Dan Leno

Dan Leno
Leno in the 1890s
Born	20 December 1860
Died	31 October 1904

Dan Leno (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), born George Wild Galvin, was an English comedian and actor, famous for appearing in music hall and dozens of comic plays, pantomimes, Victorian burlesques and musical comedies during the late Victorian era. He was one of the first members (and later leader) of the entertainment industry charity Grand Order of Water Rats.

Leno was born in Marylebone, London, and began to entertain as a child. In 1864, he joined his parents on stage at the Cosmotheca Music Hall, Paddington, and he made his first solo appearance, aged nine, at the Britannia Music Hall, Coventry. He adopted the stage name Dan Leno in 1884 and made his first performance under that name at the Foresters' Music Hall in Mile End, London, the same year. He became increasingly popular during the late 1880s and 1890s, developing a music hall act of talking about life's mundane subjects, mixed with comic songs and surreal observations, and created a host of mostly working class characters to illustrate his stories. In 1901, still at the peak of his career, he performed his Huntsman sketch for Edward VII at Sandringham. The monarch was so impressed that Leno became publicly known as "the king's jester".

Leno appeared in burlesque and pantomime, including the Drury Lane's famous annual Christmas pantomimes from 1888, where he became known in the dame roles. He also continued to appear in musical comedies and his own music hall routines until 1902, although he suffered increasingly from alcoholism. This, together with his long association with dame and low comedy roles, prevented him from being taken seriously as an actor, and he was often turned down for Shakespearean roles. Leno began to behave in an erratic and furious manner by 1902, and suffered a mental breakdown in 1903. He was committed to a mental asylum, but was discharged later that year. After one more show, his health declined, and he died aged 43.

Biography

Family background and early life

Leno was born in St Pancras, London. He was the youngest of six children, including two elder brothers, John and Henry, and an elder sister, Frances. Two others died in infancy. His parents, John Galvin (1826–1864) and his wife Louisa, née Dutton (1831–1891), performed together in a music hall double act called "The Singing and Acting Duettists". They were known professionally as Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Wild. They were not very successful, and the family struggled in poverty.

Having had very little schooling, and being raised by performers, Leno learned to entertain as a child. In 1862, Leno's parents and elder brothers appeared at the Surrey Theatre in Sheffield before moving on to engagements in other cities. In 1864, at the age of four, Leno joined his parents on stage for the first time, at the Cosmotheca Music Hall, Paddington, under the billing "Little George, the Infant Wonder, Contortionist, and Posturer".

When Leno was still four, his father died at the age of 37, due partly to alcoholism. A few months later, his mother married William Grant, a comedian of Lancastrian and Irish descent, who performed in music halls throughout the British provinces under the stage name of William Leno. Grant was a seasoned actor and had previously been employed by Charles Kean in his theatre company at the Princess's Theatre, London. In 1866, the family home in Marylebone was demolished to make way for St Pancras railway station and, as a result, Leno's sister Frances was sent to live with an uncle, while John, who performed occasionally with his parents, took full time employment. Leno, his mother, stepfather and brother Henry moved north and settled in Liverpool, where they performed in various halls and theatres, including the Star Music Hall, but often returned to London to perform in the capital's music halls.

Early career

In 1865, Leno and his brother Henry, who first taught Leno to dance, formed a clog dancing double act known as "The Great Little Lenos". On 18 July 1866, they and their parents appeared on the opening night of the Cambridge Music Hall in Toxteth, Liverpool, under the billing "Mr. and Mrs. Leno, the Great, Sensational, Dramatic and Comic Duettists and The Brothers Leno, Lancashire Clog, Boot and Pump Dancers". The following year, the brothers made their first appearance without their parents at the Britannia music hall, Hoxton. Although initially successful, the pair would experience many bouts of unemployment and often busked outside London pubs to make a living. Tired of surviving on little or no money, Henry left the clog dancing act to take up a trade in London, forcing Leno to consider a future as a solo performer. Soon, however, Henry was replaced in the act by the boys' uncle, Johnny Danvers, who was a week older than Leno. Leno and Danvers formed a close relationship.

