Among my family archives I have a postcard showing four dancing midgets.  The card is titled “THE WORLD RENOWNED WILLY PANTZER AND HIS WONDERFUL MIDGETS”. 

A little research found that Willy and his theatrical troupe of acrobats and comedians appeared twice at the Hippodrome in Eastbourne in the summer of 1928 and 1929.  I was fascinated to read that in 1928 their support act was a ‘new star comedian’ by the name of Max Miller.  

Willy was born in German in 1872 as Henrich Louis Carl Wilhelm Pantzer but in 1897 emigrated to America. He came to England in 1912 became a became a British citizen in May 1933.

Willy lived in some flats off the London Road, Brighton (these were demolished the 1960s to make way for Regency Court.)  Hilda (his 3^rd wife) ran a small café there and among the other occupants of the flats were 10 men of short stature who would apparently regularly be seen riding around Preston Park on small bicycles.  It was these men that became Willy’s troupe of ‘midgets’ or ‘Lilliputian’ performers.   The building originally called Withdean Court soon became known as ‘Pantzer Mansions’.

Willy and his troupe performed in musical-halls and theatres across the country in the 1920s and 1930s.  The performers were not only comedians but were also skilled acrobats who also played instruments.  Their most famous routine was set in the kitchen of a posh hotel where everything went wrong and food (and diminutive waiters) would end up flying across the stage.  The postcard I have shows four of the small performers dancing,  but closer inspection sees that the lady dancers are actually mannikins. As the dance got faster these ‘ladies’ would also end up being thrown around the stage causing much hilarity from the audience.  The group were not only seen in the UK but also toured Denmark and Sweden.  In 1935 the troupe toured Ireland and the following year played 180 venues across France.  

It appears that the act broke up on the outset of War and after they left the life of the stage Willy and Hilda ran a chicken farm in Plumpton called ‘The Manor’. He died in Brighton in 1955.

Of course perhaps the most famous small performer was Charles Stratton known as ‘General Tom Thumb’. Just off Seaside are some single story houses known as ‘Tom Thumb Cottages’. But surely they were never the home of the famous ‘dwarf’?

In August 1865 the following advert appeared in the Eastbourne Gazette:

GENERAL TOM THUMB

His LITTLE WIFE and their INFANT DAUGHTER

Will give their CELEBRATED ENTERTAINMENT

at the WORKMANS HALL.

The public are respectfully informed that this is the

LAST APPEARANCE of the General in public.

NB: At the 11 o’clock performance they will appear

In their Wedding Costume.

The Workman’s Hall is now known as the Leaf Hall and is just a few feet from ‘Tom Thumb Cottages’.  Sadly though he did not stay there – they were far too small for such a famous performer who had toured the world and appeared on more than one occasion before Queen Victoria herself. No he stayed at the much posher Sussex Hotel. 

In September 1930 at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne,  the former music garden and sycamore grove was cleared to make way for a Tom Thumb Golf Course. This 18 hole course was probably one of the first ‘crazy golf’ courses in the country with its sloping greens and tunnels. It was formally opened by Ernest Smith the secretary of the Royal Eastbourne Golf Course. The ‘clubhouse’ was the old Indian Pavilion and every week the person with the lowest score was presented with a souvenir ‘Devonshire Park’ spoon. 

Sources:

National Newspaper Archives

mybrighton&hove.org.uk

Clowns International Magazine (The Joey) Spring Issue 2012

Bolton News