Douglas Byng

Douglas Coy Byng (17 March 1893 – 24 August 1987) was an English comic singer and songwriter in West End theatre, revue and cabaret.

[3] In 1914 Byng answered an advertisement for a light comedian for a seaside concert party and made his first appearance on stage at Hastings.

He continued his theatre work throughout the war, playing character parts in touring comedies and eventually achieving a juvenile lead in 1920.

During this period he opened his own nightclub, The Kinde Dragon, off St Martin's Lane in central London,[2] where he first performed the cabaret drag songs for which he is best remembered, described by the critic Sheridan Morley as "a curious mixture of sophistication, schoolboy humour and double entendre.

His famous numbers included: "Sex Appeal Sarah", "Milly the Messy Old Mermaid" and "The Lass who Leaned against the Tower of Pisa".

In one scene he impersonated a lady violinist, singing "I'm the pest of Budapest that turned the Danube so blue"[3] in which The Times said he shone intensely.

He also turned up sporadically on television, notably in Alan Melville's series Before the Fringe in the 1960s when he sang, or rather recited, some of the old revue songs.

In the last years of his life he briefly teamed up with another veteran variety artiste, Billy Milton, in the touring revue Those Thirties Memories, directed by Patrick Newley.

Byng finally moved to Denville Hall, the Actors' Charitable Trust home in Northwood, Middlesex, England.