GUS ELEN (1906)

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Philip Battle in history, London

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1906, art, artist, arts, augustus, battle, beggar, canvas, chalk, chalker, chalking, chalks, cockney, coster, elen, england, english, ernest, gus, hall, history, london, music, musical, news, newspaper, pavement, pavement art, paving, philip, pimlico, publication, screever, screeving, singer, singing, social, song, stone, street, uk, urban, urbancanvas

The Pavement Artist Song

Ernest Augustus Elen (22 July 1862 – 17 February 1940) was an English music hall singer and comedian. He achieved success from 1891, performing cockney songs including “Arf a Pint of Ale”, “It’s a Great Big Shame”, “Down the Road” and “If It Wasn’t for the ‘Ouses in Between” in a career lasting over thirty years.

Gus Elen sheet music cover cir. 1905

Born in Pimlico, London, Elen had worked as a barman and a draper’s assistant and had packed eggs for the Co-op before becoming a singer. He began busking at an early age and found a position singing in a minstrel troupe. His solo success began in 1891 when he started performing in public houses, singing songs in a manner similar to many cockney fruit sellers and ironmongers of the time, known as costermongers. Because of this, he became known as a “coster comedian”. For the stage persona he had created, Elen dressed in a coster uniform of striped jersey, peaked cap turned towards one ear and a short clay pipe in the side of his mouth. His characters adopted a persona of being constantly bad tempered and pugnacious. In 1907 he starred in a short film called Wait Till the Work Comes Round.

The Pavement Artist (lyrics)

Underneath the railway arch, not really far away

I knows a pavement artist who draws pictures every day

With little bits of coloured chalk he draws his ideas out

They look so real you fancy you can see em move about

He draws all kinds of eatables on plates all smokin hot

They make you feel quite hungry you could eat the bloomin lot

His portraits are so lifelike you could almost hear em talk

It’s only when he rubs em out you know they’re done with chalk

And it’s all done on the pavement outta doors

It’s a natural gift within that’s my belief

If he draws somebodies feet you can soon tell who it is

By the writing wot is written underneath

I watch him draw the schoolboys where he often plays a wag

And the postman stands and quite forgets the letters in his bag

The policeman what is stationed at the corner of the street

He’s missed to do his duty and forgets he’s on his beat

His pictures are so natural and a practice to the eye

They turn the colonel colour blind when there a passin’ by

He never draws the same thing twice he varies his display

And the views he draws tomorrow will be different to today

And it’s all done on the pavement out of doors

It’s a natural gift within that’s my belief

If he draws the King or Czar

You can soon tell who they are

By the writing wot is written underneath

Gus in America: Logansport Pharos Tribune illustration1907

In 1907, Gus toured America with his new song and character “The Pavement Artist” This is what the New York press had to say:

Gus Elen, noted as a character comedian in London, has won wide favour on his present tour of America in “advanced vaudeville.” He made his first American appearance recently at the New York theater. His story song about the chap who liked his ” ‘arf a pint of ale” at every meal, with Its culmination into a good deal more than that amount at supper time, awoke the house to enthusiasm, which did not diminish with the succeeding efforts, and they would gladly have listened to more like the tale of the sidewalk artist:

When he draws the king or czar

You can tell jist oo they are

By the writin’ that is written underneath.

There is a vital touch to everything that Mr Elen does, and his comedy is so unctuous that his vogue in London is easily understood.

He is particularly happy in his songs, which in every case tell a coherent story and exploit a consistent character. One of the best was the song by an ale tipping coster who regretted the loss of his pal, not through death, but by marriage to a little woman who promptly reduced him to her petticoat government—

A-naggin’ at a feller wot is six foot three

And ‘er only four foot two.

Who could withhold sympathy from the neglected friend who expressed his sorrow in the refrain:

Isn’t it a pity that the likes of ‘er

Should put upon the likes of ‘im?

