Adeline Burgon

Adeline Burgon (b. 1890), English actress and singer, as she appeared as Tommy in the pantomime Dick Whittington, produced at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, on 23 December 1910, with Lillian Lea in the title role and Madge Crichton as Alice.
(photo: Garratt, Leeds, 1910)

Adeline Burgon, born Edith Lina Burgon, was the daughter of William Henry ‘Harry’ Burgon (1858-1898), a well-known concert baritone and sometime member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, and is wife Zoe Josephine Philomene (née Chatenet, born in Paris about 1862), who were married in London in 1887. The couple also had a son, Adrian (Adrien) Burgon (1888-1970), who began his stage career as a choir boy.

Adeline Burgon’s career flourished from about 1906 to 1916, mostly on tour in the United Kingdom. In 1906 she was in C.P. Levilly’s Company in La Poupee, with Stella Gastelle, before touring in The Gay Parisienne (1907), in Charles Macdona’s Company in The Girl from Kay’s (1908), and in The Merry Widow in 1909 with Octavia Barry and Leonard Mackay. At Christmas 1910 she appeared as Tommy in the pantomime, Dick Whittington at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, after which no more is heard of her until 1913 when she appeared in Horace Goldin’s Theatrical Company at the Palace Theatre, New York. Her final performances seem to have been on tour during 1916 in the United Kingdon in The Girl in the Taxi.

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Lillian Russell

Lillian Russell (1861?-1922), American star of comic opera, appears in vaudeville at the Palace Theatre, New York, 1915
(photo: White, New York, circa 1915)

‘Lillian Russell, a prominent resident of Pittsburgh and well known in these parts as a creator of cosmetics, returned to the stage at the Palace. Many gentlemen with double chins and other visible indications of profitable leisure were present and the welcome back was hearty.
‘Lillian Russell and “My Evening Star”
‘Miss Russell sang four numbers, including “Chloe.” Once more she invited “My Evening Star” [recorded circa 1912, from www.archive.org] to come down. These songs are of the Weber and Fields pre-broiler period, when the chorus girls were required to have – let us say – architectural stability.
‘It was, we’ll confess, our first glimpse across the footlights of Miss Russell. When she was at her height we were observing “Superba” and the second company in The Chinese Honeymoon from a perilous and provincial gallery seat. So, of course, our review is devoid of memories.
‘Watching Miss Russell, we couldn’t help but think that – say forty years from now – we’ll be brushing cigar ashes from our waistcoats, and applauding – with elderly difficulty – the youthful Ina Claire and the girlish Elsie Janis.
‘Anyway, Miss Russell is promising.’
(Frederick James Smith, The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Saturday, 13 November 1915, p.19a)

Emma Carus

Emma Carus (1879-1927), American actress, singer and dancer, returns to Broadway, New York, 1914
(photo: Friedman, Chicago, circa 1913)

‘It remained for Maggie Cline, at the Palace, to really win out as an exponent of the modern dance. Miss Cline still does her song tragedy of Mike’s unfortunate invasion of the bull ring, her ”None of Them’s Got Anything on Me,” and ”Since Mrs. McNott Has Learned the Turkey Trot.” This leads up to the Cline Tango, and the Celtic comedienne’s challenge to any masculine ”tangoist” in the audience… .
‘Emma Carus returned to Broadway – at the Colonial. Miss Carus sings and introduces a travesty of the much travestied turkey trot, maxixe and the up-to-the-minute terpsichorean evolutions, assisted by a young dancer, Carl Randall. None of the acrobatic twirls daunt Miss Carus, who ”hesitations” [sic] with plump nonchalance.
‘All of which leads us to the suggestion that Miss Carus might be a joy in a dancing contest with Maggie Cline.’
(The New York Dramatic Mirror, New York, Saturday, 21 January 1914, p. 22a-c)