Birthplace of the Laughing Policeman

Image: © Tiger Taken: 1 Oct 2015

The full name of Charles Penrose, also known as Charles Jolly, was Charles Penrose Dunbar Cawse. He was born in this building on 11 November 1873, in the flat over the jeweller's shop at 1 High Street, next to the former White Horse Inn which stood on the site of an even more ancient public house the Dog & Doublet. The whole of the premises is now used by Loline Interiors, but the Image still hangs above the eaves. Young Charles initially followed his father into the jewellery trade, but enjoyed such success with his innovative laughing songs at local concert parties that he was invited to join a theatrical tour at the age of 18. His career as an entertainer took off, and he appeared in music hall and the West End. He retained his Bedfordshire accent all his life as can be heard on his recordings. In 1922, Penrose made the first record of his song "The Laughing Policeman" under the pseudonym of Charles Jolly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI1nPd7hezM . The composition is officially accredited to his second wife Mabel under the pseudonym Billie Grey, but the music, melody and hysterical laughing refrain are taken from "The Laughing Song" by the American George W. Johnson which he recorded in 1898. Charles Penrose died, sadly not of laughter but of heart disease, on 17 November 1952 in Kensington, aged 79.

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