Wilkie Bard (March 19, 1874 - May 5, 1944) was a popular vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 and music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 entertainer and recording artist at the beginning of the 20th century. He is best known for his songs "I Want to Sing in Opera" and "The Night Watchman."

Early life

Bard was born March 19, 1874 in Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the city of Manchester, England. It is known locally as Chorlton. It is situated about four miles southwest of Manchester city centre. Pronunciation varies: and are both common....

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, Lancashire. His parents were William Herbert Smith and Marie Stetzer. Smith had a sister, Maria, who was 5 years older.

Performing career

Bard began performing at age 21, singing and performing comedy in his spare time. He most often appeared with a bald head and wore a black spot on each eyebrow. He also performed as female characters, specifically with his hit song "I Want to Sing in Opera." He had a long career in pantomime

Pantomime

Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

, and introduced tongue twisters

Tongue-twister

A tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken word game. Some tongue-twisters produce results which are humorous when they are mispronounced, while others simply rely on the confusion and mistakes of the speaker for their...

 such as "She sells seashells by the seashore," based on a song he performed in the show "Dick Whittington and His Cat

Dick Whittington and His Cat

Dick Whittington and His Cat is an English folk tale that has often been used as the basis for stage pantomimes and other adaptations. It tells of a poor boy in the 14th century who becomes a wealthy merchant and eventually the Lord Mayor of London because of the ratting abilities of his cat...

" in Drury Lane

Drury Lane

Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....

 in 1908.

Wilkie Bard performed in vaudeville in 1919. His first appearance at the Palace, on October 20, 1919, was not well received, but he reappeared a few days later with slightly altered material and became a hit.

He performed in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

in 1921.

Partial discography

1908

• All Day and Martin
• Sea Shells
• The Policeman (I'm There If I'm Wanted)
• You, You, You
• Let Me Sing
• My Little Deitcher Girl

1909

• I've Struck a Chorus
• Put Me Upon an Island

1910

• Will You Sing This Glee with Me?
• When the Bugle Calls
• I Want to Sing in Opera
• I Can Say 'Truly Rural'
• I Really Can't Reach That Top Note
• Come Up in my Balloon

1911

• See me Dance the Minuet
• Valse, Valse, Valse
• All Change for Llanfairfechan
• Robert Go to Dinner
• Doorkeeper at Frightley's

1912

• The Wiggly Rag
• Don't Play in the Shadows
• You've Got to Sing in Ragtime
• The Bathing Machine Attendant

Personal life

Bard was married to Ellen Smith (nee Stratton), who performed using the stage name Nellie Stratton.

Death

Wilkie Bard died in 1944 at the age of 70 in Buckinghamshire following a coronary thrombosis.