Here’s an item from the photo page of the January 31 1927 edition of the Toronto Daily Star:
Billy Merson (1879-1947) was a music hall performer, songwriter, and manager of the Players Theatre in London. He wrote “The Spaniard That Blighted My Life”, which Al Jolson once performed, and which Merson himself performed in 1935 in this video.
There are a number of other Billy Merson recordings and videos on YouTube, including this one of him singing “Desdemona” in 1927.
