Old Mother Riley

Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane as Old Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty

Old Mother Riley was a music hall act which originally ran from about 1934 to 1954 played by Arthur Lucan,^[1][2] and from 1954 to the 1980s played by Roy Rolland.^[3]

Old Mother Riley was an Irish washerwoman and charwoman character, devised by Lucan (born Arthur Towle).^[1][4] His wife Kitty McShane played Old Mother Riley's daughter, Kitty.^[1][4] It was essentially a drag act but also a double act. They were hugely successful at the time, playing music halls, theatres, radio and films. Such was their popularity that the Film Fun comic included an “Old Mother Riley” strip cartoon for many years in the 1940s; and Lucan was voted sixth biggest British box office star by the Motion Picture Herald in 1943.^[5][6] They also gave Jimmy Clitheroe his big break in 1939 in an Old Mother Riley pantomime called The Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe,^[7] and then the following year a part in their film, Old Mother Riley in Society.

Roy Rolland was Lucan's understudy and stand-in, and after Lucan's death in 1954 he continued to play the Old Mother Riley character in pantomime, on television and in cabaret until the 1980s.^[3]

Old Mother Riley is referenced in the Kinks song "The Village Green Preservation Society" from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.^[8]

The Old Mother Riley films

Made on a minuscule budget, but extremely profitable, 15 of the 17 films made by Arthur Lucan featured him as Old Mother Riley:

• Stars on Parade (1936)
• Kathleen Mavourneen (1937)
• Old Mother Riley (1937)
• Old Mother Riley in Paris (1938)
• Old Mother Riley, MP (1938)
• Old Mother Riley Joins Up (1939)
• Old Mother Riley in Society (1940)
• Old Mother Riley in Business (1940)
• Old Mother Riley's Circus (1941)
• Old Mother Riley's Ghosts (1941)
• Old Mother Riley Overseas (1943)
• Old Mother Riley Detective (1943)
• Old Mother Riley at Home (1945)
• Old Mother Riley's New Venture (1949)
• Old Mother Riley Headmistress (1950)
• Old Mother Riley's Jungle Treasure (1951)
• Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952) – stars Bela Lugosi.

At the time of Lucan's death he was scheduled to film Old Mother Riley's Trip to Mars.

References

• Old Mother Riley : The Life and Career of Arthur Lucan