ABSTRACT
The music hall in Britain has an image as old-time, classless entertainment, as commemorated in the long-running television show, The Good Old Days. This chapter looks at the development of music hall working conditions and union organization from 1900 to 1920, concentrating on three key moments: the turn of the century, the great London strike of 1907, and the years of the First World War. A survey of the industry in 1900 shows that there was a tremendous amount of money being made. The music halls, now several hundred in number, were growing in size and in capitalization. The industry was ever more professional, and theatres were tightly run businesses. A series of trade unions made up the alliance that ran the strike. The Variety Artistes Federation had been founded in 1906 by delegates from three existing organizations.
