In the early part of the last century, Sir Harry Lauder was the most highly paid and popular entertainer in the English speaking world. Born in Portobello, Scotland on August 4th 1870, he worked first as a miner and started singing in local song contests, the winning of which, helped spur his career. He wrote most of his own songs, performed them on stage and also had a successful recording career that lasted over three decades. Traveling the globe and touring the USA on twenty-two separate tours over three decades, he was a tireless performer becoming the world’s first superstar. After losing his only son in 1916 in World War I, he threw himself into the war effort, holding bond rallies, raising money for wounded and maimed soldiers and began the tradition of entertaining the troops at the front. He was knighted for his war work in 1919. He died in 1950 at his home in Strathaven, Scotland.
This website is dedicated to the life, career and memory of Sir Harry Lauder. A work in progress, it brings together programmes, photos, articles, advertisements, letters, postcards, sheet music and ephemera into a central archive of information on this great entertainer. I have done my best to try to organize the information into coherent categories and, to the best extent possible, dates, places and people have been identified with care, but there are gaps of information and any corrections or additions will be most appreciated.
As most of the archive contains information nearly a century old or more, there should be no copyright restrictions, but if there are any problems, please contact me accordingly to remedy. The email address is: jgm1953@earthlink.net
James Marturano
New York, USA
Updated July 2019
This site is respectfully dedicated to Edie Dippel, founder of the original “In Celebration of Sir Harry Lauder” sirharrylauder.com website. Without Edie's help and support those years ago, this site would not have been possible. Special mention is also made of the late Darrell Baker, who befriended me and supplied me with both Lauder information and material. He was truly the world’s foremost expert on Sir Harry Lauder.