Leno made his debut as a solo performer in 1869, returning to the Britannia music hall, Hoxton, where he became known as "The Great Little Leno, the Quintessence of Irish Comedians". The name was suggested by his stepfather, William, who thought the Irish connection would appeal to audiences on their upcoming visit to Dublin. Arriving in Ireland the same year, the Lenos were struggling financially and stayed with William's relatives. In addition to his performances as part of the family act, young Leno appeared as a solo act under an Irish-sounding second stage name, "Dan Patrick". This allowed him to earn a separate fee of 23 shillings per performance plus living expenses. The name "Dan" was chosen to honour Dan Lowery, a northern music hall comedian and music hall proprietor whom the Lenos had met a few months earlier. In the family act with his parents and Danvers, young Leno often took the leading role in productions. One of their sketches was Torpedo Bill, in which Leno played the title role, an inventor of explosive devices. His parents played a "washerwoman" and a "comic cobbler". This was followed by another sketch, Pongo the Monkey. Opening at Pullan's Theatre of Varieties in Bradford on 20 May 1878, the burlesque featured Leno as an escaped monkey; it became Leno's favourite among his early performances. The same year, the Lenos appeared in Belfast at the same time as Charles Dickens, who was giving lectures in local schools. Dickens complimented the young comedian, telling him: "Good little man, you'll make headway!"

During the 1870s, Leno and his parents performed as "The Comic Trio (Mr & Mrs Leno and Dan Patrick) In Their Really Funny Entertainments, Songs and Dances", and Leno's clog dancing had become so good that he won the world championship at the Princess's Music Hall in Leeds, for which he received a gold and silver belt weighing 44.5 oz (1.26 kg). His biographer, J. Hickory Wood, described his act: "He danced on the stage; he danced on a pedestal; he danced on a slab of slate; he was encored over and over again; but throughout his performance, he never uttered a word". He performed his clog dancing routine throughout the British Isles with success and became the star of the Leno family act, taking the leading role in such sketches as his stepfather's The Wicklow Wedding. The teenage Leno's growing popularity led to bookings at, amongst others, the Varieties Theatre in Sheffield and the Star Music Hall, Manchester.

1880s

"The Railway Guard", 1890

Leno met his future wife, Lydia Reynolds, a dancer, in 1880, and he introduced her into the Leno family theatre company, which already consisted of his parents, Danvers and Leno. Around this time, Leno adopted the stage name "Dan Leno". In 1883, the Lenos took over the running of the Grand Varieties Theatre, Sheffield. The site is now the Lyceum Theatre. The Lenos felt comfortable with their working class Sheffield audiences. On their opening night, over 4,000 patrons entered the theatre, paying sixpence to see young Leno star in Doctor Cut 'Em Up. In October 1884, facing tough competition, the Lenos gave up the lease on the theatre.

In 1885, now married, he and Lydia moved to London where he gained new success with a solo act that featured comedy patter, dancing and song. On the night of his London debut, he appeared in three music halls: the Foresters' Music Hall in Mile End, Middlesex Music Hall in Drury Lane and Gatti's-in-the-Road, where he earned £5 a week in total. Although billed as "The Great Irish Comic Vocalist and Clog Champion" at first, he slowly phased out his dancing in favour of character studies, such as "Going to Buy Milk for the Twins", "When Rafferty Raffled his Watch" and "The Railway Guard". His dancing had earned him popularity in the provinces, but Leno found that his London audiences preferred these sketches and his comic songs. Leno's other London venues in the late 1880s included the Collins Music Hall in Islington, the Queen's Theatre in Poplar and the Standard in Pimlico.

Leno was a replacement in the role of Leontes in the 1888 musical burlesque of the ancient Greek character Atalanta at the Strand Theatre, directed by Charles Hawtrey. It was written by his brother, George P. Hawtrey, and it starred Frank Wyatt, Willie Warde and William Hawtrey. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News praised Leno's singing and dancing and reported that: "He brings a good deal of fun and quaintness to the not very important part of Leontes." Leno took on the role at very short notice and without knowing the dialogue. His improvisational style, and the scenes he shared with Alma Stanley, were so well received that he was credited with saving the flagging production. When Leno and Stanley left a few months later, the producers closed the show.

Music hall

Further information: Dan Leno discography

During the 1890s, Leno's biggest rival for the music hall audience was Albert Chevalier. Their styles and appeal were very different: Leno was a gritty realist, while Chevalier was overflowing in romanticism, and his act depicted an affluent point of view; they represented the opposite poles of cockney comedy.

