Ernie Mayne


Ernie Mayne was an English music hall entertainer. Born Percy Ernest Barratt at Tophsham in Devon, by the age of ten he was living in London's Soho. He weighed about 20 stone and sang comic songs such as "Fried fruit fritters" about his weight. Mayne first gained interest in comedy when people laughed at him for wanting to be an airman, because of his weight. One of his songs, What d'yer think of that can still be heard today as it was later remade as Lonnie Donegan's famous song My Old Man's a Dustman. Mayne died in 1937.