Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 5 July 2003
A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines
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The Theatrical Carte de Visite -
'Sir, - some years ago a considerable amount of discussion was raised in the daily papers on account of English householders concluding their advertisements for domestic servants with the sentence "No Irish need apply." Now, Sir, it seems very difficult to understand why a smart girl or an active youth should be denied the opportunity of earning an honest living simply because they hailed from the Emerald Isle, but I feel sure that the people who advertised in such a manner were entirely ignorant of the Irish people, of that class especially from which domestic servants are principally chosen. Some time ago my attention was drawn to the back page of your paper, and there I discovered some theatrical advertisements quite as discreditable to their authors as the above. Those to which I refer emanate from Managers anxious to collect a company, and generally finish with the words "Applicants will please send carte," or "Parties unknown to the Manager will please forward carte-de-visite." Or in other words, "If you're not good-looking you need not apply." Or course, the Manager wants the photographs in order to choose the handsome people and reject those who are not blessed with pretty faces. Such a course is most unjust to hundreds in the Profession. It is a fact that talent and good looks do not always go hand in hand; but it appears that the brains are of no importance if the good appearance is there. Many [a] talented performer who has not been so fortunate as to be born with a prepossessing appearance is thrust aside by Mr. Manager and a handsome noodle, with more vanity than brains, chosen instead. If the Stage, at the present time, were remarkable for the possession of performers nine-tenths of whom were genuine artists, the foolish sentences above referred to might be excused, but, at present, the Manager is at least injudicious who advertises for beauty before ability. * * * * * * * *
Marie Lloyd Winks Her Other Eye |
Marie Lloyd – 'Then You Wink the Other Eye'
(caricature by Leonard Raven-Hill from
Pick-Me-Up, London, Saturday, 6 June 1891, p.154)
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'Miss Marie Lloyd, who appears to be a tremendous favourite here, was not allowed to leave the stage after her second song till she had obliged with the popular ditty dealing with the peculiar circumstances under which you "wink the other eye."
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The Brothers Russell, 'The Original Irish Servant Girls,'
'The latest American invaders of our variety stage are the Brothers Russell, who made their London début at the Tivoli and Oxford on Monday [19 March 1900]. These brothers are described as "The Original Irish Servant Girls," and it may at once be said that in the guise and accent of two Hibernian slaveys they contrive to present many bits of drollery, and especially some clever dancing. It is now, of course, the fault of this Transatlantic twain that a good deal of their business is not utterly unfamiliar – for, as we know, even English variety folk (nay, even theatrical personages) are not above bringing back from the States all sorts of material likely to be of use to them in what they doubtless call their Art. As to the Russell Brothers, they seem to me to be full of rollicking resource; and I make no doubt that when they have discarded certain well-whiskered gags and some of their very obvious "props," and especially the extravagant and well-worn Sarah Bernhardt travestie, these alert and vivacious dancing drolls will find themselves very popular on this side.'
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© John Culme, 2003