Bud Flanagan

Infobox performer
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name = Bud Flanagan


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birthname = Chaim Reuven Weintrop
birthdate = 14 October 1896
location = Whitechapel, London
deathdate = 20 October 1968
deathplace = Sydenham, London
othername = Robert Winthrop
homepage =
genre = Music hall comedy double act
spouse = Ann "Curley" Quinn

Bud Flanagan (14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a popular English wartime entertainer, born Chaim Reuben Weintrop in Whitechapel, in the East End of London.

Early life

His parents, Wolf and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop were Polish Jews who fled to London in the mid 1870s as a result of Eastern European pogroms. They had ten children all born in London. In 1881 they lived in Brick Lane and by 1891 had moved on to 12 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. At the time of the 1901 census the family were still at Hanbury Street, with Reuben aged 4 living with six of his siblings and his parents over a Fried Fish shop. They later owned a barber shop and tobacconist in Whitechapel. Flanagan attended school in Petticoat Lane, and by the age of 10 was working as "call-boy" at the "Cambridge Music Hall". In 1908, he made his début in a talent contest at the "London Music Hall" in Shoreditch, performing conjuring tricks as "Fargo, The Boy Wizard".

In 1910, he sailed with the "SS Majestic" to New York, where he had a variety of jobs before returning to England in 1915 and joining the Royal Field Artillery, in France. Here he met the unpopular Sergeant Major from whom he later adopted his stage name. In 1919 he formed a comedy double act, "Flanagan and Roy".

He met his wife Anne, daughter of Irish comedian Johnny Quinn, "(The Singing Clown)", and in 1926 their son Buddy was born.

Career

He is best known as part of a double act with Chesney Allen, Flanagan and Allen. They had first met on active service in Flanders, but did not work together until 1926, touring with a "Florrie Forde" show. They established a reputation and were booked by Val Parnell at the Holborn Empire. As music hall comedians, they would often feature a mixture of comedy and music in their act and this led to a successful recording career as a duo and roles in film and television. Flanagan and Allen were both also members of The Crazy Gang, appearing in the first show at the London Palladium in 1931, and continued to work with the group, concurrently with their double-act career.

Flanagan and Allen's songs featured the same, usually gentle humour for which the duo were known in their live performances, and during the Second World War reflected the experiences of ordinary people during wartime. Songs like "We're Going To Hang Out The Washing On The Siegfried Line" mocked the German defences (Siegfried Line), while others like "Miss You" sang of missing one's sweetheart during enforced absences. Other songs such as their most famous "Underneath the Arches" (which Flanagan co-wrote with Reg Connelly) had universal themes such as friendship, which again, helped people relate to the subject matter. The music was usually melodic, following a binary verse, verse chorus structure, with a small dance band or orchestra providing the backing. The vocals were distinctive because while Flanagan was at least a competent singer and sang the melody lines, Allen used an almost spoken delivery to provide the harmonies.

Flanagan and Allen stopped working together with Chesney Allen's retirement in 1945, when he gave up performing to become a theatrical agent; but Flanagan continued working until his death. His last recording was Jimmy Perry and Derek Taverner's "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?", recorded shortly before his death in 1968, which was the theme to the British sitcom series Dad's Army. The song was a deliberate pastiche of the sort of songs Flanagan had sung during the war and, being so nostalgic, was very popular with the public.

He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium.

ee also

* Flanagan and Allen
* The Crazy Gang

External links

*imdb name|id=0281012|name=Bud Flanagan
* [http://www.thecrazygang.co.uk/gang.htm The Crazy Gang - tribute site]

ources

• "My Crazy Life" by Bud Flanagan (Muller, 1961) (Autobiography)

Persondata
NAME= Flanagan, Bud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Weintrop, Chaim Reuven
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Music hall comedy double act
DATE OF BIRTH= 14 October 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH= Whitechapel, London
DATE OF DEATH= 20 October 1968
PLACE OF DEATH= Sydenham, London