FOOTLIGHT NOTES
(13th year in cyberspace -
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Theatre -Variety
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and other popular entertainment
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1850s-1920s
Joyce Kennedy (1898-1943)
English stage and film actress
(photo: Vaughan & Freeman, London, 1925)
Footlight Notes no. 634
contents
for the week ending
14 November 2009
Home - FOOTLIGHT NOTES, images of theatre and other popular entertainment, 1850s-1920s - the label of Columbia F-1044, Edith Day's London recording of 'Alice Blue Gown' from Irene, made on or about 15 April 1920; and a photograph of Miss Day and Pat Somerset as they appeared in the London production of Irene, Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, 7 April 1920
W.H. Berry (1872-1951),
English actor, singer and musical comedy star
(photo: Jarrold & Co, England, circa 1904)
Sound file (2.3 mb mp3) - W.H. Berry forsook a commercial life in the City of London to work as a concert singer and seaside entertainer and as such made many recordings for the UK Columbia label in 1903 and 1904. The following year he was spotted by the great theatrical impresario George Edwardes, who engaged him for musical comedy. From then until the mid 1930s he was seldom absent from the London West End stage; he also appeared in a number of films. Here Berry sings a comic song by H.G. Pelissier (1874-1913), of 'Pelissier's Follies' fame, entitled 'In the Springtime' in which mention is made of the then well-known London businesses of Swan & Edgar and Derry & Toms (department stores) and Negretti & Zambra (photographers) (HMV 4-2114, mx 12728e, recorded London, 18 November 1910)
Celebrity of the Week - Ethel Levey (1880-1955), American actress and singer, sings 'My Tango Girl' from Hullo, Tango!, London Hippodrome, 23 December 1913
Postcard of the week - Arthur Bourchier in the title role of Henry VIII, His Majesty's Theatre, London, 1 September 1910
Please use the above image © John Culme, 2009
Cigarette Card of the week - Daisy Dormer (1883-1947), English music hall comedienne
Advertisement of the week - return of Graham Moffat's Scottish comedy Bunty Pulls the Strings to the Playhouse Theatre, London, 16 June 1913
Press Clippings of the week - Pauline Hall at Chase's, Washington, D.C., week beginning 20 August 1906 / Les Merveilleuses, the comic opera at Daly's theatre, first produced on 27 October 1906, with music by Hugo Felix, reopens after various changes, including the title to The Lady Dandies at the same theatre at the end of January 1907; Huntley Wright, Gabrielle Ray and others join the cast / The Servant in the House with Edith Wynne Matthison, Washington, D.C. and New York, March, 1908
More celebrity recordings from the Footlight Notes Collection, including Norah Bayes, Lee White and Clay Smith, Elsie Janis and Basil Hallam, J.W. Rickaby, Jay Laurier, Blanche Ring, Bonita and Lew Hearn, Dorothy Dickson, Odette Myrtil, John Steel and more.
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Read about Kurt Gänzl's latest biography, EMILY SOLDENE: IN SEARCH OF A SINGER, which has just been published. This long-awaited and detailed study of a fascinating Victorian theatrical celebrity and her contemporaries includes almost 700 illustrations. (This page is best viewed in Internet Explorer.)
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