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FOOTLIGHT NOTES
no. 345

updated
Saturday, 24 April 2004

Gabrielle Ray (1883-1973)
English musical comedy actress and dancer

Gabrielle Ray

(photo: Bassano, London, 1909)

This week we celebrate Gabrielle Ray's birthday on 28 April and also the recent opening of an exhibition arranged by Terence Pepper at the National Portrait Gallery, London, devoted to Bassano's early 20th Century photographs of theatrical celebrities. Miss Ray is featured in the exhibition and so, too, are some of her contemporaries on the London stage, including Gertie Millar, Moya Mannering, Gaby Deslys, Olive May and Gina Palerme. The exhibition runs until 31 August. A special CD entitled Gaiety Girls has been produced to coincide with the exhibition, available at the National Portrait Gallery bookshop and also direct from Tony Barker. With masterly transfers by Dominic Combe from rare original recordings, and twelve pages of sleeve notes by Patrick O'Connor, the CD comprises the following tracks: Alice Delysia - I Know What I Want (1933) Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale - Hold My Hand (1932) Cicely Courtneidge and Harold French - A tiny flat in Soho Square (1927) Dorothy Brown and Roy Royston - When I Waltz With You (1926) José Collins and Kingsley Lark - The Last Waltz (1922) Mamie Watson and Roy Royston - Japanese Duet (1920) Marjorie Gordon - Tickle Toe (1918) Ada Reeve - Is It Nothing To You? (1915) Moya Mannering and Leslie Henson - Meet Me Around The Corner (1915) Haidee de Rance and George Grossmith Jnr - They Didn't Believe Me (1915) Connie Ediss - I Like To Have A Little Bit On (1911) Olive May - The Lass With A Lasso (1911) Gaby Deslys - Tout En Rose (1910) Denise Orme and Arthur Grover - Swing Song (1906) Delia Mason and Maurice Farkoa - My Portuguese Princess (1905) Evie Greene - Try Again, Johnny (1902) Ellaline Terriss - Gaiety Medley (1903). The disc also includes the following unique recordings of broadcasts from the 1930s: Gertie Millar - Keep Off The Grass; Phyllis Dare and W. H. Berry - Let Me Introduce You To My Father; Ethel Levey - Ragtime Medley; and Evelyn Laye - The Call Of Life. My own contribution to this event includes a talk – Growing up with Bassano - about my 45 years as a collector of theatrical photographs, to be given at the National Portrait Gallery on Sunday, 9 May. The National Portrait Gallery has also published a number of postcards for the occasion, taken from original Bassano negatives, which are available from the gallery's bookshop. So, too, is a selection of my own hand made greetings cards, a sample of which is illustrated below.

Gladys Cooper as she appeared in Havana,
Gaiety Theatre, London, 1908

(photo: Bassano, London, 1908)

A sample of John Culme's hand made greetings cards,
currently available at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

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