Leno as "the Beefeater"

For his music hall acts, Leno created characters that were based on observations about life in London, including shopwalkers, grocer's assistants, beefeaters, huntsmen, racegoers, firemen, fathers, henpecked husbands, garrulous wives, pantomime dames, a police officer, a Spanish bandit, a fireman and a hairdresser. One such character was Mrs. Kelly, a gossip. Leno would sing one verse of a song, then begin a monologue, often his You know Mrs. Kelly? routine. For his London acts, Leno purchased songs from the foremost music hall writers and composers. One such composer was Harry King, who wrote many of Leno's early successes. Other well known composers of the day who supplied Leno with numbers included Harry Dacre and Joseph Tabrar. From 1890, Leno commissioned George Le Brunn to compose the incidental music to many of his songs, including "The Detective", "My Old Man", "Chimney on Fire", "The Fasting Man", "The Jap", "All Through A Little Piece of Bacon" and "The Detective Camera". Le Brunn also provided the incidental music for three of Leno's best known songs that depicted life in everyday occupations: "The Railway Guard" (1890), "The Shopwalker" and The Waiter" (both from 1891). The songs in each piece became instantly distinctive and familiar to Leno's audiences, but his changes to the characterisations, from time to time, kept the sketches fresh and topical.

"The Railway Guard" featured Leno in a mad characterisation of a railway station guard dressed in an ill-fitting uniform, with an unkempt beard and a whistle. The character was created by exaggerating the behaviour that Leno saw in a real employee at Brixton station who concerned himself in other people's business while, at the same time, not actually doing any work. "The Shopwalker" was full of comic one-liners and was heavily influenced by pantomime. Leno played the part of a shop assistant, again of manic demeanour, enticing imaginary clientele into the shop before launching into a frantic selling technique sung in verse. Leno's depiction of "The Waiter", dressed in an over-sized dinner jacket and loose-fitting white dickey, which would flap up and hit his face at any opportunity, was of a man consumed in self-pity and indignation. Overworked, overwrought, and overwhelmed by the number of his customers, the waiter gave out excuses for the bad service faster than the customers could complain.

Pantomime

Main article: The stage performances of Dan Leno

Augustus Harris

Leno's first appearance in pantomime was as Dame Durden in Jack and the Beanstalk, which he performed at London's Surrey Theatre in 1886, having been spotted singing "Going to Buy Milk" by the Surrey Theatre manager, George Conquest. Conquest also hired Leno's wife, Lydia, to star in the production. The pantomime was a success, and Leno received rave reviews; as a result, he was booked to star as Tinpanz the Tinker in the following year's pantomime, which had the unique title of Sinbad and the Little Old Man of the Sea, Or, The Tinker, the Tailor, the Soldier, the Sailor, Apothecary, Ploughboy, Gentleman Thief.

After these pantomime performances proved popular with audiences, Leno was hired in 1888 by Augustus Harris, manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to appear in that year's Christmas pantomime, Babes in the Wood. Herbert Campbell and Harry Nicholls starred with Leno in the next fifteen Christmas productions at Drury Lane. Campbell had appeared in the theatre's previous five pantomimes and was a favourite of the writer of those productions, E. L. Blanchard. Blanchard left the theatre when Leno was hired, believing that music hall performers were unsuitable for his Christmas pantomimes. This was not a view shared by audiences or the critics, one of whom wrote:

I am inclined to think "the cake" for frolicsome humour is taken by the dapper new-comer, Mr. Dan Leno, who is sketched as the galvanic baroness in the wonderfully amusing dance which sets the house in a roar. The substantial 'babes', Mr. Herbert Campbell and Mr. Harry Nicholls, would have no excuse if they did not vie in drollery with the light footed Dan Leno.

Harry Nicolls and Herbert Campbell: Leno's co-stars in many pantomimes

The pantomime was a triumph, breaking box-office records. Babes in the Wood had an extended run until 27 April 1889, and Leno considerably reduced his music-hall engagements as a consequence. Between April and October 1889, Leno appeared simultaneously at the Empire Theatre and the Oxford Music Hall, performing his one-man show. By this time, Leno was much in demand, not only at Christmas, but all year round, and had bookings for the next three years. On 9 May 1889, he starred for George P. Hawtrey in a matinee of Penelope, a musical version of a famous farce The Area Belle, to benefit the Holborn Lodge for Shop Girls. In this benefit, he played the role of Pitcher opposite the seasoned Gilbert and Sullivan performer Rutland Barrington. The Times considered that his performance treated the piece "too much in the manner of pantomime". During Leno's long association with the Drury Lane pantomimes, he appeared chiefly as the dame. Augustus Harris's productions at the huge theatre were known for their extravagance and splendour. Each pantomime had a cast of over a hundred performers, ballet dancers, acrobats, marionettes, animals and a harlequinade. When Harris died in 1896, the remainder of Leno's pantomimes were overseen by Arthur Collins.

