Little Tich
Harry Relph, professionally known as Little Tich, was a English music hall comedian and dancer during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was best known for his acrobatic and comedic "Big-Boot Dance", which he performed in Europe and for which he wore boots with soles long. Aside from his music hall appearances, he was also a popular performer in Christmas pantomimes and appeared in them annually at theatres throughout the English provinces. He repeated this success in London, where he appeared in three pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, between 1891 and 1893 alongside Dan Leno and Marie Lloyd.
Born in Cudham, Kent, Little Tich began performing aged ten when he developed a dance and tin-whistle act which he showcased at public houses in Sevenoaks. In the early 1880s he formed a blackface act and gained popularity with performances at the nearby Rosherville Pleasure Gardens and Barnard's Music Hall in Chatham. He travelled to London and appeared at the Forester's Music Hall in 1884. Later that year, he adopted the stage name "Little Tich", which he based on his childhood nickname of "Tichborne", acquired through his portly stature and physical likeness to the suspected Tichborne Claimant Arthur Orton. The terms "titchy" or "titch" were later derived from "Little Tich" and are used to describe things that are small.
Little Tich's act further developed during a tour of the United States between 1887 and 1889 where he established the Big-Boot Dance and impressed audiences with his ability to stand on the tips of the shoes and to lean at extraordinary angles. In the 1890s he developed the Serpentine Dance and had a major success with the Christmas pantomime Babes in the Wood in Manchester during the 1889–90 season. In 1891, he was recruited by the impresario Augustus Harris to appear in that year's spectacular Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Christmas pantomime Humpty Dumpty. He starred in a further two productions at the theatre including Little Bo Peep and Robinson Crusoe.
Between 1896 and 1902 Little Tich performed in his own musical theatre company, and spent much of his time in Paris, where he became a popular variety artist. For his music hall acts, he created characters based on everyday observations. The characterisations used were "The Gas Inspector", "The Spanish Señora" and "The Waiter"; all three were later recorded onto shellac discs, of which he made twenty in total. He was married three times and fathered two children. In 1927 he suffered a stroke, which was partly triggered by a blow to the head which he had accidentally received during an evening performance at the Alhambra Theatre. He never recovered fully from the injury, and died the following year at his house in Hendon, aged 60.
Biography
Family background and early life
Little Tich was born Harry Relph in Cudham, Kent. He was the last of eight children born to Richard Relph, a farmer and publican, and his wife Mary, née Moorefield. The Relph family were close and lived in relative affluence. Richard Relph was a committed family man and was known in the village for his sharp business acumen. His early wealth, which was attributed to a series of successful horse-trading deals, enabled him to purchase his first public house, the Rising Sun in Fawkham. In 1818 he married Sarah Ashenden and they had eight children; she died in 1845. In 1851 he moved to Cudham, bought the Blacksmith's Arms and an adjoining farm, and started a new family with Mary Moorefield, a nurse-maid governess from Dublin.Little Tich was born with an extra digit on each hand, webbed from the little finger to the centre joint. He also experienced stunted growth. He reached in height by the age of ten, but grew no taller. His physical differences from other children caused him to become socially withdrawn and lonely. Nevertheless, his disabilities earned him fame and were an asset to his parents' business. Patrons would travel from neighbouring counties to witness his peculiarities, and the youngster revelled in the attention, dancing comically on his father's saloon bar to curious guests.
Little Tich was educated at Knockholt, a three-mile walk from Cudham. From an early age, he displayed considerable academic ability and also excelled in art; by the time he was five, his drawings were being sold to patrons of the Blacksmith's Arms by his father. Little Tich became interested in the travelling performers whom his father often employed to entertain guests at the inn. He would mimic the dancers, singers and conjurors, causing much amusement to both his family and his patrons. So good were his impersonations that his siblings frequently took him to neighbouring public houses where they would get him to perform in exchange for money. These experiences prepared Little Tich for his future career. As a result of what he saw, he, like his father, became a strict teetotaller in later years, and showed a deep loathing for boisterous and intoxicated people. Little Tich revelled in his local celebrity status; however, the older he got the more self-conscious he became and wrongly interpreted the audience's laughter as being aimed more at his disabilities rather than his comical performances.
Move to Gravesend and early performances
Richard Relph sold the Blacksmith's Arms and the adjoining farm in 1875 and moved his family to Gravesend. The socially withdrawn Little Tich was forced to adapt to much busier surroundings; day-trippers, holidaymakers and fishermen often frequented the streets and occupied the plethora of public houses which adorned the port and neighbouring roads. He resumed his education, this time at Christ Church School, where he spent the next three years. In 1878 the headmaster deemed him too educationally advanced for the school, and Richard Relph was advised to secure for his young son a watchmaking apprenticeship instead; Relph ignored the advice.By 1878 Little Tich's parents were unable to financially provide for him further and he sought full-time employment as a lather boy in a barber's shop in Gravesend. One evening, together with a friend whose brother was appearing in a talent contest, he visited a music hall for the first time and quickly became "hooked" on the idea of being able to perform. Thanks largely to his local celebrity status of being a "freak", he was welcomed into the many public houses which catered for soldiers, sailors, merchant seamen and day-trippers from London.
