This caricature is of Tom Foy when he was performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 13 May 1907. He was billed as ‘The Famous Little Comedian’. It is one of the many superb caricatures of Edwardian music hall performers that were drawn by the artist George Cooke when he was based at the Grand Theatre. He compiled them in a series of albums. Foy was on the bill at Hanley that week with Jordan and Harvey, who were also drawn by Cooke.

Tom Foy (1879–1917), ‘The Lancashire Lad’, was born into the business and started performing in circus. He made his name in the halls with ‘The Lancashire Lad in London’, the sketch he performed at Hanley. Foy played the innocent lad from Sowerby Brig with a broad Yorkshire accent who, trying to get a job in a gentleman’s house in London, had fits that could be stopped only by the gift of a shilling. A local reviewer said that Foy and his company kept the audience ‘in a continuous roar of laughter at the funny dialogue and grotesque antics of the Yorkshire lad’. Like most music hall performers, Foy also worked in pantomime. He played Idle Jack in Dick Whittington at the Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool, in 1909.