Billy Merson
*****
MERSON, Billy (William Henry Thompson), actor and comic vocalist;
b.Nottingham, 29 March 1881; first appeared on the variety stage at Birmingham, 1900; for some years toured the provinces as an acrobat and clown, under the name of Ping-Pong; first appeared in London at the old Middlesex Music Hall, 1905; appeared in 1909 at the Oxford; was engaged for some time at the Hippodrome in the revue “Hullo, Tango!” 1913; at the London Opera House, July 1916, appeared in “Look Who’s Here”; at the Palace, Dec. 1918, appeared in “Hullo! America”; May 1920, in “The Whirligig”; at the Lyric, May 1922, played Matthew Platt in “Whirled into Happiness”; at the London Hippodrome, Mar. 1923, appeared in “Brighter London”; at the Palladium, Mar. 1924, in “The Whirl of the World”; at the Olympia, Liverpool, Dec. 1924, Puss in “Puss in Boots”; at Drury Lane, Mar. 1925, played Hard-Boiled Herman in “Rose Marie”; Palladium, Feb. 1926, played in “Palladium Pleasures”; entered on the management of the Shaftesbury Theatre, Nov. 1926, and produced “My Son John” in which he played Benjamin Littlewood; London Hippodrome, July 1927, appeared in “Shake Your Feet”; Vaudeville, Jan. 1928, played Basil in “Lord Babs”; Wimbledon, Sept. 1928, and Shaftesbury, Dec. 1928, The Lad in a play of that name; toured 1929, as Gene Curtalli in “Playmates”; 1930 in variety theatres; 1931, toured in “Whirled into Happiness” and “Happy Snaps”; 1932, toured in “Meet Mr. Merson”; at the Alhambra, Aug. 1932, played in “Over the Page”; Alexandra, Birmingham, Dec. 1933, appeared in “The Babes in the Wood”; toured, Oct. 1936, as Josiah Clutterbuck in “The Cinema Star”; Garrick, Southport, Dec. 1937, played Buttons in “Cinderella”; toured, 1939, as Hard-Boiled Herman in “Rose Marie”; Comedy, Jan. 1941, played Hubert Briggs in “The Blue Goose”; among his popular songs may be mentioned “I’m Setting the Village on Fire”; “I’m Going Away”; “The Spaniard that Blighted my Life”; “The Gay Cavalier,” etc.; has appeared in films, in “The Show Goes On,” “Scruffy,” etc.
Recreations: Golf and Wireless.
Billy Merson’s last entry in ‘Who’s Who in the Theatre’ (10th Edition 1947). He died on 25th June 1947.