Peggy and Mollie Bensaid, known as the Bensaid Twins, were a celebrated British dance and performance duo whose remarkable showbiz career spanned almost 70 years.
They began performing as part of a youth dance troupe and quickly gained recognition in theatres and summer camps across the UK. There are many photographs of them at a young age.
There are also photos of them performing solo.
During World War II , the twins toured extensively, performing for British troops and the American Red Cross. Later they reinvented themselves as Britain’s only female clown duo.
Apparently they were separated for many years but reunited in a nursing home. They also featured in a documentary about “Hundred Year Old Drivers” which you can find on youtube.
This is “Where countless feet have trod” by G E Pearson and appears in Photograms of the Year 1960.
Photograms of the Year was first published in the 1890s and went on until the early 1960s. It’s a bit of a mystery how it got its name as a photogram is defined as “a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light.” However these annuals published photographs rather than photograms.
This one’s “A Cup of Coffee” by Hindrich Pundsack and I’d classify it as a street photograph, so more documentary than posed.
This portrait by Rune Lindscog belongs to the tradition of portraits influenced by classical paintings. ChatGPT tells us that “Photograms of the Year” was an influential annual photographic publication that began in the late 19th century, playing a key role in showcasing artistic and technical excellence in photography during its time.”
It also states the publication “included reproductions of high-quality prints—especially from the Pictorialist movement, which emphasized beauty, atmosphere, and personal expression in photography.” The work of Kate Smith (see previous post) would be more typical of the earlier volumes of this publication.
Of course no photographic review would be complete with the obligatory cheesecake style of photo though the range of such shots ranged from the more stylised work of Kate Smith to straight nudes.
I’ll post some more photographs from Photograms of the Year in future. Some of the work is still of artistic merit and some is not. Some techniques such as solarisation have aged badly in my opinion, unless you’re Man Ray. Other trends in photography just look plain weird to the modern eye such as portraits of young children, sometimes in tears, which are icky* to say the least.
I recently became aware of a photographer called Kate Smith who was once a well-known pictorialist. Here’s a typical photo “By a Cool Stream.”
According to the Ebayer I obtained this print of “Nymph” from:
“Prominent Pictorialist Kate Smith was born near Watford the daughter of Joseph Gutteridge Smith (1823-1914) a paper manufacturer and Mary Elizabeth Hepburn (1834-1885). She exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society from 1903 until 1934 becoming a fellow of the RPS in 1927. Kate Smith had solo exhibitions at 35 Russell Square in 1925 and 1926 and was described by Cecil Beaton as perhaps “the precursor of Baron Demeyer”. She specialised in photographs of single female figures, nude or in diaphanous costume within romantic landscapes, many of her pictures being modelled by friends in her garden or nearby countryside. They were frequently published in society periodicals such as the Sketch and the Bystander between 1907 and 1914. In 1925 had the unusual honour of addressing the RPS in a lecture describing her approach to photography and working method.”
It is notoriously difficult to obtain information about early pictorialist photographers with the exception of a few famous names such as Clarence H White and Alfred Stieglitz. Web searches often yield little or nothing.
In this instance ChatGPT was able to find more information than other sources and the results were in agreement with the quote above and were referenced so we can probably trust them to be correct:
“Here’s what is known about the British pictorialist photographer Catherine Mary “Kate” Smith:
Her work embraced soft-focus, romantic, mythological themes—placing models in woods and countryside, dressed as dryads, fairies, or classical figures sistersofthelens.com+1timlaytonfineart.com+1.
🏅 Exhibitions & Recognition
First exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Salon in 1903; she exhibited almost annually up to WWI and again post-war sistersofthelens.com.
Joined RPS in 1908, became Associate (ARPS) from 1920, showcased her own one‑woman exhibition in 1925, and in that year earned Fellowship (FRPS) sistersofthelens.com.
📷 Equipment & Workflow
Often photographed around her home with a 3¼×4¼ Adams Vesta camera fitted with a Zeiss lens flickr.com+1flickr.com+1.
🌾 Notable Work
For example, Earth’s Bounty (1912) is a classic demonstration of her style—depicting a softly-lit, mythic figure in a wheat field—exhibited at the 1912 Salon flickr.com+1flickr.com+1.
