Aimee Webster – £150 – The Sketch Wednesday 16th May 1917
A JOCK ON LEAVE: AN “ALLEGORICAL PANTOMIME.”
ALL AMONG THE FLAPPERS AND THE FISHER – GIRLS AND THE NURSES, AND DREAMING OF HIS HIGHLAND LASSIE: M. LEON MORTON AS THE SCOTCH SOLDIER, IN “£150,” AT THE AMBASSADORS’.
SHOPS IN AND AFTER WAR: PRESENTS AND FUTURES.
1. SOME SWEET THINGS IN LINGERIE SOLD IN BOXES MADE FOR OTHER SWEET THINGS: WAR ECONOMY IN PRESENTS EXEMPLIFIED IN “£150,” AT THE AMBASSADORS’.
2. WHAT THE BIG STORES WILL BE LIKE AFTER THE WAR: A SHOP WALKER (MR. MURRI MONCR1EFF), A CUSTOMER, AND A COMMISSIONAIRE (M. LEON MORTON) IMBUED WITH THE MILITARY SPIRIT.
The new “war economy revue,” at the Ambassadors’, “£150,” was so named because that was the limit set by Mr. Cochran to the cost of production. In a slip inserted in the programme on the first night, he facetiously apologised for having exceeded the estimate by £4 15s.! The acting of M. Leon Morton is the chief feature of the new show; indeed, one critic, Mr. Herbert Farjeon, goes so far as to say that “any revue with Morton in it is better than any revue without Morton.” We illustrate here three of the scenes. On the left-hand page he is seen as a Scottish soldier– a “Jock,” in the popular phrase – “journeying from the trenches to his home among the heather” (in the words of the programme) in a scene curiously called “an Allegorical Pantomime.” The first photograph shows him among the Flappers (Misses Elsie Gregory, Kathleen Maude, Joan Emney, and Elaine Wells) the second, with the Fisher Girls (Misses Ena Strange, Siddons Saharet, Dolly Cullin, and Maisie Walsh); the fifth, among the Nurses (Misses Irene Russell, Mona Fraser, Ann Furrell, and Aimee Webster). In the fourth photograph (lower left) are, from left to right M. Morton, Mile. Madeleine Choiseulle as His Highland Lassie, and Mr. J. M. Campbell as An Elder. It represents the soldier’s dream of finding his girl as another man’s bride at the kirk door. On the right-hand page the upper photograph shows the scene entitled “The Temptations of the Modern Sweet-Shop.” Here are sold ostensible chocolate-boxes which gallant swains may buy for their lady friends. In reality they contain articles of lingerie. The scene called “A Dream of the Past and the Future, showing the interior of a great shop” is in two parts, before and after the war. The lower photograph shows the second part, when the military spirit is supreme. The staff are all retired Colonels and so on, and the Commissionaire, covered with medals, shoots off a button with the aid of his revolver.
The Sketch – Wednesday May 16th 1917
Amy Webster – The Merry Widow – The London Daily News – Tuesday 11th June 1907
DALY’S THEATRE
THIS EVENING at 8.30. THE MERRY WIDOW
Messrs Robert Evett, W H. Barry, Lennox Pawle, Gordon Cleather, Fred Kaye, V. O’Connor, R. Roberts and Joseph Coyne and George Graves;
Misses Elizabeth Firth, Nina Sevening, Irene Desmond, K Welch, A Webster, D. Dunbar, D. Dombey, D. Irving, P. le Grand, M. Munroe, M. Erskine, G. Lester, M. Russell and Lily Elsie.
The London Daily News – Tuesday 11th June 1907
Fred Walmsley – Little Red Riding Hood – The Daily Mirror – Thursday 17th January 1935
Panto Stars – Fred Walmsley
In Blackpool, during the summer, Fred Walmsley is an institution. For twenty-three years he has appeared on the pier, and in 1914 Sydney Howard was a member of his company. And Fred is just as much a stalwart in pantomime, as Bradford is agreeing. He is playing Baron Badlotte in “Red Riding Hood” at the Alhambra. This is his twenty-third pantomime. He was at the Palace, Manchester, when Fay Compton made her pantomime debut as Dick Whittington, and he also was in the pantomime at which the famous Gabrielle Ray made a triumphant stage come-back in 1917-18.
Not So Hot!
His favourite pantomime story concerns his early days. It was at a dress rehearsal of “Red Riding Hood.” Artificial “snow” was falling on the stage, the scene being the woods in winter. Red Riding Hood entered and complained how bitterly cold it was, and immediately the Principal Boy followed with a scantily dressed chorus, and sang “In Sunny Havana”! None of Fred’s protests could convince the producer that there was anything amiss in this scene!
The Daily Mirror – Thursday 17th January 1935
Gabriele Ray – Mother Goose – The Daily Mirror – Tuesday 26th October 1920
Manchester’s Sunshine Ray.
Miss Gabrielle Ray, I hear, has been engaged for this winter’s pantomime at the Palace Theatre, Manchester – Cottonopolis’ gain, London’s loss. Her first “panto” appearance was as Cupid in “Little Red Riding Hood” at the Richmond Theatre, shortly after she had made her debut at the Princess’ as Geraldine in the “Green ‘Bushes.”
The Daily Mirror – Tuesday 26th October 1920