By 1878, Little Tich had saved enough money to buy himself a tin whistle which he used to "amuse self by playing all the jolly and sentimental pantomime songs of the day". To earn money, he began busking to local theatre goers who were waiting in the outside queues. On the way home from his busking performances, he devised eccentric dances, much to the amusement of his onlooking neighbours. Little Tich made his stage debut as Harry Relph at the age of 12 in 1879. The venue—although unidentified—was described by his daughter Mary as being a "back-street, free-and-easy" where the acts were predominantly made up of amateurs and beginners. The audiences were often harsh and they would display their displeasure by throwing objects onto the stage.
One evening, having exhausted the list of amateur talent, the compere called on Little Tich and his tin-whistle to take up the next turn. The performance was a success and Little Tich returned every night, often accompanying his tin-whistle piece with impromptu dance routines. News of his performances spread, and he was soon signed up by the proprietor of the neighbouring Royal Exchange music hall, who bought his new signing a pair of clogs. Little Tich became a popular draw at the hall and often sang thirty songs a night. It was here that he discovered the art of blackface, a popular type of entertainment widely performed around the British Isles at the time.
1880s
Early London engagements
At the start of the 1880s, Little Tich assumed the stage name "The Infant Mackney" and graduated to the world of open-air theatre. The following year, he joined a blackface troupe who performed regularly at the Rosherville Pleasure Gardens; the local historian J.R.S. Clifford described them as "a band of minstrel darkies of a superior type". Little Tich's transition from amateur to professional performer came when he appeared in a weekly spot at Barnard's Music Hall in Chatham. Lew Barnard, the hall's proprietor, offered him 35 shillings a week. Thrilled at the prospect of appearing in a proper music hall, Little Tich changed his name from The Infant Mackney to Young Tichborne, a nickname he had gained while living in Cudham years earlier. He enjoyed initial success at Barnard's, but audience numbers soon diminished and his pay was reduced to 15 shillings a week as a result. To supplement his income, he resumed his position in the barber's shop and took on a string of menial jobs that lasted six months.In 1881 Little Tich left home with his sister Agnes, who chaperoned her young brother around the music halls and variety clubs throughout England. By now, he had swapped the tin-whistle for a picco pipe which he used to accompany his clog dancing routine. He despised his early experiences of provincial touring as he was often forced to sleep in dosshouses with very little money or food. To survive, he would often return to busking outside music halls to the waiting audiences. In the early months of 1884, he secured an engagement at a rundown public house called The Dolphin in Kidderminster, where he was paid £2 a week. He also hired his first agent who, unbeknown to Little Tich, had advertised him as a "freak" and a "six-fingered novelty". The comedian was furious with the description and quickly dispensed with the agent's services. By the summer months, his engagements had become infrequent so he used the long periods of unemployment constructively. He learned how to read and write music and taught himself to play various musical instruments including the piano, fiddle and cello. He also mastered dancing in big boots.
In November 1884 he changed his stage name for the third time to Little Tich, which derived from Tichborne, and "Tich" or "Tichy" became a common term meaning small. His reasoning for the name change was to capitalise on the release of the Tichborne claimant fraudster Arthur Orton who was then touring the British Isles in the hope of reopening the case. The change of name also coincided with the signing of a new agent who was known in London for being "one of the brightest and youngest in business". The agent, Edward Colley, was equally thrilled with the acquisition of a new star and secured him a double engagement at the Marylebone Music Hall where he appeared as "Little Titch, The Most Curious Comique in Creation" and immediately after at the Forester's Music Hall, where he was billed as "Little Titch, the Funny Little Nigger". A reporter for The Era predicted "We shall probably hear a great deal more about Little Titch, as he seems to be one of the few that can invest the business of the Negro comedian with any humour."
By Christmas 1884, Little Tich was a resident performer in four London music halls: the Middlesex Music Hall where he had an 8 pm billing, the Marylebone, the Star Palace of Varieties in Bermondsey, and Crowders Music Hall in Mile End. Out of the four halls, he had the most success at the Marylebone and fulfilled a ten-week run. A critic for The Era who witnessed him perform at the Marylebone thought that he was "a curious comic" and that "his antics, his sayings and his business generally very amusing, and he will doubtless improve in his singing, which is weak at present, even for a Negro delineator". The commentator further noted that "he appear to be quite a young man at present; but his dancing is peculiarly funny, though his dress in one of his characters is vulgar and suggestive; this should be altered".
Having been a success in London for nearly a year, Little Tich travelled to Scotland to appear in pantomime for the first time during the 1885–86 Christmas season. Robinson Crusoe opened at the Royal Princess Theatre in Glasgow and he appeared in the small role of Chillingowadaborie, a black-faced attendant for one of the main characters King Tum-tum. The following Christmas, Little Tich starred for a second time in pantomime, this time at the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel in a production of Cinderella in which he played "King Mischief".