Hello, Hello, Who's Your Lady Friend?

DESCRIPTION: "Jeremiah Jones a lady's man was he.... Till he found a wife..." -- but on their honeymoon, a voice says, "Hello! Hello! Who's your lady friend? Who's the little girlie by your side? I've seen you with a girl or two." Everywhere, he gets the same question
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Hubert Worton David & Bert Lee / Music: Harry Fragson (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (recorded by Harry Fragson)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wife humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 214, "(no title)" (1 text, which includes only the chorus)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 24-25, "Hello! Hello! Who's Your Lady Friend?" (1 text)
Pegler-SoldiersSongsAndSlangoftheGreatWar, pp. 241-242, "Hello, Hello, Who's Your Lady Friend?" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Hello! Hello! Who’s your lady friend?"
NOTES [255 words]: For other songs in the Index co-written by Worton David, see the notes to "That Old-Fashioned Mother of Mine." For Bert Lee, who wrote mostly with R. P. Weston, see the notes to "Goodbye-ee."
This was the song most strongly associated with Harry Fragson (1869-1913), who was both a performer and a writer. According to Richard Anthony Baker, British Music Hall: An Illustrated History, 2014 (I use the 2020 Pen & Sword paperback edition), pp. 129-131, he was born in London, the son of a hotel-keeper who absolutely refused to support his musical career. Fragson moved to Paris at about the age of 18 and lived in absolute poverty while he learned to entertain others. A great joker, he got his big break when Arthur Collins, head of a Drury Lane theatre, gave him a role in a "pantomime" called "Cinderella." Fragson contributed a song, "Whispers of Love," which became the hit of the show. And his career took off, despite the fact that Baker, p. 130, says that he was "either gay or bi-sexual" (probably the latter, since he twice showed interest in showgirls).
Fragson's father, was by then living with his son. And the father was growing demented, or worse. He was jealous of his son's girlfriend, Mlle. Frank, and suspected that his son would force him into a nursing home. So, on New Year's Eve 1913, Fragson Sr. murdered his own son. The father was so far gone that he died in an asylum just six weeks later.
Would Fragson have been able to produce more hits? One suspects so -- assuming he avoided being blacklisted. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: BrPa214C

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