Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 11 January 2003

A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines

* * * * * * * * Bonnie Kate Harvey, 'The Rage of London. Everybody's Favourite,' 1880s

Kate Harvey (fl.1880s/1890s)
English music hall serio-comic singer

(photo: James Bacon, Newcastle on Tyne, circa 1894)

Advertisement for Bonnie Kate Harvey

(The Entr'acte, London, Saturday, 19 February 1881, p.16b)

'Bonnie' Kate Harvey's career as a singer on the English music hall stage appears to have flourished throughout the 1880s and most of the 1890s. Few details of it have yet emerged, however, beyond the fact that she appeared at almost every London and provincial hall of note. Early in 1881, for instance, when her agent was the well-known Ambrose Maynard (d.1888), she was billed as the 'Most Popular of all London Lady Favorites,' upon her presentation nightly at three London halls: the Sun at Knightsbridge (8.30pm), the South London (9.30pm), and Evans's in Covent Garden (10.30pm). At the South London she was described as 'a genial-looking vocalist, who seems to be in considerable favor.' At the Marylebone music hall in March that year her 'impressive presence and tuneful ditties [gained] a host of admirers.' (The Ent'racte, London, Saturday, 22 January 1881, p.16b, 19 February 1881, p.6b, and 12 March 1881, p.11a). In 1885, again at the Marylebone, we read that Miss Harvey 'rejoices in a definite and genial method which is not disfigured by anything in the shape of half-heartedness. Her aim is unmistakable, and she generally hits her mark.' The songs in her repertoire, rendered in 'rollicking style,' included 'Did'em?' 'Floral Emblems' and the waltz 'See-Saw.' By now she was enthusiastically styled 'The Rage of London. Everybody's Favourite. The greatest serio-comic success ever known.' Eventually her numbers included 'You See I'm but a Simple Country Maid' which, according to Tracy C. Davis, was not only a blatant untruth, but put Miss Harvey in the same 'immoral' company as Bessie Bellwood, Marie Lloyd and other serio-comic singers of risqué material. (The Entr'acte, London, Saturday, 7 March 1885, p.6a, 21 March 1885, p.5b; 4 April 1885, p.13c; T.C. Davis, Actresses as Working Women, Routledge, London and New York, 1991, p.118) * * * * * * * * Katie Lawrence on holiday, July 1894 'Miss Kate Lawrence, who has just finished her short provincial tour, is taking a much-needed holiday this week at Coggeshall, Essex, with Mr George Fuller, her husband, who drove down there on Tuesday [3 July 1894], and "Daisy Bell," on Thursday, went by steamer to Clacton, and finished the journey inland by train. Miss Lawrence, we may add, is interesting herself on behalf of George Stone, an afflicted lad, who is a candidate for the next election to the Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood. It is a most distressing case, and proxies sent on his behalf to Miss Lawrence will be well bestowed. Miss Lawrence opens at the Palace on Monday.' (The Era, London, Saturday, 7 July 1894, p.15a) * * * * * * * * Czarina, 'The Clever Toe Dancer,' 1901

Czarina (fl.1900-1901)
'The Clever Toe Dancer'

(photos: unknown, circa 1900)

'CZARINA. 'The unsophisticated reader might hastily jump to the conclusion that these are pictures of the Queen of Russia, but let us assure him that he is mistaken. Why, no. Czarina, who doubtless thinks herself as rare as Russian Caviare [sic], is, as a matter of fact, a pretty good toe dancer. But we give her all this space because she's young and pretty and well worth gazing upon. She has a seductive grey eye and a kissable mouth, but what does the gentle reader care for such frivolities?' (Up To Date, London, Saturday, 12 January 1901, p.7, 13 April 1901, p.20) * * * * * * * * Cyril Maude's Rip Van Winkle, Playhouse, London, 1911

Cyril Maude as Rip and Margery Maude as Minna van de Grift as a girl
Rip Van Winkle, Playhouse, London, 29 September 1911

(photo: Daily Mirror Studios, London, 1911)

