Bert Errol

Bert Errol (born Isaac Whitehouse; 11 August 1883 – 28 November 1949) was a British singer and female impersonator, who was a popular entertainer in both Britain and the United States.

Bert Errol
c. 1930
Born
Isaac Whitehouse

(1883-08-11)11 August 1883
Birmingham, England
Died28 November 1949(1949-11-28) (aged 66)
Brighton, Sussex, England
Occupation(s)Singer, female impersonator, entertainer
Years active1901–1940s

Life and career

Born in Birmingham, he had a voice ranging from tenor to falsetto.[1] From the age of 18,[2] he worked in music halls and concert parties, and in the all-male Harry Reynolds' Minstrels,[3] before making his first London appearance in 1908, billed as "The Famous Male Soprano and Double-Voiced Vocalist".[1][4] His act included parodies of musical comedy stars,[1] as well as invented personalities.[2]

He first visited the United States in 1910, when there was publicity over the fact that he had paid $1,000 customs duty on his gowns, many of which he had bought from Henry Paget, the Marquess of Anglesey. He returned to the U.S. several times, receiving good reviews and touring on the Orpheum and Keith vaudeville circuits,[4] and also toured Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.[1][2] He was said to have a "Tetrazzini voice".[3] He always appeared with his wife, Ray Hartley, whom he presented on stage, "for fear of any suspicion of homosexuality",[4] and who assisted with his rapid changes of clothes.[2]

In later years, he developed the comedy side of his act, and became known in Britain for his performances as a pantomime dame.[4] In 1935, he appeared in the pantomime Cinderella on BBC radio, and was described as "one of the finest female impersonators of modern times, who must have played in nearly every music-hall in the country".[5]

He died in Brighton in 1949, aged 66.[1]

References
  1. Richard Anthony Baker, British Music Hall: an illustrated history, Pen & Sword, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78383-118-0, pp.178-179
  2. "Bert Errol", Wellcome Library. Retrieved 5 March 2021
  3. Michael Kilgarriff, Grace, Beauty and Banjos: Peculiar Lives and Strange Times of Music Hall and Variety Artistes, Oberon Books, 1998, ISBN 1-84002-116-0, p.100
  4. Anthony Slide, "Bert Errol", The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville, University Press of Mississippi, 2012, p.161
  5. Radio Times, No. 638, 22 December 1935, p.96

Further reading

Sculthorpe, Derek The Lost World of Music Hall (2021) Bear Manor Media ISBN 978-1-62933-802-6

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