The Tiny Websters

The Tiny Websters (fl. 1892-1895), English music hall duettists and dancers, billed as ‘Lilliputian Wonders’
(photo: unknown, probably UK, circa 1893)

The London Pavilion, week beginning Monday, 28 November 1892
‘The Tiny Websters (Lizzie and Louise) are heard to advantage in a new song called ”Smacky, smacky, smack,” and their dancing is extremely graceful.’
(The Era, London, Saturday, 3 December 1892, p. 16a)

‘“The Tiny Websters” – a duo of “identical Lilliputian sisters”, whose one notable hit, I Don’t Want to Play in Your Yard, was recorded with exquisite tenderness decades later, in 1957, by American vocalist Peggy Lee.’
(Michael Simkins, The Daily Telegraph, London, Wednesday, 19 September 2012, p. 22, a review of John Major’s book, My Old Man: A Personal History of Music Hall)

Michael Kilgarriff (Sing Us One of the Old Songs, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 39) states that ‘I Don’t Want to Play in Your Yard,’ published in 1894, was also sung by Jenny Clare and Madelaine Majilton, and Julie Mackey. Various versions of this song, including Peggy Lee’s, may be heard on YouTube.

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