Gaiety Girls

Last updated
Gaiety Girls in The Geisha, 1896; Blanche Massey center 1890 Gaiety Girls.jpg
Gaiety Girls in The Geisha , 1896; Blanche Massey center

Gaiety Girls were the chorus girls in Edwardian musical comedies, beginning in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in the shows produced by George Edwardes. The popularity of this genre of musical theatre depended, in part, on the beautiful dancing corps of "Gaiety Girls" appearing onstage in bathing attire and in the latest fashions. The 1890s Gaiety Girls were respectable, elegant young ladies, unlike the actresses from London's earlier musical burlesques. [1] Later, even the stars of these musical comedies were referred to as Gaiety Girls. [2]

Contents

Description

Fashion icons

An American newspaper reviewing A Gaiety Girl in 1894 explained the importance of the Gaiety Girls: "The piece is a mixture of pretty girls, English humor, singing, dancing and bathing machines and dresses of the English fashion. The dancing is a special feature of the performance, English burlesques giving much more attention to that feature of their attractiveness than the American entertainments of the same grade do." [3] Many of the best-known London couturiers designed costumes for stage productions by the 1890s. The illustrated periodicals were eager to publish photographs of the actresses in the latest stage hits, and so the theatre became an excellent way for clothiers to publicise their latest fashions. [4]

Poster for A Gaiety Girl GaietyGirlDudleyHardy.jpg
Poster for A Gaiety Girl

Gaiety girls were polite, well-behaved young women. They became a popular attraction and a symbol of ideal womanhood. Edwardes arranged with Romano's Restaurant, on the Strand, for his girls to dine there at half-price. It was good exposure for the girls and made Romano's the centre of London's night-life. [5] Many of the Gaiety Girls, such as Marie Studholme, Ellaline Terriss, Lily Elsie, Florence Collingbourne, Cicely Courtneidge, Gladys Cooper, Phyllis Dare, Zena Dare, Mabel Love, Evelyn Laye, Jennie McNulty, Gaby Deslys, Camille Clifford, Gabrielle Ray, Sylvia Grey and Constance Collier, later enjoyed substantial acting careers. [6] One Gaiety Girl, Mabel Russell, became a Member of Parliament. [7]

Stage Door Johnnies; marriage into the upper class

Stage Door Johnnies waiting after A Gaiety Girl Stage Door Johnnies (drawing).jpg
Stage Door Johnnies waiting after A Gaiety Girl

The young ladies appearing in Edwardes's shows became so popular that wealthy gentlemen, termed "Stage Door Johnnies", would wait outside the stage door hoping to escort them to dinner. In some cases, a marriage into society and even the nobility resulted. For example, May Gates, a chorus girl in The Beauty of Bath , married a nobleman, Baron Von Ditton, of Norway. [8] Similarly, Sylvia Storey, another chorister in the same show, married William Poulett, 7th Earl Poulett. [9] [10] Maudi Darrell and Lily Elsie both married the same wealthy Scotsman, Ian Bullough. [11] Gertie Millar became the Countess of Dudley, and Olive May married into the peerage twice. First, she became Lady Victor Paget (marrying in 1913 and divorcing in 1921) and then the Countess of Drogheda (marrying the 10th Earl in 1922). The potential for such relationships was an underlying theme of many of the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, particularly those set at Blandings Castle. [12]

Alan Hyman, an expert on burlesque theatre who penned the 1972 book The Gaiety Years, wrote:

At the old Gaiety in the Strand the chorus was becoming a matrimonial agency for girls with ambitions to marry into the peerage and began in the nineties when Connie Gilchrist, a star of the Old Gaiety, married the 7th Earl of Orkney and then in 1901, the 4th Marquess of Headfort married Rosie Boote, who had charmed London the previous year when she sang Maisie in The Messenger Boy . After Connie Gilchrist and Rosie Boote had started the fashion a score of the Guv'nor's budding stars left him to marry peers or men of title while other Gaiety Girls settled for a banker or a stockbroker. The Guv’nor finding this was playing ducks and drakes with his theatrical plans had a 'nuptial clause' inserted in every contract.... Debutantes were competing with the other girls to get into the Gaiety chorus while upper-class youths were joining the ranks of the chorus boys. [13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Article about the Gaiety Girls in Pick-Me-Up, London, 24 November 1894, p. 116 Archived 14 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine , accessed March 9, 2008
  2. ↑ Description of Gaiety Girls exhibition (National Portrait Gallery), accessed March 9, 2008
  3. ↑ The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, 23 December 1894, p.9a.
  4. ↑ "Designing Stage Costumes", Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed March 10, 2015
  5. ↑ Gaiety Theatre Cuttings (Arthur Lloyd site) Archived January 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine accessed 01 Mar 2007
  6. ↑ Profiles and photos of many of the best known Gaiety Girls (National Portrait Gallery, accessed March 9, 2008
  7. ↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN   0-900178-06-X.
  8. ↑ The New York Dramatic Mirror, 18 July 1908, p.3b
  9. ↑ The New York Dramatic Mirror, 12 September 1908, p. 2b
  10. ↑ The New York Times article about the marriage and other similar matches. 6 September, 1908, p. C1
  11. ↑ "'The Dollar Princess' Who Took the Dollars", Oregon Daily Journal, via Newspapers.com, December 3, 1911, p. 65, accessed April 16, 2017
  12. ↑ See, for example, Usborne, Richard. Wodehouse at Work to the End (revised edition, 1976), pp. 132-33; and Wodehouse, P. G. (1933) Heavy Weather , passim.
  13. ↑ Information about the stagedoor Johnnie marriages Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Monckton</span> British composer (1861–1924)

Lionel John Alexander Monckton was an English composer of musical theatre. He became Britain's most popular composer of Edwardian musical comedy in the early years of the 20th century.

