"Burlington Bertie" is a music hall song composed by Harry B. Norris in 1900 and notably sung by Vesta Tilley. It concerns an aristocratic young idler who pursues a life of leisure in the West End of London. Burlington is an upmarket London shopping arcade associated with luxury goods.
This song was parodied in the now-much-better-known "Burlington Bertie from Bow" (1915) credited to William Hargreaves and sung by his wife, Ella Shields, who performed the song whilst dressed in male attire as the sort of character known as a "broken down swell". Unlike the original song, Bertie's pretensions to gentility are belied by his residence in Bow, in the poverty-stricken Metropolitan Borough of Poplar, though his status as an idler ironically links him to the leisured aristocratic class, who reside in the West End.
Betty Grable in the part of vaudevillian Myrtle McKinley Burt performed the song in the musical film Mother Wore Tights (1947).
Julie Andrews, also dressed in male attire, gave another rendition of the song in the film Star! (1968).
It was sung on episode 201 of The Muppet Show by a custom Bertie Muppet performed by Jerry Nelson.
It was referenced in the song "My Town" by the Canadian band Glass Tiger.
At the Royal Variety Performance in 1981, it was performed in the customary male evening dress by Anita Harris, who brought the house down with the line "I've just had a banana with Lady Diana" in the Buckingham Palace verse of the song. Although the Diana in the original version was probably Lady Diana Cooper, Prince Charles had married Lady Diana Spencer earlier in the year.
Dame Patricia Routledge performed an abridged version of the song and dance routine at the conclusion of episode six of the first series of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. It was revealed, earlier in the episode, that the character had performed music hall routines in her youth, one being Burlington Bertie.
The two songs about Burlington Bertie are both predecessors of Irving Berlin's song "A Couple of Swells". In all three songs, a woman dressed in a ragged form of male finery brags about how well connected in society "he" is, while clearly demonstrating an actual state of poverty.
In gambling terminology, or tic-tac, "Burlington Bertie" is rhyming slang for the fractional odds of 10/3, which is normally referred to as "one hundred to thirty".
In bingo calling "Burlington Bertie" is the call for 30.
A CD transfer recording of "Burlington Bertie from Bow" performed by Ella Shields is available from Windyridge.
A recording of "Burlington Bertie from Bow" was also made by Clinton Ford and appears on the collection Run to the Door.
Written and composed by Harry B. Norris.