Marie Lloyd

She was a musical theatre actress, an English music hall singer and a comedian. For her use of innuendo and double entendre during her performances, she would receive both criticism and praise. She was affectionately called the “Queen of the Music Hall”.

She was Marie Lloyd.

Matilda Alice Victoria Wood was born on 12th February, 1870, in Hoxton, London. John Wood, her father (1847-1940), was an artificial flower arranger and waiter. Her mother, Matilda Mary Cardine nee Archer (1849-1931), was a dressmaker and costume designer. Marie was the eldest of nine children and became known by her family nickname as Tilley. The family was a respectable and hard-working family, which was financially comfortable. Marie would often listen to her mother, taking advice on her ‘career’, possibly because her mother strongly influenced the family. She attended a school in Bath Street, London, but often played truant because she disliked formal education.

With both parents out at work, Marie was ‘mother’ to her younger siblings, keeping them clean, well-cared for and ‘entertained’. Marie, with her sister Alice, arranged events in which the ‘Wood children’ performed at home. She enjoyed entertaining her family, and formed a Minstrel act in 1879, calling it the “Fairy Bell Troupe”. The whole troupe consisted of all of the Wood children.

The troupe made their debut in 1880, at a mission in Nile Street, Hoxton. This was followed by an appearance at the Blue Ribbon Gospel Temperance Mission. Matilda, Marie’s mother, created costumes for her children, and they toured the local doss-houses in East London. In these places they would perform temperance songs, teaching about the dangers of alcohol abuse. Proud of his daughter and eager to show her off, John secured his daughter unpaid employment as a ‘table singer’ at the Eagle Tavern in Hoxton, where he worked as a waiter. Unfortunately, Marie was sacked for dancing on the tables. Returning home that evening, Marie announced that she wanted a permanent career on the stage. Her parents were, at first, opposed to their eldest daughter appearing on the stage full-time. However, Marie recalled that when her mother and father: “saw that they couldn’t kick their objections as high as she could kick her legs, they very sensibly came to the conclusion to let things take their course and said ‘Bless you my child, do what you like’”.

At 15 years of age, Marie made her professional solo stage debut on 9th May, 1885, at the Grecian Music Hall under the name Matilda Wood. Her performance earned her more bookings at other music halls, and Marie changed her name to “Bella Delmere”, and she would perform wearing costumes designed by her mother. Even though Marie was a great success, an injunction was threatened against her because the young singer was using other artists’ songs — without their performance.

Marie appeared at several music halls until she eventually met George Ware, who was a prolific composer of music hall songs. Ware became her agent in 1886, and it was at this time that Ware suggested that she change her name to “Marie” because it ‘posh’ and ‘slightly French’, and “Lloyd” was taken from from an edition of Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper. The star we know was ‘born’ => “Marie Lloyd”.

Starting from 22nd June, 1886, Marie Lloyd became established, singing “The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery” throughout several music halls. Marie now made her own costumes, a skill she had learned from her mother and which she used for the rest of her career. In 1886, Marie undertook a month-long tour of Ireland, earning £10 per week (the equivalent of over £1,000 today), after which she went back to East London to perform at (among others) Sebright Music Hall, Bethnal Green. The Era called marie: “a pretty little soubrette who dances with great dash and energy”. (23rd October, 1886.)

Marie was now playing several music halls a night and earning £100 per week (the equivalent of £15,000 in today’s money). With this money, the rising star could now afford new songs from established music hall composers and writers. These songs included “Henry’s A Soldier”, “She Has ASailor for a Lover”, and “Oh Jeremiah, Don’t You Go To Sea”.

By 1887, Marie discovered she had a talent for ‘ad lib’ and this gave her the reputation for impromptu performances. It was at this time that Marie first sang “Whacky-Whack” and “When You Wink the Other Eye”, which introduced her famous wink to the audience. The West End audiences enjoyed Marie’s coarse humour, but the East End audiences were not impressed.

