Wilson, Keppel & Betty

[@dennis7511]

Without KZbin most of us would never have heard of them let alone see them. They were great.

[@phoenix4165]

Now I am giving my age away. My mother took me to see them at the Pavilion theatre in Glasgow when I was very [honestly] little. Loved them then. Still love them now.

[@joshuarosen465]

When was that? This film appears to be from the early 30s, when did you see them.

[@nsfeliz7825]

so your 90 yearz old?

[@MARKMANIATT]

One of the few advantages of getting older. You got to see a unique act!

[@dpnorton1680]

@@nsfeliz7825 The act was still going to 1963

[@ВероникаПопова-п9у]

Great! How lucky you are!!!❤

[@MARKMANIATT]

This is what You Tube should be about.Absolutely brilliant film of one of the greatest of all music hall acts.It doesn't get much better than this.

[@homersimpson8955]

Maybe Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson.

[@MrSwajo2]

I never tire from watching them. Absolutely brilliant.

[@Bethi4WFH]

I remember seeing this act on TV in the 50s, and have always loved them. My father and uncle had a party piece, dressing up and performing the sand dance (with burnt cork moustaches!). Great memories.

[@chapsnaps1]

Comedy genius! I'm not sure how the tap-dancing Gandhi would be received by a modern audience but the whole routine is peerless. The best speciality act ever.

[@tomitstube]

their act was designed around an egyptian theme. the stances taken during the dances were of ancient egyptian tomb paintings, their act started up around the discovery of tutankhamun's tomb (king tut).

[@rooismum1023]

I agree, when my fella saw it he said . That would go down like a sack of s*** these days. Comedy genious😊

[@andrewst9797]

The 'modern audience' no longer counts. Woke is dead.

[@mariantreber8055]

@@andrewst9797 That's gonna change, if that's what we want! Woke b s is OUT.

[@andrewabel3927]

Always a joy to watch. Wilson, Keppel and Betty were legends such a shame I was born a few years to late to watch them in person.

[@petejones879]

My dad god rest his soul always used to speak about wilson keppel and Betty I'm 67 now but knew about them since I was a kid and being an avid follower of film. Stage and theatre I learnt about many stage acts going back to vaudeville times

[@steveoh9285]

Simply Marvelous! Their Sand Dance is my all-time favorite.

[@causabon99]

a genius act. Thank goodness for KZbin, so that we can discover this kind of thing.

[@brbrtrff]

Wonderful to see that people still are alive who saw them! I got to know about these amazing entertainers via a Swedish blog Stupido library, I am forever grateful!

[@MOGGS1942]

No television exposure in those days. Every cabaret act would travel around the UK performing the same act, week in, week out. By the time they would get back to the first venue, the paying public would have forgotten what they saw previously, so the act could continue as was. Nice work if you can get it. As a young lad, I used to enjoy my occasional visits to Swansea's Empire Theatre , which was part of The Moss Empire. Saw Wilson, Keppel and Betty, so this video is a trip down memory lane. Thanks.

[@dingopisscreek]

yes, many music hall acts made a good living for many years with relatively little material, as you say when they returned to venues their act was mostly forgotten or it was a new audience

[@davidsimpson105dB]

Timeless and utterly brilliant !!

[@declanmcdermott]

Now this is what you call real comedy gold, Thanks for sharing

[@tonystokes3691]

thank you very much. I remember watching the three artists performing. outside cinema's in the west end of London before the 1939-45 war!!! sometimes the acts were better outside , well I were only a little lad, so what did I know. memories. Tony

[@WOLFROY47]

you wernt wrong and cheaper to

[@rickgauger2895]

And I thought I was old with my recollections of the 50s.

[@stefanyreich-silber653]

yes me too. But I saw only two of them in Leicester Square must have been late 50s or early 60s.

