Merseyside Mirth Makers - Harry Weldon

Harry Weldon was born James Henry Stanley in Liverpool on the 1st of February 1881. He was a gifted comedian and music hall performer particularly popular in the 1910s.
Although his work is almost forgotten today he was a specialist in comic anti-heroes and an early player in Fred "Karno's Komics" with his most well known sketch being "Stiffy the Goalkeeper" that was recorded in January 1912 but when performed with a young Charlie Chaplin in 'The Football Match', a burlesque slapstick affair, it became very much in demand. The sketch was so successful it had a fourteen-week run in London and after the run ended Weldon still used 'Stiffy' as his main character, notably in one of his final sketches "Stiffy the Warder" that was recorded in June 1928.
As he developed his 'Stiffy' character, he would slowly acquire more discarded artefacts from his soccer pals: on stage he would wear the giant goalkeeper 'Fatty' Foulkes's shorts, a shirt once worn by Preston North End legend John Goodall and boots that had been given to him by Billy Meredith himself.

He also had a famous boxing skit in 1916 entitled 'The White Hope' and his trademark was to prolong the pronunciation of the letter 'S' in words producing a whistling sound.
He was a staunch Evertonian and played football himself, with the theatre critic Hannen Swaffer claiming that Weldon's creation of 'Stiffy the Goalkeeper' was "inspired by his almost maniacal allegiance to the Everton Football Club". He also founded, organised and captained a team made up of the impresario and writer Fred Karno's employees, whose exploits against other music-hall sides raised almost £500 for charity in 1909 alone. Harry even supplied the theatrical paper 'Performer' with the team's record for the year: "23 matches played, 14 have been won, 2 drawn and 7 lost."

He befriended scores of professional players, including Billy Meredith and the majority of the two Manchester sides. He would boast that on the opening night of a one-man show in 1909 over forty football pros sent him telegrams of support. He later wrote, "Between the football pro and myself there has always been a bond of friendship in fair weather and in foul weather and my only ambition is to always remain 'one of the lads'." His knowledge of the game, his keen eye for the quirks and habits of professionals, lent his interpretation an insiders' perspective that was well appreciated by the players who were among 'Stiffy's' greatest fans, filling the front rows at every performance and eager to make guest appearances on stage.

Harry Weldon's performances were considered great morale boosters for the British public during World War 1 and he would play the character of 'Stiffy the Goalkeeper' some 900 times for Fred Karno up and down the country before incorporating the creation into his solo act and transformed him in later years into a boxer as well as a number of other characters.

Sandy Powell the comedian stated in 1912 "My great favourite then – my idol – was Harry Weldon, and I based my style on his and pinched his gags! He was doing 'Stiffy the Goalkeeper' and he was absolutely my idol. Then I saw him at The Palace, Manchester, playing Buttons in Cinderella. I used to go into every show while my mother was working the pubs around Manchester. I used to go in the gallery – twopence-ha’penny I think it was – every performance to see Harry Weldon.”

Harry appeared at two Royal Command shows in 1922 before he took ill in 1923 but returned to his career after his illness. He had become one of the highest paid performers in variety but suffered the same fate as his sporting hero, Jimmy Crabtree, when, after taking ill while touring in South Africa, he died on the 10th of March 1930 at the age of 49 of drink-related problems.

See next :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2018/05/merseyside-mirth-makers-billy-bennett.html?q=Robb+wilton