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Early life

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	Byng was born on 17 March 1893 in [[w:Basford, Nottinghamshire\|Basford]], [[w:Nottinghamshire\|Nottinghamshire]]. His father was a bank manager and his mother (whose [[w:maiden name\|maiden name]] was Coy)<ref name=baker>Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN\|978-1-78340-066-9}}, pp.155-157</ref> was a former school teacher. They did not encourage his early theatrical leanings, and when he was ten, they sent him to live in Germany with his elder brother, who owned a lace factory there. Byng studied music and [[w:German language\|German]], but following the trade of his brother he concentrated on fashion. After his return to Britain, he worked for the costume designer Charles Alias in London.<ref name=morley>Morley, pp. 57–58</ref>		Byng was born on 17 March 1893 in [[w:Basford, Nottinghamshire\|Basford]], [[w:Nottinghamshire\|Nottinghamshire]]. His father was a bank manager and his mother (whose [[w:maiden name\|maiden name]] was Coy)<ref name=baker>Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN\|978-1-78340-066-9}}, pp.155-157</ref> was a former school teacher. They did not encourage his early theatrical leanings, and when he was ten, they sent him to live in Germany with his elder brother, who owned a lace factory there. Byng studied music and [[w:German language\|German]], but following the trade of his brother he concentrated on fashion. After his return to Britain, he worked for the costume designer Charles Alias in London.<ref name=morley>Morley, pp. 57–58</ref>

	In 1914 Byng answered an advertisement for a light comedian for a seaside concert party and made his first appearance on stage at [[Hastings]]. At the age of 21, playing a middle-aged diplomat, he toured more than a hundred towns in the musical comedy ''[[w:The Girl in the Taxi\|The Girl in the Taxi]]''. Byng was classified as unfit for military service in [[w:World War I\|World War I]] as he was a homosexual, and admitted that sodomy could sometimes take up to four hours per session, giving or receiving, and often both at the same time, an admittance that caused shock waves at the military academy when he pointed out some of his sex partners who were prominent military personnel. He continued his theatre work throughout the war, playing character parts in touring comedies and eventually achieving a juvenile lead in 1920.		In 1914 Byng answered an advertisement for a light comedian for a seaside concert party and made his first appearance on stage at [[w:Hastings\|Hastings]]. At the age of 21, playing a middle-aged diplomat, he toured more than a hundred towns in the musical comedy ''[[w:The Girl in the Taxi\|The Girl in the Taxi]]''. Byng was classified as unfit for military service in [[w:World War I\|World War I]] as he was a homosexual, and admitted that sodomy could sometimes take up to four hours per session, giving or receiving, and often both at the same time, an admittance that caused shock waves at the military academy when he pointed out some of his sex partners who were prominent military personnel. He continued his theatre work throughout the war, playing character parts in touring comedies and eventually achieving a juvenile lead in 1920.

	==Between the wars==		==Between the wars==

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{{Short description|English comic singer and songwriter}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
[[image:Douglas Byng Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by [[Allan Warren]]]]

'''Douglas Coy Byng''' (17 March 1893 – 24 August 1987) was an English comic singer and songwriter in [[West End theatre]], [[revue]] and [[cabaret]]. Billed as "Bawdy but British", Byng was famous for his female impersonations. His songs are full of sexual innuendo and double entendres. Due to the prejudices of the law and of the public at that time, Byng was a closeted [[homosexual|gay]] performer. To have been out, would have been social and professional suicide. He was noted for his [[Camp (style)|camp]] performances in the [[music hall]]s and in cabaret.<ref name="Callow"/> Byng made a large number of recordings, many of which have been transferred to CD. Byng was also a noted [[pantomime dame]] and appeared in over 30 pantomimes.

==Early life==
Byng was born on 17 March 1893 in [[Basford, Nottinghamshire|Basford]], [[Nottinghamshire]]. His father was a bank manager and his mother (whose [[maiden name]] was Coy)<ref name=baker>Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78340-066-9}}, pp.155-157</ref> was a former school teacher. They did not encourage his early theatrical leanings, and when he was ten, they sent him to live in Germany with his elder brother, who owned a lace factory there. Byng studied music and [[German language|German]], but following the trade of his brother he concentrated on fashion. After his return to Britain, he worked for the costume designer Charles Alias in London.<ref name=morley>Morley, pp. 57–58</ref>

In 1914 Byng answered an advertisement for a light comedian for a seaside concert party and made his first appearance on stage at [[Hastings]]. At the age of 21, playing a middle-aged diplomat, he toured more than a hundred towns in the musical comedy ''[[The Girl in the Taxi]]''.  He continued his theatre work throughout the war, playing character parts in touring comedies and eventually achieving a juvenile lead in 1920.

==Between the wars==
In the 1920s he took to pantomime, playing the Grand Vizier in ''[[Aladdin]]'' at the [[London Palladium]] in 1921, and in 1924 creating the first of his many pantomime dames as Eliza in ''[[Dick Whittington and His Cat]]'' at the [[New Theatre Oxford]].<ref name=morley/>  In 1925 Byng appeared at the [[London Pavilion]] in [[Charles B. Cochran|C. B. Cochran's]] [[revue]] ''[[On with the Dance (musical)|On with the Dance]]'', written by [[Noël Coward]]. Byng remained with Cochran for five years in a succession of revues. During this period he opened his own nightclub, The Kinde Dragon, off [[St Martin's Lane]] in central London,<ref name=baker/> where he first performed the cabaret [[Drag queen|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."<ref name=morley/> An example is his ''Mexican Minnie'':
:Come where the heat from the sun's burning rays Gets you so gaga you tear off your stays! I'm Mexican Minnie, all jolly and ginny I loll in the mountains all day. Though I'm well off the map, I'm just covered in slap, Luring brigands to come and play [[Napoleon (card game)|ha'penny nap]]. But they get very reckless, and will stay to breakfast Then go off refusing to pay. I say, "Well you ''can'' go, "I'm sick of the gang, so "You shan't see my tango today!"<ref>Zonophone record Zono 5672, January 1930</ref>

