Charles Coborn

British music hall singer (1852–1945)

the South African cricketer

Colin Whitton McCallum (4 August 1852 – 23 November 1945), known by his stage name Charles Coborn, was a British music hall singer and comedian. During a long career, Coborn was known largely for two comic songs: "Two Lovely Black Eyes", and "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo."

He was born in Stepney, East London, and adopted his stage name from Coborn Road, which feeds onto Bow Road. He made his music hall debut on the Isle of Dogs in 1872, and by 1879 was being billed at the Oxford Music Hall in London as "The Comic of the Day". In 1886, he heard American William J. Scanlan's song "My Nellie's Blue Eyes". Liking the melody but not the words, Coborn rewrote it as "Two Lovely Black Eyes", and began performing it regularly wearing a faded frock coat, carrying a battered umbrella and with two blackened eyes. and the song was instantly successful. In 1891, he bought the rights to Fred Gilbert's song, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo". When Gilbert first offered the song, Coborn was reluctant to adopt it. In his autobiography he stated: "[I] liked the tune very much, especially the chorus, but I was rather afraid that some of the phrasing was rather too highbrow for an average music hall audience." But when he found that he could not get the chorus out of his mind, he decided to use it. Coborn confirmed that Gilbert's inspiration was the gambler and confidence trickster Charles Wells, who was reported to have won one and a half million francs at the Monte Carlo casino, using the profits from previous fraud. Coborn's other, less successful, songs included "Should Husbands Work? ", part of the music hall tradition of (normally conservative) social comment; "I've Loved Another Girl Since Then"; He is buried with his wife in Brompton Cemetery, London. Recordings that he made during the 1920s can be found on the album Chairman's Choice – Music Hall Greats. His eldest son, Major Duncan McCallum, became Member of Parliament for Argyllshire.