Toy Town Admiral

 

 

Words by Fred Godfrey, music by Paul Andrew; British Library credits Andrew alone; American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) credits Philip Sidney & Fred Godfrey — London: Lareine, 1928; Melbourne: L.F. Collin, ca. 1928; Chicago: Forster Music, 1929.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Toy Town Admiral
Columbia 5223
Victor 22396

Listen to a 1929 recording on English Columbia by Debroy Somers’ Band; Tom Barratt, vocal.

MP3

 

Featured in numerous pantomimes across the British Isles in the 1928/29 season and again the following years, Toy Town Admiral was yet another of Fred Godfrey’s comic specialties, this time in the provision of lyrics for Paul Andrews’s jaunty melody. Among its many performers were Wally Black & His Juveniles in pantomime Robinson Crusoe, Queen’s, Dublin (December 1928); The Fisher Girls, Opera House, Manchester (January 1929); Lollie Holt & Her Musical Hussars (May 1929); Jan Hurst & His Band, Aquarium, Brighton (October 1929); Florence Lemon & Dolly Mountford’s Revuette Girls in pantomime Robinson Crusoe, Opera House, Belfast (January 1929); Etta Ray in pantomime Sinbad, Royalty, Chester (January 1929); Allan Rochester in revue Hot And Bothered (1928); and Joy Vane in pantomime Robinson Crusoe, Grand, Oldham (January 1929). Also interpolated in pantomimes Sinbad, Olympia, Dublin (January 1929); and Humpty Dumpty, Grand, Fulham, London (January 1929). As well, in January 1929, the Lillian Grace Dancers performed it in Brussels, and the Sherman Fisher troupe introduced it to audiences at the famed Moulin Rouge in Paris.

 

Recordings

The Midnight Serenaders; dir. by Jay Wilbur; Jack Hart, vocal (Dominion A-55, 1929)

Paul Clifford & His Band; Maurice Elwin, vocal (Piccadilly 261, 1929)

Eugene Brockman’s Dance Orch.; dir. by Charles “Nat” Star; Maurice Elwin, vocal (Homochord D-1315, 1929)

The Arcadians Dance Orch.; dir. by John Firman (Zonophone 5365, 1929)

Debroy Somers’ Band; Tom Barratt, vocal (Columbia 5223, 1929)

Jay Whidden & His Band From The Carlton Hotel, London (Victory 82, 1929)

Gene & Glenn (Victor 22396, 1930)

The Anglo-Persians; dir. by Louis Katzman (Brunswick 4792, 1930)

 

Stage Interpolation

Interpolated by Florence Lemon in pantomime Robinson Crusoe (Opera House, Belfast, December 1928).