15 Facts About Ella Shields

Ella Shields's famous signature song, "Burlington Bertie from Bow", a parody of Vesta Tilley's "Burlington Bertie", written by her third husband, William Hargreaves, was an immediate hit.

Ella Shields adopted the stage name, "Ella Shields," around 1898.

Ella Shields married John Thomas Keaveney on November 24,1895 in Manhattan.

Ella Shields gave birth to a daughter, Susan Catherine Middaugh on September 15,1899 in Friendship, NY.

Ella Shields made fairly regular trips back to Buffalo, NY to perform and visit her throughout her life.

Ella Shields may have still been married to Buck at the time of her death in 1952.

Ella Shields began her career in 1898, doing a vaudeville song-and-dance act with her sisters.

The story goes that one night in 1910 Ella Shields was attending a party at which music-hall performers did their acts for one another.

Half of a two-man musical act was out sick, and Ella Shields put on trousers to fill in for him.

Ella Shields sang the song, dressed up in slightly battered top hat and tails, in the role of Burlington Bertie "himself".

Ella Shields toured the world in this role, including appearances at Baltimore's now-demolished Maryland Theatre in 1924 and 1926.

The Depression brought difficult times for many entertainers, and Ella Shields announced her retirement in 1929.

Ella Shields spent time working at a Macy's jewellery counter in New York.

Ella Shields worked with many stars over the years, including a very young Julie Andrews in the late 1940s with whom she shared the same bill of a Royal Command Performance.

Ella Shields's body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London.