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Bluebell In Fairyland
''Bluebell in Fairyland'' is a Christmas-season children's entertainment described as "a musical dream play", in two acts, with a book by Seymour Hicks, lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and Charles H. Taylor, and music by Walter Slaughter. It was produced by Charles Frohman. The creators sought to distinguish the work from a Christmas pantomime. The story concerns a flower girl, Bluebell, who on Christmas Eve goes to fairyland in search of the "Sleeping King", seeking to restore him to his throne, which has been usurped by the "Reigning King". First produced in 1901 in London, ''Bluebell in Fairyland'' was a hit, running for 300 performances."Bluebell in Fairyland" at the Guide to Musical Theatre, accessed 26 February 2010 The piece provided inspiration for |
Walter Slaughter
Walter Alfred Slaughter (17 February 1860 – 2 March 1908) was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904. Life and career Youth and education Slaughter was born in Fitzroy Square, London.''The Musical Herald'', 1 December 1906, p. 359 He attended the City of London School, and sang in the choir of St. Andrew's Church, Wells Street under Joseph Barnby.Obituary, '' The Musical Herald'', 1 April 1908, p. 105 After leaving school, he worked in a wine merchant's office and then for the music publishers Metzler.''The Strand Magazine'', 4 July 1892, p. 85 While there, he studied music under Alfred Cellier, Berthold Tours, and Georges Jacobi, the musical director of the Alhambra Theatre. He was also brought into frequent contact with Arthur Sullivan, who gave him much encouragement and friendly advice. Slaughter once asked Sullivan the best way to st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Dare
Phyllis Dare (born Phyllis Constance Haddie Dones; 15 August 1890 – 27 April 1975) was an English actress and singer famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Chelsea, London, Dare first performed on stage at the age of nine, in the Christmas pantomime ''Babes in the Wood'' (1899), together with her sister, Zena. Later that year, she appeared as Little Christina in '' Ib and Little Christina''. She soon played Mab in the Seymour Hicks musical '' Bluebell in Fairyland'', and at the age of 15, she took over the starring role of Angela in '' The Catch of the Season''. In 1909, Dare created the role of Eileen Cavanagh in the hit musical '' The Arcadians'', where she met the producer George Edwardes. This started a long association between the two, who collaborated on productions including '' The Girl in the Train'', ''Peggy'' and '' The Quaker Girl''. In 1912, she starred in '' The Sunshine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crossing Sweeper
A crossing sweeper was a person working as a street sweeper who would sweep a path ahead of people crossing dirty urban streets in exchange for a gratuity. This practice was an informal occupation among the urban poor, primarily during the 19th century. It was the focus of fairly intense study and commentary, and attitudes toward the presence of crossing sweepers on city streets varied greatly among urban residents, ranging from appreciation for their work to feelings that they were a public nuisance. Crossing sweepers also found their way into 19th-century fiction and artwork, including a novel by Charles Dickens and a popular painting by William Powell Frith. Description Crossing sweepers were a common sight on the streets of large cities during much of the 19th century. The predominance of horse-drawn vehicles—and the general uncleanliness of urban streets—entailed certain difficulties in crossing intersections. For example, the long dresses of many elite women mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western world, Western society. Christmas celebrations in the Christian denomination, denominations of Western Christianity have long begun on Christmas Eve, due in part to the Christian liturgical day starting at sunset, a practice inherited from Jewish tradition, and based on the Genesis creation narrative, story of Creation in the Book of Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day." Many churches still ring their church bells and hold Christian prayer, prayers in the evening; for example, the Nordic Lutheran churches. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Hawtrey (actor Born 1914)
George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known as Charles Hawtrey, was an English actor, comedian, singer, pianist and theatre director. He began at an early age as a boy soprano, in which role he made several records, before moving on to radio. His later career encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and 1940s in films such as '' The Ghost of St. Michael's''), through the ''Carry On'' films, and television. Life and career Early life Hawtrey was born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England, in 1914, to William John Hartree (1885–1952) and his wife Alice (née Crow) (1880–1965), of 217 Cromwell Road, as George Frederick Joffre Hartree. He took his stage name from the theatrical knight Sir Charles Hawtrey, and encouraged the suggestion that he was Hawtrey's son (though his father was actually a London car mechanic). Following study at the Italia Conti Acad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jessie Matthews
