John Charles Thomas

John Charles Thomas was an outstanding concert singer with a deep rich baritone and we are lucky indeed to have this Vitagraph short so we can see what he looked like performing in concert. I've got several recordings of him and they mostly have full orchestral accompaniment. This only has a single piano playing and sad to say we do not know the pianist's name.

In concert Thomas took from a wide range of material ranging from grand opera to novelty songs. One of his biggest hits was a song called The Green Eyed Dragon where he frightens the little kids who don't behave with tales of this dragon's ravenous appetite.

The two songs here an Irish ballad called Danny Deever and an old fashioned ballad In The Gloaming do illustrate his style. I wish he had selected other material, but these are well presented.

Sadly the film is in bad need of restoration, but if you can deal with the flickering quality of the film than enjoy John Charles Thomas.