Phil May Gallery

A Woman of No Importance

A rather dark humoured illustration by Phil May, entitled 'A Woman of No Importance', a skit on the title of the play by Oscar Wilde of 1893, which looks in particular at English upper class society - quite clearly the polar opposite to the social strata being examined here by May. Date: 1895

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Age, Aged, Arched, Back, Bend, Cane, Class, Countrywoman, Difficulty, Double, Elderly, Historical, History, Importance, Lack, Lower, Mobility, Old, Oscar, Phil, Play, Rural, Staggering, Stick, Venerable, Wilde, Woman

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" - sung by Lottie Collins

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song. The song's first known public performance was in Henry J. Sayers' 1891 revue Tuxedo, which was performed in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the version sung by Lottie Collins (1865-1910) in London music halls in 1892 (as shown in this drawing by Phil May of the same year). She would sing the first verse demurely and then launch into the chorus and an uninhibited and exhausting skirt dance with high kicks (especially on the word "BOOM") that exposed her stockings held up by sparkling garters, and bare thighs. At the height of the craze, Collins was performing the song five times nightly at different venues in London !!! Date: 1892

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

The Second in Command - Mr and Mrs Binks

Mr and Mrs Binks - A very funny cartoon by Phil May showing a VERY dominant Woman (wearing a monacle) leading her subservient and tiny husband and their small son along the street, his face a picture of downtrodden fear and wariness. They pass the symbolic sandwich board for a performance at the Theatre Royal of 'The Second in Command' - the role Mr Binks undoubtedly occupies in this specific relationship!!! Date: 1901

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection