Introducing Charles Deville Wells, The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo

The story behind the music hall standard.

I’ve just got here, through Paris, from the sunny southern shore;
I to Monte Carlo went, just to raise my winter’s rent.
Dame Fortune smiled upon me as she’d never done before,
And I’ve now such lots of money, I’m a gent.
Yes, I’ve now got lots of rhino, I’m a gent.

With those lyrics begins one of the most popular musical hall numbers of the late 1800s. A so…