A Reminiscence of Arthur Lloyd - From the ERA 1904 Part two

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The Era 'Reminiscence' Continued

...Several years later, owing to throat trouble, Arthur Lloyd had to give up singing and, therefore procured a three year lease of the Queen’s, which he opened as a music hall on May 3rd 1871, (This date appears to be incorrect and the actual year should be 1874 See here. M.L.) Lloyds’ first Clara and Wybert Rousby pantomime being Jack and the Bean Stalk by Frank Green, afterwards producing two others, the last of the trio being a financial failure owing to the colossal success of the first production of The Shaughraun at the Gaiety Theatre. During his lesseeship of the Queen’s he engaged many well known actors, including Chas Sillivan, who often said that Lloyd was the man who was the cause of his popularity, Johnny Dallas, the M’Carthy Family, T. C. King, the talented tragedian, John Billington, Tom Glenny, Joseph Eldred, Mrs Rousby, besides many of the best music hall artists of the time.

Above left - Clara and Wybert Rousby - ‘Conceive, ye pitiable beings who have not yet seen the original of our description, an actress possessing a charming presence - a fascinating manner - a voice clear, sweet, and resonant as marriage bells - wondrous power of pouring forth silvery peals of refreshingly natural laughter, and a graceful and unaffected style of acting - then you will have some idea of Mrs Rousby.’
The Era, London, Sunday, 8 October 1876 - Courtesy John Culme.

Another speculation of Arthur Lloyd was the proprietorship of the Shakespeare music hall Glasgow, which he opened on Oct 10 1881, (See Poster Right) but after a season of fourteen weeks he was compelled to close to lack of support.

The poster Right is from a large collection of original Lloyd Posters collected since the mid 1800s by members of the family and found recently after being lost for 50 years. To see all these posters click the Poster Index here...

“The Great Arthur Lloyd” was the first music hall artiste who ever appeared before royalty. This was about 1868, Jolly Nash and himself were engaged to appear before the Prince of Wales, now our King, and a select company of noblemen.

Of Mr Lloyd’s later engagements it is unnecessary to say more than that he has been appearing for several years with his sons and daughters in popular little sketches written by himself, and altogether of a different class to those of the present time. Concerning sketches, they were, according to our old friend, not at all the same in the old days - the early days of the music hall - as they are now. There was about fifteen or twenty minutes dialogue, with a musical finale, consisting of a verseand chorus of some popular song parodied to suite the sketch. All that was required as a rule for those little playlets was an interior scene, a table, and two chairs. To have asked for anything more in the shape of furniture would have struck the manager dumb with astonishment. As to salaries, they also were in the heyday of Arthur Lloyd’s popularity vastly different to what they are today. The highest salary he ever received in town was £15, at the London Pavilion; while his average salary, “star” though he was, was £7, £8, or £10, but, of course, it was not so in the country—there he used to receive £60 and more a-week.

Above - Review for Arthur Lloyd's children in 'The Twin Sisters' 1906
Click to see posters for this production at the Crouch End Hippodrome 1907

Although Arthur Lloyd will ever be remembered as a comedian of the highest order, yet it should not be forgotten that he was more—he was a clever and versatile author of pantomime, sketches, trios, (see above) duets, and other songs. Upwards of 1,000 of the latter did he write, and it would therefor be impossible to enumerate a tithe of them, but a few of the most popular, some of which have become veritable bywords, must be recorded. "Not For Joe",” perhaps heads the list; but “Take it Bob,” “The Postman,” “I fancy I can see her now,” “I vowed I never would leave her,” “One more polka,” “It’s the sort of thing we read about,” “Immensikoff,” “At it again,” were all the talk of the town in the days gone by. Referring to these songs, several of those Lloyd used to sing were written by the late G. W. Hunt, who was introduced to him at the Philharmonic soon after his arrival in London. “Who’s for the bank?” “The German Band,” "The Organ Grinder," “Somebody’s Luggage,” and “The Ballet Girl” were all from the pen of Mr Hunt.

In 1863 Arthur Lloyd wrote and composed “Song of Songs,” the idea being suggested to him by reading on the back of a sheet of music a list of the popular songs. It proved a sensational success, thousands of copies being sold and the publishers reaped handsome profit by the sale.

In 1867 he wrote and composed another big hit with the public, Not for Joe. The title of this suggested itself to him in the following manner. “On a very wet night I jumped into a bus at Holborn. The conductor was standing on his perch, talking over the top of the bus to the driver. Every now and then, in answer to some remark of the latter, I heard the conductor reply. ‘Not me, not for Joe.’ This caught my fancy and before I left the bus I had the chorus and melody complete.”

“Going to the Derby” is another of Lloyd’s compositions, which, as he did not care for it himself, he gave to Mr J. W. Rowley, whose success with it is, of course, known the world over.

Arthur Lloyd married, in 1871, Katty King, the daughter of the tragedian, T. C. King, and she used to appear with him on his concert tours. After an illness of several months Mrs Lloyd died in 1891. She was a clever actress and a loving wife and mother, and her memory is still revered by her children, Annie, Harry, Katty, Lillie, Arthur, and Dulcie. At the time of his death Mr Lloyd was busy completing a work of reminiscences of the many famous and notable persons of all ranks of life whom he had met. (If you have any information on the whereabouts of this work, please contact me. M.L.)

Even if some of the younger generation do not remember Arthur Lloyd, there are thousands throughout the British Isles to whom he is more than a name, who will recall many a merry laugh they had listening to his clever comicalities, and who will utter a passing sigh when they read of the death of one who in his day was at the head of his profession, a popular man, and a straightforward one to boot. Page one...

The images on this page are from a painting by Walter Lambert, held at The Museum Of London in which an imaginary gathering of all the music hall performers of the time is held on the Strand, near Waterloo bridge.