In their pantomimes, Leno and Campbell would often deviate from the script, improvising freely. This was met with some scepticism by producers, who feared that the scenes would not be funny to audiences and observed that, in any event, they were rarely at their best until a few nights after opening. George Bernard Shaw wrote of one appearance: "I hope I never again have to endure anything more dismally futile", and the English essayist and caricaturist Max Beerbohm stated that "Leno does not do himself justice collaborating with the public". He noted, however, that Leno "was exceptional in giving each of his dames a personality of her own, from extravagant queen to artless gossip". In Sleeping Beauty, Leno and Campbell caused the audience to laugh even when they could not see them: they would arrive on stage in closed palanquins and exchange the lines, "Have you anything to do this afternoon, my dear?" – "No, I have nothing on", before being carried off again. Leno and Campbell's pantomimes from 1889 were Jack and the Beanstalk (1889 and 1899), Beauty and the Beast (1890 and 1900), Humpty Dumpty (1891 and 1903), Little Bo-peep (1892), Robinson Crusoe (1893), Dick Whittington and His Cat (1894), Cinderella (1895), Aladdin (1896), The Babes in the Wood (1897) and the Forty Thieves (1898). Leno often played the dame opposite Marie Lloyd's principal girl.

As Sister Ann in Bluebeard, 1901

Leno considered the dame roles in two of his last pantomimes, Bluebeard (1901) and Mother Goose (1902), written by J. Hickory Wood, to be his favourites. He was paid £200 (equivalent in value to £14,400 in 2010) for each of the pantomime seasons. Leno appeared at Drury Lane as Sister Anne in Bluebeard, a character described by Wood as "a sprightly, somewhat below middle aged person who was of a coming on disposition and who had not yet abandoned hope" The Times drama critic noted: "It is a quite peculiar and original Sister Anne, who dances breakdowns and sings strange ballads to a still stranger harp and plays ping-pong with a frying-pan and potatoes and burlesques Sherlock Holmes and wears the oddest of garments and dresses her hair like Miss Morleena Kenwigs, and speaks in a piping voice – in short it is none other than Dan Leno whom we all know". Mother Goose provided Leno with one of the most challenging roles of his career, in which Leno was required to portray the same woman in several different guises. Wood's idea that neither fortune nor beauty would bring happiness, was illustrated by a series of magical character transformations. The poor, unkempt and generally ugly Mother Goose eventually became a rich and beautiful but tasteless parvenu, searching for a suitor. The production was one of Drury Lane's most successful pantomimes, running until 28 March 1902.

Later career

Dan Leno's Comic Journal, Issue No. 1, 26 February 1898

In 1896, the impresario Milton Bode approached Leno with a vehicle devised for him called Orlando Dando. Leno's agent declined the offer, as his client was solidly booked for two years. Bode offered Leno £125 for a six-week appearance in 1898 with a £500 advance (equivalent in value to £45,000 in 2010). Upon hearing this, Leno overrode his agent and accepted the offer. Leno toured the provinces in the piece and was an immediate success. So popular was his performance that Bode re-engaged him for a further two shows, the musical farce In Gay Piccadilly! and Mr. Wix of Wickham. In 1897, Leno went to America and made his debut on 12 April of that year at Hammerstein's Olympia Music Hall on Broadway, where he was billed as "The Funniest Man On Earth". Reviews were mixed. One newspaper reported that the house roared its approval, while another complained that his English humour was out of date. His American engagement came to an end a month later, and Leno considered it to be "the crown of my career". Despite his jubilation, Leno was conscious of the few negative reviews he had received and rejected all later offers to tour the United States and Australia.

"The king's jester" wearing the royal tie pin

The same year, he lent his name to Dan Leno's Comic Journal. The paper was primarily aimed at young adults and featured a mythologised version of Leno – the first comic paper to take its name from, and base a central character on, a living person. Published by C. Arthur Pearson, Issue No. 1 appeared on 26 February 1898, and the paper sold 350,000 copies a year. Leno wrote most of the paper's comic stories and jokes, and Tom Browne contributed many of the illustrations. Leno retained editorial control of the paper, deciding which items to omit. After a run of two years, however, the novelty wore off, and Leno gradually lost interest. The paper shut down on 2 December 1899.

