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Concept
Nor Kiddie
Summary
Nor Kiddie was the stage name of the comedian, actor and juggler of the 1920s and 1930s, Norman Chilton Kiddie.
Nor was born to Elizabeth and Joseph Garibaldi Kiddie in Widnes, Lancashire 1897.
Joseph (or 'J. Gar', b. 1864) was a locally successful music hall artiste, writer, comedian, pantomime producer and promoter in the early years of the century. He had his own comic sketch company by 1907 when J. Gar Kiddie & Co. appeared at the Grand Theatre, Hanley with their "funny absurdity" 'The House of Tinn' which starred Kiddie himself. Another early triumph was his version of the "Little Bo-Peep" pantomime - featuring Walter Wade as the Baron - that he created and promoted. In 1904 he had taken his "merry burlesque", 'A Little Coquette' to the New Gaiety Theatre at Leith. This play would later be filmed under the same title in 1909.
By the start of World War I, Gar was the impresario of the local Alexandra Theatre at Widnes and had become associated with Bert Harding, who was a musician and conductor at that place before being called up for service. Throughout the early days of the war, Harding continued to write songs and tunes, including one with his old friend Gar. By 1915 the work, an Irish musical play, was finished and had been provisionally entitled 'Sheila'. Both Harding (a gunner with 115th Heavy Battery) and Kiddie were awaiting the end of the war in order to produce and tour the play. Sadly, Harding was seriously wounded by shell fragments on 15 October 1917 and died the next day. As far as can be ascertained, the play was never produced.
After the war, when Gar's son Norman came of age, he joined his father’s act, the two of them being billed as, "Nor and Gar Kiddie." The two worked hard at polishing their act and were rewarded when, in the summer of 1923, they headlined in the play, "O.K." (billed as "a Magical Musical Comedy - you will laugh 'til you cry."), which toured the country.
The next year, Nor appeared solo in J.A. Tunbridge’s, "The Globe Trot" alongside the author, P.M.
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