Gertie Gitana (born Gertrude Mary Astbury; 27 December 1887 – 5 January 1957) was an English music hall entertainer.

Biography

She was born in Shirley Street, Longport,

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

.Did you know? - Gertie Gitana was born in Stoke-on-Trent?
thepotteries.org Her father was a pottery works foreman and her mother Lavinia managed a shop.Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, , pp.251-254 When she was three, the family moved to Frederic Street in nearby

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been th ...

. She was a member of Tomkinson's "Royal Gipsy Children" at the age of four, performing on local stages; ''gitana'' is Spanish (and Italian) for "Gipsy girl". She made her solo professional debut in 1896 at the age of eight on the stage of The Tivoli in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 202 ...

. Two years later at the age of ten she had a significant billing at The Argyle in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; Historic counties of England, historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the R ...

, and her first

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

appearance was in 1900. On account of her petite form and supposed Gipsy origins, she was sometimes billed as "The Staffordshire Cinderella". By the age of 15, she was earning over £100 per week, more than her father earned in a year. At the age of 17, she topped the bill for the first time at The Ardwick Empire at

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. As well as singing, she entertained by

tap dancing Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perf ...

yodelling Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from th ...

, and playing the

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

. Her music hall repertoire included "A Schoolgirl's Holiday", "We've been chums for fifty years", "When the Harvest Moon is Shining", "Silver Bell", "You do Look Well in Your Old Dutch Bonnet", "Queen of the Cannibal Isles", "Never Mind", "When I see the Lovelight Gleaming", and especially "

Nellie Dean "(You're My Heart's Desire, I Love You) Nellie Dean" is a sentimental ballad in common time by Henry W. Armstrong, published in 1905 by M. Witmark & Sons of New York City. The original sheet music is scored in B-flat major for voice and piano ...

" - written by Henry W. Armstrong - which an audience first heard her sing in 1907. "Nellie Dean", which was a song her brother had heard while in the United States, was an instant success and became her '

signature tune A signature song is the one song (or, in some cases, one of a few songs) that a popular and well-established recording artist or band is most closely identified with or best known for. This is generally differentiated from a one-hit wonder in th ...

'. Her first gramophone recordings, dating from 1911–1913, were made in London on the

Jumbo Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and ...

label. During the 1914–18 war she was the Forces' sweetheart and often entertained the war wounded in hospitals. In her prime, her name was always sufficient to ensure a full house. After the war, she appeared in

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

, notably as

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Broth ...

, and

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

. She was reputed to have said the line in ''Cinderella'', "Here I sit, all alone/ I think I'll play my saxophone", before removing it from the stage chimney and playing it.Roy Hudd and Philip Hindin, ''Roy Hudd's Cavalcade of Variety Acts'', Robson Books, 1998, , p.24 Two musical shows were specially written for her: ''Nellie Dean'' and ''Dear Louise'', and in 1928 she married her leading man in the latter, Don Ross. She retired in 1938 but made a very successful comeback ten years later with other "old timers" in the show ''Thanks for the Memory'' produced by her husband. The show was the centrepiece of the

Royal Command Performance A Royal Command Performance is any performance by actors or musicians that occurs at the direction or request of a reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Although English monarchs have long sponsored their own theatrical companies and commis ...

in 1948. Her final appearance was on 2 December 1950 at the Empress Theatre,

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th centu ...

. She died of cancer on 5 January 1957 in Hampstead, London, aged 69, and is buried in Wigston Cemetery on Welford Rd, Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, which was her husband's birthplace. Some lines of the song "Nellie Dean" are engraved on the gravestone.

Legacy

In the early 1950s, Frederic Street in

, Stoke-on-Trent, was renamed Gitana Street in her honour; the street leads to the rear of the Theatre Royal in Hanley and the public house now called The Stage Door (at the corner of Gitana Street) was at one time called The Gertie Gitana and it still has her portrait over the door. Her name continues at Gitana's, a public house in Hartshill Road, Stoke-on-Trent. A bench on Edinburgh's Prince Street Gardens has been named in her honour. The inscription reads "A Loving Remembrance of Gertie Gitana Music Hall Artiste" followed by the lyrics "There's An Old Mill By The Stream Nelly Dean". (Note the incorrect spelling of "Nellie".) Her London memorial — "The Nellie Dean" at the corner of

Dean Street Dean Street is a street in Soho, central London, running from Oxford Street south to Shaftesbury Avenue. Historical figures and places In 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then a young boy, gave a recital at 21 Dean Street. Admiral Nelson stay ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

(renamed thus in her honour) — at one time had a shrine of her stage memorabilia. In

Cockney rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymin ...

, Gertie Gitana means a banana.

References

External links

The Potteries - Gertie Gitana - Report and photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gitana, Gertie 1887 births 1957 deaths People from Longport, Staffordshire Music hall performers 20th-century English singers 20th-century English women singers