[@pollydickinson4789]

How wonderful!! That has taken me back to my childhood and I am in my seventies now.❤

[@ravendane3085]

I introduced Wilson, Keppel and Betty to my young adult son tonight....he absolutely loved them!

[@petejones879]

So refreshing to see no laptop no beat machine no mobile /cell phones lol just real entertainers doing all the work themselves

[@johngoddard9095]

the best speciality act of all time

[@mariesaintcharles]

Merci KZbin de me faire découvrir des pépites.

[@chrisforrest9482]

I think there was something intangable yet truely very valuable in our past that we have simply thrown away. And in throwing this away, we have come to value each other less. I don't think young people will understand this, but people above a certain age most assureadely will. 😥

[@stevestheboy1]

absolutaly brilliant love these guys

[@НатальяОзорнина-щ9н]

Спасибо за возможность увидеть это замечательное видео!!!

[@007Jacqui]

Wow! Brilliant act. Incredible talent that has endured and has influenced others. I recognize Morcome & Wise in parts of the sand dance.

[@mimosa17]

My Dad took me to see them when I was very, very little. They were in colour back then. They tickled my funny bone and still do, over the sands of time. Betty did a dance with her back to the audience but wearing a face mask on the back of her head which was a strange and funny illusion as her limbs and joints all appeared to work back to front.

[@simontaylor2319]

Neve seen the first of this performance - more to them than just the Sand Dance. Wush a new trio would repricate them. Brilliant & totally unique

[@havingagr8time]

Superb entertainment, blazing talent! Oh, to have seen it live!

[@bobbybates2614]

I been watching Wilson and keppel it's a pity there is no one to recreate the sand dance

[@rowancrew2934]

I always loved the sand dance ,still makes me smile

[@rickyrydell]

Watching this 90 tears later. Incredible!

[@katewild2194]

My grandfather used to take me to the chiswick empire when I was a young boy and I was lucky to see a lot of artists performing one of the things I remember is they had a stand to the side with the number of the act that would be next so long ago one of my favourite was old mother riley which I saw at the kings theatre Hammersmith

[@marystele1197]

Musical Comedy Dancing at it's most stupendous. Real Artistsm Magnifque!!! ❤xxx

[@swallin19]

Thanks for the posting, a few yeas ago there were only scraps surviving of this very famous UK Variety Act, now many have surfaced , thank goodness, and this must be the rarest film of the great comedy dance act, giving some extras over the Sand Dance routine that they always did as part of "Cleopatra's Nightmare", the full act name. Stephen.

[@oreilly1237878]

You will laugh and laugh and laugh.Its such a shame the music halls are now gone.

[@muffinisis]

i grew up watching this , its still as good thank you for the post

[@paulinekirkham7945]

Absolutely brilliant I never tire of watching them.

[@sjb3460]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! compare to the gonadal gyrations we see on stage now.

[@larrysorenson4789]

My God: better backdrops, a camel or two, snake charmer, a flying carpet, jugglers and a 20 minute act! Killer.

[@mak500]

C'est formidable. Merci pour le partage !

[@Algeswife]

Absolutely brilliant. So, so funny.

[@Lemma01]

Superb. My father was a big fan, now my 8 year old is trying to emulate this - he'll need a lot more practice...

[@davidpaylor5666]

I have always loved Wilson, Keppel and Betty but I have no idea why. But that Betty taps like a machine gun, amazing.

[@vaemcdowell6205]

This goes into my collection of much watched favorites, along with Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West softshoe/minuet.

[@marvinc999]

This is an example of REAL 'celebrity'......................back in the days when it had to be EARNED (and required something called 'Talent').

[@traceydaizy]

Oh for goodness sake! There's talent now, plenty of it. Things change and progress, they don't just stay the same. Get over it.

[@crazyduck1254]

my doggie has more talent than these three stooges

[@MegaMesozoic]

They weren't "celebrities", they were Stars!

