Concert party (entertainment)

[1][2] Concert parties were travelling shows of songs and comedy, often put on at the seaside and opening with a Pierrot number.

Thus began the tradition of seaside Pierrots in pointed hats and black or coloured costumes who sang, danced, juggled, and joked on the piers of Brighton, Margate and Blackpool from the 1890s until the 1950s.

Immensely popular in Great Britain from the 1920s to the 1940s, concert parties were also formed by several countries' armed forces during the First and Second World Wars.

As other forms of entertainment (particularly television) replaced variety shows in general, concert parties largely died out during the 1950s.

In the novel Sylvia Scarlett, the main characters (Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in the film version) form a concert party, The Pink Pierrots.