Pauline Chase as a mermaid, photographed by Bassano, London, 1907

Pauline Chase (1885-1962), American actress, celebrated for her portrayal of Peter Pan.
(photo: Bassano, London, 1907)

‘PAULINE CHASE, Who Charmed Every Child that Saw ”Peter Pan.”
‘In America – her native land – Miss Pauline Chase always went by the name of ”Polly Chase.” The nick-name was once the means of bringing her a slice of good luck. She was attending a race-meeting, and on looking down the list she noticed the name of ”Pretty Polly.” She knew nothing of racing matters, but thought it would be good sport to back her own name. She made her bet and came out a handsome winner time after time.
‘Miss Chase dearly loves children, and children idolise her in Xmas pieces.
‘She is fond of motoring, and owns two cars. A manager wanted her to go back to America, but she said: ”No, the roads are so much better for motoring in England.”’
(The Royal Magazine, London, October, 1907, p. 487)

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Pauline Chase as The Little Japanese Girl

Pauline Chase (1885-1962), American actress, as she appeared in the title role of the 1 Act play, The Little Japanese Girl, adapted from the Japanese by Loie Fuller and first produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, on 26 August 1907.
(photo: Bassano, London, 1907).

Other members of the cast were Edward Sass as the Prince and Jane May as the Princess. The piece ran for 49 performances. Pauline Chase appeared again in The Little Japanese Girl at the London Coliseum in the summer of 1911.

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‘PAULINE CHASE AS A STAR.
‘She Makes a Great Success in London in a Play by Loie Fuller.
‘Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
LONDON. Aug. 26 [1907]. – Miss Pauline Chase made a brilliant success this evening in Loie Fuller’s one-act play, ”The Little Japanese Girl,” produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre under the management of Charles Frohman.
‘Among her most enthusiastic admirers were Oscar Lewisohn and his wife, (A HREF=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_May>Edna May,) who came to London from the country specially to witness the performance.’
(The New York Times, New York, 27 August 1907, p. 7)

‘Pauline Chase is now appearing in a one-act play by Loie Fuller, entitled ”The Little Japanese Girl.” Miss Chase has become so closely identified with the English stage that the British public has come to regard her as its own.’
(The Washington Times, Third Section, Woman’s Magazine, Washington DC, 8 September 1907, p. 8d)

* * * * *

London, week beginning Monday, 24 July 1911
‘At the Coliseum this week Miss Pauline Chase will appear with three others in Miss Loie Fuller’s one-act play A Little Japanese Girl, with music by Mr. John Crook.’
(The Times, London, Monday, 24 July 1911, p. 10d)

London, 2 August 1911 ‘Pauline Chase came an awful cropper at the Coliseum, where she is appearing in a Japanese play previously done in pantomime by Hanako. It is called ”A Little Japanese Girl,” and it deals with the vanity of a little laundress who put on a Princess’s kimono and rouged her face. She was mistaken for the princess and killed by an outraged princely lover. When the curtain descended on the act at the opening afternoon, there was none insistent ”hand” and Pauline took a bow where she needn’t have troubled. It seems as though ”Peter Pan” will have to be revived.’ (Variety, New York, Saturday, 12 August 1911, p. 15b)

Hilda Trevelyan and Pauline Chase in a revival of J.M. Barrie’s fairy play, Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, Duke of York’s Theatre, London, 16 December 1907

Hilda Trevelyan as Wendy and Pauline Chase as Peter in J.M. Barrie’s fairy play, Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, revived at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, 16 December 1907
(photo: Bassano, London, 1907)

‘The Christmas season in the playhouse has begun thus early, for the Duke of York’s has reopened for the fourth year in succession with Peter Pan, Miss Pauline Chase reappearing as Peter and Miss [Hilda] Trevelyan as Wendy. I know of no type of entertainment with the exception of the Savoy operas that has created such a cult as Peter Pan, and like those delightful entertainments it has introduced the playhouse in quarters where it was never heard of before. Peter Pan parties are likely to be the vogue of the day as they were last season, and there will probably be a new outburst of Peter Pan literature of various kinds.’
(J.M. Bulloch, The Sphere, London, Saturday, 21 December 1907, p.238a)