[@pdmpdm999]

That was just priceless and it will take days to wipe the smile oo

[@richardalfredpalmer9660]

Absolutely marvellous thank you so much.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@larrysorenson4789]

A tribute group at the Mayfair Theater in Santa Monica would bring the house down at 9:30 on a Friday night. Hysterical.

[@sashapillai7430]

I would not have known of these talents without you tube.

[@ЛанаСолнечная]

Посмотрела раз 20 ,не могу насмотреться! Это супер, магия просто!

[@ЛенаЛена-э5ш]

Сколько раз вижу, балдею от Египтян!!!!

[@dingopisscreek]

clips of W & K are a rarity. even rarer are the ones with Betty, of whom there were several over the years.

[@mohacs1000]

Great stuff. Just clicked on this after watching Frank Skinners BBC program about music halls.

[@mikehudson8884]

+Stuart Little Me too, amazing, I really enjoyed Frank Skinners programme today. Also I looked up Mxax MIller, it's great we have You Tube.

[@vaaleaanodis]

The very best comedy of all time!!!

[@nickyact1]

Wonderful!!

[@tazika2988]

SINCE I WAS A CHILD I wanted to know HOW did Old Egyptians WALK, and now I can die in peace bc finally I know!!! My schooling played out in Yugoslavia. Whenever a school subject "History" started its new "From the Beginning" round - every 4 years, in Art School & Academy every 2 - all schoolmates played "Let's walk like Old Egyptians" game, over and over again! Although half of my school used to walk around in Two-dimensional-Old-Egyptian-Style, I was never completely satisfied. 3D picture we were creating with our bodies just wasn't allive. I was missing something, some importaint component was escaping me, slipping out of my focus... for over half a century... I GOT IT Now! It's The SOUND. Sound & Rhythm. It's Old-Egyptian pulse, beat, flow, swing, it's the musical phrase of their walk. Wilson & Keppel, Thank You! Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

[@pamelacurley6982]

I remember seeing these two when I was a child with my mum and dad. They would be dancing outside the Empire Leicester square in London . My dad especially would roll up at them.

[@ericthemauve]

They never performed outside, but there was another act that copied them and performed outside for theatre and cinema queues.

[@margueritejohnson8373]

The Happy Wanderers. They could pack up and disappear into the crowd in seconds when one of their lookouts signalled. A visit to he theatre, in the ‘gods’, was incomplete if we didn’t see them!

[@stefanyreich-silber653]

@@ericthemauve oh you clarified that for me. Thanks

[@stefanyreich-silber653]

@@margueritejohnson8373 thank you

[@michaelwright2986]

@@ericthemauve Oh, I guess thank you for that information, but now I've lost a precious memory of my childhood. They were a good imitation, though.

[@arthurkinnell9891]

Fantastic! If only modern 'entertainers' had even a small percentage of these people's talent and hard work..........

[@5916tony]

Quality, we need this on BGT with the star wars stormtroopers though the original performers will be hard to beat

[@RobinShepherd1]

Thanks for the link.

[@_Ben4810]

I'm just reading about them now...& how the final Betty bought a VW Splitscreen minibus & she drove Jack & Joe & all the props across Europe touring the act in the latter years...!

[@johnleonard4166]

The insanity is Priceless.

[@kittymervine6115]

the story of the Betty's is amazing, the original one became a war correspondent in WWII. Her daughter took over the role, and in the video of her on YT, if you look carefully you can see she has one arm she does not use. It was damaged by a bad surgeon when it was cut badly. It was never able to be repaired, even though one of the group...spent much money and time trying to help her. The other was more focused on the act, and the incredible need to remain THIN as possible!

[@xvdd1]

I have never seen a moustacheless version before thank you.

[@juliakhmelevskaya9388]

Brilliant!❤

[@dominicangadi]

Thank you 'Toast of London' for bringing me here.

[@Korivassilyou]

In the opening number, Betty dances to "In a Persian Market," by Albert Ketèlbey.

