Clowning Around Shoes, Dan Leno

A pair of elongated tap dancing clown shoes, leather uppers and soles with metal taps on the heals, the shoes come with a large account of ephemera related to Dan Leno, by repute the shoes were purchased in tawkesbury from the granddaughter of the wardrobe mistress of the Chiswick Empire London. It's likely Leno would off had a handful of performing shoes within his career, a similar pair is housed within the V&A museum.

These shoes are said to have belonged to the music hall performer Dan Leno (1860-1904), who was born George Galvin in London, the son of the music hall singers known as Mr and Mrs Wilde. After his father's death, his mother married William Grant, whose stage name was Leno, and Dan Leno appeared at the age of four with his brother Jack and his uncle Johnny Danvers, dancing in public houses all over England. By the age of 18 Dan was a champion clog-dancer and was engaged by George Conquest with Danvers for pantomime at London's Surrey Theatre. In the 1880s and 1890s he was one of the highest performers in the world, and in 1889 appeared in pantomime at Drury Lane Theatre where he excelled in Dame roles, including Sister Anne in Bluebeard, and Widow Twankey in Aladdin. He continued to appear in music hall where he specialised in long rambling anecdotes of incidents involving himself and his family. In 1901 he performed for King Edward VII at Sandringham, after which he was dubbed 'the King's Jester'.

Dancing in elongated ‘flap shoes’ derived from clog dancing at which Leno excelled. One of Leno’s contemporaries, Harry Relph (1867-1928) better known by his stage name 'Little Tich' was famous for his skill performing the ‘big boot’ dance and the museum has a pair of ‘flap boots’ owned by Harry Lupino (1892-1959) that he wore when imitating Relph’s act. Little Tich and Harry Lupino stood on the ends of the shoes, a feat that would not have been possible in this pair of shoes with their pliable leather soles.

38cm in length
10.5cm width
11cm in height