Horse doctoring or, Every Harness Trainer's Dream ...

 

On Weymouth Sands: an Edwardian concert party

 

I've never been to Weymouth. But a century ago it was a favourite seaside holiday town, tricked out with all the 'traditional' seaside entertainments of the period ... bathing machines rather than bikinis!

I imagine the 'American Studio' was where you went to 'have your picture took'. The Gentlemen's Saloon? Beer, perhaps? But, of course, what interested me was the booth centre foreground ..

The Lyric concert party. Entertainment al fresco. Half a dozen gents in straw boaters and an eager audience of sunshaded holidaymakers ..

And this seems to be a snap of our chaps!

So, who were they? Well, they actually scribbled their names on the back of the card ...

So, with the help of the bill half-shown in the photo, I was able to decipher them ..

Amateurs? No, indeed! Several of these gents were to have long careers in music-halls, on piers and in entertainments of all kinds. 

I wonder who put the team together. It is a bill of largely one type of material. Comic songs. Yes, Mr Daniels could tenorise out a ballad, Mr Sterling could tootle out a tune on his cornet, Mr Fredericks had a ventiloquist speciality ... but mostly it was comedy material ... all good holiday fun!

Alas, the signatures do not tell us which gent is which, but here they are ...

I know. Five only match the programme. Freddy MAYNE (of whom I know nothing) seems to be depping for the nonce for Mr Fredericks.

The 'best' name here is Tom CARNEY (b Islington 5 February 1860; d Barnsbury 4 December 1911). Born as Henry PENN[E]Y, he spent his early years as a carman, before I see him for the first time performing (1887) under his new name around Islington ('The Irish Restaurant', 'Kate Carney', 'Barnum's Exhibition', 'Nancy Magee', 'The Celebration of Mary Burke'), Hoxton, Hackney, Shoreditch et al. 'A real Irish singer'. 'A capital Irish comedian and an excellent dancer'.  Newhaven, Chatham, Norwich and an engagement at the Britannia Pier, Great Yarmouth which would be repeated for many a year. Tom ('vocal comedan and dancer') made up many a bill in suburb and seaside, at the Sebright and the Bedford music halls, and by the later 'nineties ventures as far afield as Birmingham, Belfast, Newcastle and Sheffield, Hull, Shields and Dublin, returning always to the home counties and the seaside. He had just returned home from his latest season in Yarmouth, when he died suddenly, at the age of 52, in 1911, leaving a widow and five children.

Leo STERLING [KITE, Leonard Alexander] (b Portsmouth October 1873; d Sydney, Australia 29 October 1963) was the son of a serviceman (Royal Marines) and as a youngster himself joined the Corps as a drummer. In his early twenties, he became, instead, a 'humorous singer, cornet player and burlesque dancer' with Lowestoft's Olympian Pierrots. He appeared in pantomime with Graham Falcon and in 1899 supported Walter Cole, giving trombone imitations an a mini-operetta along with soprano 'Jeannette Latour' (Mary Adelaide LOVE). 'The Comedian with the Cornet' appeared at the Royal Aqurium for a considerable period, married Miss Love, and eventually the couple emigrated to Australia where they worked into the 1920s ('Jeannette' was now 'Addie Love').

Gus DANIELS (b 19 May 18**) is a little less transparent, so I am guessing he was not 'Daniels'. He began his working life in suburban London as a music hall tenor ballad singer ('Alice Where art thou?' 'My Sweetheart', 'Fill up your glasses with me boys', 'The World Went Very Well Then', 'I dream of thee', 'The Best of Friends Must Part', 'One of the Queen's Navee') from Tottenham to Kennington, to Poplar and Limehouse in the mid-'nineties. He soon became 'character vocalist' ('London Day by Day') or 'descriptive vocalist ('Visions from home') and covered the country - Newcastle, Hull, Belfast, Bradford, Manchester, Leeds -- and gave patriotic songs at the Bedford, the Marylebone, the Sebright, the Empire in Bow, the Grand, Clapham. By 1907 he was 'baritone' rather than 'tenor' ('The Flower of the Desert', 'Johnnie is coming home', 'It is a grand old story'). I know not what became of him, but he was still to be heard in Stamford Hill in smokos and working men's clubs thereafter, and at the end of the 'twenties he was still getting up for a song in his latter-day home of Southend. Of his personal life I know only that he fathered a son 30 August 1895 ... but it would help if I knew his real name!

Carl FREDERICKS [PINKETT, Charles Frederick] (b Bath 1867; d Weston-super-Mare November 1926) led life as a telegraph boy (sacked!), a grocer's assistant and a commercial traveller before going into show business (1894) as a 'ventriloquist and dancer, comedian and comic conjuror'. He advertised himself as 'the refined ventriloquist'. He appeared with Poole's Myriorama, on the beach at Teignmouth  and in an act with his dancing wife-with-coloured-lights, Mdlle Cordelia (Gertrude Maud BOOL) and family. He developed a concert party, Les Vivandieres, around them ('very popular seaside artists') which kept going for something like a decade, as he mutated into 'Carlton Fredericks', producer of local pantomimes and even a musical comedy Little Babette featuring daughter, Della. He died, in the saddle, in 1926.

Alfred LIVERICK (b Thornton, Yorks 1866; d Penarth 27 December 1937) had a shorter career than his fellow players. I see him in 1899 in Croydon, at Hastings and several other southern dates as dame in pantomime, at Hastings, Whitstable and Exmouth in pierrot shows, and managing seasons in minor dates. 1907 (Merrymakers Pierrots at Duns) seems to have been toward the end of his performing career, before became manager of George H Pitt's filmhouse in Blaernavon, and then of the Golden Lion Hotel, Penarth. He had been mine host of Penarth seventeen years at his death.

Harry DOWSETT 'eccentric comedian' was allegedly from Taunton. Since he made his earliest appearance in the late 90s in Exeter and Tiverton, maybe that is so. His chief credit as a performer was with Poole's Myriorama, with which he featured over a number of years, but after 1913 I see him no more. 

Bert HUNTLEY escapes me. Perhaps he's the BH 'a very capable humorous entertainer' in East Ham and West Ham in 1917-1920. 

But, all in all, not a bad lot for a fit-up booth on a beach. I wish I could identify who is who, and precisely when ... but you can't have everything.

Oh, the photo of the boys came with another Weymouth item

Not the same group. Not named. Not dated ... but ...

EMILY: Home for the holidays

 

Our dear little(ish) mare Emily is home.  

She wasn't really scheduled to come home. When we sent her down to Invercargill and the tender care of trainer, Kirstin Green, I remarked. 'I hope I see her again, because she won't come back to Gerolstein until she becomes a broodmare'. Nature makes fools of us all.

Emily has had a fantastic time in Southland. She has won no less than five races (bringing her total to eight) in just one season .. added to a multitude of 2nds and 3rds ...

57. 2024 (19 September) Winton EMILY

58. 2024 (4 October) Wyndham EMILY

59. 2024 (13 December) Winton EMILY

60.2025 (17 July) Winton EMILY

61.2025 (10 August) Invercargill EMILY

 

Then, a wee while back, just after she had carried off the Winter Championships, it went wrong. She galloped. She doesn't gallop. She galloped again. Call the Doctor. Thank goodness we did. She was diagnosed with a large bone chip in her fetlock. The X-Rays scurried to America for a second opinion. From my friend, Lyndall, horse vet exceptional. Yes. Bone chip. Fixable. Otherwise OK.

I put away the stallion catalogue, and called in VetSouth. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have time to fret too much. I just said 'do whatever needs to be done'. And they did. 

What next? Oh, a few weeks and she'll be fine. No, said Wendy. No, said Kurt. She is a feisty, darling 6-year-old. She can come home to Gerolstein, Wendy will mother her, lavish care and love on her ... and in the new year she can go back south and start over again ... Yes, I know all the maxims: 'don't let down an aged trotting mare ...'. Well, bugger the maxims. Emily comes first ..

I shall gloss over the poor girl's voyage from Invercargill to Gerolstein. Thank you for you kindness, Amber Lethaby. Majestic Horsefloats .. you've fallen apart at the seams. The worst service we've had from you in 20 years as clients. Smarten up. But she's here!

I, who can barely walk from here to the gate (walking frame arrives Monday) positively skipped down to her small paddock of deep grass to see her ...    I know, it's like children: you're not supposed to have favourites, but this wee lady is indubitably my number one in 25 years of owning horses ...

We have bought her a nice new Koolrug (30 degrees and flies here .. this is NOT Southland), a pretty red halter (they don't do my yellow any more, it seems), a new brush, new leads (they used to be $5 now they're $30) .. lots of healthy eats ... anyone know who sells diamond horseshoes in Rangiora!?

Even at the risk of roaring hayfever and a tumble on to the gravel, I shall be down to hug her every day!

Welcome home, li'l EMILY!

One funambulist and a fistful of fine actors. 1821.

 

This Birmingham bill is 204 years old. Yes, I know it isn't dated, but its vintage is easily discerned. One of the artists billed on it died in 1822 and 12 June was a Tuesday in 1821. 

However, this affiche took my eye for several reasons. 

Why does a rope-walker/dancer get the larger part of the bill over the performance of the hugely popular Guy Mannering? A few weeks earlier he had got a very yawnsome reception at Bristol. This enigmatic Mr Wilson would continue his act for some fifteen years, his reviews got better, and he returned to Birmingham a number of times, also to Bath, Cheltenham and environs, and reached his peak at Vauxhall Gardens ..  His performance menu reads like a fun routine ... I assume he didn't fall off his rope in dramatic circumstances which would have allowed him to make the faits divers columns, sop I know no more about him ...

Secondly. Why does the bill contain no reference to the encadrement? No manager. No proprietor. No musical conductor ...   Well, the theatre's proprietor does apparently appear herein, but only because he liked to go on in supporting roles from time to time .. 

Mr Richard Collier. Concerning whom I know nowt more. 

The manager was to be much, much more consequent. His name was ... Alfred Bunn. Yes, 'the poet Bunn'. Later to be of Drury Lane and The Bohemian Girl. Maybe he knew what he was up to, not attaching his name to a 'danseur à la corde'. But maybe he was wise to stand a little apart ... things got a bit hairy up in Birmingham round about this time.

So, what about the Guy Mannering cast? This is Bunn's company for the season. There are names in there that are decidedly not negligible. And some, which mean nothing to me, but which seem to have been more than respectable.

The standout is Mrs Waylett, here in the early stages of her grand career. And the final stages of her unfortunate marriage. 

Harriet Waylett, née Cooke (b 7 February 1797) was from Bath. She had played at the local theatres from her teens as Miss Cooke, but in 1819 (17 July) she committed the folly of marrying one John Providence Waylett. In Coventry. So I suppose she was engaged there..   In 1821, the couple were hired by Bunn for Birmingham and disaster struck. Mr Waylett was put up as Shakespeare's Richard (2 or 3?) and found himself hissed and booed and ridiculed ... Mrs Waylett, on the other hand, was very much appreciated, and after her performance as Lucy Bertram she was engaged for London's Adelphi Theatre. Without Mr Waylett. And at the beginning of thirty years as 'one of the sweetest and best of English ballad singers'. Without Mr Waylett.

Mrs Waylett

Then there is Mr [James] Thorne. He, too, would go on to a most successful career as a performer, including nearly a decade in rich company and good roles under Arnold at the English Opera House in the Strand. He seems to have been a wide-ranging baritone of charm ('light, elegant and tasteful', 'considerable versatility'), capable of taking both tenor and bass roles ('sang cleverly .. adroitly avoided difficulties') -- indeed, I see him on one occasion singing the roles of both Henry Phillips and Joseph Wood in one opera! His performance career was in its early days in 1821, although he had sung at Drury Lane alongside Braham, and at the Ancient Music and Choral Fund since his first steps in 1817 and been on the Birminham books since 1820. He was to be the first English Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Kassova in Der Vampyr and Masetto in The Libertine amongst a host of roles in London in the season, and at Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bath or Glasgow between times. Of his personal life I have found little, save that his name was James and that he wed Hannah Maria Cushing, harpist and organist of Bury's Octagon Chapel in 1821. 

A sad tale is that of Joseph Francis Higman (b 1790; d Maiden Lane, July 1822). Mr Higman 'of Covent Garden and Drury Lane' was the happy possessor of a 'deep bass voice'. A shoo-in for a performance of 'The Wolf' and the role of Gipsy Gabriel. Alas, not for long ..

Then there is Joseph Mallinson (b Norfolk c 1777; d Weston, Bath 30 September 1853). Mr Mallinson began in the theatre as a teenager on the Norwich circuit, but in 1804 he moved to the Bath and Bristol Theatres where he became a fixture, much appreciated for his comic talents (Ralph in Lock and Key, Robin in The Waterman &c)  and, in particular, his way with a comic song ('Miss Levi, Miss Abrahams and Miss Moses'). He appeared round the country (Hull, Brighton, Birmingham &c) and put in the occasional appearance in London -- from the Haymarket Theatre to Vauxhall Gardens -- but returning each time to Bath. He is billed here as 'his first appearance for five years'.

Mrs T[homas] Hill (b Portsmouth c 1793; d London 30 May 1848) was born Harriet Maria Kelly daughter of Portsmouth theatre manager Henry Kelly. Although primarily a light comic actress, she studied singing with Henry Bishop and amongst a host of roles -- notably at the Haymarket Theatre where she was engaged for over a decade, and where she created the role of Phoebe in Paul Pry -- she was seen in such musical pieces as Love in a Village (Lucinda), John of Paris (Olivia), The Marriage of Figaro (Susanna), No Song, No Supper (Louisa), Clari (Ninetta), Lionel and Clarissa (Jenny), The Mountaineers (Zorayda), Rosina (William). When, in the off-season, she visited the larger provincial houses she was wont to interpolate such as 'Bid me discourse', 'Cherry Ripe', 'The Lover's Mistake' or 'Buy a Broom' into the proceedings. She also replaced Miss Paton as Polly in The Beggar's Opera at the Haymarket in 1824, and in 1828 repeated her Julia Mannering at Cheltenham. In the 1840s she was active in the Dublin theatre.

Elsewhere, my searches have been sabotaged by names. Mr Mathews (or Matthews) 'of Covent Garden'? Which one? Mr Butler? Surely not the one who played Hamlet and Othello and ...  the Popes? Again, which ones? Master Saunders is 'of Bath'. He dances. And has since he was three years old. 'The most astonishing dancer of his age in the kingdom'. Oh he dances on a tightrope. At Astleys. Oh  .. there were THREE Master Saunderses, Master T and Master S[amuel Deshayes] (d 1898) .. and Master G! .. and one calls himself 'Edouard' then 'junior' .. and there is a Miss as well 'on the slack wire' at the Olympic! They are visible up to 1834 .. and in 1841 he returned at the Pavilion .. I wonder what he did in Guy Mannering!

I can follow these folk for a few years but .. then it gets harder!

Our Mr Butler was one of the early representatives of Emery's role of Yorkshireman Dandie Dinmont at Drury Lane (October 1819) alongside Braham where he made a considerable success. The London press averred that he was 'from the Birmingham Theatre .. a completely successful debut'. Another said rightly that he had played 'one season at the Haymarket' (1817, Sheepface in The Village Lawyer, from the Theatre Royal, York). He was 'loudly applauded in the Highland dance'.

In that same Birmingham season The Marriage of Figaro was produced with Mallinson as Figaro, Thorne as Fiorello, Mrs Hill as Cherubino, Mrs Waylett as Susanna, Butler as Antonio ..   When they did Rob Roy Thorne was Osbaldistone, Butler is Dougal, Higman is Major Galbraith, Mallison is Nicol Jarvie, Mathews is Rashleigh. In 1823, in The Slave Thorne is Captain Clifton, Mrs Waylett is Zelinda, Butler is another Yorkshireman, Sam Sharpset ...

Well bingo! Persistence pays. George Blyth[[e] Butler (b Yorkshire 1795; d Cumberland Row, Newcastle 24 November 1838). Son of the Samuel Butler of the Richmond Theatre, brother of actor Samuel William Butler .. comedian .. lies in Jesmond Old Cemetery .. thank you Find-a-Grave ...

I see, a few weeks after this performance, Mr Butler and Mrs Pope ('of the Theatre Royal, Bath') are billed at Sheffield, in December they are members of deCamp's company at Newcastle  ... In 1822 Mrs Pope from Bath is making her first appearance at the Surrey ..
But here, in the season's prospectus, she is said to be 'of Drury Lane'. Sigh, 'Mrs Pope of Drury Lane' died in 1818 aged 75 ...  You see the problem?

I guess she is the Mrs Pope of the Theatre Royal Edinburgh, engaged at Bath in April 1819. Playing Cordelia, Lady Townley and .. Meg Merrilees!   Perhaps the Mrs Pope playing Ophelia at Newcastle in 1818, with a Mr Pope as Horatio? 

Well, that's been a jolly little exercise. But it still leaves me wondering why the funambulist got the bigger part of this curious playbill ...

On to another!

 

The mysterious Mr Morley: primo basso Covent Garden ..

Some years ago, I attempted to decipher the who, how, when, wherefore and so forth of the British bass singer known just as 'Mr Morley'. It was a frustrating task, I wasn't happy at all with the results, ('‘Mr Morley’ has been very difficult to sort out, and for all my efforts, I haven’t succeeded in really finding out the truth of his story.') and I consigned my incomplete article to the pending pool, where it has pended ever since. Until this week, when a playbill from his first appearance at Covent Garden appeared on e-bay ...  The time has come, I decided, to have another crack at 'Mr Morley'. 

MORLEY, John (b c1794)

 

In 1830, ‘Mr Morley’ ‘a pupil of Sir George Smart’ made a debut at Covent Garden as Delande in a version of La Gazza Ladra. For the next sixteen years (with some curious gaps) we can follow his better than average career as a bass singer, largely in the theatre, from Glasgow to New Orleans … but before? After? And what was his christian name? Was he married?

 

Well, I managed to find the christian name. Mr Morley spent some time in America, and the shipping lists for the right time (5 September 1836) include a John Morley, professor of music, aged 42 in the company of John Jones, tenor and … Ann Morley, aged 32, heading for an engagement with Wallack in New York. This being, initially, the only mention I could find of a name or an age, and a maybe wife, I have accepted them. But I have no other proof. And the ‘wife’ is decidedly dodgy.

 

The before? Well, maybe. I'm not at all sure. In 1817 a singing Mr Morley surfaces at the Surrey Theatre, playing tiny parts in Thomas Dibdin’s The Vicar of Wakefield, and the extravaganza Don Giovanni. I see him at the Coburg Theatre, too (Trial by Battle), but through 1818-1819 he climbed the ladder somewhat in the Surrey company (The Murdered Guest, The Ghost in Tom Thumb, The Heart of Midlothian, The Unknown, Scanderbeg, singing ‘La mia Dorabella’, Old Barnacle in The Spoiled Child, Three Times Three singing Dibdin's 'A Bit of a Nation'), before moving on to the East London New Theatre to play the title-role in the pantomime The Fire King. In 1821 he is at the English Opera House (James in The Miller’s Maid, Lawyer in Love’s Dream) … is it our man? Some of it? All of it? And if it is, where does he then disappear to, between 1821 and 1830. Ah! He's around. There he is, singing 'The Wolf' at a Benefit at the Coburg (9 November 1824). I'm pretty sure that last, at least, is the man we're after.

 

On 4 February 1830 Ninetta opened at Covent Garden with Morley featured alongside Misses Paton and Cawse and Mr Wood in the role originally named Fernando. The heroine’s father. The critics did not agree as to his effectiveness. One opined ‘we think he may soon hope to be one of the first, if not the first bass singer of the English stage’, another dubbed him ‘a great acquisition’ and another gave him credit for ‘a firm voice and displayed considerable talent in the management of it’. More restrained ‘A Mr Morley, a pupil of Sir George Smart, made his debut. His voice is a bass, of tolerable compass, but we think he has much to learn’, while another dissected him at length: ‘Mr Morley, an indifferent contrabasso, made his first appearance at Covent Garden as Delande; like Mr Wood, he sang during the whole evening nearly a semitone below concert pitch … may become a useful singer … has a dozen tolerable notes …’. This accusation of singing flat would be raised against Morley regularly, but only by some. 

Morley went on to appear as Cedric in The Maid of Judah and as Dandini in Cinderella during the season. ‘Mr Morley has considerably improved as an actor; but his Dandini, to those who have witnessed the rich humour of Pellegrini and Santini in this part, was but respectable’. To those that hadn’t seen the Italian version of La Cenerentola, Mr Morley was fine, and he would play the role long and frequently.

In the off-season, Morley went to Vauxhall Gardens where he played and sang in the vaudevilles (Under the Oak, Adelaide or the Royal William) and the concerts (Bishop’s ‘At the rise of the sun’, Sidney Nelson’s ‘The Pilot’, 'Life is a River'). ‘The Pilot’ was published with the legend ‘sung by Mr Morley’, but when it became a big hit, the legend was changed to ‘sung by Mr Phillips’. And in September 1830 the Vauxhall bills included 'Mrs Morley' singing 'Tell Me, My Heart'. The couple would be seen together at the Argyll Rooms (26 July 1832) et al. When did that marriage happen? 

Back at Covent Garden, he sang in the music attached to the drama Isabella, or the Fatal Marriage, took the part of Matteo (the heroine’s father) in Fra Diavolo, repeated his Dandini and Cedric from the previous season,  and sang the role of Scander in Smart’s revision of Zemire und Azor ‘with fine tone and correct taste’. Once again, some differed: ‘A fine bass song, by the merchant, Scander, is too much for the physical powers of Morley, though he sings it with intelligence’. When the drama Napoleon Buonaparte was staged, he played the role of the superior of the Convent.

He played the part of Bazil in the English remake of The Marriage of Figaro, and in the theatre’s 'version' of Robert le diable as The Fiend Father he played the High Priest, while Reynoldson got the plum bass part of Bertram. This time the press was on Morley’s side, and wrote that he would have sung it better.

In the Benefit season he played Gabriel in Guy Mannering (‘Safely Follow Him’), the Huntsman in The Lord of the Manor (‘When the Orient’), Philip in John of Paris and Somerdyke in The Slave (‘The Sea’, ‘Love and War’ with Wilson), and he and Wilson repeated their duet when they sang in the Paganini concerts. Morley’s other numbers included ‘Hai gi vinta la causa’ and The Freebooters ‘When I think on the wrongs’.

