Dan Leno's Comic Journal issue 1, 1896
Dan Leno was born George Wild Galvin on 20 December 1860 in St Pancras, London. His parents, John and Louisa Galvin, were a music-hall double act known as "Mr and Mrs Johnny Wild". His father died when he was four, and his mother married William Grant, a music-hall comedian known as William Leno, with whom she performed as "Mrs and Mrs Leno". George and his brother Henry began performing as clog dancers under the name "The Great Little Lenos", and in his teens George performed as an Irish-themed comedian, using the names "The Great Little Leno" and "Dan Patrick".
The family moved to Manchester, where dancer and comedy singer Lydia Reynolds joined their act. George and Lydia married in 1884, shortly after the birth of their first child. Around this time he adopted the name Dan Leno. The following year he split with his family and he and Lydia moved back to London, and he established himself as a successful solo act. In the 1890s he was London's leading music hall and pantomime performer, rivalled only by Albert Chevalier, whose romantic act contrasted with Leno's grittier observational comedy. In the late 1890s, a journalist wrote that Leno was "probably the highest paid funny man in the world".
On 26 February 1896 he and publisher C. Arthur Pearson launched Dan Leno's Comic Journal, a comic paper based on his act and characters. Leno had full editorial control, and wrote most of the paper's stories, with art by cartoonists like Tom Browne, Charles Genge, Frank Holland and others. The paper ran for almost two years, closing on 2 December 1899.
Between 1901 and 1903 he recorded more than 25 songs and monologues. By this time he had developed a serious drink problem, behaving erratically and sometimes violently towards his fellow performers, frequently forgetting his lines and missing his cues. He suffered a breakdown, and was treated for several months at Camberwell House Asylum in London, before returning to the stage, initially successfully. However, he relapsed after the accident death of fellow performer Herbert Campbell. He died at home in London on 31 October 1904, aged 43.
