SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The Croydon public had a wide choice of theatres to choose from in Victorian times, where they could see the top acts of the day and witness the latest technological wonder: moving pictures from the Theatrograph, as DAVID MORGAN explains
Top of the bill: October 1896, when Minnie Cunningham came to Croydon
Where might people go these days to enjoy an evening out in Croydon?
Back in the 1890s, people were spoilt for choice. They could see a show at the Grand Theatre in the High Street, a performance at the Theatre Royal on Church Street, or if they wanted to go a little “down market”, they might choose to go for a variety show at the National Palace of Varieties on North End.
A poster which has survived from October 1896 advertised the music hall acts at the Palace of Varieties for one week. People could buy tickets priced one, two, or three shillings (5p, 10p or 15p) or have the cheapest option at 6d – a tanner, 2½p. A one-shilling ticket cost the equivalent of £8.50 today.
Above the name of the headline act on the poster, the theatre managers Messrs Seymour and Athol, announced a screening of Robert W Paul’s Theatrograph. This would have been the first time that some of the audience would have seen moving pictures, described on the poster as “wonderful” and “animated”.
This was still the Victorian era, when the Queen was approaching the 60th year of her reign, Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister, his nephew (nepotism?) Arthur Balfour was the leader of the House of Commons, the first modern Olympic Games were staged in Athens, General Kitchener was mounting a campaign in Sudan, and Pope Leo XIII issued a papal bull, Apostolicae curae, declaring all Anglican ordinations to be “absolutely null and utterly void”.
So moving pictures were the height of modernity, and it was all happening here in Croydon.
Paul first exhibited his moving image projection in February 1896 at Finsbury Technical College. He later took his equipment into the theatre, where audiences were amazed at what they saw.
Blackfriars Bridge: one of the earliest moving picture made by Paul in the 1890s
One of his early films was entitled Blackfriars Bridge, and was a simple film capturing people on foot or in horse drawn carriages crossing over the Thames.
The North End poster for that week, advertised that Paul’s films would include coverage of The Prince’s Derby. The Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII, owned the winning horse that year, named Persimmon. June 1896 was the first time that the Derby at Epsom had been filmed, giving those who weren’t at the racecourse a chance to see the event. It was, in effect, the first newsreel film, and people were still keen to see the race on film in October.
There were many interesting acts on the bill; Marie le Blanc a comedienne, Alfred Hurley a tenor, Revene and Elton who were “athletic comedians” and George Newburn, a mimic.
The headline act on the stage that week was Minnie Cunningham. Described as a “The Charming Dancer”, she also sang comic songs. She had appeared on the stages of the major London variety theatres, so she will have been a major attraction for Croydon.
Music hall star: Minne Cunningham
Today, Minnie Cunningham remains immortalised on canvas as she was the subject of a famous painting by the British artist Walter Sickert, entitled “Minnie Cunningham at the Old Bedford“. Now part of the Tate collection, Sickert’s painting was completed in 1892 in his Chelsea studio. Cunningham had to stand on a raised dais as if she was on stage.
The painting had originally been entitled “Minnie Cunningham: I’m an old hand at love, though I’m young in years”, using the title of one of her popular songs of the day.
Sickert had been introduced to Cunningham by the poet and music hall critic, Arthur Symons. They went to see her perform at the Tivoli Theatre on The Strand. Both men were captivated by her. Symons wrote to a friend that Cunningham was “very pretty, very nice”.
Sickert’s striking painting of her initially received a mixed reception, though.
“The red dress of Minnie Cunningham glows with refined richness in its setting but the proportions of the figure and the feet and the hands seem altogether absurd,” wrote the reviewer in the Pall Mall Gazette.
However, the Birmingham Gazette judged it to be the picture of the exhibition. Critics, eh?
Symons was moved to pen some verses about Cunningham. His poem contained the lines;
So, in the smoke polluted place
Where bird or flower might never be,
With glimmering feet, with flower-like face
She dances at the Tivioli.
