Bert Errol (born Isaac Whitehouse; 11 August 1883 – 28 November 1949) was a British singer and

female impersonator An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and males ...

, who was a popular entertainer in both Britain and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Life and career

Born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, he had a voice ranging from

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...

. From the age of 18, "Bert Errol", ''Wellcome Library''
Retrieved 5 March 2021 he worked in

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

s and concert parties, and in the all-male Harry Reynolds' Minstrels, before making his first London appearance in 1908, billed as "The Famous Male Soprano and Double-Voiced Vocalist".Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , pp.178-179 Anthony Slide, "Bert Errol", ''The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville'', University Press of Mississippi, 2012, p.161
/ref> His act included parodies of

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

stars, as well as invented personalities. He first visited the United States in 1910, when there was publicity over the fact that he had paid $1,000

customs duty A tariff or import tax is a duty imposed by a national government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods or raw materials and i ...

on his

gown A gown, from the Latin word, ''gunna'', is a usually loose outer garment from knee-to-full-length worn by people of both sexes in Europe from the Early Middle Ages to the 17th century, and continuing today in certain professions; later, the t ...

s, many of which he had bought from Henry Paget, the

Marquess of Anglesey Marquess of Anglesey is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, second in command to the Duke of Wellington. The Marquess holds the subsidiary ...

. He returned to the U.S. several times, receiving good reviews and touring on the Orpheum and Keith

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

circuits, and also toured Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. He was said to have a " Tetrazzini voice".Michael Kilgarriff, ''Grace, Beauty and Banjos: Peculiar Lives and Strange Times of Music Hall and Variety Artistes'', Oberon Books, 1998, , p.100 He always appeared with his wife, Ray Hartley, whom he presented on stage, "for fear of any suspicion of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

", and who assisted with his rapid changes of clothes. In later years, he developed the comedy side of his act, and became known in Britain for his performances as a

pantomime dame A pantomime dame is a traditional role in British pantomime. It is part of the theatrical tradition of '' travesti'' portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag. Dame characters are often played either in an extremely camp style, or el ...

. In 1935, he appeared in the

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

'' on

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, and was described as "one of the finest female impersonators of modern times, who must have played in nearly every music-hall in the country". ''Radio Times'', No. 638, 22 December 1935, p.96
/ref> He died in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

in 1949, aged 66.

References

External links

''Ringing the Changes''
Errol filmed in 1922, ''British Pathe'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Errol, Bert 1883 births 1949 deaths Female impersonators Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands

Life and career

References

Further reading

External links