Lydia Yeamans Titus

Lydia Yeamans Titus (12 December 1857 – 30 December 1929), was an Australian–born American singer, dancer, comedian and actress who had a lengthy career on vaudeville and in cinema. She was remembered on stage for her Baby-Talk act and a popular rendition of the English ballad, Sally in Our Alley. In appreciation, King Edward VII once presented Titus a gold bar pin with the opening notes of Sally in Our Alley etched in diamonds. In later life Titus became a pioneer in the medium of film appearing in at least 132 motion pictures between 1911 and 1930.

Early life

Lydia Yeamans was born off the coast of South Australia during a voyage from Sydney to Melbourne. Her parents were Edward "Ned" Yeamans (died c. 1866), an American circus clown and comedian from New York, and Annie Griffiths (10 November 1835 – 3 March 1912), a British-born Australian circus equestrienne. Her parents married not long after Griffiths, then seventeen or eighteen, joined the Rowe Circus, an American tent show then performing in Australia. In the mid-1860s her father, mother and baby sister Jennie settled in San Francisco after a circus tour that had encompassed Japan, China, Java and the Philippines. Titus and her younger sister Emily remained in Sydney with their grandparents and would not see their mother and sister again for nearly a decade. Ned Yeamans died after several season performing in circuses throughout the American West, leaving Annie Yeamans to pursue what turned out to be a long career in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage.