Bud Flanagan
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| Bud Flanagan | ||
| Background information | ||
| Birth name: | Chaim Reuven Weintrop | |
| Date of birth: | 14th October 1896 | |
|---|---|---|
| Birth location: | Whitechapel, London | |
| Date of death: | 20th October 1968 | |
| Death location: | Sydenham, London | |
| Other names: | Robert Winthrop | |
| Genres: | Music hall comedy double act | |
| Spouse(s): | Ann "Curley" Quinn | |
Bud Flanagan (14th October 1896 – 20th October 1968) was a popular English wartime entertainer, born Chaim Reuven Weintrop in Whitechapel, in the East End of London.
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[edit] Early life
His parents, Wolf and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop were Polish Jews who fled to London as a result of Eastern European pogroms, shortly before Flanagan was born. They owned a barber shop and tobacconist in Whitechapel. Flanagan attended school in Petticoat Lane, and by the age of 10 was working as call-boy at the Cambridge Music Hall. In 1908, he made his début in a talent contest at the London Music Hall in Shoreditch, performing conjuring tricks as Fargo, The Boy Wizard.
In 1910, he sailed with the SS Majestic to New York, where he had a variety of jobs before returning to England in 1915 and joining the Royal Field Artillery, in France. Here he met the unpopular Sergeant-Major from whom he later adopted his stage name. In 1919, he formed a comedy double act, Flanagan and Roy.
He met his wife Anne, daughter of Irish comedian Johnny Quinn, (The Singing Clown), and in 1926 their son Buddy was born.
[edit] Career
He is best known as part of a double act with Chesney Allen, Flanagan and Allen. They first met in 1926, touring with a Florrie Forde show. They established a reputation and were booked by Val Parnell at the Holborn Empire. As music hall comedians, they would often feature a mixture of comedy and music in their act and this led to a successful recording career as a duo and roles in film and television. Flanagan and Allen were both also members of The Crazy Gang, appearing in the first show at the London Palladium in 1931, and continued to work with the group, concurrently with their double-act career.
Flanagan and Allen's songs featured the same, usually gentle humour for which the duo were known in their live performances, and during the Second World War reflected the experiences of ordinary people during wartime. Songs like We're Going To Hang Out The Washing On The Siegfried Line mocked the German defences (Siegfried Line), while others like Miss You sang of missing one's sweetheart during enforced absences. Other songs such as their most famous Underneath the Arches (which Flanagan co-wrote with Reg Connelly) had universal themes such as friendship, which again, helped people relate to the subject matter. The music was usually melodic, following a binary verse, verse chorus structure, with a small dance band or orchestra providing the backing. The vocals were distinctive because while Flanagan was at least a competent singer and sang the melody lines, Allen used an almost spoken delivery to provide the harmonies.
Flanagan and Allen stopped working together with Chesney Allen's retirement on health grounds in the 1960s but Flanagan continued working until his death. His last recording was Jimmy Perry's Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler, recorded shortly before he died in 1968, which was the theme to the British sitcom series Dad's Army. The song was a deliberate pastiche of the sort of songs Flanagan had sung during the war and, being so nostalgic, was very popular with the public.
