Harry Hemsley

Harry May Hemsley (14 December 1877 – 5 April 1951) was an English music hall and radio comedian. He is best known as the host of the popular radio show Ovaltiney's Concert Party on Radio Luxembourg.[1] He was also active as a cartoonist.[2]

Youth

Harry Hemsley was born in 1877 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.[3] He started acting at age eight, when his father, a scenic artist, had him perform on stage. In the 1890s, he was a cartoonist for the British comics magazine Ally Sloper's Half Holiday.[2][3] He performed as bass-baritone singer in the minstrel show White Coons. In 1905, Hemsley started acting in the music hall stage show The Follies with his familiar act of impersonating children's voices.[4] He did this by covering his mouth with a book, newspaper or just his hand to signal a transition. His imitations were so spot-on that later, when he went on radio, many listeners were fooled.[4][5] He also did celebrity voice impressions, among them of actor Wilson Barrett.[5]

Radio

In December 1934, Hemsley presented the weekly radio show Ovaltiney's Concert Party on Radio Luxembourg, a show which ran until the outbreak of World War II in September 1939.[4] The show featured Hemsley in a series of sketches where he impersonated "his" four children Johnny, Elsie, Winnie and baby Horace, in varying falsetto voices in comic dialogues with Hemsley as "daddy". The fourth child, the baby Horace, was perpetually unintelligible, and had to be interpreted by his elder sister Winnie. This led to Hemsley's familiar catchphrase: "What did Horace say, ...?" [6][7][8] The fictional family featured on Ovaltiney's Concert Party on Radio Luxembourg from 1934 to 1939.

The show was so popular at the time that it spawned a comic magazine, in which comics based on the radio characters were drawn by Harry Hemsley[9] and S. K. Perkins.[10] In 1940, Hemsley also made an animated commercial with his characters.[2]

Later career

After World War II, Hemsley made other radio shows like Old Hearty (1947) and Hemsley's Hotel (1949). He lived long enough to appear on early television.[9]

Death

He died in April 1951, at the age of 73.[5]

References
  1. Street, Seán (4 August 2009). The a to Z of British Radio. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810870130.
  2. "Harry Hemsley". Lambiek.net. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  3. "Harry Hemsley - vintagebritishcomedy". Archived from the original on 28 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  4. Waters, Michael (20 June 2017). "The 'Child Impersonator' Who Voiced a Whole Family of Young Characters". Atlasobscura.com. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  5. "Harry Hemsley - vintagebritishcomedy". Archived from the original on 28 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  6. Karl Williams 2015 Vintage British Comedy - Harry Hemsley Archived 28 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Stanbutler5.moonfruit.com
  7. Eric Partridge A Dictionary of Catch Phrases 2003 - ISBN 1134929994 Page 511 "What did Horace say, ... comes 'from Harry Hemsley's music-hall turn in the 1940s, in which he 'did' the voice of a whole family of children, the ..."
  8. Theatrephile Issues 5-8 -1984 p 60 "Hemsley's imaginary family began with two, grew to three, and trihumphed finally with four, with the birth of his crowning achievement, Baby Horace. ... hearts out, on would come Harry Hemsley with this week's adventure of Elsie, Winnie and Johnny (interrupted only by the Secret ... and translated into English by little Winnie, thus giving the listening world the famous catchphrase, 'What did Horace say?"
  9. Street, Seán (4 August 2009). The a to Z of British Radio. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810870130.
  10. "S. K. Perkins". Lambiek.net. Retrieved 4 September 2020.

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