Maie Ash (31 May 1888 – 13 December 1923) was a British musical comedy actress and dancer. [1]
She was born Eleanor Mabel Eugenie Ash [2] in Clapton, London on 31 May 1888. [3] Her parents were James Thomas Waterman Ash, a book-keeper originally from Poplar in East London, and Eleanor Mary Ash (nee Young). [4] She was an only child and brought up in Hackney. [5]
Ash made her first London appearance in 1902 at the Shaftesbury Theatre in A Little Un-fairy Princess before moving into the title role of Cinderella the following year at Southampton. In 1904 she played Margo in Goody Two Shoes at Liverpool and understudied the role of Pansy at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. Other musical comedies include Yellow Fog Island at Terry's Theatre and My Darling at the Hicks Theatre in 1907.
She married actor Stanley Brett, the brother of Seymour Hicks in 1909. The couple had one daughter, Margaret Mabel Ellaline Hicks, who was born in Kensington in 1910. [6] Brett and Maie divorced in a widely-publicised case in 1913, Brett having petitioned on the grounds of Maie's adultery with comedian Fred Allandale. Maie subsequently married Allandale on Saturday 15 May 1915, at Hackney Register Office. [7]
Maie Ash died on 13 December 1923 aged 35 at Marine Parade, Brighton, after an eight-month illness, aged 35. [8] She is buried in Abney Park Cemetery. [2]
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, its principal district. Southern and eastern parts of the borough are popularly regarded as being part of east London that spans some of the traditional East End of London with the northwest belonging to north London. Its population is estimated to be 281,120.
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television.
Clapton Football Club is a football club in east London. One of the most successful clubs in non-League football during the first quarter of the twentieth century, they won the FA Amateur Cup five times between 1907 and 1925 and had several players selected by the England national team. In 2019 they were evicted from their long-time home, the Old Spotted Dog Ground in Forest Gate. After playing at other grounds for several seasons, they withdrew from the non-League pyramid at the end of the 2023–24 season.
Hackney was a parish in the historic county of Middlesex. The parish church of St John-at-Hackney was built in 1792, replacing the nearby former 16th-century parish church dedicated to St Augustine. The original tower of that church was retained to hold the bells until the new church could be strengthened; the bells were finally removed to the new St John's in 1854. See details of other, more modern, churches within the original parish boundaries below.
May Allison was an American actress whose greatest success was achieved in the early part of the 20th century in silent films, although she also appeared on stage.
Sir Edward Seymour Hicks, better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing Edwardian musical comedy, often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss. His most famous acting role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
Julia Emilie Neilson was an English actress best known for her numerous performances as Lady Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel, for her roles in many tragedies and historical romances, and for her portrayal of Rosalind in a long-running production of As You Like It.
Mary Ellaline Terriss, Lady Hicks, known professionally as Ellaline Terriss, was a popular British actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies. She met and married the actor-producer Seymour Hicks in 1893, and the two collaborated on many projects for the stage and screen.
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.
Jessie Broughton was an English contralto and actress. She made her stage debut at the Apollo Theatre in London in 1903 and soon appeared in Véronique, Havana and A Waltz Dream in the West End. In 1910, she married, and with her husband she performed in London and toured Britain and abroad in variety and music hall, and made recordings, until the 1930s.
Daisy Burrell was a British stage actress and Edwardian musical comedy performer who also appeared as a leading lady in silent films and in pantomime.
The Gay Gordons is a 1907 Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Seymour Hicks, music by Guy Jones and lyrics by Arthur Wimperis, C. H. Bovill, Henry Hamilton and P. G. Wodehouse, who wrote the lyrics to "Now That My Ship's Come Home" and "You, You, You". The title refers to both the Clan Gordon and the famed Scottish regiment the Gordon Highlanders as the plot involves the heir to the clan and a soldier from the regiment.
Mare Street is a street in the London Borough of Hackney. It has existed since the 15th century, when it was one of the first roads at the centre of the parish. It was then known as Merestret. The word mere was either the Old English mǣre meaning a boundary — referring to the boundary with the parish of Stepney — or mere, a large pond which was fed by Hackney Brook.
Fred Allandale was a British musical comedy actor, comedian and producer.
Stanley Brett was a British musical comedy actor and comedian.
Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Historically it was within the county of Middlesex.
Doris Mary Stocker was a British actress and singer, especially in Edwardian musical comedy.
Julian Wylie, originally Julian Ulrich Samuelson Metzenberg, was a British theatrical agent and producer. He began as an accountant and took an interest in entertainment through his brothers, Lauri Wylie and G. B. Samuelson. About 1910, he became the business manager and agent of David Devant, an illusionist, then took on other clients, and formed a partnership with James W. Tate. By the end of his life he was known as the 'King of Pantomime'.
Mabel Lucy Hackney was a British actress and the wife of the dramatist and actor Laurence Irving and daughter-in-law of the actor Henry Irving in whose company she acted before she joined that of her husband. She died along with her husband in the Empress of Ireland disaster in 1914.
Agnes Fraser Elder Fraser-Smith was a Scottish actress and soprano, known as Agnes Fraser, who appeared in the later Savoy Operas and in Edwardian musical comedy. She married the Gilbert and Sullivan performer Walter Passmore, with whom she frequently appeared on stage.