Ellaline Terriss as the Duc de Richelieu in The Dashing Little Duke, Hicks Theatre, London, 1909

two postcard photographs of Ellaline Terriss (1871-1971), English actress and singer, star of musical comedy
(photos: Foulsham & Banfield, London, 1909)

These two postcards, serial nos. 11509 F and 11530 A in the Rotary Photographic Series, published in London during 1909 by the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, show Ellaline Terriss (left) as she appeared as the Duc de Richelieu in the musical play, The Dashing Little Duke, by Miss Terriss’s husband, Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Ardian Ross and music by Frank E. Tours. The production, the cast of which also included Hayden Coffin, Courtice Pounds, Elizabeth Firth and Coralie Blythe, opened at the Hicks Theatre (now the Gielgud), London, on 17 February 1909 following an out of town trial at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. It ran for a disappointing 95 performances. The postcard on the right shows Miss Terriss in private life with a ‘Duc de Richelieu’ doll.

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Seymour Hicks, Ellaline Terriss and Zena Dare in The Beauty of Bath, London, 1906

(above) a Rotary Photographic Co Ltd postcard photograph (1597Q) of Mr and Mrs Seymour Hicks (Ellaline Terriss) as they appeared respectively as Lieut. Richard Alington and the Hon. Betty Silverthorne in the musical play, The Beauty of Bath, which opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on 19 March 1906.
(below) a Rotary Photographic Co Ltd postcard photograph (4040Z) of the same taken at the same sitting but with Zena Dare‘s face replacing that of Miss Terriss.
(main photos: Foulsham & Banfield, London, 1906; artwork by the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd)

The second postcard may be explained by the fact that Zena Dare succeeded Ellaline Terriss in the part of the Hon. Betty Silverthorne during the run, which, the production having transferred to the Hicks Theatre on 27 December 1906, ended on 23 February 1907.

Julia Sanderson

Julia Sanderson (1887-1975), American actress and vocalist at about the time of her appearance in the musical comedy The Hon’ble Phil, Hicks Theatre, London, October to December 1908. G.P. Huntley, Herbert Clayton, Horace Mills, Denise Orme, Eva Kelly and Elsie Spain were the other principals.
(photo: The Dover Street Studios, London, 1908/09)

‘Two English Musical Plays At Rival Theaters This Week.
‘Two of George Edwardes’ London musical comedy successes will be the leading novelties of the week at the theaters, both The Quaker Girl and The Sunshine Girl being seen in Washington for the first time, the former after noteworthy engagements in London, New York, and Boston, and the latter coming to the Capital for its American debut after a continuous run of more than a year in the English metropolis, where it is till on view nightly at the Gaiety.
‘Washington will be particularly interested in the premiere of The Sunshine Girl at the Columbia tomorrow night, for upon this occasion a new Charles Frohman star will be evolved from the will be evolved from the nebulosity of chorus girl, soubrette, and leading lady. The honor is to be bestowed upon the talented and piquant Miss Julia Sanderson, who has been a Washington musical comedy favorite since the days of the ill-fated Dairymaids, whose cast she deserted during an engagement five years ago in the theater where she is now to become start.
‘Miss Sanderson’s career is not marked by many of those hardships which are usually related as warnings to the stage-struck girl. Her father, Albert Sackett, is an actor, and through his influence she secured an engagement with the Forepaugh stock company in her home city, Philadelphia. Here she divided her time between playing maid and pursuing her grammar school studies, for she made her debut in the theatre when she was 15.
‘As a member of the chorus with Paula Edwardes’ company in Winsome Winnie. Miss Sanderson entered the musical comedy field. She had an opportunity to play the title role when Miss Edwardes retired from the cast on account of illness. The understudy was at that time advertised as the youngest prima donna in the world.
‘But the sudden elevation did not result in any permanent advancement for Miss Sanderson. She went back to the ranks in A Chinese Honeymoon and in Fantana, but was given a hit when De Wolf Hopper revived Wang, after which she joined The Tourists.
‘Miss Sanderson has appeared in London in two successes, first with G.P. Huntley in The Honorable Phil and later with Ellaline Terriss in The Dashing Little Duke. ‘While not so recognized in the size of billboard and program type, Miss Sanderson has been a star in popular appreciation for two years, her graceful dancing, harm of manner, and small, but dulcet voice having won generous approbation in both The Arcadians and The Siren.
‘Mr. Frohman has engaged a capable musical comedy cast to support his new satellite. Joseph Cawthorn has for several seasons been a comedy mainstay for Elsie Janis, and Alan Mudie will be recalled as the agile dancer in The Arcadians.’
(The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Sunday, 26 January 1913, Magazine Section, p.2a)

Ellaline Terriss, Seymour Hicks and Baby Betty

Actresseses photographed with their children.

