Old Mother Riley

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Old Mother Riley was a music hall act which ran from about 1934 to 1954.

The part of the Irish washerwoman Old Mother Riley was played by Arthur Lucan, and his wife Kitty McShane played Old Mother Riley's daughter, Kitty. It was essentially a drag act but also a double act. They were hugely successful at the time, playing music halls, theatres, radio and films. They also gave Jimmy Clitheroe his big break in 1939 in an Old Mother Riley pantomime called The Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe, and then the following year a part in their film, Old Mother Riley in Society.

Old Mother Riley is referenced in the Kinks song "The Village Green Preservation Society" from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

[edit] Biography

Arthur Lucan was born Arthur Towle, in Sibsey, Lincolnshire in 1885, but his family shortly afterwards moved to nearby Boston. After leaving school he left home to pursue a career in music hall. He obtained a job with a family troupe called The Musical Cliftons, and later as sidekick to a comedian called Will Pepper.

He toured Ireland, where he met and subsequently married Kathleen "Kitty" McShane. Together they developed a double act - Old Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty. They achieved some success with a sketch called 'Bridget's Night Out'. For this he first wore drag, and began to develop the character of Old Mother Riley. Whilst in Dublin, he changed his name to Lucan, and they continued to perform as 'Lucan and McShane'. The act was so successful, they played it to the 1934 Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium, the most prestigious engagement of its time.

After the Royal Command Performance followed there followed a successful and highly lucrative film career, a radio series and even a strip cartoon in the Radio Times. In all, Arthur Lucan made 17 films, 16 as Old Mother Riley.

He performed up to literally his dying breath, collapsing and dying in the wings of the now demolished Tivoli Theatre in Hull in 1954. The site now houses a bakery and cafe, where there is a memorial bust of Arthur Lucan, together with various memorabilia from his career. He is buried in Hull's Eastern Cemetery.

[edit] The Old Mother Riley films

Made on a minuscule budget, but extremely profitable, 16 of the 17 films made by Arthur Lucan featured Old Mother Riley:

• Old Mother Riley (1937)
• Kathleen Mavourneen (1937)
• Old Mother Riley MP (1938)
• Old Mother Riley in Paris (1938)
• Old Mother Riley Joins Up (1939)
• Old Mother Riley in Society (1940)
• Old Mother Riley in Business (1940)
• Old Mother Riley's Circus (1941)
• Old Mother Riley's Ghost (1941)
• Old Mother Riley Overseas (1943)
• Old Mother Riley Detective (1943)
• Old Mother Riley at Home (1945)
• Old Mother Riley's New Venture (1949)
• Old Mother Riley Headmistress (1950)
• Old Mother Riley's Jungle Treasure (1951)
• Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952) - stars Bela Lugosi.

At the time of Lucan's death he was in scheduled to film Old Mother Riley's Trip to Mars.