Dan Leno was among the funniest and the most loved of comedians of the Victorian Music Hall, one whose career formed a bridge between the pantomime clowning of Joe Grimaldi in the early 19th century and the era of motion pictures … Continue reading
“Ah! What is man? Wherefore does he why? Whence did he whence? Whither is he withering?” Dan Leno
Dan Leno's Autograph
‘No actor of our time deserved immortality as well as he’ Sir Max Beerbohm
‘It seemed miraculous how Dan Leno contrived to make you see before you the imaginary persons with whom he conversed… Continue reading
‘He could hardly walk, and certainly never dance, without raising a smile, but he had a hundred different ways of walking and dancing, each appropriate to the person he was representing.’ The Times
“Here was a man unlike anyone else we had ever seen… Continue reading
Joseph Grimaldi (18 December 1778 – 31 May 1837) Known as ‘The most celebrated of English clowns’, credited with being ‘the first white-face clown’. Joseph Grimaldi’s performances made the Clown the central character in the English Harlequinades.
Richard Findlater (Kenneth Bruce Findlater Bain) (1921 – 1985) English theatre critic and historian. One of Britain’s most respected writers on the theatre. Continue reading
Welcome to The Dan Leno Project. Dan Leno was one of the great music hall and pantomime stars of the Victorian era (many would say ‘the greatest’.) Continue reading
Walter James MacQueen-Pope (11 April 1888 – 27 June 1960) English theatre historian and publicist. Continue reading