When a ballet version of Masaniello was produced at Covent Garden, he was among the cast of singers who provided the vocal music, when Comus was staged, he lined up alongside Phillips and Wilson as the Bacchantes (‘By the gaily circling glass’), when Midas got its periodic showing, he was Silenus then Jupiter, in Macbeth a singing witch then Hecate, in The Beggar’s Opera Matt o’ the Mint, in The Haunted Tower Charles, and he also had roles in two new productions, a version of Zampa christened The Bridal Promise, and an Auber hotchpotch (23 March 1833) dubbed The Coiners, or the Soldier’s Oath (Martin Pedrillo). Once again he was the heroine’s father, once again ‘Mr Morley had the part of an innkeeper, in which he contributed to the musical force of the piece, but not much to its dramatic’.

In October he and Wilson took a month’s guest engagement at Edinburgh where in conjunction with the resident Miss Byfeld they took part in Guy Mannering (‘deep yet mellow tones’, ‘‘O’er the mountains’ with energy and power’), Love in a Village, The Waterman, The Lord of the Manor, Fra Diavolo, No Song no Supper, Rob Roy and, with notable success for Morley, Der Freischütz in which he appeared as Caspar.

Back in London, he did not rejoin the Covent Garden troupe. On 19 March 1834, at the Lowther Grand Concert Rooms, King William Street, West Strand, Mr Morley’s First Concert took place, and he was engaged for the Haymarket Theatre. He opened there 13 June as Bazil in Figaro with Miss Turpin and Eliza Paton and went on to play Artabanes in Artaxerxes and Hecate in Macbeth.

20 November he moved to the Surrey Theatre to create the Lord of Lorn in Rodwell’s The Lord of the Isles (‘Merrily while the deer’). ‘Wilson's sweet tenor voice, with Morley's deep bass. Miss Somerville's brilliant execution, and Miss Land's clear notes, harmonised exquisitely’. The same team followed up with a revival of The Mountain Sylph.

He returned to the Haymarket in 1835 to play Belville in Rosina, and the following year to Covent Garden, now under the management of Osbaldistone, for Quasimodo (Clopin), No Song No Supper (William), the unfortunate The Rose of the Alhambra and to play Ephraim ‘a rich usurer’ in Rodwell’s The Sexton of Cologne. And when Midas came up, he played Jupiter.

And then came that American trip. The fact that he made the trip with the tenor Jones, would make it seem they went under contract to someone. Katharine Preston, in her Opera on the Road, says that he, along with Maria Turpin and Henry Horncastle went out for James Wallack. Since Morley had been with brother Henry Wallack at Covent Garden, it is not improbable. But Jones …?

Anyway, if this was so, he apparently went twelve months before his engagement was to start. And he went with ‘Mrs Morley’. I notice that her pet number was ‘On the Banks of the Blue Moselle’. By Rodwell. 

I first pick Morley ('principal bass singer of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden') up at the National Theatre, playing Olifour in The Maid of Cashmere, Asatroth in La Tentation, The Castle of Andalusia, Rosina (et al?) with Celeste, Plumer and Miss Watson. I see the couple up giving concerts in Baltimore, and New Orleans in March of 1837 in the company of one Ravaglia, the trumpeter Gambati, Mr Bishop et al. He was perhaps a little overbilled as ‘the celebrated primo basso from Covent Garden’ but New Orleans welcomed both the singers. 

In September they reached Wallack’s National Theatre, New York. Morley opened as Rodolfo in La Sonnambula, with Miss Turpin and Henry Horncastle, and followed up with Celeste and Charlotte Watson in The Maid of Cashmere. Both the piece and its stars scored a fine success. He was, for the umpteenth time, Basilio in The Barber of Seville. 

After the New York season, the Morleys set out on the concert path again. He played the operas in Boston (‘Messrs Horncastle and Morley are among the most accomplished vocalists of the day’), and they sang in New York in concert. Mrs was adjudged ‘a passable concert vocalist – nothing more’ but ‘Morley's voice was never in better order or his intonation more pure ... he is evidently improving’. He took the bass solos in the performances of the New York Sacred Music Society (Creation, St Paul, Messiah) and the press declared ‘the bass recitatives and songs were sustained by Mr Morley better than is usual in this country’ before mumbling that he was a bit flat.  ‘Mr M possesses all the qualities of an excellent vocalist... He sings like a musician…’. Mrs wasn’t quite so well noticed, but when she sang at de Begnis’s concert she ‘gave satisfaction’ ‘a mezzo-soprano of considerable power and flexibility with good intonation’.

 

Morley was soon back on the stage. Rosalbina Caradori-Allan had arrived in America and Morley appeared at the National alongside her in a version of The Elixir of Love. As Belcore, he sang Maometto’s celebrated ‘Sorgete’. He teamed with the other newcomers, Jane Shirreff and Edward Seguin in La Gazza Ladra and the comparison between the two basses was inevitable. Morley was adjudged to have the better voice, but Seguin by far the better method. He joined Mrs Allan again for The Siege of Rochelle, and when Cinderella was staged, this time he was Pompolino, in Guy Mannering he was Gabriel, in The Quaker he was Steady, and in The Mountain Sylph he repeated his Hela. He played at the Park Theater (July 1838) as Caspar in Der Freischutz in La Gazza ladra, at the National as Pompolino to Jane Shirreff's Cinderella , Lenoir in Gazza ladra  .... In July 1839, I spot both of the Morleys in Philadelphia in concert. Soon after, he went home. He. Not they. ‘Mrs Morley’ seems to have stayed in America. Or to have promptly returned.