Rip Van Winkle, by Austin Strong. 'Had there been a little more relief or a more robust humour in Austin Strong's version of Rip Van Winkle, it would have been one of the greatest successes of the season. 'We followed Rip, on his return from prison, up to the forests and wildernesses of the Strange Mountains, there to see him condemned by the uncanny inhabitants to a sleep of fifty years. We next saw him awake from his slumbers beneath the roots of an old oak tree and return to the village in the Kaatskill Mountains, there to find, amid the fresh faces of the villages the sweetheart of his younger days, grown old with waiting and grey with sorrow. 'But we didn't see enough of Rip before he went away into the mountains. We could have done with a lot more of that beautifully human Rip, the favourite of the village, in spite of his wild, drunken life. And we should have preferred an ending less sad than it was. If we had left the theatre with a feeling of gladness rather than pity, we should have been better pleased. 'So much for the play. 'As for the acting, I can only say that Mr. Cyril Maude gave one of the most interesting and consistent studies I have ever seen on the stage. Apart from the story, Rip van Winkle is worth seeing for himself alone. Nothing could be more fascinating that to watch Rip's awakening. There wasn't a movement that was out of tune, not a glance that was unnecessary, not an action that could not have been associated with a feeble old man whose joints were stiff with age and whose muscles were cramped for want of use. It was great! 'Miss Margery Maude played her part with peculiar sweetness. She is a charming little actress, dainty, earnest, and unaffected. Miss Winifred Emery had only a small part, but a telling one. She gave a touching rendering of an old lady in whose soul the bitterness of time was powerless to destroy the sweetness, and many eyes were moist while she was on stage. 'As a spectacle, Rip van Winkle need "take its hat off" to nothing. How Mr. Maude got such effects and such an exquisite setting is a source of wonderment to me. It was a beautiful production, a feast of delicate colouring; an artistic triumph. 'The beautiful setting of the play seemed to bubble over into the proscenium. 'The pillars at the side of the stage were transformed into fine old trees, the foliage of which stretched away up to the ceiling of the theatre, while the orchestra rail took the guise of a rustic fence. The regular curtain gave place to a new one, painted to represent an enticing forest, and the general effect was to carry the mind away from the busy Northumberland Avenue and the taxi-covered [Thames] Embankment to the land of enchantment, of singing birds, gnomes and fairies.' (The Playgoer and Society Illustrated, vol.V, new series, no.25, London, [? October] 1911, p.29) 'In connection with Mr. Cyril Maude's production of Rip Van Winkle [Playhouse, London, 21 September 1911], Messrs. Greening and Co. have published a dainty edition of Washington Irving's ever-popular story, together with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and some other interesting matter relating to Mr. Maude's production, This new edition of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle is called "The Playhouse Edition." It contains character portraits of Mr. Maude, Miss Winifred Emery, and Miss Marjorie Maude. It is bound in cloth and published at the popular price of one shilling.' (The Playgoer and Society Illustrated, vol.V, new series, no.25, London, [? October] 1911, p.36b) * * * * * * * * Ann Swinburne annoys The New York Dramatic Mirror, 1913 'Young Anne Swinburne [sic] overwhelms us with her modesty. She is reported to have instituted suit for an injunction and $10,000 damages against the George W. Dillingham Company for selling a novelized version of The Count of Luxembourg with her picture for a frontispiece. If this announcement is more than a press agent's inspiration, Miss Swinburne's representative will probably encounter difficulties hereafter in inducing dramatic editors to accept her pictures for publication. And it will serve her right. 'Miss Swinburne is a charming young singer. She is by no means a dominating artist. Much of her popularity is due to her young and the grace which goes with her years. She is one of many nice, charming girls who bob up and down in the whirl of the theatrical millrace. Some have commanded as much attention as she, and then have been forgotten. Not one within the scope of our observation has been averse to seeing her picture published, pretty much regardless of when, where and how. Why an otherwise charming little songbird should suddenly develop symptoms of antipathy to a legitimate form of publicity is one of the things that stagger the editorial mind. Possibly Miss Swinburne has outgrown the need of propaganda.' (The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Wednesday, 22 October 1913, p.8a/b) * * * * * * * *

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© John Culme, 2003