📚 Summary Catherine Mary “Kate” Smith was a key figure in British Pictorialism, intertwining romantic narratives, soft-focus aesthetics, and myth-inspired themes in her photography. Her steady presence in RPS exhibitions, eventual Fellowship, and evocative images set in nature mark her as a distinguished contributor to early 20th-century fine art photography.”
The website Sisters of the Lens is a useful resource for finding information about other late nineteenth and early twentieth century female photographers.
After my previous post I decided it would be an interesting project to try and create photographs based on the various techniques that were used between the 1860s and 1950s. This project will be mainly undertaken using digital means rather than mechanical means mainly due to the excessive amounts of equipment, chemicals etc required. That’s not to say I won’t use original materials were possible. For instance I already have the chemicals necessary to produce Cyanotypes and have done so in the past.
So I’ve started with the wet plate collodion types, originally requiring large format cameras and very fast development times once exposures have taken place. I should also say that the wet plate collodion technique was used to produce a number of different outputs using glass plate negatives including ambrotypes and tintypes
I began with this self-portrait:
I used photoshop and the steps described by James Abbott in his youtube video. It was clear that many subtle variations could be achieved using his approach but I eventually arrived at this result:
I also tried an action produced by Gavin Seim from his signature emulsion collection with this result:
Of course it’s a matter of taste as to which approach works best but my personal preference is the middle one, following James Abbott’s steps, as it yields a warmer effect from the slight toning.
I’ll discuss the dry plate collodion method in a future post but needless to day it involves dry plates instead of wet plates! It also necessitates much longer exposures.
I don’t suppose I should be surprised given the bizarre and often revolting creations that appear on Instagram and elsewhere but I’m still surprised by the power of so-called AI. Using OpenArt AI I took the still of these dancers and entered the prompt “girls perform a dramatic dance” and got the video at the top of this blog post. The result, rendered in about 3 minutes, is astonishing. Facial expression are a little off in places but otherwise this looks like a real film of a real event. It isn’t.
I recently acquired a set of 20+ photographs of girls in dance poses. I assume these were taken to illustrate to other dancers the basic poses. The size of the photos is 2 inches by 3 inches and the quality is not great. There’s no information to show who the dancers were, who the photographer was or at what date they were taken. My guess is they date back to the Edwardian era. More poses from this series are shown below.
I would further speculate that these poses were influenced by Isadora Duncan and her followers as she often performed barefoot and in a short tunic.
This photo is larger and from a different source but you can see the same posing ideas being put into practice.
And here’s another set of dancers barefoot and in tunics.
And a solo dancer striking a pose. Once you start looking you will find many dancers who all seem to be working from the same templates.
Most of the photographs of the Windmill Girls were taken by their house photographer and publicist Kenneth H Bandy. This is a typical shot of the dancers and they are all named on the reverse: Renee Baxter, Valerie Trevor, Rosalie Waltham, Irene King, Renny Calvert, Hope Calvert, Jeanne Weatherstone, Thelma Ward, Pauline Colgate. After I’d published this photo on my flickr feed I was contacted by someone who told me Jeanne Weatherstone was his mum!
As you can see from this inside cover of the Revudeville annual publication the Windmill Girls performed multiple times per day and they were required to learn new routines every five weeks. There were also two sets of dancers; troupes 1 and 2.
The leader of the dancers was known as the Head Girl (not just at the Windmill but also for other troupes). This card is an interesting puzzle. Who was the “head girl” that this card was dedicated to? In the book “Remembering Revudeville” by Jill Millard Shapiro there’s a section written by Vivien Goldsmith about her mother Joan Jay. During the war the performers often slept overnight in the Windmill Theatre as it wasn’t safe to venture out during bombing raids. Goldsmith said it resembled a boarding school in some ways and that her mother Joan Jay “referred to herself as its head girl.” Joan Jay left the Windmill after 11 years to get married and I’m guessing the card dates from that time.
So who sent the card? The signature looks as though it’s Joy or Joyce. I can’t find a reference to a Joyce at the Windmill but there were four Joys. Comparing the card to photos in the Revudeville book I’d say it’s Joy Hunt but again I can’t be sure.