 On his return, Morley joined the Drury Lane company (Captain Dorrington in Englishmen in India, Dandini, the Bailie in My Lord is not my Lord, Jupiter in Midas), and later in 1840 was part of the ill-fated venture at the Prince’s Theatre where he played yet another father, Servitz, in the short-lived Fridolin.

 

So is he the John Morley, professor of music, aged 44, with an Elizabeth Lane (48), an Elizabeth Morley aged 24, and an Emma (24), Charles (26) and Elizabeth (4) Holder in the 1841 census of Allen Street, Lambeth? Looks like it. Even if the given age doesn't quite tally. Are these relatives? Ann seems to have remained in America. She is at Castle Garden, duetting with Dr Clare William Beames.

 

In 1841 he teamed with Wilson and Miss Delcy as a star team, touring with productions of Fra Diavolo, La Sonnambula and Der Freischütz, and in August took part in the production on Martinuzzi, or The Patriot at the English Opera House. Quite where he went in 1842, I know not, but I see him in 1843 back in Dublin, singing Rob Roy with the stock company, and La Sonnambula, Norma, Fra Diavolo and Der Freischütz with Mrs Wood. In 1844, I spot him in burlesque in Liverpool, in concert in Limerick, and singing The Messiah in Glasgow (‘a bass or baritone of much depth and softness and although not powerful amazingly flexible’ ‘singular truth and beauty’), and in a return to the opera stage with a group headed by Mr and Mrs Alban Croft. The tenor was a young man billed as J S[ims] Reeves. They played a large part of the year, giving Fra Diavolo, Der Freischütz, The Mountain Sylph, La Sonnambula, The Beggar’s Opera, The Bohemian Girl (Devilshoof),The Barber of Seville, Macbeth et al, Morley winning particular success with 'The Gipsies' Laughing Song', but when the group returned from Glasgow to Ireland, Morley vanished. Mr Croft took up the role of Ashton … and Morley …?

 

I see him just once more. On 19 October 1846 he gave an ‘American Entertainment’ at the Strand Theatre: Crossing the Atlantic: Traits and Travels in America. Louis Emmanuel, who had toured the previous year with Ransford and Ellen Lyon, played the piano, Morley ‘late of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden’, gave broad ‘American’ anecdotes and sang a selection of his favourite songs, and it was apparently a jolly enough evening, except for ‘the painful inaccuracy of his intonation’. Perhaps that is why he, at this stage, disappeared.  

 

‘Mrs Morley’ ('the celebrated vocalist of the London concerts') is seen in concerts, particularly of sacred music ('Mrs Morley always sings sweetly'), and notably with the Seguins in the Rossini Stabat Mater, in New York up till 1845 … I see the 'accomplished music teacher and singer of 92 Franklin Street' in October of that year getting her purse pinched in a Bowery omnibus.

Crovilli ...hmmm ...

 

And there my story, for the meanwhile, ends. Still lots and lots of lacunae. And, truthfully, we have no evidence that his/their name was factually 'Morley'!

 

Help please!

 

American musical theatre: well 'before Carrie'

 

Many years ago, my dear friend Gerry Bordman published AMERICAN MUSICAL THEATRE, the nearest thing to a reference book on the subject up to that time, and launched me into my first book BRITISH MUSICAL THEATRE. My title was more apt than his, for I dealt not only with London productions, but with those from all parts of the British Isles. He, alas, dealt only with New York. Richard Norton subsequently provided a splendid three-volume companion to AMT, which is now the basic reference in the field. For New York. But no author or publisher has, to my knowledge, chronicled the mass of musical-theatre activity which went on in America in the 19th and early 20th century. It would be a huge job, but so much more worthwhile than the repeated quasi-histories and multiple musings of much-mused-over musicians that the publishing world largely gives us in the 21st century. And, before anyone says 'Why don't YOU do it?', I would plead that I am in 'the twilight of my life, the evening of my days' and I have done my dash. However ...

I can't stop myself from being interested in the shows which were produced and played in the other states of the USA, and this week e-bay threw up some delicious ephemera ...  so here I go!

THE COUNTESS COQUETTE 

The hardest working person on this show seems to have been the press rep, or whoever invented the stories surrounding its birth and production. 

History and the press papers don't reveal who invented Countess Coquette. It was launched on Terre Haute, Indiana in December 1912, under the management of Arthur Grant Delamater (1871- ?), a doggedly small-time producer from the 1890s (In Greater New York, Beverly of Graustark, Freckles) who preached morality, and the Metropolis Opera Inc syndicate, whose name had headed the bills for the preceding My Cinderella Girl. Mr Delamater's cries of 'clean' would have carried more weight had he paid his bills, and been a little more transparent about his productions. The 'clean' piece he mounted here carried the title of the slightly scandalous play presented in New York by Alla Nazimova. He survived in show-business for over half a century, latterly working for F C Whitney. 

Anatol Friedlander, a young composer of light music who would have a longish period as a songwriter and girlie producer, was credited with the music to the eighteen songs and Melville Alexander the lyrics, and the book was said to be taken from the French of Marcel or Marcelle Janvier or Javrière. It was variously advertised as a musical comedy, a musical farce, an opéra-comique, a 'Parisian operetta', 'from the Porte Saint-Martin', 'a musical farce with music' and said equally variously to have had a two-year run in Paris, to have never been seen in New York or Chicago, to be a 'Broadway success', 'a success in the East', to be 'the laughing hit of Europe' (My Cinderella Girl had been advertised as 'the laughing musical sensation of the century'), 'heading to four weeks in Chicago'. Later it was said to have been adapted from the French by one Erika Gulfstrom.

