Lydia Dream was a female impersonator ventriloquist who played a nurse using her dummy for a patient. She was active in the early decades of the 20th century.
Her male persona, Walter H Lambert was also a talented painter. The best known painting was Popularity, 1903, a canvas 13' by 5’6” (4 x 1.68 m) which depicts 226 prominent music hall artists. It is situated at the junction of Lower Marsh and Waterloo Road, London, which was known in the profession as Poverty Corner where unemployed artistes gathered. In 1908 it was put on show at the Vaudeville club, but in 1914 when the owner of the painting died, it was sold for £140. It is now in the Museum of London.
Her male persona, Walter H Lambert was also a talented painter. The best known painting was Popularity, 1903, a canvas 13' by 5’6” (4 x 1.68 m) which depicts 226 prominent music hall artists. It is situated at the junction of Lower Marsh and Waterloo Road, London, which was known in the profession as Poverty Corner where unemployed artistes gathered. In 1908 it was put on show at the Vaudeville club, but in 1914 when the owner of the painting died, it was sold for £140. It is now in the Museum of London.
- Michael Kilgarriff. Grace, Beauty & Banjos: Reculiar Lives and Strange Times of Music Hall and Variety Artistes. Oberon Books, 1998: 92.
- “Walter Lambert's 'Popularity' - A vast painting depicting the Music Hall Stars of the early 1900s”. Arthur Lloyd.co.uk. Online.
the 'owner of the painting' mentioned in the text, was my grandfather, Peter Bijou (real name Cannon) --- he is in the centre of the painting with Bella,(real name Florence Fothergill) my grandmother. (their names have been written on the painting)
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