(The oddly shaped piece of card was on the back of the photo and doesn’t help. It definitely looks like “F/O Joyce” and then there’s “To: Pam Treves” who isn’t listed in the Revudeville book.)
All of the routines performed by the dancers were given spurious names to justify them.
The dancers performed both in groups and as solo dancers, such as Anita D’Ray shown above. The dancers also included males though I’ve not shown any here as the theme is “vintage dancing girls.”
At first glance it isn’t clear this photo should be classified as “vintage dancing girls.” However the models are named as Jill Antsey and Marion Lynde and a search reveals they were Windmill Girls in the 1940s so they would have danced as well as appearing in nude tableaux. This article www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Archive/Feb2003/SpeedwayArticle/Spe… from 1948 gives more information. There’s mention of “Beryl Catlin and Marion Lynde rehearse a Spanish dance.” As for Jill Antsey you can read “A Lead in the current search for new British talent will be given by Daniel Angel Films in their musical-thriller “Murder at the Windmill.” More than a dozen youngsters who have never before been in front of a movie camera will be given a chance supporting Garry Marsh, Jack Livesey, Elliot Makeham, Jon Pertwee, Jimmy Edwards and Diana Decker. For instance, one of the juvenile leads will be played by Windmill girl Jill Anstey.”
The film “Murder at the Windmill” is listed on imdb and has been recently shown on Talking Pictures TV. (It’s not a great film but it gives you an idea of how small the theatre was).
A souvenir issue of the Revudeville programme was issued yearly and often featured gimmicks such as this one. The large seven being a cut-out leading to the fuller picture inside. You can find copies of the various editions on ebay for a few pounds each though some editions are harder to find than others.
Of course the Windmill Theatre was also famous for its nude tableaux and the dancers were also required to appear in these scenes. A clever loophole meant that nudity could be featured on stage so long as the girls did not move! You can see more examples of the tableaux, the photos by Kenneth Bandy and many more Windmill related ephemera at my flickr feed.
Egham is a town in Surrey adjacent to Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed. The four photographs in this post were taken at the Studio, High Street, Egham. Date is unknown but I’d guess the 1920s or 30s.
The unusual thing about these dancers is how elaborate their costumes were. I don’t suppose they went to such lengths just for their own amusement so it’s very likely they performed in Music Halls or variety theatres. It’s possible they were in a local pantomime though again their elaborate costumes suggest something grander.
Of course there’s the perennial problem that the studio where the photographs were taken is not necessarily where they are from. If the troupe were touring then their home location could be anywhere.
Once again we’re confronted with the fact that there is insufficient information to identify the dancers or where they performed.
When thinking of “vintage dancing girls” your first thought might be of maypole dancers, such as the ones shown above. Although images of girls dancing around maypoles are common there’s no tradition that confines it to girls alone, You can find plenty of examples of boys and girls maypole dancing and, indeed, adults of both sexes.
Often maypole dancing goes alongside other traditions such as choosing a May Queen and would be part of much wider celebrations with many onlookers.
Postcards of maypole dancers tend to be more collectable and therefore more expensive to buy than other cards, especially if the location and date are given. Topographical RPPCs are probably more popular than any other kind and it seems natural that if you collect scenes from a particular town then you will want to have non-topographical materials from the same area. (Similarly cards showing floods or natural disasters from named towns are even more collectable and more expensive).
The wikipedia entry for maypole gives extensive details of the likely origins and appearance in other countries and traditions. Perhaps surprisingly the general conclusion is that the maypole is not phallic despite the explanation to the contrary given in The Wicker Man film and the popular imagination.
There are many other traditional “folk” dances to be discovered. This pipe dance is similar to Scottish sword dancing. The idea is that the dancers must avoid breaking the pipes as they dance around them.
The garland dance was apparently introduced by mill owners in the 19th century. In this case the wikipedia entry is light on detail though garland dancing can often be seen at folk festivals right up to the present day.
Then there’s clog dancing practiced throughout the North of England and Wales as well as being exported to the USA.
I will leave the consideration of female morris dancers for another post even though there are those that maintain it’s purely a male pursuit. (I’m not one of them).
