Dolly Allen

Dolly was born at Wordsley Workhouse, which later formed the central building of Wordsley Hospital (pictured, 2003)

Dolly Allen was born Doris Evelyn Baugh at Wordsley Workhouse on 9 April 1906.[1] Her mother was a brickyard labourer who died ten days after the birth.[2] Renamed Dorothy by her adoptive parents William and Elizabeth Parker, Dolly grew up in the nearby town of Halesowen.[3]

Dolly later said that she loved performing from a young age, and as a child would dance in the street for travelling hurdy-gurdists. She would also entertain and sing to her friends, and she said that school staff would sometimes pay her a penny to sing to the other children. She later realised instead that she would "like to be funny".[2]

While working at Hackett Brothers' Nut and Bolt Works in Halesowen, Dolly met Leonard Allen, and in 1926 the pair wed at Stourbridge Register Office.[3] The first comedy routine that Dolly performed was in front of Hackett Brothers workers at their 1944 Christmas party.[4]

Dolly performed her comedy routine from the 1950s,[2] through the 1960s and 1970s at shows and in clubs around the Black Country area of the UK, while continuing to work as a cleaner after leaving Hackett Brothers. In 1975, when Dolly was 69, local promoter and host of A Black Country Night Out comedy show Ray Hingley invited her to join the show. An "instant hit" and a "big part" of the show, Dolly appeared with the group at venues over the next few years. Television and radio appearances followed,[3] and Dolly performed on three comedy albums with the Black Country Night Out team from 1976 to 1978.[5] Dolly also continued to perform in pubs and clubs as a solo act,[2] and in 1978 recorded a self-titled solo comedy album.[5] That year, she also toured Spanish Black Country expatriate communities with A Black Country Night Out.[3]

Dolly was described by herself and others as shy when not on-stage, and the stories she told often featured her sister Fanny rather than herself.[2] Ray Hingley said of her, "Off-stage Dolly was a quiet person. She used to sit in silence in my car on the way to shows—and would never tell us how old she was."[3]

Dolly's opening catchphrase of "Hello, my luvvers" was just one part of her distinctive act. She also performed wearing a threadbare hat with a turkey feather sticking out the top. Dolly said she had performed in it since the 1950s after being gifted it by a friend; the hat had belonged to the friend's mother-in-law, who had recently died. Dolly obtained the feather from a turkey at a workplace social night and added it to the hat herself. As part of a profile of Dolly in 1976, Peter Green of current affairs TV show ATV Today called the addition of the hat a "turning point" in the evolution of her act.[2]

With her "doleful expression"[6] and "deadpan, timeless" delivery,[3] Dolly was described as "the funniest woman in the Black Country—a teller of stories that reflect the rather macabre humour Black Country folk find in the unlikeliest situations".[2]

Dolly died aged 84 on 25 June 1990.[1] On 22 June 2008 Dudley Council erected a blue plaque in her honour at Brierley Hill Civic Hall.[3] The unveiling was accompanied by a charity tribute show at the hall organised by fellow entertainers and former colleagues.[6]

Albums

• Black Country Night Out – Volume One – Broadside Records – 1976
• Black Country Night Out – Volume Two – Broadside Records – 1977
• An Evening With The Original Black Country Night Out Show – Broadside Records – 1978
• Dolly Allen – Broadside Records – 1978

Singles

• The Black Country Christmas Song – Beeswing Records, Zella Recording – 1979