You Wouldn't Know Her From a Man: Male Impersonators of the Victorian Music Halls

Vesta Tilley, Rotary Photographic Co. Ltd., 1900s, postcard print © National Portrait Gallery, London

I felt I could express myself better if I were dressed like a boy.

—Vesta Tilley

In 1872, eight-year-old Victorian music hall entertainer Matilda Powers traveled through England with her manager father, Henry, performing her act of comic songs in small theaters in the provinces. One evening after supper in their room in a boardinghouse, after kissing her father goodnight, she saw his suit coat and hat hanging on a hook and was curiously compelled to try them on. She stuffed the hat with paper so it would sit upright on her head and rolled up the coat sleeves. In her memoir, she recalled feeling shockingly excited by the way she looked in the mirror in men's clothes. With her keen musical ear and sharp eye for detail, Matilda began imitating a popular male singer of the day. She became so immersed in her performance that she did not notice her father watching her from the doorway.

Henry Powers, a former performer and music hall master of ceremonies, knew a great act when he saw it and asked if she would like to dress in men's clothing on stage. Matilda eagerly agreed. Her father had white coattails and a top hat tailored for her. Later he completed the ensemble with kid gloves, a monocle, and a cane. Her transformation into a miniature high-styled dandy or "man-about-town" was complete.

Billed as "The Great Little Tilley," Matilda premiered her new act at Day's Concert Hall in Birmingham. An instant hit, she made her London debut in 1874 at the Canterbury Hall. Audiences loved this precocious child dressed as an adult male who sang about unrequited love. To the press she was Miss Tilley, but her father decided Matilda needed a more distinctive stage name to stand out amid the cutthroat competition of the music-hall scene. To come up with something catchy, he selected a number of two-syllable words from the dictionary and threw them in a hat. Thus, Vesta Tilley, the most successful male impersonator of the great age of music halls, was born.

The great tradition of music halls, which spanned the years from 1860 to 1920, originated in the sing-alongs and amateur performances of English public houses, taverns, and music saloons. By the 1850s, as the alcohol-fueled get-togethers became more popular, music halls spread countrywide. Newly spacious, ornate buildings accommodated a growing audience and an ever-expanding cast of professional singers, dancers

Vesta Tilley, Rapid Photo Co., 1900s, postcard print © National Portrait Gallery, London

and comedians. The growth in the size and the number of halls made variety entertainment available to all social classes, though the upper class typically preferred theater. Alcohol consumption at music halls surpassed that of saloons and taverns, causing critics to complain that they were glorified pubs. Yet there was a serious side to this popular entertainment. While music halls provided an outlet for hedonism and ribaldry, they also offered a forum for critiquing Victorian morality both onstage and among the patrons who congregated around tables after work to eat, drink, and gossip. For performers, it was a rough living, though. They had to fight for the audience's attention, and if they failed, they were pelted with food scraps and insults. Acts in London typically lasted twenty minutes, and as soon as the curtain closed, the performer quickly changed costumes and rushed to another music hall. All this to make a modest living.

Women playing "pants parts" in theatrical productions has a long history. In 1660, women were allowed into the English acting profession, and the tradition of men playing all the parts—male and female—began to diminish. In the early nineteenth century, women performing comic male roles in opera, burlesque, and pantomime flourished. The early 1860s marks the presence of male impersonators in music halls, though most did not...