artist, Artiste, Ceiling, Child, Children, Comedian, Comedy, Comic, Eccentric, Entertainer, Evans, Family, Famous, Father, Girl, Grand, Hall, House, Instrument, Jacket, Keyboard, Music, Musical, Panto, Pantomime, Papering, Performer, Piano, Sketch, Sketches, Smiling, Solo, Stool, Suit, Tweed, Whitewashing

Mr Louis Napoleon Parker playing a solo on the Megaphone

Mr Louis Napoleon Parker (1852-1944) "playing a solo" on the Megaphone at the Warwick Pageant of 1906 (the only way he could successfully direct a vast cast). The Warwick Pageant was a huge drama festival, organised by Parker, which took place in the grounds of Warwick Castle, England, in July 1906 and was later described as the biggest thing which ever happened to Warwick. Parker announced in 1911 that more than 15, 000 performers had gone through his hands, and audiences had reached a quarter of a million!! Date: 1906

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection