Bud Flanagan

Bud Flanagan OBE
Bud Flanagan in a BBC publicity photograph from 1943
Born	Chaim Reuben Weintrop (1896-10-14)14 October 1896 Whitechapel, London, England, UK
Died	20 October 1968(1968-10-20) (aged 72) Kingston, London, England, UK
Other names	Robert Winthrop
Occupation	Music hall and vaudeville entertainer
Known for	Music hall comedy double act
Spouse(s)	Ann "Curly" Quinn

Bud Flanagan, OBE (14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a popular English music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor, he was best known as a double act with Chesney Allen. Flanagan was famous as a wartime entertainer and his achievements were recognised when he was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1959.

Flanagan was born Chaim Reuben Weintrop in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. His parents, Wolf Weintrop (1856–1932) and Yetta (Kitty) Weintrop (1856–1935) were Polish Jews who were married in the city of Radom, Poland, and fled to Łódź on their wedding day to avoid a pogrom. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop intended to escape to the "New World" from Eastern Europe – they paid for a ticket to New York and a dishonest ticket agent gave them a ticket to London.

In London, Wolf learned to be a shoe and bootmaker, and earned extra money singing as a part-time cantor (Hazzan) and by singing in pubs on Saturday nights. Wolf and Yetta Weintrop had ten children all born in London. At the time of the 1881 UK Census, Wolf "Wienkopf" and family lived in Brick Lane and by the 1891 UK Census, the "Wientrob" family had moved on to 12 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields.

At the time of the 1901 census the Weintrop family were still at Hanbury Street, with Reuben aged 4 living with six of his siblings and his parents over a fried fish shop. They later owned a barber shop and tobacconist in Whitechapel. Weintrop/Flanagan attended school in Petticoat Lane, and by the age of 10 was working as call-boy at the Cambridge Music Hall. In 1908, he made his début in a talent contest at the London Music Hall in Shoreditch, performing conjuring tricks as 'Fargo, the Boy Wizard'.