 |
Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many
I had not thought death had undone, so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where St Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
-- T S Eliot 1922
| |
|
We have 142 guests and 0 members online
You are an anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here
| |
| |
View all articles for this topic.
 | |  | |
|
Sir William Schwenk Gilbert (1836-1911) is today best remembered for his collaboration with Sir Arthur Sullivan which gave us the wonderful and quintessentially English Operas which bear their joint names. Recently, a souvenir brochure for a benefit matinee which was held at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on May 11th 1909, in aid of the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium at Davos, came to light. The show starred many of the great entertainers of the day, including Harry Lauder, Harry Tate, Ellen Terry and Weedon Grossmith. The brochure contained a section, containing illustrations, prose and drama, provided by authors and entertainers who did not appear on the day. Amongst these was this piece by Gilbert. In it he ponders, with his wit undiminished, the relationship between the author and the actors who bring his work before the public.
|
| |  | |  |
| | | |
A seventeen-year old runaway with "the build of a Hercules and the voice of a Stentor" who became a daring and dashing young dragoon. A charger called Gibraltar. A wife called Petsy. A lost diamond ring. King George III and a maddened horse on Westminster Bridge. Centrifugal force. These are the unlikely antecedents of the entertainment that we know today as the Circus. It began life in a field in Lambeth and went on to become one of the sights of London in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the long, slow, development of the classic show it brought spectacular Military and Nautical melodramas to the London stage which featured 400 extras and a tank holding 50,000 gallons of water. And we must not forget those fashionable diners at the Alhambra who were stunned as the "Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" flew above their heads whilst they ate their suppers!
|
| | | | |
| | | |
The Clown from whom all clowns have come to be known as "Joey" died in London on May 31st 1837. He was born 58 years earlier to the mistress of a 58 year-old dancer and pantaloon. The father was both cruel and ambitious and had the young child make his first stage appearance as an infant dancer in 1781. For the next seven years the young Joey endured a harsh upbringing. Never seeming to live up to his father's he was beaten regularly. In later life he attributed one of his earliest triumphs to the tears that followed a particularly harsh beating. He went on to become one of the greatest and best-loved figures in the history of English Pantomime.
Note: Grimaldi's memoirs were edited by Charles Dickens: Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi
And an excellent history of Pantomime has been published by the BBC:"Oh, yes it is"! : a history of pantomime
Some informative websites about Grimaldi and the history of Pantomime are:
History
Panto
Panto tradition
Pantomime
|
| | | | |
|