Jessie Margaret Matthews (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, such as ''Evergreen'', Matthews developed a following in the USA, where she was dubbed "The Dancing Divinity". Her British studio was reluctant to let go of its biggest name, however, which resulted in offers for her to work in Hollywood being repeatedly rejected. After the decline of her film career, Matthews achieved a comeback in her native Britain when she took over the role of Mary Dale in the popular BBC Radio serial ''The Dales'' (previously known as ''Mrs Dale's Diary''). Early life Jessie Margaret Matthews was born on 11 March 1907 to Jane Matthews (née Townshend) in a flat above a butcher's shop at 94 Berwick Street, Soho, London, in relative poverty, the seventh of sixteen children (of whom eleven survived). Jessie's father, G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper (18 December 1888 – 17 November 1971) was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television. Beginning as a teenager in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, she starred in dramatic roles and silent films before the First World War. She managed the Playhouse Theatre from 1917 to 1934, where she starred in many roles. From the early 1920s Cooper won praise in plays by W. Somerset Maugham and others. In the 1930s she starred steadily in productions both in London's West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Moving to Hollywood in 1940, Cooper found success in a variety of character roles. She received three Academy Awards, Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, for performances in ''The Song of Bernadette (film), The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), ''My Fair Lady (film), My Fair Lady'' (1964) and, most famously, ''Now, Voyager'' (1942). Thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Zucco
George Zucco (11 January 1886 – 27 May 1960) was a British character actor who appeared in plays and 96 films, mostly American-made, during a career spanning over two decades, from the 1920s to 1951. In his films, he often played a suave villain, a member of nobility, or a mad doctor. Early life and family George Desylla Zucco was born in Manchester, Lancashire, on 11 January 1886. His mother Marian (née Rintoul) ran a dressmaking business. His father, George De Sylla Zucco, was a Greek merchant from Corfu who became a naturalised British subject in 1865. Zucco debuted on the Canadian stage in 1908 in a stock theater company. He returned to the UK and served as a lieutenant in the British Army's West Yorkshire Regiment during the First World War. He lost the use of two fingers when he was shot in the right arm in France. When the war ended, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and later taught there. He became a leading stage actor of the 1920s, and made his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Pan, Or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
''Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'', often known simply as ''Peter Pan'', is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel titled ''Peter and Wendy''. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, indians, and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family. The play debuted at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 27 December 1904 with Nina Boucicault, daughter of the playwright Dion Boucicault, in the title role. A Broadway production was mounted in 1905 starring Maude Adams. It was later revived with such actresses as Marilyn Miller and Eva Le Gallienne. Barrie continued to revise the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little White Bird
''The Little White Bird'' is a novel by the Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark, aggressive undertones. It was published in November 1902, by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and Scribner's in the US (and the latter also published it serially in the monthly '' Scribner's Magazine'' from August to November). The book attained prominence and longevity thanks to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, which introduced the character and mythology of Peter Pan. In 1906, those chapters were published separately as a children's book, '' Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens''. The Peter Pan story began as one chapter and grew to an "elaborate book-within-a-book" of more than one hundred pages during the four years Barrie worked on ''The Little White Bird''. The complete book has also been published under the title ''The Little White Bird, or Adventures in Kensington Gardens''. Plot introduction ''The L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Llewelyn Davies Boys
The Davies boys were the inspiration for the stories of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, in which several of the characters were named after them. They were the sons of Sylvia (1866–1910) and Arthur Llewelyn Davies (1863–1907). Their mother was a daughter of French-born cartoonist and writer George du Maurier and sister of actor Gerald du Maurier, whose daughter was author Daphne du Maurier. Their father was a son of preacher John Llewelyn Davies, and brother of suffragist Margaret Llewelyn Davies. Barrie became the boys' unofficial guardian following the deaths of their parents, and they were publicly associated with Barrie and Peter Pan for the rest of their lives. The three eldest served in the British military during World War I. Two of the brothers died in their early twenties (one in combat, the other drowning), and a third died by suicide when he was 63. Their early lives have been the subject of two cinematic dramatizations. They were: * George (1893–1915) *John 'J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
