Gertie Gitana

GERTIE GITANA d1957. English music-hall entertainer. By the age of 15, she was earning over £100 per week, more than her father earned in a year. At the age of 17, she topped the bill for the first time at The Ardwick Empire at Manchester. As well as singing, she entertained by tap dancing, yodelling and playing the saxophone. Her music hall repertoire included ; "A Schoolgirl's Holiday" / "We've been chums for fifty years" / "When the Harvest Moon is Shining" / "Silver Bell" / "You do Look Well in Your Old Dutch Bonnet" / "Queen of the Cannibal Isles" / "Never Mind" / "When I see the Lovelight Gleaming" and especially "Nellie Dean" (written by Henry W Armstrong) which an audience first heard her sing in 1907. "Nellie Dean" which was a song her brother had heard while in the United States was an instant success and became her 'signature tune'. Her first gramophone recordings (dating from 1911–1913) were made in London on the Jumbo label. She died in London aged 69 on January 5th 1957