Early British Comedy

Pimple

Fred Evans, 1889-1951 was born in London, England, into a large family of circus and music hall performers. Father and Uncle Will were notable knock about music hall comics and Grandfather Fred Evans was one of Britain’s most popular clowns. In his first shorts in 1911 for Cricks and Martin, Fred Evans’ dapper toff character was Charley Smiler but it was as Pimple in his baggy pants, big boots and cricket cap that he was to have his biggest success. Written by his brother Joe, Pimple shorts are a treat, some were straightforward little comedies and others wickedly observed parodies current productions or news events. The Whip, for example, was a pastiche on the play extravaganza of the same name. Instead of real horses as in the original, Pimple’s version has pantomime horses or one man wearing a horse head and carrying a stick in each hand to represent the front legs. Pimple’s locomotive is cut out of board and has to be carried back several times from its wandering across the stage because a cue has been missed. Contemporary events were not safe from Evans either, Pimple plays a suffragette, an enlisting soldier, anarchist – anything. Evans had made so many short films that by the time he had to take a hiatus from film production during WWI to fulfil his war service commitment, there was sufficient footage in the vaults to allow his films to be released without a break until his return. Like many the other music hall performers Evans recorded some of his stage acts for posterity, his last films were made in 1922.