Was it? I suspect not. I really don't believe in Mons or Mlle Janvier. Or Fröken Gulfstream. I think this was someone's attempt to produce another Alma, where do you live?, a seminal and hugely successful 'French' musical comedy by Adolf Philipp. Alma had been presented as being written by Paul Hervé and Jean Briquet. It was, of course, entirely the work of the German Mr Philipp. But the French names added what America saw as spice to the tale. Was this an attempt to follow the same path? I suspect as much.

The genuine critics had no chance against Mr Press Agent's showers of self-contradictory puff paragraphs, with which the papers of Iowa, Kansas, Illinois et al filled their columns. But it didn't work. The piece -- dubbed 'mildly diverting in some spots and tiresome in others -- made it through some three months -- far from Broadway, or even Chicago -- and folded in Ann Arbour, Michigan in April.

THE KISSING GIRL

This show had rather more firepower behind it. Producer Harry Frazee, Liverpudlian librettist Stan Stange at the end of a memorable career including, most recently, the megahit English version of The Chocolate Soldier, while the songwriters were the hugely proven Harry von Tilzer and Vincent Bryan. In retrospect, it was a strange combination. Stange's greatest successes had been with musicals at the substantial 'comic opera' end of the genre, von Tilzer was known as a popular song and dance writer. It could have worked .. but Tilzer had a 0-4 record in the theatre (The Pan American Girl for Al Shean, A Jolly Baron, In New York Town, The Circus Man) ...

For Tilzer see https://ragpiano.com/comps/hvntlzr.shtml

The cast, too, was more than respectable. Amelia Stone, a proven light opera prima donna, Polish leading man Armand Kalisz, Joe C Miron and as a feature a rather remarkable dancer who called herself Mlle Vanity and was said, improbably, to come from Australia.

The Kissing Girl (originally scheduled as The Girl from Bohemia) was the opening attraction for the new Cort Theater on Chicago's Randolph and Dearborn. After a trial run at Madsion, Ill (17 October 1909) it opened to indifferent reviews. '[It] will never be distinguished for any particular brilliance among operettas: it has its tame moments but it is brightly staged and blithely performed'. 

It seems that chalk and cheese had not mixed effectively. Stange was accused of lifting his libretto from something German, the songs left no trace, and though the players were up rto the mark and Mlle Vanity 'costumed in rouge-et-noir touches off a song 'On the Boulevard' with a Terpischorean speciality that is both acrobatic and graceful: she is much admired', the show was soon in trouble. It was revamped in a 'second edition' in December and closed 15 January. 

The most positive outcome of the affair was that Miss Stone and Mr Kalisz got married ... well, it was positive for a while ... 

PRINCE HUMBUG

A vehicle for the popular musical comedian Frank Lalor, Produced by Samuel E Rork at Boston's Park Theatre 7 September 1908 (tryout at Springfield, Mass 31 August). Book by Mark Elbert Swan. Music by Karl Hoschna. Swan had done well with the farcical A Lucky Dog for Nat Wills in 1906, Hoschna was on the up with his score for Three Twins, and both would go on to fine theatrical careers. Prince Humbug was not one of their highlights. Nor Lalor's. It was judged 'too poor for his talents' and was canned in Oswego 28 November. Lalor salvaged his favourite bits and took them into his next vehicle, The Candy Shop ..

LALOR, Frank [T] (b Washington, DC, 20 August 1869; d New York, 15 October 1932).  Comedian Lalor made his first stage appearances as a child in variety and played for a number of years as half of the double act ‘Dunn and Lalor’ before beginning a long and ultimately prominent career in musical comedy in the Wolford Comedians’ collapsible farce comedy Our Strategists (1891, Terence O’Flam). He was first seen on Broadway in the Rays’ farce comedy A Hot Old Time (1897, Jack Treadwell), and more prominently in The Show Girl (1902, Dionysius Fly), as Bliffkins in An English Daisy (1904), and as Shamus O'Scoot in Mr Wix of Wickham (1904). He appeared in Boston and on the road in E E Rice’s remake of Mr Wix as The Merry Shop Girls (1905), played in vaudeville houses in The Athletic Girl (1905, Captain O'Shiver), took the rôle of Bunny Hare in Chicago’s The Filibuster (1905) and again on Broadway when it was re-named The Press Agent (1905), and went on the road in Comin' Thru the Rye (1906, Nott), and Karl Hoschna's early Prince Humbug. In his forties, he played in such pieces as The Candy Shop (1909, Saul Wright) and the The Bachelor Belles (1910, Tom Jones) before making a big success as the comical-satyrical `Donny' Dondidier, in Ivan Caryll's hit musical The Pink Lady(1911, `I Like It!', `Donny Didn't, Donny Did'), a part which he repeated on the London stage (1912). A series of good comic rôles followed this success, as Lalor appeared in the short-lived but admired-by-some Iole (1913, Clarence Guildford), as the philandering professor of Caryll's Papa's Darling (1914, Achille Petipas), in the revusical Gaby Delys vehicle Stop! Look! Listen! (1915, Gideon Gay) and as the chief comic of Marc Connelly's Broadway début show, The Amber Express (1916, Percival Hopkins). He featured alongside Fred Stone and Charlotte Greenwood in the Mormon musical His Little Widows (1917, Abijah Smith), and starred in the Chicago musical Good Night Paul (aka Oh! So Happy 1917, Frank Hudson), but he had to return to London to find himself another real winner. In 1918 he appeared as Prosper Woodhouse (`All Line Up in a Queue') in the long-running West End hit The Lilac Domino, and he remained in London to take part in the quick-flop import Nobody's Boy (1919, Colonel Bunting).Lalor's last shows brought no such hits, whether in America -- The Cameo Girl(1921, Jones), 4 performances of Suzette (1921, Tony), the botched Phi-Phi(Phi-Phi), Luckee Girl (1928, Pontavès), a brief appearance in Busby Berkeley's The Street Singer, Friar Tuck in a 1932 revival of Robin Hood -- or in London, where he played, subordinate to W H Berry, as Oliver J Oosenberry in Szirmai's The Bamboula, and when time came to tally up it was seen that the memorable shows of his career finally totalled few, even though the leading rôles had been many.

