Friends and Colleagues

Mark Sheridan and Wal Langtry

Many comedians have, throughout the history of popular entertainment, employed gag writers or purchased jokes and comic material. Mark Sheridan was no exception. As early as 1885, he was advertising in the trade papers for funny songs and patter.

One writer who supplied Sheridan with a considerable amount of comic material was Wal Langtry.

Wal Langtry, whose real name was William McLeod, had an unusual route to the variety stage. Originally a riveter in the Tyneside shipyards, he later became a football player and then a football scout before becoming a professional comedian around 1907. He went on to top the bill at many regional music halls and, by the time of his death in September 1943, had enjoyed more than forty years on the variety stage.

Langtry’s act was described as both “dry” and “droll”, and his most notable song was “Tiddly-fol-lol”. In later years, he also appeared in revues of his own, such as Black Velvet and The Red Lamp.

For more than a decade, Wal Langtry supplied Mark Sheridan with gags and comic material, often drawing upon the events and personalities of the day. Several examples survive and provide an interesting glimpse into the sort of topical humour that audiences of the period enjoyed.

For example, during the Suffragette Movement, women who were imprisoned for militant activity sometimes went on hunger strike and were subsequently released from prison. Wal Langtry turned the situation into the following piece of wordplay:

“Who said the suffragists were good speakers? Not one of them finishes a sentence.”

The sporting world also provided a rich source of material. Following the lightweight championship contest between Freddy Welsh and Willie Ritchie, Wal Langtry produced this quip:

“Freddy Welsh was down at the bank this morning to see how rich he (Ritchie) is.”

Freddy Welsh’s prize was £7,000!

Topical humour could also be drawn from international news. On April 28, 1910, the French aviator Louis Paulhan defeated the Englishman Claude Grahame-White in the £10,000 air race from London to Manchester. Langtry was quick to turn the result into a joke for Sheridan:

“Why should we worry because the Frenchman got to Manchester first? The British never did fly before any foreign power.”

These three examples illustrate the speed with which music-hall comedians and their gag writers responded to current events. For performers such as Mark Sheridan, topicality was an important part of the act: yesterday’s news story could become the evening’s punchline.

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