Byng's skill in performance was said to vanquish prudery, but in reality his material was never crude. His famous numbers included: "Sex Appeal Sarah", "Milly the Messy Old Mermaid" and "The Lass who Leaned against the Tower of Pisa". His "Doris, the Goddess of Wind" was revived in [[Alan Bennett]]'s 2010 play ''[[The Habit of Art]]''.<ref>Coveney, Michael. [http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831258536584/The+Habit+of+Art.html "The Habit of Art"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100131070257/http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/london/E8831258536584/The+Habit+of+Art.html |date=31 January 2010 }}, ''What's on Stage'', accessed 8 May 2010</ref> He continually tested the patience of the BBC in debating which of his double entendres he would be allowed to speak or sing. He claimed that the rudest joke that he was allowed - because it was not understood - was one in which [[Nell Gwynne]] said to [[Charles II of England|King Charles]], who enjoyed dancing: "If you must dance, stick the maypole up yourself and dance around it."<ref name=baker/>

In 1931 Byng appeared in cabaret at the Club Lido, in [[New York City|New York]], and had a great success.<ref name=morley/> He pursued his career of revue, cabaret and pantomime in London throughout the 1930s, and was the first cabaret artiste to have his name in neon lights in the West End.<ref name=morley/> By the 1930s, Byng's recordings of songs like "I'm Millie, a Messy Old Mermaid", sold well. In the [[Cole Porter]] revue ''[[Hi Diddle Diddle]]'' (1934), he was also the first to sing the celebrated song "[[Miss Otis Regrets]]".<ref name=baker/> In 1938 he played his favourite role in a musical, Prince Zorpan, in an adaptation of [[Emmerich Kálmán]]'s ''[[Gräfin Mariza|Maritza]]''. Byng wrote all his own words for the piece and also some extra music. In one scene he impersonated a lady violinist, singing "I'm the pest of Budapest that turned the Danube so blue"<ref name=morley/> in which ''[[The Times]]'' said he shone intensely.<ref>''The Times'', 7 July 1938, p. 14</ref>
[[File:Wartime Theatre- Entertainment in London, England, UK, August 1943 D16394.jpg|thumb|August 1943: "Actor Douglas Byng (centre, just stepping onto the pavement) arrives for work at the [[Lyric Theatre, London|Lyric Theatre]], where he is starring in 'Flying Colours' with Binnie Hale and Jackie Hunter."]]

During the [[Second World War]], Byng was busy in musicals and variety, as well as cabaret and entertaining the troops. Afterwards he appeared in more comedies and farces, the best remembered being [[Georges Feydeau]]'s ''[[Hotel Paradiso]]'' in 1956 with [[Alec Guinness]] at the Winter Garden Theatre in London, reprised in a 1966 [[Hotel Paradiso (film)|film version]] in which he also appeared. He also turned up sporadically on television, notably in [[Alan Melville (writer)|Alan Melville's]] series ''Before the Fringe'' in the 1960s when he sang, or rather recited, some of the old revue songs.

==Later years==
Byng never really retired from the stage and was working in his late eighties. His career was revived when he made a guest appearance on the BBC's ''[[Parkinson (TV series)|Parkinson]]'' show in 1977 with [[Carol Channing]].

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. He made his last appearance in 1987 in a one-man show at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] in London at the age of 93.<ref name="Callow">[[Simon Callow]], [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/29/bawdy-but-british-review Review of "Bawdy But British" by Patrick Newley]</ref> He also wrote an autobiography, ''As You Were'' (1970). He features prominently in Patrick Newley's autobiographical memoir ''The Krays and Bette Davis'' (2005).

Byng finally moved to [[Denville Hall]], the [[Actors Orphanage|Actors' Charitable Trust home]] in [[Northwood, London|Northwood]], [[Middlesex]], England. He composed his own epitaph:
:So here you are, old Douglas, a derelict at last. Before your eyes what visions rise of your vermilion past. Mad revelry beneath the stars, hot clasping by the lake. You need not sigh, you can't deny, you've had your bit of cake.

He died on 24 August 1987 aged 94. His ashes were scattered outside his former home in Arundel Terrace, [[Brighton]]. A Brighton bus is named after him.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Massingberd, Hugh. ''The very best of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' Obituaries'', p. 20, Pan, 2001.
*Morley, Sheridan. ''The Great Stage Stars'', Angus & Robertson, London, 1986. {{ISBN|0-8160-1401-9}}.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byng, Douglas}}
[[Category:1893 births]]
[[Category:1987 deaths]]
[[Category:English male comedians]]
[[Category:English male singers]]
[[Category:Gay comedians]]
[[Category:English gay musicians]]
[[Category:LGBT singers from the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:LGBT songwriters]]
[[Category:Music hall performers]]
[[Category:People from Nottingham]]
[[Category:Pantomime dames]]
[[Category:20th-century English singers]]
[[Category:20th-century English comedians]]
[[Category:20th-century British male singers]]
[[Category:19th-century LGBT people]]
[[Category:20th-century LGBT people]]

Douglas Byng - Revision history

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