Dan Leno: Hys Booke was published in 1899 and was ghostwritten by T. C. Elder. A journalist wrote, at the time, that Leno was "probably the highest paid funny man in the world". Between 1901 and 1903, Leno recorded over twenty-five songs and monologues on the Gramophone and Typewriter Company label. On 26 November 1901, Leno, along with Seymour Hicks and his wife, the actress Ellaline Terriss, was invited to Sandringham House to take part in a Royal Command Performance to entertain King Edward VII. Leno performed a thirty-five minute solo act that included two of his best known songs: "How to Buy a House" and "The Huntsman". After the performance, Leno reported, "The King, the Queen and the Prince of Wales all very kindly shook hands with me and told me how much they had enjoyed it. The Princess of Wales was just going to shake hands with me, when she looked at my face, and couldn't do it for some time, because she laughed so much. I wasn't intending to look funny – I was really trying to look dignified and courtly; but I suppose I couldn't help myself." As a memento, the King presented Leno with a jewel-encrusted royal tie pin, and thereafter, Leno became known as "the King’s Jester". Leno was the first music hall performer to give a Royal Command Performance during the king's reign.

Personal life

In 1880, Leno met Sarah Lydia Reynolds (1866–1942), a Birmingham-born comedy singer, while both were appearing at King Ohmy's Circus of Varieties, Rochdale. The daughter of a stage carpenter, Lydia, as she was known professionally, was sixteen and already an accomplished actress: of her performance in Sinbad the Sailor in 1881, one critic wrote that she "played Zorlida very well for a young artiste. She is well known at this theatre and with proper training will prove a very clever actress." They married in 1883 in a discreet ceremony at St. George's Church, in Hulme, Manchester, soon after the birth of their first daughter, Georgina. Of their six children, three – Ernest, Sidney and May – were to follow their father onto the stage. Sidney later performed as Dan Leno Jr.

Blue plaque memorial at Leno's former address 56 Akerman Road, London, erected in 1962

Leno owned two acres of land at the back of his house in Clapham Park, and was self-sufficient, producing cabbages, potatoes, poultry, butter and eggs. He would also send these as gifts to friends and family at Christmas. Upon the retirement of his parents, Leno supported them financially until their deaths. His biographer J. Hickory Wood noted:

I can honestly say that I never saw him absolutely at rest. He was always doing something, and had something else to do afterwards; or he had just been somewhere, was going somewhere else, and had several other appointments to follow.

Charity and fundraising

In 1890, the Terriers Association was established to help retired artists in need of financial help. Leno was an active fundraiser in this and in the Music Hall Benevolent Fund, of which he was later President. He was the sixteenth member of the entertainment charity Grand Order of Water Rats and served as its leader, the King Rat, in 1891, 1892 and 1897. Near the end of his life, Leno co-founded The Music Hall Artistes Railway Association, which entered a partnership with the Water Rats, to form Music Hall's first trade union. Some of Leno's charity was discreet and unpublicised.

In the late 1890s, Leno formed a cricket team, called the "Dainties", for which he recruited many of the day's leading comedians and music hall stars. They played for charity against a variety of amateur teams willing to put up with their comedic mayhem, such as London's Metropolitan Police Force; Leno's and his teammates' tomfoolery on the green amused the large crowds that they drew. From 1898 to 1903, the Dainties continued to play matches across London. Two films of action from the matches were produced in 1900 for audiences of the new medium of cinema. In September 1901, at a major charity match, the press noted the carnival atmosphere. The comedians wore silly costumes – Leno was dressed as an undertaker and later as a schoolgirl riding a camel. Bands played, and clowns circulated through the crowd. The rival team of professional Surrey cricketers were persuaded to wear tall hats during the match. 18,000 spectators attended, contributing funds for music hall and cricketers' charities, among others.

Decline in health and death

Leno as Mother Goose

Leno began to drink heavily after performances, and by 1901, like his father and stepfather before him, he had become an alcoholic. He gradually declined physically and mentally and displayed frequent bouts of erratic behaviour that began to affect his work. By 1902, Leno's angry and violent behaviour directed at fellow cast members, friends and family had become frequent. Once composed, he would become remorseful and apologetic. His erratic behaviour was often a result of his diminishing ability to remember his lines and inaudibility in performance. Leno also suffered increasing deafness, which eventually caused problems on and off stage. In 1901, during a production of Bluebeard, Leno missed his verbal cue and, as a result, was left stuck up a tower for over twenty minutes. At the end of the run of Mother Goose in 1903, producer Arthur Collins gave a tribute to Leno and presented him, on behalf of the Drury Lane Theatre's management, with an expensive silver dinner service. Leno rose to his feet and said: "Governor, it's a magnificent present! I congratulate you and you deserve it!"

Frustrated at not being accepted as a serious actor, Leno became obsessed with the idea of playing Shakespeare's Richard III, inundating the actor–manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree with his proposals. After his final run of Mother Goose at the Drury Lane Theatre in early 1903, Leno's delusions of grandeur overwhelmed him. On the closing evening, and again soon afterwards, he traveled to the home of Constance Collier, who was Beerbohm Tree's leading lady at His Majesty's Theatre. He attempted to persuade her to act alongside him in a Shakespearean play which Leno was willing to fund. On the second visit, Leno bought Collier a valuable jewellery box. Fearing that Leno was having a mental breakdown, she refused his offer, and Leno left distraught.

Leno's memorial at Lambeth cemetery, London

Two days later, he was admitted into an asylum for the insane. Leno spent several months in Camberwell House Asylum, London, under the care of Dr. Savage, who treated Leno with "peace and quiet and a little water colouring". On his second day, Leno told a nurse that the clock was wrong. When she stated that it was right, Leno remarked, "Well if it's right, then what's it doing here?" Leno made several attempts to leave the asylum, twice being successful. He was found each time and promptly returned.

Upon Leno's release from the institution in October 1903, the press offered much welcoming commentary and speculated as to whether he would appear that year in the Drury Lane's pantomime, scheduled to be Humpty Dumpty. Concerned about a relapse by Leno, Arthur Collins employed Marie Lloyd to take his place. By the time of rehearsals, however, Leno persuaded Collins that he was well enough to take part, and the cast was reshuffled to accommodate him. Leno appeared with success. Upon hearing his signature song, the audience reportedly gave him a standing ovation that lasted five minutes. He received a telegram from the King congratulating him on his performance. Leno's stage partner Herbert Campbell died in July 1904, shortly after the pantomime, following an accident at the age of fifty-seven. The death affected Leno deeply, and he went into a decline. At that time, he was appearing at the London Pavilion, but the show had to be cancelled due to his inability to remember his lines.

Leno died at his home in London on 31 October 1904, aged 43, and was buried at Lambeth cemetery, Tooting. His death became national news. The Daily Telegraph wrote in its obituary: "There was only one Dan. His methods were inimitable; his face was indeed his fortune. ... Who has seen him in any of his disguises and has failed to laugh?" Max Beerbohm later said of Leno's death: "So little and frail a lantern could not long harbour so big a flame". His memorial is maintained by the Grand Order of Water Rats, which commissioned the restoration of his grave in 2004. A blue plaque was erected in 1962 by the London County Council at Leno's former address, 56 Akerman Road, Camberwell, in the London Borough of Lambeth.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources

• Anthony, Barry (2010). The King's Jester. London: I. B. Taurus & Co. ISBN 978-1848854307. 
• Beerbohm, Max (1954). Around Theatres. London: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0246635099. 
• Blumenfeld, R. D. (1930). RDB's Diary 1887–1914. London: Heinemann. OCLC 68136714. 
• Brandreth, Gyles (1977). The Funniest Man on Earth: The Story of Dan Leno. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0241898109. 
• Chaplin, Charles (1922). My Wonderful Visit. London: Hurst & Blackett. OCLC 475598619. 
• Disher, M.W. (1942). Fairs, Circuses and Music Halls. London: William Collins. OCLC 604161468. 
• Farson, Daniel (1972). Marie Lloyd and Music Hall. London: Tom Stacey Ltd. ISBN 978-0854680825. 
• Leno, Dan (1901). Hys Booke. London: Greening and Co. OCLC 467629. 
• Wood, Hickory, J. (1905). Dan Leno. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0217818490. 

Further reading

• Lee, Edward (1982). Folksong and Music Hall. London: I Routledge. ISBN 0710009029. 
• Mander, Raymond; Joe Mitchenson (1965). British Music Hall. London: Studio Vista. ISBN 0856140368. 
• Williams, Bransby (1954). Bransby Williams by Himself. London: Hutchinson. OCLC 2227654. 

External links

• Dan Leno at the Internet Movie Database
• Dan Leno – includes recordings 'The Huntsman' (1901) and 'Going To The Races' (1903)
• The legacy of Dan Leno @ Ward's Book of Days
• Lions, camels, and clowns at the oval: 1901, when London hosted one of cricket's most unusual matches
• Photo of the young Leno at the Victoria & Albert Museum
• Photo of the "Champion Clog Dancers Belt" awarded to Leno at the Victoria & Albert Museum