I am surprised that any trace remains of another -- much less professional -- Boston musical, The Green Bird. But here it is!

The piece which ended its life as The Green Bird was the baby of a Boston gent by the name of David Kilburn Stevens (b Fichtburg 12 August 1860). Here is what the Boston Globe wrote about him as publicity for his show

The Green Bird was hatched as early as 1903, under the title The King of the Cannibal Islands 'a farce in 2 acts' and played by a group of young folk at Ashmont Hall. It was repeated in 1905, and in 1906 (3 May) Stevens produced a version, book, lyrics and music by himself, with a cast of juveniles at Jordan Hall, Lincoln House. 
It came to the professional stage at the Majestic Theater, 29 July 1907 under its new title .. the crux of the plot was that the King was chosen according to the squawks of said bird .. under the management of Mr Adolph E Mayer, a former light opera player who had ventured into management at Point of Pines in 1902. The music was now credited to John Arnold Bennett of California. George Schiller played the old king, Alice Hosmer his komische Alte wife, Fred Lennox the Mr Jones (the parrot can only squawk 'Jones'), Eleanor Kent was the soprano.

The 'musical fancy' was not an unmitigated flop. It was quite acceptable, indeed, as 'summer entertainment', and it was played for five weeks during the undemanding months.  Quite why the 'Standard Amusement Co' (whoever they were) then decided to take it on tour on the New England circuit is a mystery. It died in Portsmouth 24 September after a life of less than two months when the Standard gentlemen found they were $550 in the red. Soon after Mr Mayer was declared bankrupt.

Oh, the 'missionaries' widows' were a part of the chorus. Evidently a dancing part.

Stevens ventured again, a little later, with a piece titled Prince Prigio. He was also credited with extra material for other shows. I see him, now an 'editor' in the 1930 census, with his second wife ... and it seems that he died in 1940 or 1941.

More later ...

 

Unidentified Musical Ephemera: A bit of Baltimore?

 

I had a great deal of fun, recently, winkling out the identity of an old playbill from Iowa, so when I saw this one, dated but no venue or familiar names, I thought 'well, have a go'!

So, 15 May 1855, where?

Somewhere in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia area. But where?

Odd Fellow's Hall? They were all over the place. Marsh's Music Store? Stephen W Marsh had a musical shop 'opposite Court Square' in Springfield, Mass. Ah! There's one in Philadelphia ... John Marsh, music publisher .. New Masonic Hall ...

And Philadelphia turns up a pianist by the name of Edward William Magenis. Or Maginnis. 

And there he is, playing piano for a concert given by the same Sheppard girls at Wilmington a few weeks earlier! 

So who are these sisters?

Caroline M Sheppard, Georgie Sheppard and .. according to other announcements. Mrs M A Powell, late of Baltimore, who had been visible in Philadelphia concerts since 1851, alongside the chief purveyor of local concerts, Richard Turner, was a third sister.

I have found the family -- or part of it -- in the 1850 census of Baltimore. 

Mrs Powell is evidently already wed and gone.

I see Caroline teaching music and singing at Miss D T Kingbourne's Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies in 1853. And in 1855 ..

At some stage, they became 'late of Baltimore' and are taking lessons from the composer and singer Signor Natale Perelli (b Italy 24 December 1816; d Philadelphia 2 March 1867), sometime primo tenore of the Havana Opera Company and America's original Ernani. 

There is just one thing odd about this bill. Fifteen year-old Georgie (b 3 January 1840) was not 'Miss G'. She was 'Mrs G' and the mother of a baby daughter. She had married a John Woolman Sheppard -- a relative? -- 4 October 1854, and borne a daughter, Linda who, we are told, was born 22 February 1854. Yes, this family goes from curiosity to muddle.

The girls can't have been too bad. Concerting with Fred Crouch, and rubbing shoulders with Teresa Parodi.

Intially, Caroline seems to have been the most prominent of the sisters through engagements in concert which reached as far as the New York American Music Association at Dodsworth's Academy, the Boston Lyceum, the Yonkers Lyceum, Poughkeepsie, Bridgeton, but it was Georgie (who had claimed her employment as 'prima donna' in the 1860 census!) who had the longer life in music. She sang with the Old Folks Company, and went on to church engagements at St Peter's Episcopalian, Brooklyn et al, and concerts at Steinway and Irving Hall ('Sweet Spirit, Hear my Prayer', 'I waited for the Lord'), as 'first soprano of the Jersey Harmonic Society', and with Theodore Thomas into the 1870s. Now, apparently abandoned by her husband (she sued him in the Supreme Court for 'failure to support') she continued on till about 1875 ... 

I see Georgie, Linda, son Ferdinand/Fernando and brother Albert living in New York in the 1870 census, and mother and two children in East 31st Street in1880 ..  By 1900, in Lenox Avenue, she is knocking 4 years off her age, Ferdie is a bookkeeper and there is a baby Georgie McMartin, child of the deceased Linda (Mrs John F McMartin) ...  Georgie died 16 August 1912.

Caroline? No idea. Mrs Powell? No idea. Mr W Carroll? I can find nothing at all on him. Parents? Alas, no luck.

But it's a lovely bit of American musical ephemera.