Leno, Dan

Leno, Dan [ George Galvin] (1860–1904), one of the best loved and most famous stars of the English music-hall and pantomime. Born in London of itinerant entertainers, he made his first appearance on the stage at the age of 4, and for many years played in the provinces in slapstick sketches with ‘the Leno family’—the stage name of his stepfather, whose real name was Wilde. He later did a double dancing act with his elder brother Jack and then with his young uncle Johnny Danvers (1860–1939), later a Mohawk Minstrel and a player in pantomime. Working mainly in the north of England, he specialized in clog-dancing and in 1880, at Leeds, won the World Championship. Returning to London in 1885 with his young wife, a ‘comedy vocalist’ whom he married in 1883 and by whom he had six children, he found that his dancing was of no account, whereas his comic songs and patter were rapturously received. He therefore abandoned the clogs to concentrate on comic songs, and was soon playing at several ‘halls’ every night. He first appeared in pantomime in 1886, as Jack's mother in Jack and the Beanstalk. Two years later he was at Drury Lane as the Baroness in Babes in the Wood. He was then seen in every Drury Lane pantomime up to 1903, when he made his last appearance as Queen Spritely in Humpty-Dumpty, partnered by Harry Randall (1860–1932), who was to prove a worthy successor to him at Drury Lane. Leno had previously been partnered by another music-hall comedian, Herbert Campbell [Story] (1844–1904), whose vast bulk proved the perfect foil to Leno's diminutive quicksilver figure. The pantomimes usually ran until the spring, and during the rest of the year Leno, in common with other pantomime stars, returned to the ‘halls’. He created a wide range of music-hall characters, two of the most popular being the Shop-Walker and the Beefeater, though some audiences preferred the Railway Guard. With his husky voice and worried little face, he always remained a man of the people, carrying the stamp of the poverty and privations from which he had emerged. He usually made his entrance in a rush, stopping suddenly and darting suspicious looks at the audience while starting a song, and then leaving it to indulge in long, rambling monologues, with muttered asides and sudden bursts of step-dancing. He worked alone, without much in the way of props, and built up his characters with brilliant use of mime and rapid gestures. In 1901 he was commanded by Edward VII to Sandringham, which earned him the nickname of ‘the King's Jester’. Towards the end of his life he broke down from overwork and died insane. Three of his children went on the ‘halls’, Sidney Paul Galvin (1891–1962), who looked very like him, using some of his material and billing himself as Dan Leno junior.