Album Notes

The Autobiography of an Eccentric Comedian was published by Everett & Co Ltd. in London in 1911 and covers the childhood and music hall career of T.E.Dunville, from his early hardships in the late 1880’s to the resounding successes of the 1890’s and beyond.

T.E.Dunville was born Thomas Edward Wallen in Coventry on July 29, 1868. The son of a tailor, he was apprenticed to a silk merchant upon leaving school but was dismissed for persuading his employer’s son, and another boy, to run away and try their luck as a traveling minstrel group. Calling themselves The Three Spires, the inexperienced trio ended up destitute and was forced to return home within a few days. Other employment followed, this time as a clerk with the Rudge-Whitworth Company, but it was not long before he was asked to leave - for oiling the floorboards and performing acrobatic stunts in the office!

Meanwhile, he had met a like-minded young man at an amateur gymnastic club, and the two of them decided to embark upon a career as acrobats. Their first engagement, in Cinderella, was highly amusing. Their agility failed them and all their carefully rehearsed tricks went wrong, but the audience thought them hilarious and mistook them for comedians rather than acrobats. The Merry Men, as they were now billed, had accidentally scored a hit and were duly engaged for the rest of the tour. They subsequently traveled to America for six months as acrobatic dancers called The White Sprites and, on their return to England, remained a duo and played further comedy parts in pantomime.

Breaking out as a solo turn, with a new stage name borrowed from a famous distiller of whiskey, T.E. Dunville eventually found favor with the provincial and London audiences singing inane songs such as Lively on, Lively off, Bunk-a-doodle-I-do, Nuff Said, Dinky-Do, And The Verdict Was, among others. A somewhat odd and grotesque appearance, which included a withered arm (his own), an elongated forehead and strange, freakish make-up, added to his act’s individual style and popularity; so began a reign among the top music hall comedians that was to endure for nearly thirty years.

However, by the end of the First World War, tastes in popular entertainment had changed and T.E. Dunville was not the draw he had once been. Even so, he still managed to get some engagements and his last performance was at the Grand in Clapham on March 20, 1924. Shortly after, he went missing and was found drowned in the Thames at Caversham Lock, near Reading on March 22, an apparent suicide, having taken to heart a comment he had overheard the night before referring to him as a “ has-been.”

The Era reported on March 26, 1924 that his death came “ as a great shock to the profession.” T.E.Dunville, the eccentric comedian, was dead at 55 years of age.



Robert Demeger was born in London and trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. He has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Robert has appeared in over fifty television and film productions.