Press Clippings for the week ending
Saturday, 6 December 2003
A random selection of cuttings
from newspapers and magazines
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'Theatrical Nudities' in England, 1869 |
An unidentified, probably English burlesque actress
wearing a minimal costume over 'fleshings' (skin-coloured tights) suggestive of nudity.
(photo: unknown, probably England, circa 1872)
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'The Daily News protests against the indecent costumes of the stage. Even pert puns and popular songs – now the usual components of a burlesque – are not permitted to usurp the first place. That is reserved for young ladies all but completely undressed, whirling about so as to make completely undressed scarcely an exaggerated account of their condition, and for other female forms high up in the air [i.e. trapeze artists], with hardly anything on them beyond the machinery by which they are suspended there. Even the songs and puns are not permitted to stand upon their won merits, such as they are. A zest is given to them which the audience, or spectators – which is it to be? – might otherwise miss, by their being put into the mouths of those airy, fairy actresses who have most successfully contended against the exigencies of propriety as once understood by Lord Chamberlains, and, one may add, by the British public. The power of a Manager to draw crowded houses is in exact proportion to the number of parts he allots to females, the period of the piece being usually so selected that as much as possible of their forms may be presented in bold relief to the gaze of the spectators. The News does not think that woman was designed - or, if all talk about design is dropped, should be utilised – for the gratification of the less defensible tastes of man. One hears a good deal of woman' rights just now, but one really should have thought one of her elementary rights was that she should not be stripped naked for the public gaze – admission to the show, half-a-crown.'
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The Lorrison Sisters at the |
The Lorrison Sisters
(photo: Anthony's, Paris, circa 1897)
|
'The Lorrisons, five lively young ladies in girlish costume, first come out from the concealment of wicker bath-chairs, and after doing a song and dance, again hide themselves and disrobe, reappearing in bathing-dresses, in which they again warble. Their last entry is made in fashionable walking attire, and they give a French chanson with much point and pleasantry. They are certainly a most attractive quintet.'
* * * * * * * * Gus Elen at the Royal music hall, London, September 1897 |
Gus Elen (1862-1940), English music hall singer and coster comedian
(caricature by S.H. Simes from Pick-Me-Up, London, Saturday, 25 September 1897, p.411b)
|
'Gus Elen, Esq., was in really grand form. Apart from the homely touch in the waggle of his little dog's tail, Gus has struck it rich as a successful Dustman. There is not so very much in the song ['The Golden Dustman'] itself, but Gussy's treatment of it is a real dream. I thought at the end of it the management would have come on the stage and throw something at the audience to make it leave off insisting on an encore.'
* * * * * * * * Leslie Barker at the Empire Theatre, Leeds, April 1915
|
Leslie Barker (fl.1912-1930), English dancer and entertainer,
with Mamie Watson (fl. early 20th century), English actress and singer
(photo: Sachs, Bradford, Yorkshire, circa 1913)
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'Leslie Barker, coon singer and dancer, who was such a hit in the Leeds Royal panto., drew a good many people to the Leeds Empire last week, where he was a great success, his wonderful dancing being loudly applauded. He has a nice easy style, and should go a long way on the halls.'
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© John Culme, 2003