Maggie Cline

Maggie Cline (January 1, 1857 – June 11, 1934) was an American vaudeville singer, active across the United States in the late nineteenth century, known as "The Irish Queen" and "The Bowery Brunhilde".

After working in a shoe factory as a child, she left home for Boston at a teenager where she began her career performing at the Boylston Museum for six dollars a week; a sum much larger than what she had made at the shoe factory.

[2] She eventually joined a burlesque troupe, Snellbaker & Benson's Majestics.

Her repertoire consisted of Irish-themed rough and tumble songs and skits, performed in a deep brogue.

"McCloskey" was typically performed with appropriate loud noises from behind the stage and from the audience,[1] while Cline shadow-boxed a re-enactment as she sang.