[@jonelliecoombs6812]

A must see at The Empire, Leicester Square in the 50’s....

[@magdatorruellas9122]

I must watch the sand dance almost every night! I just find it so amusing.

[@gremlinuk1968]

Got sound now,,! Thanks,,,!

[@meee6836]

Some of the best dancers I have ever seen. Eat your heart out Astaire. The co-ordination is unbelievable.

[@betty5064]

I saw them at the Bristol Hippodrome in the 1950s. Great fun.

[@stevestheboy1]

pure genius from a better time,,,

[@CityThatCannotBeCaptured]

Superb.

[@richH1625]

I invariably get the the feeling that tap/clog dancers are making it up as they go along ... till I see two together > 2:45 :-)

[@davesky538]

I'm addicted to W-K and Betty!

[@thesaxman]

Thanks for posting, not known to me! But wonderful stuff?

[@hughmartin6618]

Never seen so much of Betty!

[@OntologicalQuandry]

GENIUSES!

[@richardbrougham3832]

I watched them at the Hume Hippodrome, Manchester in the late 40s

[@larrysorenson4789]

And now I can’t get the Persian Market song out of my mind. Damn you!🤣👍

[@stevepinch7589]

I saw them at the Chatham Empire as a child

[@arthurlewis9193]

I saw them on a different youtube channel.

[@MOGGS1942]

Swansea Empire for me.

[@charlesrae3793]

So this is what life was iike before KZbin... I had often wondered, now I know.

[@maite8705]

Esto lo bailábamos en los festivales del cole.

[@RobinShepherd1]

Great to watch. Thanks for sharing it! Do you know if the film is available on dvd? I would love to see the whole thing.

[@ЛамараПасадская-ц5п]

Какая прелесть, можно вечно смотреть🔥😍

[@lillianflorence6056]

Better than today's rubbish,

[@williamhall1927]

As a nipper, my parants and friends would speak of WK&B. Some how i remeber thinking of them ad Freeman 4:22 Harding and Willis. A shoe shop!

[@inregionecaecorum]

H'mm I don't think that bit a 1.07 where they seem to be taking the P out of Ghandi is very PC. Mind you that was back in 1934 so I think I will let it go, they still manage to have me in stitches.

[@violetmcveigh6643]

its just harmless fun

[@Pumpherstonsmith]

Ghandi was a piss artist anyway

[@postscript67]

There's no harm in poking fun at Ghandi. He was after all a prominent political figure and no saint. And as Churchill pointed out, he was a seditious lawyer posing as a fakir. For another comic reference to him, see the video of Bebe Daniels singing "You're getting to be a habit with me" in the film 42nd Street.

[@janmortimer1758]

@@postscript67Churchill was a class r#cist.after the war let the peasants in India starve do the brits could eat!

[@naly202]

I know of them thanks to Morecambe and Wise

[@clivenaylor5392]

Betty Knox became a journalist and reported on the Nüremburg trials.

[@alanm5939]

Any chance of posting this marvellous clip in better quality

[@tutenvanman2715]

This either proves time travel or some people can live for centuries. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Chuckle brothers.

[@bluecanary1note]

Watch this with sound muted while listening to 'Jelly Dancers' by The Eels. You'll die laughing!

[@traceydaizy]

Brilliant

[@faulknerorkney2692]

Put them on America's Got Talent and that fool Simon Cowell would send them home!

[@MOGGS1942]

Unless they had a dog with them as part of the act.

[@TrevorLedgeway]

Thats when comedy was comedy.....Brilliant.''

[@kristinaanna5630]

Bravo👏👏👏

[@tectorama]

I'd much rather watch this, than I would Irish stamp dancing.

[@fatbelly27]

That was the original Betty - she left the act in 1941 to become a war correspondent

[@keytesofessex]

The ads were longer than the amazing film

[@gengisquand1621]

Très bien cool