kitty McShane

Arthur Lucan & Kitty McShane

Kathleen McShane was only 15, but must have been mature for her age, when she met and married Arthur Lucan, 26-year-old English comedian on tour in Ireland, in 1913. The act of Lucan and McShane was a music hall favorite for nearly 40 years. They gradually evolved the stage characters of Old Mother Riley (Lucan in drag) and her attractive daughter Kitty, whose flighty, wayward ways occasioned many of Mother’s hilarious tirades. Kitty appeared in 14 of the 15 low-budget but popular Old Mother Riley films made from 1937-1952. Besides playing “straight” for Lucan’s comedy, Kitty carried the love interest in the films, always being single at the start of a new film even if marriage was impending in the last. Arthur and Kitty’s own marriage ended in separation by 1951; in Kitty’s last film, Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure (1951), their scenes were filmed on separate days! Kitty opened a beauty salon, which failed, while Arthur continued to support her, making one more film and many stage appearances before his sudden death in a theatre. The widowed Kitty enlisted an impersonator (usually Roy Rolland) to carry on the act, but with little success. She was found dead in her London home at age 66; the cause was not reported.

Note on Kitty McShane’s grave:

After years of searching I am at last able to state that Kitty McShane who died on 24 March 1964 was laid to rest in the Roman Catholic section of Streatham Park Cemetery on 2nd April 1964 in Grave 53194 in section 32a. It was a cold and rainy day and, sadly, very few people were at the graveside. Donald Towle did not attend but his wife Joan and daughter Marylin were present. For the McShanes, Annie Carroll came from Dublin and her sister Bridie Gallagher was there with, I believe, two of her children.
Kitty’s grave has remained unmarked for sixty years but the theatre heritage charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America are now planning to erect a gravestone in the near future. I am grateful to the Guild’s director Adrian Barry for this information. Adrian and I are hoping to arrange a small ceremony and news will be posted here in advance

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