Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Britain between bold and scandalous music hall entertainment and subsequent, more respectable variety entertainment differ. Music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts, and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. In North America vaudeville was in some ways analogous to British music hall, featuring rousing songs and comic acts.
Joseph Tabrar was a prolific English writer of popular music hall songs. His song "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow" (1892) became Vesta Victoria's first major popular success.
Richard Armstrong Whiting was an American composer of popular songs, including the standards "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop". He also wrote lyrics occasionally, and film scores most notably for the standard "She's Funny That Way".
William Holt Williams was an Australian-born British vaudeville and music hall singer and entertainer. His best known song was "When Father Papered the Parlour".
"Embraceable You" is a jazz standard song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named East Is West. It was published in 1930 and included in that year's Broadway musical Girl Crazy, performed by Ginger Rogers in a song and dance routine choreographed by Fred Astaire.
Winifred Emms, best known by her stage name Hetty King, was an English entertainer who performed in the music halls as a male impersonator over some 70 years.
"Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" is a music hall song written by Arthur J. Mills, Fred Godfrey and Bennett Scott in 1916. It was popular during the First World War, and tells a story of three fictional soldiers on the Western Front suffering from homesickness and their longing to return to "Blighty" - a slang term for Britain.
Charles William Murphy was a prolific British composer of music hall and musical theatre tunes.
Music hall songs were sung in the music halls by a variety of artistes. Most of them were comic in nature. There are a very large number of music hall songs, and most of them have been forgotten. In London, between 1900 and 1910, a single publishing company, Francis, Day and Hunter, published between forty and fifty songs a month.
Fred Godfrey was the pen name of Llewellyn Williams, a World War I songwriter. He is best known for the songs "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" (1916) and "Bless 'Em All" (1917), which became a 1940s hit when recorded by George Formby and which can be found on many war films.
Whittaker Cunliffe was an English comic singer. The historian and critic W. J. MacQueen-Pope described Cunliffe as a "great singer of great songs and the epitome of what made Music Hall."
Jack Tar is a common English term that was originally used to refer to seamen of the Merchant Navy or the Royal Navy, particularly during the British Empire. By World War I the term was used as a nickname for those in the US Navy. Members of the public and seafarers alike made use of the name in identifying those who went to sea. It was not used pejoratively, and sailors were happy to use the term to label themselves.
Bennett Scott was an English writer of music hall songs.
George Arthurs was an English songwriter, playwright, composer, author and screenwriter who contributed lyrics to several successful musical comedies such as The Belle of Mayfair (1906), Havana (1908) and Yes, Uncle! (1917), before writing dialogue for such films as The Yellow Mask (1931).
Henry Castling was an English lyricist of music hall songs.
Arthur John Mills (1872–1919) was an English lyricist of music hall songs, many written with Fred Godfrey and Bennett Scott.
Elinor Maud Dawe, who used the stage name Ella Retford, was an English music hall comedian, singer and dancer, and later a stage and film actress.
Gifford Folkard, known professionally as Harry Gifford, was an English songwriter. He worked from the 1900s but is best known for his work in the 1930s co-writing songs with Fred E. Cliffe for entertainer George Formby.
Ship Ahoy or Ship Ahoy! may refer to:
