Biography
Born Florence Flanagan on 14 August 1876 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, she died on 18 April 1940 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Widely regarded among the most accomplished music hall performers, the “fine buxom woman” commanded stages while waving a chorus stick and prompting spectators to sing along to long-lasting favourites such as “Daisy Bell”, “Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy”, “Oh, Oh, Antonio”, “Nellie Dean”, “A Bird In A Gilded Cage”, and, most closely linked to her, “Down At The Old Bull And Bush”.
Before settling in England she had been promoted as “The Australian Marie Lloyd”, although she shared little physical likeness with the five-foot-tall, petite Marie Lloyd. Her London debut took place at the London Pavilion on 2 August 1897; thereafter she worked the variety theatres and ultimately presented her own revue, Flo And Co., which achieved a record run of 36 successive seasons on the Isle of Man.
Among the numbers she introduced to those Manx audiences was “Flanagan”, whose lyric “Take me to the Isle of Man again” incorporated her birth name, while another island staple was “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?” billed as “Kelly from the Isle of Man”. A lengthy career as principal boy in pantomime—most notably appearing at sixty in the 1935 Christmas staging of Forty Thieves at London’s Lyceum—gave her scope to deliver songs customarily performed by men, among them “She’s A Lassie From Lancashire”.
Throughout World War I her vigorous deliveries of “It’s A Long, Long Way To Tipperary” and “Pack Up Your Trouble In Your Old Kit Bag” sustained national morale; popularity endured into the 1920s and 1930s, marked by appearances at the Royal Variety Performances of 1935 and 1938. In addition to her own reputation she was instrumental in creating the celebrated double act Flanagan And Allen.
In the early 1920s Chesney Allen managed her affairs while serving as straight man to Stan Stanford, the comedian in her company; when Stanford departed, Bud Flanagan assumed the role until 1926, the year Forde suspended touring to focus on summer seasons in the Isle of Wight and Blackpool. She never fully withdrew from performance; accounts record that her final appearance took place before patients at an Aberdeen Naval hospital only hours before her death. Her name is commemorated by the Florrie Forde bar at the Old Bull And Bush public house on London’s Hampstead Heath.
Before settling in England she had been promoted as “The Australian Marie Lloyd”, although she shared little physical likeness with the five-foot-tall, petite Marie Lloyd. Her London debut took place at the London Pavilion on 2 August 1897; thereafter she worked the variety theatres and ultimately presented her own revue, Flo And Co., which achieved a record run of 36 successive seasons on the Isle of Man.
Among the numbers she introduced to those Manx audiences was “Flanagan”, whose lyric “Take me to the Isle of Man again” incorporated her birth name, while another island staple was “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?” billed as “Kelly from the Isle of Man”. A lengthy career as principal boy in pantomime—most notably appearing at sixty in the 1935 Christmas staging of Forty Thieves at London’s Lyceum—gave her scope to deliver songs customarily performed by men, among them “She’s A Lassie From Lancashire”.
Throughout World War I her vigorous deliveries of “It’s A Long, Long Way To Tipperary” and “Pack Up Your Trouble In Your Old Kit Bag” sustained national morale; popularity endured into the 1920s and 1930s, marked by appearances at the Royal Variety Performances of 1935 and 1938. In addition to her own reputation she was instrumental in creating the celebrated double act Flanagan And Allen.
In the early 1920s Chesney Allen managed her affairs while serving as straight man to Stan Stanford, the comedian in her company; when Stanford departed, Bud Flanagan assumed the role until 1926, the year Forde suspended touring to focus on summer seasons in the Isle of Wight and Blackpool. She never fully withdrew from performance; accounts record that her final appearance took place before patients at an Aberdeen Naval hospital only hours before her death. Her name is commemorated by the Florrie Forde bar at the Old Bull And Bush public house on London’s Hampstead Heath.