Postcard of the week ending
Saturday, 20 December 2008

Marie George as Cissie,
one of the babes in the pantomime,
Babes in the Wood,
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, 26 December 1907

Marie George

Marie George as Cissie,
in Babes in the Wood,
Drury Lane, London, 26 December 1907

(photo: Foulsham & Banfield, London, 1907)

This real photograph postcard, no. 7410 B in the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd's Rotary Photographic Series, was published in London towards the end of 1907. It shows Marie George as Cissie, one of the babes (the other being Walter Passmore as Reggie) in the children's pantomime, Babes in the Wood which was produced at Drury Lane on 26 December 1907.

'THE AMERICAN GIRL.
'In London the American actress is having another triumph. In the Drury Lane pantomime, the leading entertainment of this kind in the country, the ''principal boy'' and ''principal girl'' both hail from the land of the dollar. The first is Miss Meredith Medero, who originally came over to appear at the [music] halls in ''The Stunning Grenadiers,'' and who was snapped up by Arthur Collins, and the second is Marie George, who now is an established favorite with audiences at ''Old Drury.'' Both have scored heavily in this winter's pantomime, which is The Babes in the Wood.
'Meanwhile, further up the Strand, the bright particular star of the Adelphi pantomime, Aladdin, is another Yankee damsel, ''Happy Fanny Fields.'' She appears at the Adelphi, moreover, in spite of two attempts to retrain her from so doing, one on the part of the Tivoli, and the other on that of the Holborn music hall. It appears that this young lady's excessive ''happiness'' let her to enter into three separate contracts which conflicted rather seriously. To begin with, there was the one which Robert Arthur, proprietor of the Adelphi, which, as has been indicated, stands in the classic Strand. The other two managements do not go in for pantomime, and their complaints were not on this score, but on the ground that the American laugh-maker had covenanted to appear in their threaters in May, and, in the meantime, not to give performances at any other place of entrainment within a mile of either playhouse. Now the Tivoli is exactly across the street from the Adelphi, and the Holborn is less than half a mile away, hence the recent attempted injunctions against Happy Fanny. They failed, as it proved that the agreement with Robert Arthur was of prior standing; that it was ''entered into,'' in fact, in January, 1906, whereas the other two were made in August last, so the Yankee girl is triumphant temporarily. But the judge declared that if the two music halls elected to bring a further action for damages against Miss Fields, the chances of their being able to ''collect'' were bright.'
('News and Comment of the Drama,' Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, Sunday, 19 January 1908, Part Two, p. 7e)

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© John Culme, 2008