Nelly Power

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Nelly Power
Born (1854-04-10)10 April 1854
London
Died 19 January 1887(1887-01-19) (aged 32)
Islington, London
Resting place
 Abney Park Cemetery
Occupation Music hall singer & actress

Nelly Power[1] (10 April 1854 – 19 January 1887), was an English singer, actress and performer in music hall, burlesque and pantomime.[2] Her funeral attracted three to four thousand spectators at Abney Park Cemetery and a further great crowd at the start of the procession from her home.[3]

Career

Power appeared in the music halls from the age of 8,[4] and developed a comic style mimicking that of George Leybourne, which brought her fame by the age of 15[5] and the offer of principal parts in pantomimes. She made her first appearance on the London stage in 1868 in the pantomime Robinson Crusoe.[6] She then moved to the Vaudeville Theatre performing in a number of burlesque plays. After a further spell in pantomime, (where, for example in 1881 she had the title role in Sindbad the Sailor, with Vesta Tilley as Captain Tralala at Drury Lane[7]) she achieved national fame in the music halls with an act in which she caracatured dandies with comic songs such as "La-di-la".[2] She was the original singer of "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery" which was written for her by songwriter and composer George Ware.[citation needed]

Nelly Power died on 19 January 1887. Her grave at Abney Park Cemetery was restored in 2012 by the theatre charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.[8]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Spelled Nellie on a few publications, but mainly Nelly, and this is on her gravestone.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Era, 22 January 1887 "Death of Miss Nelly Power"
  3. ↑ The Era, 29 January 1887 "Funeral of Miss Nelly Power"
  4. ↑ London Music Hall Database
  5. ↑ Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 24 January 1887 Death of Miss Nelly Power
  6. ↑ Birmingham Daily Post, 25 January 1887 "Gleanings"
  7. ↑ Pantomimes at Drury Lane
  8. ↑ "Nelly Power Memorial Restored", The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America, accessed 11 May 2012

External links

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