PLAYBILLS, PROGRAMMES AND POSTERS
by Catherine Haill, V & A
Effective publicity was as vital for East End theatres in the 19th and early 20th centuries as it is today. Because theatres offered different attractions nightly in the earlier part of the 19th century, advertising was arguably even more important. Playbills were the major form of advertising, and most theatres had them printed daily. East End managements kept abreast of developments in West End publicity since many East End theatre managers responsible for commissioning publicity had worked there. Managements even used the same printers including W. Ballard who flourished in the 1840s. His premises in Canon Street were well situated to produce work for both East and West End theatres.
East End audience members were mostly locals who walked to the theatre. Early 19th century theatre publicity captured that market by advertising locally, giving out handbills and displaying playbills near the theatres and in shops. For most of the early 19th century playbills were printed by the letterpress technique in which printers clamped the relevant letters - made of wood or metal and cut-out in reverse - into a frame and inked their surface. The text was transferred to a piece of paper clamped on top of the letters and pressed down. Black ink was standard, but more expensive coloured ink was sometimes added in a separate process. The paper needed to be precisely aligned to avoid the mistake which occurred on this playbill for Minnigrey at the Pavilion Theatre, 2 July 1853. Playbills giving the most up-to-date information were sold at the theatre, although many East End theatregoers were illiterate and needed others to read them the programme.
The earliest 19th century playbills were small and typographic, but sometimes featured a woodcut illustration or crest, as on the Grecian Theatre playbill, 3 January 1839. This added visual interest, but an engraved image of one of the acts was even better, as on the poster for the Pavilion Theatre, 5 February 1844. Illustrated playbills were worth the extra cost. They attracted everyone, and instantly conveyed an act or scene to those who couldn't read.
Playbills were larger in the 1840s when paper became cheaper and easier to produce in longer lengths and various colours. Playbills with multiple illustrations depicting thrilling scenes were irresistible, and even without an image, printers enjoyed adding decorative letter-forms, as in the playbill for the Pavilion Theatre's pantomime Blue Beard, January 1866. Circus inspired the most vibrant posters following the example of the West End publicity for Astley's Circus. The Pavilion's playbill advertising the American performer Niblo at the Pavilion, 14 June 1869, incorporates interesting shapes and letter forms and an exciting engraved image enhanced by patriotic stars and stripes.
Large playbills were unwieldy to use in a crowded auditorium, making hands dirty from fugitive ink. Advances in colour lithography in the 1860s along with the introduction of the `long run' heralded the demise of the typographic playbill and the introduction of the more manageable theatre programme which could feature illustrations and raise revenue by selling advertising space. Some were even perfumed, such as those for the Britannia Theatre during the 1870s, romantically noted on the programmes as: `Printed and impregnated with the undying fragrance of one thousand flowers by C. Beckett & Sons.'
As the programme replaced the playbill inside the theatre, so playbills outside were supplanted in the 1889s and 1890s by colourful posters for the theatres that could afford them. Colour lithograph posters illustrating scenes from a thrilling `sensation drama' were instantly appealing on the streets. They were brilliantly suited to advertise the sensational dramas at the East End's Standard Theatre, even if they sometimes promised more nerve-jangling action than could actually be achieved on stage.
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Subject Terms:Keyword Terms: Playbill,Programme,Perfumed,Fragrance,Advertisements,Illustration,
East London Theatre Archive