Seymour Hicks (1871-1949) and his wife, Ellaline Terriss (1871-1971) and their daughter Betty (b. 1907), who was widely known as ‘Baby Betty’ and later professionally as Betty Seymour Hicks.
Postcard 4051 B in the Rotary Photographic Series, published in 1908 by the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, London.
(photo: Foulsham & Banfield, London, 1908)

‘London, Sept. 21 [1910].
‘The latest fashion among English actresses is to be photographed with their children. The family life of English theatrical people has always been of interest to the British public, and the new postcards and photographs of actresses holding their children in their arms or on their knees have sold better than any other pictures of the same gifted yet domesticated ladies.

Muriel Beaumont (Mrs Gerald Du Maurier, 1881-1957) and two of her daughters, Angela (1904-2002) and Daphne (1907-1989), both of whom became well known writers.
Postcard E 1927, published by the Aristophot Co Ltd, London, 1908.
(photo: Rita Martin, London, 1908)

‘It seems to please theatregoers to know that the leading lady of the company is in private life a good mother and excellent housewife, and they give her an extra round of applause for these qualities. Middle-class England does not believe in the artistic temperament, and any little idiosyncrasies in the private affairs of actresses meet with disapproval. Domesticity is the drawing card. the knowledge that a stage favorite is comfortably settled in her own home with a devoted husband and one or two future actors learning their lessons at her knee is unction to the British matron’s soul.
‘Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Hicks lead in public favor as examples of domestic theatrical life. The public knows their ménage intimately, and takes a tremendous interest in Baby Betty, the little daughter of the household. Both Mr. Hicks and his wife, Ellaline Terriss, take the audience into their confidence, and in the course of a musical comedy they have been known to mention Baby Betty and the stage of her health or the fact that she sent her love to everybody, and such announcements are received with cheers of delight.
‘Betty once wrote an ode which was published. She is just 5 now. If no news of the child is forthcoming admirers have been known to call out from the depths of the pit and inquire for the latest news. Naturally, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks have been photographed with Betty countless times, and their pictures in plush frames adorn many British homes.
‘Mr. and Mrs. Gerald du Maurier are another couple in whom great interest is taken. On the stage Mrs. du Maurier is Miss Muriel Beaumont. She rarely acts now, as home interests are engrossing. Her little daughter Angela is 4, and promises to be a real Du Maurier in appearance as well as in ways. she has not yet any stage aspirations.

Isabel Jay (Mrs Henry Sheppard Hart Cavendish, 1879-1927) and her daughter Cecilia Claribel (1903 – 1963) in their Spyker car.
Postcard 4846B in the Rotary Photographic Series, published about 1907 by the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, London.
(photo: Foulsham & Banfield, London, circa 1907)

‘Mr. and Mrs. Fred Terry, who are soon to appear in America, are very proud of their tall daughter, who has just made her debut in Priscilla Runs Away. She calls herself Miss Neilson-Terry, but is known to her intimates as Phillida. Though she is taller than her mother, and very well developed, she is only 17. She is very pretty. At present the post card shops are filled with a variety of pictures of the Fred Terry family.
‘Miss Maie Ash, who married Stanley Brett, a brother of Seymour Hicks, a year or so ago, is the proud mother of a very recent baby and she has lost no time in being pictured with her little son. Miss Ash was one of the prettiest of the pretty girls in Mr. Hicks’ company, and was a musical comedy favorite. Just now she is playing a sketch with her husband.
‘Miss Eva Moore, who is Mrs. H. Esmond in private life, has two children, and is a devoted mother. Her stage career takes her from her family a good deal, as she is in demand to create parts in her husband’s plays as well as others, but she has her children with her all she can. The Moore family of girls, five of them, is a type of a theatrical family often found in England. Every Miss Moore went on the stage when she arrived at years of discretion, and two of them, Miss Eva and Miss Decima Moore have become successful actresses.
‘Miss Violet Vanbrugh and her husband, Arthur Bourchier, are having a difficult time to persuade their daughter Prudence that 12 is not the proper age to begin a stage career. Prudence has had dramatic aspirations since she was little more than a baby, and Mr. Bourchier confesses that before long she is likely to get her way and appear at his theater in a Christmas play.
‘Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Maude are another couple in whom the public is interested here, and though their one child, Winifred, is seldom seen on post cards or photographs, her clever sayings and doings are well known, and her debut is looked forward to.
‘Miss Nancy Price, who for years has played adventuress parts in risky French gowns and red wigs, is really, to the joy of her audiences, a model wife and mother. She, too, has a small daughter, who is kept carefully from the glare of the footlights out in the suburban home where Miss Price makes her way after the fatigues of Drury Lane performances.

