January sees the closure of many a fine pantomime, so if there is one you would really like to see why not sort out that booking today.... Or it will be behind you, and gone forever....
Our lady, in true pantomime tradition is a man - Thomas William Randall, and he was born, in Holborn, London, on the 22nd of March, 1857. And though this set is billed as "Music Hall Celebrities", he was a stalwart of the pantomime scene.
I have not found that he came from theatrical stock, in fact his father was a cobbler and boot maker - but he started young, at the age of eleven, which often points to familial involvement. And yet it is recorded that he made his first professional appearance quite late, at the age of twenty-six, at Deacon`s Music Hall in Islington. This led to him being picked up by a touring company. and to his first appearance in pantomime, in 1886, as a man, a mutineer against Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, who makes good, becoming a valued member of Crusoe`s community, even marrying a native woman and settling down.
In less than ten years, though, he was one of the most renowned pantomime dames, and, during the 1890s, was well known enough in the industry to start a company managing several theatres - in conjunction with his friends, Dan Leno, and Herbert Campbell. Sadly this did not last, but not through any fault of their own, purely through opposition from other theatre managers, who did their best to malign and hinder the company, eventually killing it completely. However the three men stayed firm friends, and appeared together at Drury Lane in 1903, the year the business folded.
Sadly both Dan Leno and Herbert Campbell died during the following year'. Mr Leno was already ailing during that performance, and Mr. Randall was his understudy, in case Mr. Leno could not go on stage at short notice. He would actually die at his home in London on the 31st October 1904, aged just forty-three and, curiously, we still have no idea of his cause of death. As for Mr. Campbell, he caused his own death, in a very strange way, for his shouting instructions to his coachman caused the horse to startle, and knock him to the ground. At first just a bruise, it turned into an ulcer, and led to a fatal haemorrage of the brain, from which he died, on the 19th of July, 1904, aged just fifty-nine.
Our man retired in 1913, shortly after his wife died. This was a very great blow to him, and he never remarried. He was cajoled into writing an autobiography in 1930, with mixed success, as it was a bit late; few modern theatregoers remembering him, twenty years after he last trod the boards. He was either already in a nursing home by then, in Hendon, or he moved there shortly afterwards, and he died there, on the 18th of May, 1932.
This is another set with conflicting dates. Our original entry for the set, in our "Cartophilic Reference Book - No.16 : The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I, II, and III (revised) and Part IV", published in 1950, reads :
- 269. 50 MUSIC HALL CELEBRITIES,, (adopted title). Size 60 x 38 m/m. Unnumbered, Fronts printed by letterpress. Export issue, about 1906.
A. "SCISSORS" ISSUE. Fronts in black and white. Backs in red, with illustration of open "Scissors" packet, no other letterpress.
GENERAL OVERSEAS ISSUES. Portraits in black and white, plain backs
B. Blue borders to fronts. Anonymous issue.
C. Gilt borders to fronts. Anonymous issue.
There is a further series with gilt borders, numbered, embodying Nos. 1-16 below and 34 new subjects. Of these two gilt-bordered series, known to have been issued in Canada, the numbered series is recorded in Mr. Burdick`s American Catalogue under C.241 on page 43.
Similar series issued by Lambert & Butler (see Fig.22 of Reference Book No.9) and Ogden (see Fig.61 of Reference Book No.15).
- Wilkie Bard
- Billie Barlow
- Chevalier
- Chirgwin
- Alexandra Dagmar
- Marie Dainton
- Daisy Dormer - vertical card
- Daisy Dormer - horizontal card
- T. E . Dunville
- May Moore Duprez
- Gus Elen
- Will Evans
- Happy Fanny Fields
- Harry Ford
- Florrie Forde
- George Formby
- Tom Foy
- Fragson
- Marie George
- George Gilbey
- Lil Hawthorne
- Alice Holander
- Daisy Jerome
- Neil Kenyon
- Geo. Lashwood
- Harry Lauder
- Queenie Leighton
- Lottie Lennox
- Mdlle. Leonora
- Alice Lloyd
- Marie Lloyd
- Voilet Lloyd
- Cissy Loftus
- Marie Loftus
- Rachel Lowe
- Clarice Mayne
- Sam Mayo
- La Milo
- Victoria Monks
- George Mozart
- Harry Randall
- Ada Reeve
- Mark Sheridan
- Eugene Stratton
- Ellaline Terris
- Little Tich
- Vesta Tilley
- Zona Vevey
- Max Waldon
- Daisy Wood
Now I know that usually in such cases I eschew using these sort of artificial numbers when the cards are actually unnumbered, but in this case there is good reason, because in our "Cartophilic Reference Book - No.19 : The Cigarette Card Issues of W.D. & H.O. Wills Parts I to IV (revised) and Part V", published in 1951, an update appears, which reads :
- 269. MUSIC HALL CELEBRITIES - see page 152
Correct typographical error : No.22 - Alice Hollander
Series A was issued first as a series of 30 female artists only (Nos. 2, 5-8, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21-23, 27-36, 38, 39, 42, 45, and 47-50 in the listing on page 152), in January 1911; subsequently the whole 50 subjects were issued in February 1911. The Ogden ("Tabs") issue consists of 50 subjects, but the Ogden ("Polo") and the Lambert & Butler ("Scout"") issues both consist of the 30 female studies only.
Now before you think I have used the wrong set again, hang on - for this set has several dates. In the first of the entries above it was listed as an "export issue, about 1906", which was totally wrong. Then above, the two versions were split, and said to have been issued a month apart, which is in itself rather unusual, few sets being only issued for just one calendar month. The truth seems to come from a series of lists which were published in the Wills "Works" magazine, in the 1930s, giving publishing dates of all the sets which had been printed in the British Isles and shipped overseas for issue - and in this list both the Wills versions of this set were recorded as having been issued in January, 1911.
The next time this set appears is in our original Cartophilic Reference Book No.21. There it is listed as :
- 200-269. MUSIC HALL CELEBRITIES. The recordings in W/209, RB.9/77 and RB.15/125 were all made on the assumption that every printing consisted of 50 subjects. This is no known to be incorrect, and all of the printings are detailed below.
I - SERIES OF 30 FEMALE STUDIES. (Nos. 2, 5-8, 10, 13, 15, 19, 21-23, 27-36, 38, 39, 42, 45, and 47-50 in the listing in W/269).
A. Lambert & Butler Overseas issue, with "Scout" back.
B. Ogden`s Polo issue
II - SERIES OF 50 MALE AND FEMALE STUDIES (as listed in W/269).
C. Anonymous issue, with plain back.
1. Blue borders to front
2. Gilt borders to the front. This is the unnumbered printing with gilt borders - the numbered printing appears under F.
D. Wills` Scissors issue
E. Ogden`s Tabs issue
III - SERIES OF 50 FEMALE STUDIES. (including 16 of the subjects in II, with 34 new subjects.
F. Anonymous issue, with plain back. Gilt borders to front, Burdick C.241. Numbered.
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index splits all these up into individual issuers, and removes the anonymous versions to the back of the book. And it also lists our set as one set, of fifty, rather than isolating the males and females. That entry reads :
- MUSIC HALL CELEBRITIES (A). Sm. 60 x 35. Black and white. Unnd. (50) See W/269 and RB.21/200-269.D ... W62-365
And it remains as a single set in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, with the following entry, in which the reference to RB.21 is removed - simply because that was now long out of print :
- MUSIC HALL CELEBRITIES (A). Sm. 60 x 35. Black and white. Unnd. (50) See W/269 ... W675-513