FOOTLIGHT NOTES
HAND MADE GREETINGS CARDS
Albert Chevalier (1861-1923)
Albert Chevalier, a well-known English character actor, made his first music hall appearance at the London Pavilion on 5 February 1891. He had already essayed Cockney types in the theatre, but this marked his debut with songs and patter aimed at pleasing a wider audience. With two songs on that occasion, 'The Coster Serenade' and 'The Nasty Way 'e Sez It,' he was hailed an immediate hit. He subsequently alternated between the legitimate theatre and the variety stage for many years, adding a number of song monologues which became classic examples of British music hall tragi-comedy. These included 'My Old Dutch,' 'Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road,' 'The Future Mrs. 'awkins,' 'Our Little Nipper' and 'The Fallen Star.' It is in the guise of 'The Fallen Star' - a once popular actor in melodramas at the Old Vic, who has fallen from pubic notice - that he appears in the photograph we have chosen for this card.
Albert Chevalier recorded 'The Fallen Star' for the HMV label in London on 14 September 1911. In 1916 he developed the story for a Hepworth film of the same name in which he appeared as the fictitious old actor Harry Belvedere, together with Janet Alexander, Harry Brett and Florence Hunter ('Baby Twinkles').
* * * * * * * *
© John Culme, 2006
English character actor, comedian and writer