BILLY
BENNETT was born in 1887, the year
that the great clown Grimaldi died, and
some experts believe he took up the mantle
of the famous Victorian entertainer. Before
reaching his star stature, Billy apparently
graduated from being an acrobat and, for
a period, the rear end of an elephant! He
was a Londoner and knew the Cockney scene
intimately, basing a number of his most
popular songs and sketches on the activities
of comic villains - a theme virtually untouched
by any other music hall performer. Billy's
slogan was 'Almost a Gentleman' and he did
his best to live up to it by wearing an
ill-fitting dress suit, a waistcoat out
of which his shirt hung, and a large, untrimmed
walrus moustache. His style was raucous,
and with his coarse, non-stop approach would
batter any audience into submission with
songs like The Green Tie of the Little
Yellow Dog, with its references to
'who-flung-dung' and 'Gonga-pooch' which
is the Hindu word for bum! Apart from various
songs with a military slant -for which he
would dress up in a scruffy army uniform
- Billy was also the composer of that famous
song of the pretty country girl who is lured
to the bright lights of the city and there
suffers the inevitable fate at the hands
of some wealthy gent, 'It's the same the
whole world over - it's the poor what gets
the blame!' For this piece of inspired vulgarity
alone, Billy Bennett has a special place
in the comedy singer's hall of fame. |
