{"id":104,"date":"2018-06-05T09:16:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T08:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/?page_id=104"},"modified":"2020-08-26T12:14:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T11:14:38","slug":"billy-merson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/?page_id=104","title":{"rendered":"Billy Merson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">*****<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Merson_New.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-680 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Merson_New-189x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"219\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Merson_New-189x300.jpg 189w, http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Merson_New-644x1024.jpg 644w, http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Merson_New.jpg 695w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 219px) 100vw, 219px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>MERSON, Billy <\/strong>(William Henry Thompson), actor and comic vocalist;<\/p>\n<p><em>b.<\/em>Nottingham, 29 March 1881; \u00a0first appeared on the variety stage at Birmingham, 1900; \u00a0for some years toured the provinces as an acrobat and clown, under the name of Ping-Pong; \u00a0first appeared in London at the old Middlesex Music Hall, 1905; \u00a0appeared in 1909 at the Oxford; \u00a0was engaged for some time at the Hippodrome in the <em>revue\u00a0<\/em>\u201cHullo, Tango!\u201d 1913; \u00a0at the London Opera House, July 1916, appeared in \u201cLook Who\u2019s Here\u201d; \u00a0at the Palace, Dec. 1918, appeared in \u201cHullo! America\u201d; \u00a0May 1920, in \u201cThe Whirligig\u201d; \u00a0at the Lyric, May 1922, played Matthew Platt in \u201cWhirled into Happiness\u201d; \u00a0at the London Hippodrome, Mar. 1923, appeared in \u201cBrighter London\u201d; \u00a0at the Palladium, Mar. 1924, in \u201cThe Whirl of the World\u201d; \u00a0at the Olympia, Liverpool, Dec. 1924, Puss in \u201cPuss in Boots\u201d; \u00a0at Drury Lane, Mar. 1925, played Hard-Boiled Herman in \u201cRose Marie\u201d; \u00a0Palladium, Feb. 1926, played in \u201cPalladium Pleasures\u201d; \u00a0entered on the management of the Shaftesbury Theatre, Nov. 1926, and produced \u201cMy Son John\u201d in which he played Benjamin Littlewood; \u00a0London Hippodrome, July 1927, appeared in \u201cShake Your Feet\u201d; \u00a0Vaudeville, Jan. 1928, played Basil in \u201cLord Babs\u201d; \u00a0Wimbledon, Sept. 1928, and Shaftesbury, Dec. 1928, The Lad in a play of that name; \u00a0toured 1929, as Gene Curtalli in \u201cPlaymates\u201d; \u00a01930 in variety theatres; \u00a01931, toured in \u201cWhirled into Happiness\u201d and \u201cHappy Snaps\u201d; \u00a01932, toured in \u201cMeet Mr. Merson\u201d; \u00a0at the Alhambra, Aug. 1932, played in \u201cOver the Page\u201d; \u00a0Alexandra, Birmingham, Dec. 1933, appeared in \u201cThe Babes in the Wood\u201d; \u00a0toured, Oct. 1936, as Josiah Clutterbuck in \u201cThe Cinema Star\u201d; \u00a0Garrick, Southport, Dec. 1937, played Buttons in \u201cCinderella\u201d; \u00a0toured, 1939, as Hard-Boiled Herman in \u201cRose Marie\u201d; \u00a0Comedy, Jan. 1941, played Hubert Briggs in \u201cThe Blue Goose\u201d; \u00a0among his popular\u00a0 songs may be mentioned \u201cI\u2019m Setting the Village on Fire\u201d; \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m Going Away\u201d; \u00a0\u201cThe Spaniard that Blighted my Life\u201d; \u00a0\u201cThe Gay Cavalier,\u201d etc.; \u00a0has appeared in films, in \u201cThe Show Goes On,\u201d \u201cScruffy,\u201d etc.<br \/>\n<em>Recreations<\/em>:\u00a0 Golf and Wireless.<\/p>\n<p>Billy Merson\u2019s last entry in <em>\u2018Who\u2019s Who in the Theatre\u2019 <\/em>(10<sup>th\u00a0<\/sup>Edition 1947).\u00a0He died on 25<sup>th\u00a0<\/sup>June 1947.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>***** MERSON, Billy (William Henry Thompson), actor and comic vocalist; b.Nottingham, 29 March 1881; \u00a0first appeared on the variety stage at Birmingham, 1900; \u00a0for some years toured the provinces as an acrobat and clown, under the name of Ping-Pong; \u00a0first appeared in London at the old Middlesex Music Hall, 1905; \u00a0appeared in 1909 at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-104","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Billy Merson - Alphonso<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alphonso Spagoni is the mythical toreador who stole the heart of Billy Merson\u2019s fianc\u00e9e while he had gone to \u2018buy some nuts and a programme\u2019 at the bullring. 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