Hetty King

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For other uses, see Hetty King (disambiguation).
Hetty King

1910 sheet music cover
Background information
Birth name(s): Winifred Emms
Date of birth: April 4, 1883(1883-04-04)
Birth location: Shoreditch, London
Date of death: September 28, 1972 (aged 89)
Death location: Wimbledon, London
Genre(s): Music hall male impersonator
Spouse(s): Ernie Lotinga

Winifred Emms (April 4, 1883 – September 28, 1972[1]), best known by her stage name Hetty King, was an English entertainer who played in the music halls over a period of 70 years.

Contents

[edit] Birth

Emms was born in Shoreditch, London on April 4, 1883.

[edit] Career

Emms adopted the name Hetty King when she first appeared on the stage of the Shoreditch Theatre[2], at the age of six with her father, William Emms (1856-1954), a comedian who used the stage name of Will King. By 1905, she was appearing in music halls, with her solo act, as a male impersonator, often dressed as a "swell". Her career spanned both World Wars when she performed in the uniform of either a soldier or a sailor. She also played the "principal boy" in many pantomimes. She continued to entertain until the end of her life, touring with the show Thanks for the Memory.

[edit] Family

She was married to actor and writer Ernie Lotinga (aka Ernest) (1876-1951), born in Sunderland. Her husband was a music hall comedian, singer and theatre proprietor, appearing as Dan Roe from 1898; who appeared in films in the 1920s and 1930s, often as the comic character PC Jimmy Josser.

The family were not related to H. Vernon Watson (1886-1949), the music hall artist performing under the sobriquet Nosmo King.

[edit] Songs recorded

1907 sheet music cover
1907 sheet music cover
  • All the nice Girls Love a Sailor - Also known as Ship Ahoy
  • Piccadilly
  • Tell her the Old, Old Story
  • Down by the Riverside
  • I'm Going Away
  • Now I'm Home Again
  • Bye Bye Batchelor Days
  • Love 'em & Leave 'em Alone
  • Fill 'em up
  • Oh Girls, why do you Love the Soldiers
  • What Does A Sailor Care?

Her half brother, Harold Emms, wrote many of Hetty's songs with his French wife, Francine.

[edit] References

  1. ^ BFI biography accessed 21 Jun 2007
  2. ^ Music hall pantomime accessed 21 Jun 2007. This site gives date of first appearance as 1897, i.e. when she was four. However, other biographies generally give the age of six, at the same theatre.


Persondata
NAME King, Hetty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emms, Winifred
SHORT DESCRIPTION Male impersonator
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Shoreditch, London
DATE OF DEATH 1972-9-28
PLACE OF DEATH Wimbledon, London