Broughton was born in 90 Hercules Buildings on
Hercules Road in Lambeth. Her parents were Emily Charlotte, (born Jecks) and William Wright and she was the first of their four children. Her career was an unusual choice for a girl from a good family. Her father was a clerk to an architect in the 1870s and she was training to dance at the Neville Dramatic School and studying ballet. She adopted the name Phyllis Broughton when she made her debut at the
Canterbury Music Hall in London in March 1877. The manager of the Gaiety Theatre,
John Hollingshead, employed her as part of his company in 1880. The theatre was known for its chorus of girls, daring ad-libs (that avoided censorship) and the costumes that the girls wore. The Gaiety had a quartet of leading actors
Nellie Farren,
Kate Vaughan,
Edward O'Connor Terry, and
E. W. Royce. Kate Vaughan made her last appearance at the Gaiety in 1883, before she married, and soon gave up dancing. This allowed Broughton to take over her roles. In 1884 she was promoted from the chorus to play roles in the theatre's adaptions of stories from
One Thousand and One Nights. She gathered her own following, and her own skirts, for her version of the
skirt-dance as she appeared in
Whittington and His Cat, Aladdin, Little Robin Hood,
Blue Beard (1883), She became a
"Gaiety Girl" who made a fortune from her success. and they made assurances that the break up was not a reflection on her character. It was said that he employed over a dozen gardners to keep that house in good order. Hedley is said to have sent gifts every week to Broughton until she died and even after that he was devoted to her. ==Death and legacy==