Bud Flanagan - Early Life

Early Life

At the time of the 1901 census the Weintrop family were still at Hanbury Street, with Reuben aged 4 living with six of his siblings and his parents over a Fried Fish shop. They later owned a barber shop and tobacconist in Whitechapel. Weintrop/Flanagan attended school in Petticoat Lane, and by the age of 10 was working as call-boy at the Cambridge Music Hall. In 1908, he made his début in a talent contest at the London Music Hall in Shoreditch, performing conjuring tricks as 'Fargo, The Boy Wizard'.

Weintrop/Flanagan was born with a sense of adventure and was keen to see the world. In 1910, aged 14, he decided to leave home and walked all the way to Southampton where he claimed to be an electrician aged 17 in order to get a job aboard ship. He sailed with the SS Majestic to New York, and jumped ship when it arrived in the U.S.A. Reuben got various jobs selling newspapers, delivering telegrams for Western Union, and even harvested wheat in Fargo, North Dakota. He joined a vaudeville show that toured across the U.S.A. and in October 1914, he sailed with a show to perform in New Zealand and Australia. He travelled to perform on stage in South Africa where he met up with his brother Alec (Alexander) who was living there at the time. Once back in San Francisco, Reuben decided to return to England in order to enlist to fight for Britain in World War I. He returned to England in 1915 and enlisted as “Robert” Weintrop; he joined the Royal Field Artillery, and was sent with his unit to fight in France. In the Army, he worked as a driver and entertained the troops with his singing and impersonations. Here he met the unpopular Sergeant Major Flanagan from whom he later adopted his stage name. In 1919 he formed a comedy double act, 'Flanagan and Roy'.

He met his wife Anne ("Curly"), daughter of Irish comedian Johnny Quinn ('The Singing Clown'), who was a dancer in "Mrs. Stacey's Young Ladies". They were married in 1925 and in 1926 their son Buddy was born. Tragically, Buddy died of leukaemia in Los Angeles, U.S.A., on 29 February 1956. After his death, the estate of Bud Flanagan started a charity to promote cancer research. A primary aim of the Bud Flanagan Leukaemia Fund is to support the Leukaemia/Myeloma Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, Surrey.