1912, London Palace Theatre

1st July, 1912
The Palace Theatre, London

This was the very first Royal Command Performance representing British variety & music hall, and presented all the great names of the day. All, that is, but Marie Lloyd, perhaps the biggest name in popular music hall at the time. Her ommission, apparantly on the grounds that she was too risque for such a Royal performance at a time when music hall was just becoming 'respectable', is one of the most controversial in the history of the Royal Variety Performance.

This first staging was a lavish occasion, and the theatre was decorated with 3 million roses draped around the auditorium and over the boxes. The show's profits were donated to the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund, as the EABF was then known, to contribute towards its proposed plans to build an extension to its home for elderly entertainers, Brinsworth House.