‘The vogue of Peter Pan is really extraordinary. The first night it was produced on this its fourth-year season it was received with almost hysterical enthusiasm by a house which knew every line of the script and every turn of stage management. Every new “line,” every new bit of business, came as a delightful surprise, and the entertainment was sent off with a welcome as hearty as the cheers which have just made Tetrazzini a lion elsewhere.
‘The other theatre entertainments for children – Alice in Wonderland not excepted – have never attracted such a huge audience as Peter Pan. This is rather astonishing, for unlike Alice it has curiously grown-up elements in it which deserve the attention of some serious student of psychology although nobody has treated it in that light. Yet I believe it is just those elements – some of them like a sad, far-off voice – that attract grown-ups, and it is just these moments which Miss Pauline Chase with all her charm does not capture. Thus, for example, when standing on the rock amid the rising seas, she exclaims “To die would be a great adventure,” she says it as a child from a copybook not as one who feels it – as Melisande would have felt it.
‘Miss [Nina] Boucicault [in the first production of Peter Pan, Duke of York’s, London, 27 December 1904] with her fine wistfulness is the true Peter, but on the first night her place was the stalls and not the stage. In all the lighter moments Miss Chase is very bright and pretty, leaving the pathos to Miss Trevelyan, a far more experienced actress, whose Wendy has lost none of its delicacy. Mr. Robb Harwood, replacing Mr. [Gerald] Du Maurier, is excellent as the Pirate Hook, and Miss [Sybil] Carlisle resumes her part of Mrs. Darling to the excellent inconsequence of Mr. A.E. Matthews as the father of the children. The mounting is just as ingenious as ever, showing an extraordinary appreciation of the child’s desire to see the inside of things.
‘The entertainment has, as I suggested last week, duly produced its own literature, for Mr. John Hassall has issued a series of six long panels illustrating Mr. Barrie’s charming story. The pictures, which are issued by Lawrence and Jellicoe at 2s. each (unframed), are beautifully reproduced in colour and form ideal decorations for a nursery.’
(J.M. Bulloch, The Sphere, London, Saturday, 28 December 1907, p.264a)

Sybil Hook

Sybil Hook (fl. 1912-1922), English actress and dancer, as the Second Twin in a United Kingdom touring production of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, about 1913
(photo: Corn, Cardiff, circa 1913)

Sybil Hook appeared as the Second Twin in Peter Pan at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, for the Christmas season of 1912/13, with Pauline Chase in the title role. She is next recorded as an extra in Seymour Hicks’s production of George Egerton’s comedy, Wild Thyme at the Comedy, London (19 April 1915), which subsequently toured England and Scotland. She reappeared in Peter Pan at the New Theatre, London (23 December 1916), when she played Tootles, with Unity More in the title role. Miss Hook played Tootles again in Peter Pan at the New at Christmas 1918/19, with Faith Celli in the title role, and again at the New at Christmas 1919/20, with Georgette Cohan as Peter. Sybil Hook’s next London engagement was as Ivy Routledge in the topical farce, Her Dancing Man (Garrick, 3 September 1920), with Jack Buchanan, Ronald Squire, Viola Tree, Auriol Lee and Empsie Bowman. Miss Hook is last mentioned as Fair Lady, Manon of Venice in Arlequin, a comedy fantasy by Maurice Magre (translated by Louis N. Parker), with music by Andre Gailhard, produced at the Empire, Leicester Square on 21 December 1922; other members of the cast included Dennis Neilson-Terry, Godfrey Tearle, Dorothy Green, Netta Westcott, Edith Kelly Gould, Rosina Philippi and Viola Tree. The piece was choreographed by Leonide Massine.

* * * * *

‘MAKING A HIT
‘LONDON, Eng., Mar. 27 [1920]. – London has taken to its heart a new favorite in the person of Sybil Hook, who up to a month ago, was playing small parts in road shows. When Georgette Cohan, daughter of George M. Cohan, and Ethel Levey, now residing here, sailed for America to join her father, she [Sybil Hook] stepped into her part at the Garrick, where ”Mr. Pim Passes By” is playing and has been the pet of London ever since.’
(The New York Clipper, New York, Wednesday, 31 March 1920, p. 12c)

Pauline Chase

Pauline Chase (1885-1962), American actress
(photo: Bassano, London, circa 1909)

‘Pauline Chase, once known as ”the pink pajama [sic] girl,” because of the sex of the nightie worn by her in The Liberty Belles, still regards the title role of ‘Peter Pan as her greatest achievement. She has played this part a great many times in London. Miss Chase has just published a selection from innumerable letters she has received from children about the Barrie play. In one part of the book she tells how she sometimes has to receive the children in her dressing room, and how awkward it is when they ask questions about whether Peter Pan is really a boy. ”A young gentleman of about six,” she says, ”was brought to see me, and I gathered from his introductory remarks that his big brother had made him uneasy about my sex. He put two cunning test questions to me, probably suggested by the brother. The first was, ‘Can you whistle?’ By great good luck I could whistle that day. Then, ‘What do you think of kissing?’ he asked, anxiously. ‘Rotten,’ I said. He was immensely relieved. Then I knew I was all right.”’
(Los Angeles Herald Sunday Magazine, Los Angeles, Sunday, 7 February 1909, p. 7)

Edna May’s wedding party

Edna May (1878-1948), American musical comedy actress, star of The Belle of New York, is married