Ellaline Terriss and her daughter ‘Baby Betty.’
Postcard 11706 C in the Rotary Photographic Series, published in 1911 by the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd, London.
(photo: Foulsham & Banfield, London, 1911)

‘Mrs. G.P. Huntley’s small boy [Timothy] has seen his father act very often, but not his mother, as for the last few years she [Eva Kelly] has seldom appeared on the stage.
‘Mr. and Mrs. H.B. Irving have a daughter very like her mother [Dorothea Baird], with silky flaxen hair and blue eyes. She dances prettily, and can recite yards of poetry.
‘Mrs. Kendal, who used to be regarded as an example of theatrical motherhood, seems to have dropped out in recent years. One sees no pictures of her with her children, who are grown now.
‘Miss Ellen Terry is probably the most devoted mother in the theatrical world, yet she is never pictured with her son or daughter. She has never figures before the public in the role of mother, but those who know say that her devotion to her children [Edward Gordon Craig, and Edith Craig] is the greatest thing in her life. She has started both of them several times in various careers in which they wished to embark, and she is always the kind friend to whom they go in their difficulties. to see Miss Terry and Miss Edith Craig, her daughter together is to realize the strong bond between them.
‘Miss Annie Hughes, whose forte is playing the part of catty, sneaky, little ladies of the Country Mouse variety, has a son, who is her special joy and pride.’
(The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Sunday, 2 October 1910, Miscellany Section, p.10b-g)

programme cover for The Cherry Girl, Vaudeville Theatre, London, 1903

programme cover for Seymour Hicks and Ivan Caryll’s musical play, The Cherry Girl, produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 21 December 1903, starring Seymour Hicks and Ellaline Terriss.
The image is of the statue by the English sculptor Albert Toft (1862-1949) of Miss Terriss as The Queen in The Cherry Girl.

Maud Courtney

Maude Courtney (Mrs Finlay Currie, 1884-1959),
American variety theatre entertainer
(photo: Hemus Sarony, Christchurch, New Zealand, circa 1911)

Maude Courtney at the Colonial, New York, week beginning Monday, 15 October 1906
‘Maude Courtney, who used to sing the old songs, and who has been in Europe and other parts of the word for the past four years, made her reappearance and was given a very cordial welcome. She opened with a song called ”Au Revoir Hyacinth,” following it with a ditty called ”Put a Little Bit Away for a Rainy Day,” both of which are the hits of the present day in London. It must be recorded that they did not hit the fancy of the Colonial patrons to any extent. Miss Courtney’s personality and manner made as strong an appeal as ever which was proven when she recited ”Didn’t She Jim?” and sang a medley of songs that were once popular here and which she had sung in London. In her last selection she was assisted by a man in the gallery [probably Harry Calvo], who joined in very harmoniously. When Miss Courtney finds good substitutes for her first two song her speciality will be as attractive as ever, as she is an accomplished and gifted artist.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, New York, 27 October 1906, p. 18a) (The song ‘Au Revoir, My Little Hyacinth,’ by Herman Darewski, with words by A.E. Sidney Davis, was featured as an interpolated number in the popular musical comedy, The Beauty of Bath, which was first produced by Seymour Hicks at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on 19 March 1906. The star of that show, Ellaline Terriss recorded the song for The Gramophone & Typewriter Co Ltd of London on 10 January 1907, but it was it was rejected. The same company, however, had already issued a recording of the song made on 16 November 1906 by Phyllis Dare. The latter, who had not appeared in The Beauty of Bath, was well known through professional ties with Ellaline Terriss and her husband, Seymour Hicks. C.W. Murphy and Dan Lipton’s ‘Put a Little Bit Away for a Rainy Day’ was among the first songs recorded by the English music hall comedienne, Ella Retford; she cut it three times during 1906, twice for the Sterling label and once for Odeon. Michael Kilgarriff, Sing Us One of the Old Songs, Oxford, 1998, states that Carlotta Levey, another English music hall artist of the period, also sang ‘Put a Little Bit Away for a Rainy Day.’)

