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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Stanley Holloway
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(1890–1982) Actor, singer and entertainer who first became famous with his comic monologues, delivered in a deadpan Lancashire accent (though he was himself a Londoner). The earliest, in 1927, was Sam, pick oop tha musket, but by far the best known was The Lion and Albert, the story of how Albert Ramsbottom was swallowed by the lion in Blackpool Zoo ('Well, I am vexed' is his mother's response when she hears the news). His stage career included *music hall, *revue and straight theatre (even Shakespeare and Shaw), and he appeared in numerous films. But his crowning achievement was the creation of the cockney dustman Alfred Doolittle in *My Fair Lady.
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