Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 6 April 2002

A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines

* * * * * * * * Henry Irving and J.L. Toole at Leicester, 1878 ‘Mr Henry Irving and Mr J.L. Toole - firmest of friends - are next week to indulge in a little amicable rivalry at Leicester, the former appearing at the Theatre Royal and the latter at the Royal Opera House. The famous actors will fix their quarters at the same hotel, and curiously enough their agents, the Messrs Loveday, who will of course work hard to secure the suffrages of the playgoers of the town, are brothers. We may be sure that in this instance rivalry will be accompanied by good will.’ (The Era, London, Sunday, 1 September 1878, p.6a) * * * * * * * * Henry Irving commences his management of the Lyceum Theatre, London, 1878 ‘The management of the Lyceum Theatre has been transferred by Mrs. [H.L.] Bateman to Mr. Irving, who on the 28th December will commence his eighth season there with Hamlet, supported by Miss Ellen Terry as Ophelia. Important revivals are in contemplation, but as yet, we believe, nothing has been decided upon. By engaging so gifted and accomplished an actress as Miss Terry the new manager has begun well, and a further proof that "all-round excellence" is aimed at is to be found in the fact that Mr. [Henry] Forrester has been added to the company. ‘Up to the time of writing, by the way, Mr. Irving’s provincial tour has been singularly successful… He is now at Dublin, and on the 7th October will appear at Manchester. ‘Mr. Irving took a benefit on Friday night at the Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool. "At the termination of my present tour," he said, in the course of an address to the audience, "my professional career in London will enter upon a new period, though without change of scene. When an actor turns manager, it is not with a greedy wish to monopolise either profits or opportunities. I, at least, most earnestly profess that it will be my aim at the Lyceum Theatre, of which I am now manager, to associate upon the stage all the arts and all the talents within my power to subsidise, so as to make the theatre a true school of dramatic art. I cannot myself pretend to be a master of any school; but I can say that most eminent members of my profession have joined me, and will help to make my theatre all I should wish it to be for the benefit of the pubic from whom I have received so much kindness.’ (The Theatre, London, 1 October 1878, p.250) * * * * * * * * Kate Cutler’s Motor Omnibus Dressing Room, London, 1906 ‘Between 9.30 [pm], when the curtain falls on Act 1 of the Spring Chicken at the Gaiety [Theatre, Aldwych] and 10.35 [pm], when Miss Cutler again appears there, she fills a twenty-minute engagement in Hero and Heroine at the Palace Theatre [Cambridge Circus], by the aid of a Vanguard motor-omnibus. Inside, the omnibus has been fitted up as a dainty dressing-room, festooned with pink roses and lighted by electricity. Here she effects a "quick change" in her costume on both journeys, and is able to make a record in stage appearances.’ (The Daily Mirror, London, Friday, 26 January 1906, p8, with two photographs) * * * * * *

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© John Culme, 2002