Drawing

George Robey made his first appearance on the London stage at the Aquarium in 1891. After appearing at the Oxford Music Hall in London the same year, he was engaged for most of the leading London halls. His ‘trademark’ stage appearance is captured in this caricature - a collarless frock coat, a semi-clerical bowler hat and enormous black eyebrows which he raised quizzically to great comic effect. He could make audiences cry helplessly with laughter just by coming on stage and looking at them, asking them to 'desist from this unseemly merriment'. A versatile performer, he was able to develop a career in revue, starring in The Bing Boys Are Here in 1916, and in the 1930s he appeared in both light opera and serious drama, playing Falstaff in Henry IV Part 1 in 1935. He received a knighthood in 1954, the year of his death.