From surgical boot to a stage clog

My cousin Tommy Harrington contracted polio as a child. He survived the illness but,like many others he ended with one leg shorter than the other.  The only remedy then was the surgical boot, a contraption consisting of a brace on the longer leg and a heavy boot with a thick sole on the shorter.  Like most children fitted with the boot Tommy hated it. He knew that it helped with his walking but it made him stand out from the other children. Also at this time in the early 1900s children whose limbs had been damaged by polio were "cripples" and rarely got beyond that either in description or aspiration.

Tommy Harrington would not accept that. He developed a liking for music possibly derived and perhaps learned from his grandfather Alphons Eder, a street musician,  how  to play the accordion and concertina. As well as being a natural musician, never learning to read music, he began writing comic songs and performing them for anyone who would listen.

Later he decided to go on the stage, developing a yodelling style of singing and dressed in his own version of a Dutch costume. He later said that the costume was inspired by wanting to cover his surgical boot so baggy trousers did that well.. Eventually he was able to have some special boots made which resembled wooden clogs, which he wore to the end of his stage career.

He appeared on the Music Halls which were still popular and numerous in those days, recorded many of his songs and even had hits, such as they were then.  I told much of this in a previous blog. I am reminded that he died twenty-five years ago but you will still find mention of him on the internet.  By today's standards a "celebrity".

A Tale of Two Migrants

My Great great grandfathert Balthasar Dietz was an economic migrant by today’s standards, In about 1842 he left his native village in rural Hessen in Germany and travelled to England.



He had no trade so went to work in one of the many Sugar refineries in the East End of London. Being a sugar baker in Whitechapel was hard work in great heat for not a great deal of money. He stuck at it for about four years, and in the meantime married and had children but still managed to save up enough money to set himself up in business as a beer seller.

He must have been reasonably successful at this as he could afford to make trips back to his home village, owned a gold watch and on his last visit to Germany had fifty pounds of his own money in his pocket.

How this entrepreneur of the 1850s would have progressed we do not know because he died at the age of 42 in unknown circumstances in Cologne on his way to visit his aged parents in Germany. As he had succeeded to go from a labourer in a sugar refinery to being self employed with money to spare in just four years, imagine what he may have accomplished given more time,

On the other hand my great grandfather Alphons Eder was a different kind of migrant. He left his home in Ljubljana, Slovenia and signed on one of the last Royal Navy sailing ships as a bandsman. After sailing to British Columbia via Valparaiso and Rio and back, he stayed in London haveing presumably seen as much of the world a he wanted. 

He married the only surviving daughter of Balthasar, fathered ten children and for the rest of his life he never had a “proper job” supporting his wife and family playing in a German Band as a street musician or busker if you will.  I always think of him as some kind of early jazzman for whom the music was more important than the money. He lived a good life as far as we can tell and lived to the age of 77, never having returned to his native land.

George Van Dusen

George Van Dusen.

Born Albert Thomas Harrington 19^th April 1905, in St. George in the East, London, the son of Albert and Augusta Harrington

His musical heritage was as the grandson of Alphons Eder a lifelong street musician in East London . http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1500285617

He was generally known as Tommy in the family, presumably to differentiate him from his father. He is not listed with family at Pennington Street, Stepney on the 1911 census, but it may well be that he was in hospital at the time, as it is known that he contracted polio as a child.

George had a long a successful career on the music hall stage generally appearing as “The Great Dutch Yodeller”. He adopted a quasi dutch clothing of smock, cap and baggy trousers, which was probably to disguise the surgical boot he wore as a result of the polio.

George Van Dusen's recordings were amongst the best sellers of the 1930s. He also appeared regularly on BBC radio variety programmes from as early as 1932. He wrote many of his own songs under the pen name Fred Farrell, as well as adapting older tunes, although he freely admitted that he could not read music, composing his numbers with the aid of a mouth organ.

During the 1980's George Van Dusen was "rediscovered" and his song “It's Party Time Again” was in the pop record charts, in December 1988, remixed with a disco beat. The story was that an old copy of one of his records was picked up by a record company producer from a second hand stall in Charing Cross Road, however this may well be just myth.

Another version is that the find was by the producer of the Terry Wogan radio programme and subsequently Terry plugged the song in his show.
He appeared on the Terry Wogan TV show later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhsBOJYTGTw

George continued to appear on stage at charity concerts and the like until well into his 80's, even though by that time he was confined to a wheelchair.

His recordings included:

Mountain High

Holiday Time is Jollity Time

Murphy’s Wedding Day

The Warbling Yodeller

A wee drap o’ Scotch

The Yodelling Cowboy

The Yodelling chinaman

The Yodelling Accordeon Man

Yodelling Izzy

The Yodelling Huntsman

The Yodelling Farmer

Yodelling Banjo Player

It’s Holiday Time Again

The Yodelling Mouth Organ Player

Mountain Melodies

Knees Up Yodelling Song

Warbling and Yodelling

The Yodelling Sailor

The Yodelling Wanderer

Polosky’s Russian Party

Yodelling Tommy Atkins

The Yodelling Toreador

Come along Liza, Come along Bill

It’s Party Time again

Yodelling Working Man

Yodelling Sergeant Major

Smile Smile Smile

Izzie,izzie,izzie

Yiddisher Yodeller

In 1937 he took an action in the High Court for infringement of copyright for his songs “Mountain refrain”, “Yodelling blacksmith”, “Yodelling Soloman” and an arrangement of “Silver threads among the Gold”. He was only successful in respect of the first song and was awarded five guineas damages.

He died in 1992 in Enfield, at the age of 87.