Ernie Mayne

{{Short description|English music hall entertainer}}

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{{More citations needed|date=September 2020}}

Percy Ernest Barratt (17 March 1871 – 15 May 1937) was an English music hall entertainer who performed under the name Ernie Mayne.{{cite web|author=Bill Clark |url=http://www.musichallcds.co.uk/cdr25_page.htm |title=Ernie Mayne - Fried Fruit Fritters |website=Musichallcds.co.uk |date=1922-10-11 |accessdate=2014-01-02}} Mayne was one of the first music hall stars to broadcast on radio in 1922.{{cite web|title=Ernie Mayne,145 Loughborough Road [1911]|url=https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/records/ernie-mayne-145-loughborough-road-1911|access-date=24 December 2021|publisher=layersoflondon.org}}

Born in Topsham, Devon,{{Cite web |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=rtFOgSl5ivCH%2BbrZGXf30Q&scan=1 |title=Index entry |accessdate=24 December 2021 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}} by the age of ten he was living in London's Soho. He weighed about {{cvt|20|stone}} and sang comic songs such as "Fried Fruit Fritters" about his weight. Mayne first gained interest in comedy when people laughed at him for wanting to be an airman, because of his weight. One of his songs, "What D'yer Think of That" was later remade as Lonnie Donegan's song "My Old Man's a Dustman".{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} He also made an early recording of the song "Proper Cup of Coffee".{{cite web|url=http://folksongandmusichall.com/index.php/all-i-want-is-a-proper-cup-of-coffee/?print=print|title=All I want is a proper cup of coffee|publisher=Folk Song and Music Hall|access-date=24 December 2021}}

His song "An N'Egg and Some N'Ham and Some N'Onion" featured in the early career of entertainer Tessie O'Shea.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007hz94|title=BBC Two – On Show, Two Ton Tessie!|website=BBC|access-date=26 January 2019}}

Mayne died in 1937, in Brighton, at the age of 66.{{Cite web |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=gO964aUkl8y7UR9z7rbIbg&scan=1 |title=Index entry |accessdate=24 December 2021 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}}