Published in the New York Tribune: 5^th September 1907

Written & Researched by Philip Battle

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In Search of Bert (1934-1988)

02 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by Philip Battle in history, Literature

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Mary Poppins & the Illustrations of Mary Shepard

“Mary Poppins takes the children on a walk to the nearby park. There they meet Bert, the pavement artist, who is busy creating his latest work of art. The children are bored with the park and wary of Bert’s ragged clothes. Mary Poppins urges them to look beyond the surface of everyday life to see the magic that lies beneath (A Jolly Holiday)”

MARY POPPINS IN THE PARK: Berts "pitch" on Cherry Tree Lane; Illustration by Mary Shepard 1954

MARY POPPINS IN THE PARK: Berts "pitch" on Cherry Tree Lane; Illustration by Mary Shepard 1952

The quintessential English pavement artist BERT was a character invented by the Australian born writer Pamela Travers, and included in her 1934 book MARY POPPINS. Remembered affectionately by everybody following the 1964 film release by Walt Disney, and bizarrely played by Dick Van Dyke, who possessed the worst London cockney accent in the history of cinema.

MARY POPPINS: Original first edition dust cover illustration by Mary Shepard, 1934

In all eight books were published between 1934 and 1988

Mary Poppins, published 1934

Mary Poppins Comes Back, published 1935

Mary Poppins Opens the Door, published 1943

Mary Poppins in the Park, published 1952

Mary Poppins From A to Z, published 1962

Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, published 1975

Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, published 1982

Mary Poppins and the House Next Door, published 1988

The Mary Poppins that many people know of today; a stern, but sweet, lovable, and reassuring British nanny – is a far cry from the character created by Pamela Lyndon Travers in the 1930′s. Instead, this is the Mary Poppins reinvented by Walt Disney in the eponymous movie.

Mary Poppins as drawn on the pavement by BERT: illustration by Mary Shepard: 1934

The books by PL Travers, shed light on the origins of Mary Poppins, and draw important parallels between the character and the life of her creator, who worked as a nanny herself, the books are a literary success and continue to have such a strong popular reception throughout the world. They also demonstrate how subversive Mary Poppins truly was. The nanny was a figure adopted during the Victorian and Edwardian Age to embody, teach, and pass on the most rigid and rigorous rules values of that society – the very ones that Mary Poppins herself comes to unsettle.

MARY POPPINS: Bert the pavement artist; from the first edition end-pieces: illustration by Mary Shepard: 1934

How odd childhood was for the middle classes, if they had no siblings it was not uncommon for them to spend their entire first seven years with no other children to play with, unless under carefully controlled conditions. Many children spent relatively little time with their parents. In these circumstances, dependence on a nanny could be absolute, the world the nanny created was often, the only world they knew.

MARY POPPINS-Berts pavement art: Illustration by Mary Shepard 1934

One of the odd things about the Poppins books is that they do not encourage a child’s creativity; they allow access to a world in which other people have the adventures and the children mostly watch.

MARY POPPINS-Berts & Mary jump into the chalk drawings and go on a 'Jolly Holiday': Illustration by Mary Shepard 1934

MARY POPPINS-Bert & Mary jump into the chalk drawings and go on a 'Jolly Holiday': Illustration by Mary Shepard 1934

Travers chose an illustrator, a young woman named Mary Shepard, whose father, Ernest Shepard, had illustrated the “Winnie-the-Pooh” books. It was the beginning of a long, fruitful, and often unhappy relationship. Shepard illustrated all of the “Mary Poppins” books, though often with some bitterness: Travers allowed her almost no license in how she composed images. Travers was intimately involved in all aspects of the physical production of her books, including the colour of the dust jackets and the typeface.

MARY POPPINS OPENS THE DOOR: Berts chalk drawings; Illustration by Mary Shepard 1935

MARY POPPINS OPENS THE DOOR: Berts chalk drawings; Illustration by Mary Shepard 1943

The original book, which came out in 1934, was not only popular with children but well received by the audience whose opinion she valued most. T. S. Eliot, who was then an editor at Faber and Faber, expressed interest; Ted Hughes later wrote to tell her that Sylvia Plath had loved “Mary Poppins.” Princess Margaret and Caroline Kennedy were both admirers.

MARY POPPINS A to Z: Berts offers Mary some flowers; Illustration by Mary Shepard 1964

MARY POPPINS A to Z: Bert offers Mary some flowers; Illustration by Mary Shepard 1962

Bert the pavement artist appeared in almost all the Mary Poppins books.

The Illustrator, Mary Shepard, was the daughter of Ernest Shepard; better known for his illustrations of Winnie the Pooh. But in 1932, he illustrated a little known book of poems by Jan Struther (Tales from Sycamore Square) This is thought to be Mary’s original inspiration for Bert in Mary Poppins, and it is quite possibly the illustrations used to inform the Disney production team.

Research & additional material by Philip Battle