Nowadays, The Lion and Albert has largely drifted from popular awareness, its simpler, less sophisticated expression of entertainment having long since been deemed inadequate. But iconic art will always remain iconic art, and The Lion and Albert – for all its unapologetic anachronism – is just as hilarious today as it ever was. The simple nonsense of the poetic doggerel, the dated accent, the dead-pan delivery, are all absolutely classical in their own way. The circus ring is designed so it can be lowered into a pool of water to transform the arena into an artificial lake. This allows for spectacular and grand finales with dancing fountains. The Tower Circus is one of only four in the world that can do this.

In 1796, The Foudroyant had been Nelson’s flagship, 100 years later the 80 gun brute, described by Nelson as “the most perfect ship that ever swam on salt water”, had become a tourist attraction. It was anchored two miles out to sea, when it broke its moorings during a brutal storm. Find sources: "Marriott Edgar"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The piece pokes gentle fun at a number of Northern British stereotypes of the day. Being careful with their money. Dressing up on Sundays. Respect for authority. Understatement. Dour practicality, and a largely absent sense of humor. All encapsulated in a typically Vaudevillian piece of Theatre Of The Absurd. It was the second of fourteen piers designed by Eugenius Birch, and is the oldest remaining example of his work. The 500 metre long structure has been continually extended and developed through its lifetime. Theatres, shops and arcades have all been added as well as a landing jetty from which the pleasure steamers, Queen of the Bay and Clifton made excursions to the Lake District, Isle of Man, Llandudno, Southport and Liverpool. Craftsmen from Nice were enrolled to make papier-mâché heads and figures including mounted policemen.From the 1920’s through the 1950’s, one of the most popular English entertainers was Stanley Holloway, who carved out a niche for himself reciting comical poetic monologues in a northern working class accent, one of the last hurrahs of the old ‘Vaudeville’ music hall tradition. He went on to star in films and television on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as on the stage. Most of his famous monologues were written for him by the poet Marriott Edgar, who had worked with Holloway in a 1920’s stage revue called The Co-Optimists. By the 1960’s, few British households with one of those new-fangled record players did not have an LP of Stanley Holloway monologues. Wallace the lion at ravishingbeasts.com". Archived from the original on 21 February 2015 . Retrieved 25 November 2020. With its notorious westerly gales, almost every decade has yielded another victim. From The Travers in 1755 to the Riverdance ferry in 2008, many ships have been tossed onto the shores and left stranded in the sand.

Unfortunately, crowds of hooligans ruined the proceedings in 1924 and with the re-emergence of the illuminations the following year the carnival was never repeated.In 1892, the 667 ton Sirene smashed into the North Pier during a hurricane. Fortunately the 11 crew members all managed to jump onto the remaining structure safely.

Richard and Jenny Taylor's children were Alice Marriott Edgar (b. 1876, London), twins Richard and Jennifer Marriott Edgar (b. 1878, London), after whose births the family moved to Scotland, where George was born on 5 October 1880, [4] then returning to London, where Joseph Marriott Edgar was born in 1884 and Adeline Alice Edgar in 1886. The festivities included processions, dances and fancy dress competitions. With decorated floats constructed by the Tramways Department forming part of the hue parade. Marriott Edgar came from Scotland. He wrote quite a number of monologues for performance by Stanley Holloway. In fact, he wrote more of Holloway's monologues than Holloway did. (Holloway was renowned for his recordings of dramatic and comic monologues, and had a lengthy career as an actor as well - his most memorable role was as Alfred Dolittle in My Fair Lady.) The name of the lion (Wallace) is a reference to his illegitimate half-brother, Edgar Wallace, and has nothing to do with Wallis Simpson (a common misconception).The Lion and Albert has been performed many times by other entertainers and in 1991 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a series of programmes with well-known comedians performing Marriot’s monologues, including Thora Hird, Les Dawson, Roy Hudd, Bernie Clifton and Roy Castle. Holloway became a huge star of stage and screen in a career spanning 70 years. He is fondly remembered as a mainstay of the ‘Ealing’ comedies, and notably as Alfred P Doolittle in the screen version of My Fair Lady.

Although written as a performance piece, it counts as a poem as it's written in rhyme (and, more specifically, using a Northern English accent).Richard and Jane married in March 1875, with Richard being unaware that he had fathered an illegitimate namesake son, Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace, with widowed actress Mrs Mary Jane "Polly" Richards, after a brief sexual encounter. Polly, having invented an obligation in London to hide her pregnancy, gave birth in secret on 1 April 1875, almost a month after Richard and Jenny married. This son became the famous journalist, novelist, playwright and screenplay writer, Edgar Wallace. [2] For more than a century, the ring played host to some of the world’s greatest circus entertainers, but with an end to circus animals appearing at the venue, plans were drawn up for the closure of the historic attraction. However, a groundswell of public opinion helped ensure that the show would go on. The Lion and Albert and The Return of Albert have been translated into German under the titles Der Löwe und Albert and Albert kommt wieder, na klar! respectively. The Lion and Albert has been performed as a two-part song of eighteen verses to an Irish folk tune by Kathy Hampson's Free Elastic Band. kellyrfinemanMy grandfather on my mother's side was a great one for songs and stories and performance pieces. Years ago, I found a copy of this monologue by Marriott Edgar amongst his papers. I forgot about it until yesterday when Angela was reciting "My Friend Jim," which includes the line "tomatoes are soft and don't bruise the skin, but this one did - it was wrapped in a tin." Not that The Lion and Albert has anything to do with tomatoes, but there is a death played to comical effect.