By the end of the 19th century the railways were bringing holiday makers to the new resorts in thousands going not just for a week or two as now but for two or three months. On the beaches and promenades a vast potential audience had congregated with no regular entertainment provides for them. It was the pierrots who first produced an organised form of seaside show, quickly establishing themselves with their distinctive costume. Gradually the pierrots became more and more professional, until in the 1920s one troupe, 'The Co-optimists', took London by storm and played there for six years.