Music Hall Studies was a twice yearly non-profit making journal devoted to the furtherance of research into music hall and the variety theatre. The editors were Max Tyler, Historian of the British Music Hall Society and Richard Anthony Baker, author of British Music Hall: an Illustrated History.
RYAN EDWARDS
Ryan Edwards, a graduate in communication studies, is responsible for the full range of technical and electronic aspects of producing a 21st Century magazine. After briefly working at the BBC, he took a number of jobs in central and local government, social housing, NHS and transport.
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MAX TYLER
A retired bank manager, Max had been the British Music Hall Society’s historian and archivist for many years. He looked after the Society’s large collection of theatrical memorabilia and each year answered dozens of enquiries about music hall from all over the world. His specialist knowledge of the halls and particularly of seaside entertainment made him an important contact for the BBC and many other broadcasting organisations. He wrote regularly for The Stage and the Music Hall Society’s lively magazine, The Call Boy. Max was particularly knowledgeable about minor performers and obscure music hall songs. It was his belief that, if there were no other source relating to British social history for a long period around the turn of the nineteenth century, a study of music hall song would provide everything researchers were seeking.
Max died in 2019.
RICHARD ANTHONY BAKER
Richard who worked for BBC Radio for nearly 30 years, researched, wrote and presented series about music hall for Radios Three and Four. He also produced scores of current affairs programmes. For the last six years of his career, he produced and presented the world’s first obituaries programme, Brief Lives, which was transmitted on BBC Radio Five Live. In 1990, he published a slim biography of Marie Lloyd, followed 15 years later by British Music Hall: an Illustrated History. The sequel,: Old Time Variety: An Illustrated History was published in April 2011. He also wrote for The Stage and The Call Boy. His last book, ‘Many a True Word’, an entertaining guide to the peculiarities of the English language was published in 2013.
Richard Anthony Baker, born 2 September 1946, died 12 November 2016.