Dunville, Thomas Edward

The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre | 1996 | 700+ words | Copyright

Dunville, Thomas Edward [ Thomas Edward Wallen] (1868–1924), eccentric English comedian who as a young man went to London with a small provincial troupe of acrobatic entertainers. He made his first solo appearance in 1889, and was seen at Gatti's-Under-the-Arches and the Middlesex Music-Hall with immediate success, soon becoming well known for his short comic songs consisting of telegraphic phrases delivered in an explosive manner in the style of ‘Little Boy, Pair of Skates, Broken Ice, Heaven's Gates’. For many years he was top of the bill wherever he appeared, wearing a long black coat which accentuated his height, with a white Puritan collar, a small bowler hat, baggy trousers, and a Dutch-doll wig over a red-nosed face. When he tried to vary his appearance audiences forced him to return to his usual style. In the early 1920s, when music-hall began to lose its appeal, he became very depressed and, after overhearing himself referred to as a fallen star, drowned himself in the Thames.

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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Dunville, Thomas Edward." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Dunville, Thomas Edward." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-DunvilleThomasEdward.html

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Dunville, Thomas Edward." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-DunvilleThomasEdward.html

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