Marie started a relationship with Percy Courtenay, who was a ticket tout, and the young couple married. At the young age of 17, Marie found herself married with a baby on the way. She soon found out that her new husband was a violent drunk, as well as having a gambling problem and being extremely jealous of Marie’s friends, one in particular being Bella Burge, who was a 13 year old actress who rented a room in the marital house. Returning from maternity leave in October 1888, Marie joined rehearsals for the 1888-1889 pantomime ‘The Magic Dragon of the Demon Dell’ or ‘The Search for the Mystic Thyme’, where she was cast as Princess Kristina. This gave Marie the experience she needed to play to large audiences. After several more engagements, Marie gave birth to a stillborn child in 1889, which further damaged her marriage. Within six years of getting married, the couple started to live apart.

Marie’s relaxed style of singing delighted audiences as she sang the sort of songs that ‘ordinary’ people understood about booze and the bailiffs. She understood that these people lived difficult lives, and Marie wanted to offer them escapism. All of this at the age of 21.

At the height of her fame, Marie toured the world, visiting such countries as South Africa, Australia and America. During this time, Marie remarried, improving her personal life. Alex Hurley was a professional singer, kind, steady and deeply supportive of his successful wife. Unusually for that time, the couple lived together before they got married.

In 1907, the Music Hall Strike showed a ‘discontentment’ between performers and theatre managers. Although Marie was now a multi-millionairess and could ‘command her own terms’, she stood up for her fellow performers and supported them, throwing herself into the strike, acting as a picket for the strikers and giving generously to the strike fund. She would perform on the picket lines, hoping to raise the spirits of her fellow strikers. The dispute ended the same year with a resolution broadly favouring the performers. In 1909, The Courier noted of Marie: “Her bright smile and fascinating presence has much to do with her popularity, while her songs are of the catching style, perhaps not what a Dundee audience is familiar with, but still amusing and of an attractive style”.

By 1910, her marriage was breaking up and Marie started an affair with Bernard Dillon, who was the winner of the 1910 Derby. However, Dillon’s success was short-lived and he was expelled from the Jockey Club for his dubious and unlawful dealings. He was in financial debt and became jealous of Marie’s success. Depression led him to drink and to become obese, and then Dillon started to abuse Marie. Her lawful husband, Hurley, initiated divorce proceedings and Marie left the marital home, moving to Golders Green with Dillon: “the worst thing she ever did”.

Marie’s ‘fame’ started to go downhill. In 1912, she was left out of the first-ever Royal Command Performance, and even though Marie staged her own show at the London Pavilion, the damage was done.

In 1913, Marie and Dillon embarked on a six month tour of America. They travelled across the Atlantic on RMS Olympic (the Titanic’s sister ship). Once docked, Marie and Dillon were barred from disembarking and were accused of “moral turpitude” because the couple were not married. After much humiliation, they were allowed into America but they had to stay in separate hotels.

It was during the tour that Alex Hurley died, and Marie and Dillon finally got married. However, this third marriage was no better than the other two, because Dillon had lost his Jockey licence and he began to drink heavily and became violent towards Marie, who herself started to drink as a ‘coping mechanism’.

As her marriage deteriorated, so did Marie’s health. Being now in her early 50s, Marie suffered with arthritic pain, stomach pains as well as having mental health problems. Four nights before Marie died, she collapsed on stage at the Alhambra Theatre. Returning home, Marie died of heart and kidney failure (in 1922).

At the time of her death, Marie was penniless, and her estate, which was worth £7,334 (in 1922 £100 was equivalent to £7,121.29 in today’s money), was used to pay off the debt that she and Dillon had built up. Announcing Marie Lloyd’s death, The Times wrote: “In her the public loses not only a vivid personality whose range and extremely broad humour as a character actress was extraordinary, but also one of the few remaining links with the old music-hall stage of the last century”.

T.A.Eliot claimed: “Among the small number of music-hall performers, whose names are familiar to what is called the lower class, Marie Lloyd had by far the strongest hold on popular affection”.