Marie Lloyd, perhaps the most well-known of all the Victorian women music hall artists, described Cunningham as singing “romping schoolgirl songs”. Cunningham appeared on same the bill with Lloyd in London, dressing for her stage act as a teenaged girl.
Renowned portrait: Walter Sickert’s painting of Minnie Cunningham
Croydon fans of Cunningham would have hoped that her North End routine would include some of her best-known songs, several of which she wrote herself. “The Art of Love” and “It’s Not the Hen That Cackles the Most That Lays the Largest Egg” were two of her popular numbers. The words of one of her songs, “Talkee, Talkee, Talkee”, had even been reproduced in Australian newspapers in 1894. Her audiences loved the double entendre and the suggestive lyrics.
Cunningham, who was born in 1870, began her stage career at the tender age of 10 in Birmingham. She was the daughter of Ned Cunningham, a comic music hall singer. Her father’s death in 1880 resulted in young Minnie beginning her stage career as a male impersonator, singing her father’s songs.
She was 15 when she came to London as a singer and dancer to tread the boards in the principal theatres of the day, including the London Pavilion, on the corner of Shaftsbury Avenue and Coventry Street, The Tivoli on The Strand and The Oxford on the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road.
Cunningham’s fans across the country would have been shocked though, when some years later she made a dramatic court appearance in Dublin. Engaged to be the principal boy in the 1908 pantomime Jack and Jill, she refused to wear the outfit supplied for her, saying that the costume was too short.
Courtroom drama: a contemporary report of Minnie Cunningham’s controversial legal case in Dublin
She brought an action against the theatre owners in the Nisi Prius Court in Dublin, where civil cases were heard. Cunningham, it was claimed in court, was a graceful and refined lady who had played her part in raising the tone of her profession and that was universally admired.
When the court heard that the costume she had to wear was indecently short, being one that “no modest lady would ever wear”, the judge suggested that she should go and put on the garment so the court could see exactly what it was like. Cunningham, described in court as a burlesque actor, her mother and the theatre wardrobe mistress all went into a side room where the costume was duly put on.
The wardrobe mistress explained to the court that Cunningham wanted a three-quarter length skirt in the pantomime which “wouldn’t have been right for the part”.
The court heard that when Cunningham refused to wear the costume, the theatre managers employed another actress, who didn’t quibble about the length of the outfit.
In a Pythonesque twist to the court proceedings, the point was raised about which of the two ladies was taller than the other. The foreman of the jury requested that they both come to the centre of the court and stand back to back on a table.
It was then suggested that a better comparison could be made if both women took off their boots. Another jury member suggested they take off their hats, too.
Amid a crescendo of laughter, the judge agreed that they should take off their boots and their hats, but that they should stop there. For the record, it was noted that Cunningham was the taller of the two.
The judge said the question for the jury was whether the dresses were, in fact, indecent because there might be “hyper-sensitive idiosyncrasy”. Laughter again broke out in the court.
The jury failed to come to a verdict in the case, and they were dismissed.
Cunningham came back to London, where she lived in Southgate Road, Hackney with her mother. After her mother’s death in 1916, Cunningham went into retirement, living to 84 years old at her death in 1954.
Minnie Cunningham was certainly a star turn. Together with the other acts on the bill, the audience, I’m sure, would have left the theatre chatting away about what they had seen and making a note to check when some of the music hall stars would be returning to Croydon.
You could have a great night out in Croydon in the 1890s.
David Morgan, pictured, is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- The day that a ‘globe walker’ arrived in Croydon to win a bet
- Centre of excellence serving Croydon’s youth for 80 years
- Enter the Almshouses and travel back in time four centuries
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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Robert W Paul’s 1896 film of Blackfriars Bridge is available to view on YouTube, courtesy of the British Film Institute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fABILtla_lE
Great article by IC’s top contributor. Thanks. But “hyper-sensitive idiosyncrasy” is what we all suffer in today’s social media obsessed world.