Nelly Power

Nelly Power
Born (1854-04-10)10 April 1854
London, England, UK
Died 19 January 1887(1887-01-19) (aged 32)
Islington, London, England, UK
Resting place Abney Park Cemetery
Occupation Singer and 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 caricatured 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/composer George Ware.

Nelly Power died from pleurisy on 19 January 1887, aged 32. Her grave at Abney Park Cemetery was restored in 2012 by the theatre charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Spelled Nellie on a few publications, but mainly Nelly, and this is on her gravestone.
  2. 1 2 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

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