Bud Flanagan, OBE (born Chaim Reuben Weintrop, 14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a popular British music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor. He was best known as a double act with Chesney Allen.
Like many Jewish families living in eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century Wolf Weintrop knew if his family were to survive it would mean leaving Poland for the safety of another country, he chose to come to England.Settling into Whitechapel he opened a barbers shop to support his growing family of ten children, his youngest Chaim Reuven Weintrop was born in their new country on the 14th October 1896, young Chaim went to school in Petticote Lane, but when he was just ten years old he found himself a job as call boy at the local Cambridge Theatre, it was probably here that the young Chaim got his taste for show business, two years later he entered a local talent show as "Fargo, The Boy Wizard". It’s not recorded whether he won the competition or not.
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| Chaim with brother Simon |
Weintrop was born with a sense of adventure and was keen to see the world. In 1910, aged 14, he decided to leave home and walked all the way to Southampton where he claimed to be an electrician aged 17 in order to get a job aboard ship. He sailed with the SS Majestic to New York, and jumped ship when it arrived in the U.S.A. Reuben got various jobs selling newspapers, delivering telegrams for Western Union, and even harvested wheat in Fargo, North Dakota. He joined a vaudeville show that toured across the U.S.A. and in October 1914, he sailed with a show to perform in New Zealand and Australia.
He travelled to perform on stages in South Africa where he met up
Bud met his wife Anne ("Curly"), daughter of Irish comedian Johnny Quinn, ('The Singing Clown'), who was a dancer in "Mrs. Stacey's Young Ladies". They were married in 1925 and in 1926 their son Buddy was born. Tragically, Buddy died of leukemia in Los Angeles, U.S.A., in February 1956.
Flanagan and Allen's songs featured the same, usually gentle humour for which the duo were known in their live performances, and during the Second World War reflected the experiences of ordinary people during wartime. They recorded many songs which would encapsulate wartime era such as, 'Underneath the Arches'
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which was to become their signature tune, 'Dreaming', 'Hometown' and 'Run Rabbit', 'Any Umbrellas and 'Down Forget-Me-Not Lane.”The vocals were distinctive because while Flanagan was at least a competent singer and sang the melody lines, Allen used an almost spoken delivery to provide the harmonies.
which was to become their signature tune, 'Dreaming', 'Hometown' and 'Run Rabbit', 'Any Umbrellas and 'Down Forget-Me-Not Lane.”The vocals were distinctive because while Flanagan was at least a competent singer and sang the melody lines, Allen used an almost spoken delivery to provide the harmonies.Flanagan and Allen stopped working together with Chesney Allen's retirement in 1945, when Allen gave up performing to become a theatrical agent; but Flanagan continued working until his death. In 1959 he was awarded the OBE, and received the award from the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace.
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Flanagan's last recording was Jimmy Perry and Derek Taverner's theme for the British sitcom Dad's Army, "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?", recorded shortly before his death for which he was paid '100 guineas' for his work. The song was a deliberate pastiche of the sort of songs Flanagan had sung during the war.
Bud Flanagan died from a heart attack on October 20, 1968 in London. He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium. (Edited from Wikipedia & East London forum)