Maidie Scott (born Mary Elizabeth Pim; 21 September 1881 – 28 July 1966) was an Irish-born singer, comedienne and

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 ...

performer.

Life and career

She was born in

Mountmellick Mountmellick or Mountmellic () is a town in the north of County Laois, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is on the N80 road (Ireland), N80 road, 6 km north of Portlaoise. The town is within Mountmellick (parish), Mountmellick Roman Catholic p ...

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

, Ireland, and moved with her parents and siblings to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, when she was a child. She soon began touring as a stage performer, and under the name Madie Doris Pim married Alfred Scott Dodd in 1900. Sam Beale, ''The Comedy and Legacy of Music-Hall Women 1880-1920: Brazen Impudence and Boisterous Vulgarity'', Springer, 2020
/ref> By 1904 she was known professionally as Maidie Scott. One reviewer in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

described her performance that year in the

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, ...

''The Girl from Japan'' as: "delightfully dainty and demure... heholds the hearts of all the male members of the audience in willing thralldom... Her songs... are rendered with vocal skill and sweetness which make an audience turbulent for encores... s a dancerher marked originality, graceful and artistic movements proclaim her as an artiste of high attainments." Her popularity extended to the United States, where she made her first appearance in 1908. Among her most successful songs were "Everybody Works But Father" (first published in 1905), "The Bird on Nellie's Hat" (1907), "If the Wind Had Only Blown the Other Way" (1909), and "If the Managers Only Thought the Same as Mother" (1910). The writer

W. L. George Walter Lionel George (20 March 1882, Paris, France – 30 January 1926) was an English writer, chiefly known for his popular fiction, which included feminism, feminist, pacifism, pacifist, and Labour movement, pro-labour themes. Life Although b ...

, in ''A London Mosaic: London in the early 1900s'', described Scott as "the most finished product on the music-halls of today". In 1913, she and her husband, a variety agent, divorced in a well-publicised case. She married John Francis MacGregor, a

stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...

, and lived on Magna Carta Island in the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

Runnymede Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, bordering Berkshire and just over west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with ...

. She remained a popular performer, appearing with

Gaby Deslys Gaby Deslys (born Marie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire, 4 November 1881 – 11 February 1920) was a French singer and actress during the early 20th century. She selected her name for her stage career, and it is a contraction of ''Gabrielle of the Lil ...

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pre ...

in 1915, when she was described as "one of the daintiest, cleverest, and most winsome comediennes on the stage". She also recorded several of her most popular songs, for the

Zonophone Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman's Universal Talk ...

label in 1912, and

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...

in 1915."Nellie Wallace & Maidie Scott: '' Mother's Advice''", ''Windyridge'' CD liner notes
Retrieved 13 April 2021 After having two children, she continued to tour, and in Australia in 1925 was described as one of "the small coterie of vaudeville 'stars' whose name is well known outside

the Old Country ''The Old Country'' is a 1921 British silent drama film directed by A. V. Bramble and starring Gerald McCarthy, Kathleen Vaughan and Haidee Wright. It adapts a play by Dion Clayton Calthrop (same year, same title). The play was adapted by ...

." "Miss Maidie Scott", ''The Brisbane Courier'', 13 January 1925, p.11
/ref> Following a second divorce, she married Noel Robertson in 1927. She retired from the stage, and the couple emigrated to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Her husband died in 1960, and she died in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

in 1966, aged 84.

References

External links

Film of Scott
at Magna Carta Island, 1920s * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Maidie 1881 births 1966 deaths English women comedians English women singers British music hall performers Irish music hall performers People from Mountmellick Irish vaudeville performers British emigrants to South Africa