Fannie Leslie
Born
Fanny Catherine Annesley

(1856-06-13)13 June 1856
Soho, London, England
Died8 February 1935(1935-02-08) (aged 78)
London
Occupation(s)Music hall singer, dancer, actress
Years active1872–1905

Fannie Leslie (born Fanny Catherine Annesley, 13 June 1856 – 8 February 1935) was an English music hall singer, dancer and actress.

Life and career

She was born in Soho, the daughter of a solicitor. She spent time in the United States as a child, and first performed on stage there in 1872. After returning to England and appearing in London and Oxford the following year, she played in the United States in 1875, as a dancer in Lydia Thompson's Burlesque Troupe in Broadway shows.[1]

After returning to England, she married theatre and music hall manager Walter Gooch (1850–1899) in 1878, and appeared in plays under his management at the Princess's Theatre.[1] She developed as a serio-comic performer, both in music halls and on the theatre stage, styling herself as 'The Queen of Burlesque'.[2] Among her songs were "The Little Pirate of the Nore",[3] and "The Nineteenth Century Boys", a "masher" song which she performed dressed as a man.[2] In 1888, she featured in F. C. Burnand's burlesque play The Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan, playing opposite Dan Leno.[4] She also regularly performed in pantomimes, as a principal boy,[5] and is credited with introducing cartwheels onto the stage in 1893.[6]

She and Gooch divorced in 1891, and in 1902 she married William Charles Broughton Wilson (1873–1949). She retired from the stage in about 1905, and died in 1935.[3] In 2016, her gravestone in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery was restored by the Music Hall Guild.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Busby, Roy (1976). British Music Hall: An Illustrated Who's Who from 1850 to the Present Day. London: Paul Elek. p. 104. ISBN 0-236-40053-3.
  2. 1 2 Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, British Music Hall: A story in pictures, Studio Vista, 1965, p.94
  3. 1 2 "Fannie Leslie, ‘The Little Pirate of the Nore’", Footlight Notes, 3 July 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2020
  4. ↑ Barry Anthony, The King's Jester: The Life of Dan Leno, Victorian Comic Genius, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010, p.78
  5. 1 2 "The Grave of Actress and Pantomime Star Fannie Leslie is Restored", Music Hall Guild Archived 18 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 September 2020
  6. ↑ Andrew Horrall, Popular Culture in London C.1890-1918: The Transformation of Entertainment, Manchester University Press, 2001, p.16


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