A staple of the Entertainments Industry
Music Hall was a staple of the Entertainments Industry in Britain during the Edwardian Age and several links are provided below to assist those who wish to explore this field.
Some Music Hall stars of yesteryear, like Marie Lloyd, are still fondly remembered while others, like Charlie Chaplin, went on to achieve International Stardom in the Silent Movies, a medium that – with the coming of sound in 1927 -would eventually supersede the Music Hall in Britain and also its equivalents, known as Vaudeville and Burlesque, in the United States.
The relevance of the Music Hall to the Crippen case is due to Crippen’s wife having herself been a performer – known professionally as Belle Elmore – after she came to Britain to join her husband around 1900. Previously, while resident in the United States, she had taken singing lessons with a view to finding a career in Grand Opera. Crippen had paid for these lessons.
Witness Statements
Mrs Antonia Jackson, who had run a Boarding House in Bath for Theatrical people, recalled Belle in a Witness Statement that she made to the Police on 23 September 1910, in connection with the Crippen case:
She (Belle Elmore) had been engaged to sing at the Lyric Music Hall in Bath and she stayed with me for just one week. She left on Sunday, the 30th September 1900 and signed the Guest Book:
Have been very comfortable and happy during my stay at Mrs Jackson’s
Belle Elmore – La Belle American
Mrs Jackson recalled that Belle had returned a couple of years later to fulfil another engagement at the Lyric. On her second visit, she had left on 2nd February 1902 and, again, she signed Mrs Jackson’s Guest Book:
Have been back again with Ma and Pa Jackson and have been made more comfortable than before. Hoping to come back again soon. With kind regards, Always yours
Belle Elmore – Lyric, Bath
Mrs Jackson’s Statement was not introduced into evidence at Crippen’s Trial almost certainly because the Police had unearthed an even better witness in the shape of Theresa Hunn, the dead woman’s sister. Both women could confirm that Belle had had an operation that had left a scar on her torso.
Mrs Jackson recalled that Belle had told her that she’d had an operation. She couldn’t remember for sure but she thought it might have been in New York. Belle had told her that she’d had her womb taken out, scraped and put back again and that she was then alright. There was a scar on some flesh found among the human remains and the Prosecution had argued that this then identified the remains as having belonged to Mrs Crippen. The Defence had argued otherwise.
However, Belle did not find the success that she had hoped for in the Music Hall and, for the last two years or so, she had directed her energies to serving the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild as its Honorary Treasurer.
Music Hall Ladies’ Guild’s first Treasurer
Belle was not the Guild’s first Treasurer who was Mrs. F. Karno who – almost certainly – was Edith, the estranged wife of Fred Karno.
Fred Karno is a name that still lives on because, as well as inventing his own unusual name, he is also credited with having invented the cream-pie-in-the-face gag. Among the young comedians who had worked for him were Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Jefferson who, later, became much better known as Stan Laurel, one half of the Laurel & Hardy comedy duo.
Earlier, Chaplin and Jefferson had been part of ‘Fred Karno’s Army’, a phrase once common in the UK to describe any chaotic group or organisation.
Music Hall Ladies’ Guild founded
The Music Hall Ladies’ Guild had been founded in 1906 ‘to assist artist’s wives needing help; to visit the sick poor of the profession; and to provide clothing and to find employment for poor artist’s children and orphans’.
Marie Lloyd was the first President and other founder members included Miss Louisa Smythson and Miss Lil Hawthorne, both of whom later testified for the Prosecution at Crippen’s Trial.
Indeed, John Nash – Lil Hawthorne’s husband and manager – played the starring role by pulling together the various suspicions against Crippen which he then presented to Frank Froest, Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Metropolitan Police. Without Nash’s initiative, it is highly likely that Crippen would have gotten away with it.
At some stage, the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild took a small office in Albion House, New Oxford Street – where Crippen also had a small office – and, on Wednesday nights, they hired a larger room for their meetings.
Consequently, Albion House became the scene where Crippen’s interactions with members of the Guild were played out, after Belle’s mysterious disappearance on 1 February 1910.
Annual Meeting of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild
At the Annual Meeting of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild in November 1929, the President – Miss Lottie Albert – bemoaned the advent of talking pictures which had hit variety artists ‘tremendously’. Nothing more was then heard of the Guild so, clearly, if it could no longer help itself than it was unable to help the deserving souls that had been the purpose of its foundation.
Still, it has its enduring place in history because of the role that it played in bringing Crippen to justice.
Addendum
An interesting article on the Victorian/Edwardian Music Halls appeared in Harpers Magazine in 1891.
And here’s a 1908 article written from an American perspective.
And the rest of this site may also be of interest.
Many Music Hall Performers are listed in Wikipedia.
Others among its more famous stars include:
- Harry Lauder
- Little Tich
- Bud Flanagan
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