Gordon Stretton (5 June 1887 – 3 May 1983),[1] born William Masters, was an English singer, dancer and musical director of mixed Irish and Jamaican descent.
[2] His father, William Alexander Gordon Masters,[4] was born in Jamaica around 1854 and worked as a seaman on SS Andean, owned by the Liverpool-based West India Pacific Steamship Company.
[3]: 64, 65 Stretton was born in 1887 in the slum area of Byrom Street courts and then lived in several places in central Liverpool as a child.
He met his future wife, Mary Agnes (Molly) Smith, a nurse at Mill Hill Military Hospital, London, when he was sent there for convalescence.
[3]: 112, 114, 245, 279 Stretton died in Argentina on 3 May 1983 at the British Hospital, Buenos Aires after living from the late 1970s at the Casa Del Teatro, a nursing home for former performers.
When he was around nine (1896), as a result of this performance, his mother allowed him to join The Five Boys (later The Eight Lancashire Lads) clog dancing and singing troupe.
[5][3]: 1, 68 From 1903 onwards he used the stage name Gordon Stretton derived from his father's middle name and the well-known American-born singer and dancer Eugene Stratton.
[5] He started a sole career with music hall engagements in North Wales and the adjacent areas of Cheshire and Shropshire.
Following the earthquake, they returned to the UK and held benefit concerts in 1907 and 1908, with the choir's expenses paid by the Liverpool businessman Alfred Lewis Jones.
[8]: 63 Stretton played initially with Louis Mitchell's Jazz Kings but in 1923 he formed his own group Orchestre Syncopated Six which made several recordings for Pathé.
[5] He settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina from the late 1920s after being hired by businessman Augusto Álvarez to act in one of the local entertainment companies, at the cinema theatre "Select Lavalle".
In 1928 he embarked on a three-month tour around Argentina, employing the Brazilian composer and musician Luiz Americano as part of his group.
[3]: 225, 226, 282 In 1931 Stretton again performed in Brazil at the El Dorado theater, appearing with singers including Carmen Miranda and the American Little Esther.
[3]: 145, 283 During the Second World War, Stretton wrote and performed songs to raise money for the British airforce and International Red Cross.
As he gained independence and a personal reputation in Wales and northern England, he performed in the popular styles of the American blackface minstrel show and also Edwardian romantic ballad songs.