Florence Yaymen

Florence Yaymen (died 1927), English music hall character comedienne and dancer
(photo: unknown, probably United Kingdom, circa 1905)

Florence Yaymen (sometimes Yayman) began her career about 1905, finding immediate success as a ‘coon burlesque artist.’ She died suddenly on 22 July 1927, the cause being given as the bursting of a blood vessel.

London Coliseum, London, November 1908
‘Rough ”coon” stuff is very acceptable over here. Florence Yayman has some, but inside that she is an excellent dancer.’
(Variety, New York, Saturday, 5 December 1908, p. 8c)

Metropolitan music hall, Edgware Road, London, September 1907
‘Florence Yayman gets away with some comedy that seems to hurt her in her Topsy speciality [a reference to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin]. Miss Yayman was quite popular.’
(Variety, New York, Saturday, 2 October 1909, p. 11b)

‘The committee of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild, 3, Newport House, Great Newport Street, [London] W.C.2, desire to thank Florence Yayman, who has kindly been making dolls, and has sent a donation of £2 0s. 6d… .’
(The Stage, London, Thursday, 7 June 1917, p. 8c)

‘FLORENCE YAYMAN’S SUCCESS
‘Big Christmas Show at Tivoli [Sydney, NSW, 1923]
‘Originality in vaudeville is the keynot of success. Because Florence Yayman, who made her first Australian appearance at the Tivoli yesterday, possess that requisite in a particularity marked degree, she at once sang and acted her easy way into the good graces of the big audience.
‘Miss Yayman is a character impersonator, in itself an unusual line for a female artist. She is also a delightful yodeller – a phase of entertainment usually confined to the sterner sex. She changes costume on the stage but in a light dim enough to make anybody open wide their eyes and presents a series of character sketches commencing with that of a Chinese. This is followed by a Tyrolean love songs, and then Miss Yayman presents what is obviously her forte – the impersonation of the American coal-black ”cooness.” As a coon flapper she gives a quaint rendering of I Want a Boy, and then concludes a too-brief programme with a lullaby, in which she appears as a black mammy… I Her impersonation of the old mammy and the ”picken’ ‘em up and puttin’ ‘em down again feet” are perfect.’
(Sunday Times, Sydney, NSW, 23 December 1923, p. 6b)

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