<i>The Geisha</i> Edwardian musical comedy

The Geisha, a story of a tea house is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Caryll</span> Belgian-born British-American composer

Félix Marie Henri Tilkin, better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian-born composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language, who made his career in London and later New York. He composed some forty musical comedies and operettas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Edwardes</span> English theatre manager and producer (1855–1915)

George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaiety Theatre, London</span> Former West End theatre in London, England

The Gaiety Theatre was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was first established as the Strand Musick Hall in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. In 1868, it became known as the Gaiety Theatre and was, at first, known for music hall and then for musical burlesque, pantomime and operetta performances. From 1868 to the 1890s, it had a major influence on the development of modern musical comedy.

<i>A Gaiety Girl</i> 1893 English musical comedy

A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall, Harry Greenbank (lyrics) and Sidney Jones (music). It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C. Hayden Coffin, Louie Pounds, Decima Moore, Eric Lewis, W. Louis Bradfield, and later Rutland Barrington, Scott Russell, Huntley Wright, Marie Studholme and George Grossmith, Jr. Topsy Sinden and later Letty Lind danced in the piece. Choreography was by Willie Warde. Percy Anderson designed the Japanese costumes for the musical, while the non-Japanese costumes were supplied by leading fashion houses. Blanche Massey was one of the Gaiety Girls in the piece. It also had a successful three-month Broadway run in 1894, followed by an American tour and a world tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James T. Tanner</span> English stage director and dramatist

James Tolman Tanner was an English stage director and dramatist who wrote many of the successful musicals produced by George Edwardes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Grossmith Jr.</span> British actor and theatre producer (1874–1935)

George Grossmith Jr. was an English actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies. Grossmith was also an important innovator in bringing "cabaret" and "revues" to the London stage. Born in London, he took his first role on the musical stage at the age of 18 in Haste to the Wedding (1892), a West End collaboration between his famous songwriter and actor father and W. S. Gilbert.

In Town is a musical comedy written by Adrian Ross and James T. Tanner, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Ross. The plot of In Town, though thin, is a smart tale of backstage and society intrigue. One of the popular songs from the show was "The Man About Town".

<i>Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué</i> Victorian burlesque by Fred Leslie and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz

Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué is a burlesque written by A. C. Torr and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz. It is based on the Victor Hugo drama Ruy Blas. The piece was produced by George Edwardes. As with many of the Gaiety burlesques, the title is a pun.

<i>Frankenstein, or The Vampires Victim</i>

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim is a musical burlesque in three acts written by Richard Henry. The music was composed by Meyer Lutz. The piece is a burlesque loosely based on the 1818 Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and the Adelphi Theatre drama based on the novel.

<i>Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed</i>

Galatea, or Pygmalion Re-Versed is a musical burlesque that parodies the Pygmalion legend, and specifically W. S. Gilbert's 1871 play Pygmalion and Galatea. The libretto was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and W. Webster. The score was composed by Wilhelm Meyer Lutz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwardian musical comedy</span> Form of British musical theatre

Edwardian musical comedy was a form of British musical theatre that extended beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions, beginning in the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following the First World War.

<i>Little Jack Sheppard</i>

Little Jack Sheppard is a burlesque melodrama written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz, with songs contributed by Florian Pascal, Corney Grain, Arthur Cecil, Michael Watson, Henry J. Leslie, Alfred Cellier and Hamilton Clarke. The comedy lampooned the serious plays based on the life of Jack Sheppard, especially the popular 1839 play by John Buckstone, which was in turn based on the novel of that year by William Harrison Ainsworth.

<i>Carmen up to Data</i> Musical burlesque by Meyer Lutz, G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt

Carmen up to Data is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz. Set in Seville, the piece was a spoof of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence Collingbourne</span>

Florence Eliza Collingbourne was a British actress, singer and stage beauty known for her appearances in Edwardian musical comedies. One of George Edwardes' Gaiety Girls, she took over the title role in San Toy and originated the role of Nancy Staunton in The Toreador.

Miss Esmeralda is a Victorian burlesque, in two acts, with music by Meyer Lutz and Robert Martin and a libretto by Fred Leslie, under his pseudonym "A. C. Torr", and Horace Mills. It is based on Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coralie Blythe</span> English actress and singer

Coralie Blythe, was an English actress and singer, who is best remembered for her numerous postcard photos and her roles in Edwardian musical comedy. Although she never became a big star, she worked steadily in London's West End and in British provincial theatres from her teen years until after World War I, especially for producer George Edwardes, and had a few roles in America. She sometimes performed with her husband, Lawrence Grossmith, and her brother, Vernon Castle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosie Boote</span> Musical artist

Rosie Boote was an Irish Gaiety Girl who became the Marchioness of Headfort when she married in 1901.

<i>Monte Cristo Jr.</i>

Monte Cristo Jr. was a Victorian burlesque with a libretto written by Richard Henry, a pseudonym for the writers Richard Butler and Henry Chance Newton. The score was composed by Meyer Lutz, Ivan Caryll, Hamilton Clarke, Tito Mattei, G. W. Hunt and Henry J. Leslie. The ballet and incidental dances were arranged by John D'Auban, and the theatre's musical director, Meyer Lutz, conducted. The play's doggerel verse was loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.