I was in Edinburgh recently. The city's main thoroughfare is Princes Street, which is wide enough to have benches all along one side - for nearly a mile I'd guess. Pretty much every bench has a dedication to a local notable or resident.
But this one took me by surprise, being dedicated to the variety artist Gertie Gitana (her big song was 'Nellie Dean').
Gertie was born in north Staffordshire at the end of the nineteenth cntury, and so is, er, one of 'ours', not theirs. What's a dedication to her doing in Scotland's capital?
My wife and I saw this bench in January 2014, seeing the name I remembered my Grandmother used the saying " Who do you think you are Gertie Gitana " ? I never knew who Gertie was, an internet search revealed all, still don't know why the bench is dedicated to her.
ReplyDeleteI have been told since that gertie's husband may have been Scottish...
DeleteI've also been told that a 'Gertie' became a rhyming-slang word for a banana.
I must take time to look up these suppositions!
Curious!
ReplyDelete