Maggie Cline

Maggie Cline (January 1, 1857 – June 11, 1934) was an American vaudeville singer born in Haverhill, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents. Known by the nicknames "The Irish Queen" and "The Bowery Brunhilde," Cline became one of the prominent figures of late nineteenth-century vaudeville performance in the United States.

Cline's early life included work in a shoe factory before she left home as a teenager for Boston, where she began performing at the Boylston Museum for six dollars a week. She subsequently joined a burlesque troupe called Snellbaker & Benson's Majestics. In 1888, she married John Ryan, the owner of a café.

Her vaudeville career took her across small towns and cities throughout the United States, though New York City was her most frequent performance destination, with notable appearances at Tony Pastor's. Her repertoire centered on Irish-themed songs and comic skits delivered in a deep brogue. An early signature number was "Mary Ann Kehoe," a song about an Irish girl pursued by two lovers, distinguished by Cline's extensive physical stage action during its performance. The song most closely associated with her throughout her career was John W. Kelly's 1890 composition "Throw Him Down, McCloskey," a comic piece depicting a 47-round prize fight between two Irishmen. Cline performed it with shadow-boxing and coordinated loud noises from both the stage and the audience. The number proved so enduringly popular that attempts to retire it from her act were met with audience demands until she relented. The song later appeared in the 1955 animated short One Froggy Evening.

Cline's Broadway appearances spanned 1895 to 1896 and included the productions Cleo and Garry Owen. She retired from the stage in 1917 and died in Fair Haven, New Jersey, on June 11, 1934.