MARVELS AND MYSTERIES
by Catherine Haill, V & A
Acrobats and aerialists, stiltwalkers and spiritualists, magicians and midgets, ventriloquists and hypnotists - all could be seen at East End theatres during the 19th century, and all meant great box office. It was an age of wonders and inventions, when the speed of a railway train was as mystifying and frightening as electric light, a hot air balloon, or conjoined twins. Scientific discoveries, accidents of nature and acrobatic skills were all engaged by theatre proprietors keen to present the most talked-about novelties. Many East End theatres were very large; their seat prices were low, and a constant supply of sensational attractions was needed to keep them in business. The local appetite for theatregoing was voracious, but by the 1850s East End theatregoers had several major local theatres from which to choose, as well as the cheaper 'Penny Gaffs'. Theatre proprietors were well aware of the need to be ahead of the competition.
Fairgrounds and pleasure gardens had long been the place to see conjurers, stiltwalkers, rope walkers, performing animals and unusual humans. In the late 17th century London's Bartholemew Fair advertised: 'a little "Faery Woman" lately come from Italy, being but two feet two inches high and no way deformed', and: 'a tall Englishman, eight feet high and but seventeen years of age; a man with one head and two bodies; and a woman with one body and two heads'. By the mid 19th century the popularity of fairgrounds and pleasure gardens were waning, and curiosities such as these became attractions in East End theatres, as long as they could perform a rudimentary act. The proprietors J. Johnson and Nelson Lee, who took over the Pavilion Theatre in 1844, soon engaged the six-year old American midget General Tom Thumb, or Charles Stratton, whose successful visits to Europe with his manager P.T. Barnum in 1843 and 1844 made him the current sensation. His miniature size, combined with his precocious ability to sing, dance and impersonate well-known characters made him the talk of the West End and a favourite of Queen Victoria.
Tastes changed very little in the East End over the next thirty years. In July 1871 the attractions at the Standard Theatre, sharing the bill with the West End stars Mr and Mrs Howard Paul, were black singing conjoined twins, and a pair of giants. The twins were Millie and Christine, born into slavery in North Carolinia, America, and developed as an act by a showman who presented them as Christine Milly `The Two-Headed Nightingale, a name echoed later by P.T. Barnum when promoting the singer Jenny Lind as `The Swedish Nightingale'. With impressive singing voices and an ability to waltz, Christine and Milly became stars in the 1860s and performed for European Royalty and Queen Victoria. The giants, the American Captain Martin Van Buren Bates and his newly-wed Canadian wife Anna Haining Swan were not so talented but appealed to Queen Victoria so much that she gave them wedding presents when they married in London in June 1871.
The marvellous incongruity of attractions was a feature of East End theatre during the 19th century; something for everyone. The father and son stiltwalking act Signor Huntini and Son were on the bill at the Pavilion Theatre in May 1850 with Shakespearean tragedy, a balletic interlude, a Minstrel troupe and a nautical melodrama. Huntini and Son's act tapped into the popularity of both equilibrists and infant phenomena, and the extra expense of the woodcut illustrations was obviously judged worthwhile due to the extra income their appearance would earn if well advertised.
Variety as such was not a term generally used to describe a type of entertainment until the demise of Music Hall, but when Johnson and Lee ran the City of London Theatre they advertised a week of `Talented Variety' in April 1855. The programme included the magician and ventriloquist Professor Sinclair; the `English Improvisatore' Charles Sloman (or Solomon), whose peculiar talent was to recite doggerel verse instantly composed about audience members, and a `Diorama' or long painting of scenes and events from the Crimean War. Lit by the new electric light, the slowly unfurling images of distant places were more wonders in an evening of theatrical marvels which transported the public from the realities of life in London's East End.
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Search Terms
Subject Terms: Aerialists,Gymnasts,Acrobats,Tightrope walking,Stature, Short,Stature, Tall,Giants,Wizards,Stilt-walkers,Magicians,Magic tricks,Ventriloquism,Ventriloquists,Tableaux,Child actors,Balloon ascensions,Stage lighting History,Projectors History,Name Terms: Thumb, Tom, 1838-1883,Deani, Herr, d. 1888,Silvani, Signor,Huntini, Signor,Hemming, Professor,La Pierre, Edmond,Elsler, Josephine,
Keyword Terms: Poses,Slack rope,Blondin,Lu-Lu,Drawing room entertainment,Perche,Corde,
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