Harry Bedford (music hall)

{{Short description|English music hall entertainer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Harry Bedford (1873 – 17 October 1939) was a British music hall comedian and singer.

Born in Pimlico, London, he made his first onstage appearance at the age of seven. He was an apprentice in a boat-building business before becoming a professional entertainer in 1888, making his first appearances in pantomimes and minstrel shows. By 1895 he had become a leading music hall entertainer, appearing at the Middlesex Music Hall in London and developing an act that was considered somewhat risqué for the time. Described as a "low comedian", his popular songs (written by others) included "A Little Bit Off the Top", "The Cock of the North", and "When I Get Some Money".{{cite book| first1= Peter| last1= Gammond| year= 1991| title= The Oxford Companion to Popular Music| publisher= Oxford University Press| location= Oxford| pages= [https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00gamm/page/48 48]| isbn= 0-19-311323-6| url-access= registration| url= https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00gamm/page/48}}[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O85098/caricature-cooke-george-harold/ Caricature of Harry Bedford, V&A]. Retrieved 3 April 2017

Part of his act can be seen in the 1934 Will Hay film Those Were the Days.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024659/ IMDb entry for Those Were the Days (1934)]

He died in London in 1939.