Celebrity for the week ending
Saturday, 2 August 2003
Ida Barr (1882-1967)
English music hall comedienne and pantomime principal boy
Ida Barr when she was known as Maud Laverne
(photo: : Hana, London, probably 1906)
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Ida Barr, whose real name was Maud Barlow, was born at the Albany Street Barracks, Regents Park, London, on 17 January 1882, the daughter of a sergeant-major in the Life Guards. Unhappy under the eye of her dominating father, she quit home at the age of sixteen to make her stage debut in the chorus at the Theatre Royal, Belfast, in 1898. Known then as Maud Laverne, she remained in Ireland for six years, where her fine figure and robust style won her a loyal following, especially as a succession of principal boys in Christmas pantomimes. She married the music hall comedian Gus Harris (billed as 'The Only Yiddisher Scotsman in the Irish Fusiliers'), but the union did not survive her increasing professional popularity and the couple were eventually divorced. She returned to London about 1906 where she was the Sultan of Morocco in a pantomime at the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel. About this time, too, she made her first solo music hall appearance at the Middlesex, and shortly afterwards, in January 1908, she changed her name to Ida Barr for an engagement at the Bedford music hall, Camden Town. Her marriage over, she decided to start afresh by going in 1910 to the United States. In less that two years she was appearing successfully as 'The Ragtime Girl' in vaudeville in New York and on tour, when, among other songs of the moment, she featured Nat D. Ayer's hit, 'Oh, You Beautiful Doll.' From America she proceeded to South Africa and Australia before returning to London and a brief period, while the craze for ragtime persisted, of real success. At Christmas 1912, Ida Barr made her only appearance on the London West End stage, when she was given the part of Abdallah in the Lyceum Theatre pantomime, The Forty Thieves (26 December). 'Miss Barr’s fine figure and clearness of speech suggested the despotic robber chief, and though her song, "[Oh! You] Beautiful Doll," hardly fits the situation into which it is introduced, it has a pleasant and stimulating lilt, and follows the latest craze of rag-time.' (The Era, London, Saturday, 28 December 1912, p.15a). Other members of the cast included Johnnie Schofield, Little Zola, Scott and Whaley, Lily Long, Lily Maxwell, Lily Flexmore, Lily Gullick, and Daisy James as Ganem. |
Ida Barr
(photo: Relph & Co, Preston, England, circa 1912)
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Ida Barr's career subsequently foundered somewhat but she was not entirely forgotten. In 1936 she was given a small part in the film Happy Days Revue, starring Renee and Billie Houston. She subsequently appeared in two further films: a musical entitled Laugh it Off (1940) with Tommy Trinder, and the comedy Let the People Sing with Alistair Sim, Fred Emney (junior) and Patricia Roc. Towards the end of her life, Miss Barr was 'rediscovered' by the theatrical entrepreneur Daniel Farson who put her to work again with a number of other old favourites, including G.H. Elliot, Billy Danvers, Albert Whelan, Marie Lloyd Junior and Hetty King, at one of London's last surviving music halls, the Metropolitan, Edgware Road. In fact, she took part in the Metropolitan's last night show on 12 April 1963. The following January she was among the company at the Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, London, of Farson's short-lived entertainment, Nights at the Comedy. Ida Barr, who latterly lived in a modest flat overlooking London's Charing Cross Road around the corner from Leicester Square, died on 17 December 1967. Acknowledgements to Roy Busby, from whose book, British Music Hall, Paul Elek, London and New Hampshire, 1976, p.21, much of the above information is taken. |
Ida Barr in London on 13 February 1962, less than a month after her eightieth birthday,
with the English actress Diana Dors (1931-1984).
(photo: unknown, 1962)
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Ida Barr's memory has been resurrected recently by the comedian Chris Green: 'No mere drag act... To use dancefloor parlance, no one mashes up music hall and rap like Barr.' (Evening Standard, London); 'Hilarious but affectionate portrayal of a Music Hall veteran. Her updated hip-hop act must be heard to be believed!' (The Guardian, London). Green has taken his Ida Barr act to various comedy venues 'on the fringe,' including Edinburgh, and the Komedia Theatre, Brighton. * * * * * * * * |
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© John Culme, 2003