Gus Elen was the best known of the
'coster' comedians, who performed songs and sketches about being a Cockney.
Elen dressed in the coster uniform of striped jersey with a
peaked cap turned towards one ear and a short clay pipe in the
side of his mouth. Gus came from a poor East End background
and started performing as a busker on the streets of London,
singing along to a barrel organ. He first performed in music
hall blacked up in a minstrel troupe. Success came in 1891 when
he performed cockney songs at the Middlesex Music Hall. His
songs were bitter and realistic and rooted in the poverty and
life of the East Enders who were his audience.
His most famous song was ‘If it Wasn’t for the Houses in Between’
about the cramped housing conditions of the East End. Other
songs included ‘It’s a Great Big Shame’ which was about a tiny
girl dominating her beefy husband: ‘Naggin at a feller wot is
six foot three, And ’er only four foot two’. Another song told
of a couple who could never marry because as soon as one came
out of jail, the other went in: ‘When I came out I found that
Liza was in prison still. For when ordering of ’er wedding cake
she’d simply pinched the till’.
Unlike most performers, Elen kept meticulous records of his
songs with notes about the gestures and emotions, props required
and stage settings. He also wrote comments about how his gags
were received. That Elen lived to the relatively old age of
77 can probably be attributed to the fact that, apart from the
occasional appearance on stage, he virtually retired in 1914
to devote himself to his passion – fishing.
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