Zena Dare (1887-1975), English actress,
as the Hon. Betty Silverthorne and chorus singing
‘The Sea-Pink and the Nautilus’ in The Beauty of Bath,
Aldwych Theatre, London, late Summer 1906

And the sea-pinks softly whispered to the nautilus –
Our lot till now has been so hard and perilous,
We’d like to shelter, if we dare,
In the meshes of your silv’ry hair;
And we want to find a sole to quickly marry us.
So spread you silken sail and swiftly carry us
Far across the blue Atlantic,
For delay will drive us frantic,
Sail away you pretty nautilus,
You pretty nauti-nauti-nauti-lus!

(photo: Bassano, London, 1906)

The Beauty of Bath, a musical play by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, with music by Herbert E. Baines and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor, was first produced at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on 19 March 1906. The starring roles of Lieut. Richard Alington and the Hon. Betty Silverthorne were played respectively by Seymour Hicks and his wife, Ellaline Terriss. During their Summer holiday that year these parts were played by Hicks’s brother, Stanley Brett, and Zena Dare. The latter was assigned an interpolated song, ‘The Sea-Pink and the Nautilus.’

Millie Hylton, English actress and singer

a cabinet photograph of Millie Hylton (1870-1920), English actress and singer (photo: James Bacon & Sons, 81 Northumberland Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, circa 1900)

Millie Hylton, Horace Mills, Lydia Flopp, Coralie Blythe et al on UK tour of The Circus Girl, August 1897

‘Considerable excitement was caused at the Portsmouth Town Station on Sunday last by the discovery that the chief baggage van of the special train conveying Mr George Edwardes’s Circus Girl company had caught fire through an over-heated axle. Expensive costumes were hurriedly thrown out on to the platform, and the principal properties were saved. The ladies were very much upset, and Miss Millie Hylton and [her sister] Miss Lydia Flopp both fainted. Messrs Page, Horace Mills, and Charles Stevens were conspicuous in their activity in saving the property of the company.’ (The Era, London, Saturday, 14 August 1897, p. 10b)

The Circus Girl touring company at the Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, week beginning Monday, 9 August 1897

‘… Of the ladies Miss Millie Hylton invested the part of Mrs Drivelli [created by Connie Ediss when The Circus Girl was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 5 December 1896]with clever low comedy, speaking with a true cockney twang, though scarcely looked plump enough for the part, but always charming and refreshing, her song ”Oh, what a wet, wet day,” and ”The proper way to treat a lady” being vociferously redemanded. Miss Lydia Flopp as Dora Wemyss [created in the original production by Ellaline Terriss] was naïvely natural, and acted and sang delightfully, her ”Little bit of string” being a great favourite… . Miss Coralie Blythe delighted everyone with her fresh conception of the part of Lucille [a circus slack wire walker, created by Katie Seymour].’ (The Era, London, Saturday, 14 August 1897, p. 11d)

Ellaline Terriss (1872-1971), English actress, as she appeared in the title role of the pantomime, Cinderella, Lyceum Theatre, London, 26 December 1893, and Abbey’s Theatre, New York, 30 April 1894

Ellaline Terriss (1872-1971), English actress, as she appeared in the title role of the pantomime, Cinderella, Lyceum Theatre, London, 26 December 1893, and Abbey’s Theatre, New York, 30 April 1894 (photo: Sarony, New York, 1894)

‘CINDERELLA. A veritable feast of light and color is the spectacle which, having replaced [Henry] Irving in London [at the Lyceum Theatre, 26 December 1893], was sent over to replace Irving in New York. It has converted the stage of Abbey’s [New York, 30 April 1894] into a fascinating fairyland, presided over by a most bewitching queen.

‘Pretty Ellaline Terriss is an ideal Cinderella. She is scarcely twenty, was born in the Falkland Islands, and is the daughter of William Terriss, of the Irving Company. She is one of the most natural, ingenuous girls it has ever been our pleasure to see on the stage. She does not act a character; she lives it. There may be others who can better fill the world’s idea of Cinderella, but if so our imagination has not yet conceived of them.

‘Our portrait [above] shows Miss Terriss in her kitchen dress, with the daisy chain about her neck. In private life she is Mrs. Seymour Hicks, her husband being the very versatile young man who so cleverly impersonates Thisbe [which part in London had been played by Victor Stevens], one of the two stepsisters. He is only twenty three, has written five plays, and has been on the stage seven years. The scene which Thisbe and Clorinda (Fred Eastman [which part has been played in London by Fred Emney]) have to themselves at the opening of the second act includes some of the most refreshingly droll business that the local boards have lately seen. Both these actors are manly, unaffected fellows, and it gives one an odd sensation to look in at their dressing room and behold them sitting there in their flaunting skirts, pipe in mouth and ”hot Scotch” at elbow.’ (Munsey’s Magazine, New York, July 1894, pp. 410-411)