Mrs and Mrs Oscar Lewisohn on their wedding day with guests, Ascot, 4 June 1907
left to right, seated: Mrs Pettie (Mrs Lewisohn’s mother) and Gertie Millar
left to right, standing: unknown, Jane May (Mrs Lewisohn’s sister),
unknown, Pauline Chase, unknown, Edna Lewisohn (Edna May) and Oscar Lewisohn
(photo: Bassano, Ascot, near Windsor, Berkshire, 4 June 1907)

‘EDNA MAY WEDDED.
‘Exciting Chase by Motorcars to Registry Office at Windsor.
”’I AM VERY HAPPY.”
‘Miss Edna May, the Belle of New York, has adopted her last rôle – that of Mrs. Oscar Lewisohn, the Copper Queen.
‘The marriage of the popular actress to the son of an American millionaire took place at the office of the Windsor superintendent registrar. The anxiety of the bride and bridegroom to avoid a public ceremony occasioned some amusing incidents. Few people knew where the ceremony was to take place. A host of motor-cars accordingly lay in ambush outside the bride’s residence, Torwood, at Ascot.
‘The watchers were rewarded, for shortly after ten o’clock a motor-car, in which were the best man and Miss May’s sisters, came out of the grounds and sped swiftly away on the Windsor road. A few seconds late a big red car followed. Miss Edna May was immediately espied nestling among the cushions, and the powerful cars of those in waiting sprang forward in pursuit.
‘Miss May, who was accompanied by her mother and Mr. Lewisohn, was the first to discover the pursuit. Dismayed at first, she subsequently became vastly amused, and in the first stage of the run looked repeatedly out of the observation window with that same bewitching expression which drew shout after shout from delighted audiences when, as the Salvation Army girl, she sang ”Follow On.”
‘Nervous Bridegroom.
‘The bride was wearing a close-fitting dress of crêpe de Chine, heavily embroidered with white lace. Round her neck was a string of magnificent pearls, and her demure little face looked still more demure in the picturesque setting of a Romney picture hat.
‘Mr. Lewisohn’s nervousness was most apparent, especially when he took from his waistcoat pocket the golden ring to place on the finger of his bride. Miss May was calm, although tears glistened in her eyes.
‘Standing face to face with Miss May, Mr. Lewisohn made the usual declaration:
”’I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I, Oscar Lewisohn, may not be joined in matrimony to Edna May Titus.”
‘The bride then made a similar vow, and Mr. Lewisohn followed with:
”’I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Oscar Lewisohn, do take Edna May Titus to be my lawful wedded wife.”
‘Miss May pronounced similar words, and the ring was then placed on her finger. The register – wich was signed by the whole party -gave the following particulars:
”’Oscar Lewisohn, twenty-two years of age, son of Leonard Lewisohn, deceased. Address, Torwood, Ascot, Berks.
”’Edna May Titus, twenty-eight years of age, divorced wife of Frederick Titus, formerly Edna May Pettie, daughter of Edgar Cory Pettie. Address, 1, Cadogan-place, London, S.W.”

Edna May
(photo: Lallie Charles Ltd, 67 Curzon Street, London, W, circa 1907)

‘Cheers greeted the bride and bridegroom as they emerged from the office, and on the steps Mrs. Lewisohn stopped to accept a small bouquet from Miss W. Jefferies, a girl of fifteen, well known in Windsor as a clever amateur actress.
‘Later a number of well-known theatrical people arrived at Ascot by special train from London, and participated in the wedding breakfast, which was laid out in a large marquee on the lawn. Meanwhile, congratulations poured in over the telegraph wire.
‘When the health of the bride and bridegroom were drunk, Mrs. Lewisohn said:
”’I am very, very happy. My husband is also, I am sure.”
‘The happy couple subsequently left for the Continent, where they will make a long honeymoon tour in a motor-car.’
(Weekly Dispatch, London, Sunday, 9 June 1907, p. 5e)

Zena Dare as Peter Pan, her favourite role, Manchester, 1906

Zena Dare (1887-1975), English actress, in the title role of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Prince’s Theatre, Manchester, Christmas, 1906

(photo: Bassano, London, 1906)

This real photograph postcard, no.2323 in Davidson Brothers’ Real Photographic Series, was published in London in late 1906. It shows Zena Dare in her favourite part, the title role of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan as produced by Charles Frohman at the Prince’s Theatre, Manchester, at Christmas 1906. At the end of the run the piece went on a tour of the United Kingdom until May 1907. Running concurrently at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, during the Christmas season of 1906 was another Frohman production of Peter Pan, with Pauline Chase heading the cast. Immediately afterwards Miss Dare toured in The Catch of the Season before returning to London to appear in The Gay Gordons (Aldwych, 12 September 1907). Miss Chase’s next engagement was in the title role of Loie Fuller’s The Little Japanese Girl (Duke of York’s, London, 26 August 1907).