Posts Tagged ‘Lawrence Grossmith’

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Coralie Blythe and chorus in the Motor Carnival scene in Mr Popple (of Ippleton), Apollo Theatre, London, 1905

September 27, 2013

Coralie Blythe (Mrs Lawrence Grossmith, 1880-1928), English musical comedy actress, as she appeared as Louise, with chorus, in the Motor Carnival scene in Paul Rubens‘s Mr Popple (of Ippleton), a comedy with music, produced at the Apollo Theatre, London, 14 November 1905.
(photo: probably Bassano, London, 1905; costumes made by Nettleship & Co Ltd, Wigmore Street, London)

‘The troupe of actresses who literally invade the stage from time to time with song and dance wear numbers of gay frocks, but never look better than in their white motor-coats and caps, a striking contrast to which is presented by Miss Coralie Blythe’s black blanketing coat, cap, and gloves. Miss Blythe plays the part of lady’s maid, and appears in a series of delightfully piquant black, and black-and-white short-skirted costumes.’
The Daily Mirror, London, Wednesday, 15 November 1905, p. 13b)

‘In the last Act we find everybody attending a Motor Carnival, of the Magpie Club, and they arrive singly and in sets, all muffled in huge white motor coats made from blankets. The designs vary a little, but large gold buttons and huge turn-back cuffs are the chief adornments.’
(‘A Chat About the Dresses,’ The Play Pictorial, no. 41, vol. 7, London, 1905, p. 54c)

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Pattie Wells, Madge Melbourne and Ruby Kennedy, in Our Miss Gibbs, Gaiety Theatre, London, 1909

August 22, 2013

left to right: Pattie Wells, Madge Melbourne and Ruby Kennedy, three of the ‘Girls at the Stores’ in Our Miss Gibbs, the musical play produced at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 23 January 1909. The cast was headed by George Grossmith junior, Edmund Payne, Denise Orme and Gertie Millar.
(photo: Foulsham & Banfield, London, 1909; hats by Maison Lewis, Hanover Square and Paris)

Pattie Wells began her career as one of the ‘Ladies of Havana’ in Havana, another musical play at the Gaiety (25 April 1908); and she was last seen in Potash and Perlmutter in Society, a comedy by Montague Glass and Roi Cooper Megrue, produced at the Queen’s Theatre, London, on 12 September 1916.

Madge Melbourne was an American, born about 1885. She appeared on Broadway and on tour in the United States between about 1903 and 1906. She arrived in England in December 1908 and lived in London until about 1918. Apart from her appearances in Our Miss Gibbs, during which she made A Gaiety Dueta short film with George Grossmith junior and Edmund Payne, Miss Melbourne was also in the cast of Hullo Ragtime!, London Hippodrome, 23 December 1912, with Ethel Levey, Lew Hearn, Willie Solar, Dorothy Minto and Shirley Kellogg. She was also in Are You There?, a new musical piece by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, produced at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, 28 October 1913, with Lawrence Grossmith, Alec Fraser, Shirley Kellogg and others. Her last appearance seems to have been in the one act comedy, Squibbs by Clifford Seyler, at the London Coliseum, in June 1915, with Mabel Russell and Charles Quartermaine.

Ruby Kennedy, whose real name was Ruby Trelawny, was born in 1889. She first appeared with Seymour Hicks and Ellaline Terriss as one of the ‘Guests’ in The Gay Gordons, a musical play which ran at the Aldwych Theatre, London, from 11 September 1907 for a run of 229 performances. She was last seen in another musical play, The Dancing Mistress, produced at the Adelphi Theatre, London, on 19 October 1912, with Joseph Coyne and Gertie Millar heading the cast. She was married to Group Captain (later Brigadier-General) Henry Brewster Percy Lion Kennedy (1878-1953) at St Luke, Chelsea, London, on 26 November 1913. She died in 1972.

One of Ruby Kennedy’s sisters was May Kennedy (née May Trelawny, 1885-1978) who also appeared in various musical productions, including The Gay Gordons and the revue, Everybody’s Doing It (Apollo Theatre, London, 9 December 1912), with J. Farren Soutar, Robert Hale, Ida Crispi and Unity More.