The thing about collecting old photos is that there are always “new” items to be found. In the case of Jessie Matthews there are many examples of publicity stills, often appearing in magazines and advertising endorsements.
I recently acquired two publicity shots, both from magazines published in 1931.
No doubt there are many more items to be discovered. I’ll add updates when and if I find something else “new.”
My sister and I recently went on a “ghost hunt” at Belper Mills organised by “MJL paranormal.” You can see the video they produced after the event below.
I can’t say I encountered anything spooky but it was worth going just to see inside the East Mill as well as a lot of the rest of the mill complex. The event itself was well organised and stewarded and there was a very entertaining talk from Richard Felix, local paranormal investigator and ex “Most Haunted” presenter.
My only complaint about the event was that it was rather too organised and packed with use of various pieces of equipment. I would have liked the opportunity to just sit quietly in some of the rooms without the use of EMF meters etc.
(We previously attended a similar event at Strutt’s School Belper, run by a different group, which was more eventful especially when it came to “table turning.”)
I can neither confirm nor deny a personal belief in the supernatural.
I’d say that the majority of the cards and photographs in the collection feature two or more dancers but obviously there are plenty of solo dancers.
Because the collection is of “vintage” dancers, most photographs are black and white. Above is one of the rarer colour photos and the subject is identified as “Mrs Shirley Eckloff of Arcadia, California.” From the vibrancy of the colours I think it likely this dates from the 1980s (there are others from the same source.)
This wonderful image features on the homepage of the blog. You can legitimately ask whether she’s a dancer or just posing.
This flamenco dancer is from the same source as the colour photo above.
I have a number of photos of Eva Leary who seems to have appeared in several 1930s dance productions.
It’s back to expressionistic dancing again with this girl.
There are thousands of photos of amateur ballerinas out there. I’ll post separately on professional ballerinas.
And this is my favourite “vintage dancing girl.” She looks so joyful in contrast to the more usual sombre poses.
“So often it’s hard or impossible to find out anything about music hall performers who appear on Real Photographic Post Cards. In the case of Violet Lorraine there’s a fair amount of material to be found. Wikipedia tells us:
She was born Violet Mary Tipton in Kentish Town, London, in 1886 and went on the stage as a chorus girl at the age of sixteen. Her rise to fame came in April 1916 at the Alhambra Theatre in the musical/revue The Bing Boys Are Here. She was given the leading female part, Emma, opposite George Robey playing Lucius Bing. It became one of the most popular musicals of the World War I era. She retired from the stage on her marriage on 22 September 1921 to Edward Raylton Joicey MC (1890–1955) and they had two sons, John and Richard. She returned to acting for the screen, appearing in Britannia of Billingsgate (1933), a musical based on the play of the same name by Christine Jope-Slade and Sewell Stokes, followed by Road House in 1934.
Violet Mary Joicey died in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1956, eight days short of her seventieth birthday.”
Further information can be seen in this article from an old magazine:
Violet was famous for singing “If you were the only girl in the world” with George Robey. You can hear her singing if you search her name on Youtube.
I’ve shown the RPPCs in my collection but there are lots more out there.
Finally, and I don’t know whether to believe this, the John Peel Wiki claims that he played played her track, ‘When We’ve Wound Up The Watch On The Rhine’ on his radio show.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand music hall performers. I’ve seen at least two other postcards of The Yorkshire Rustics yet what was their act really like? From this image they look more frightening than entertaining. Certainly depictions of simpletons and lunatics would be offensive to the modern eye.
There’s a good discussion between Alexi Sayle and Stewart Lee about music hall acts in Alexi Sayle’s podcast (episode 7) about “working class surrealism.” They’re both music hall fans and the more I think about it the more I can see music hall influences on variety acts of the late twentieth century and, of course, Sayle and Lee and other performers like Frank Skinner, himself a George Formby fan.
Speaking of surreal, how about this skating girl and skating bear? That must have been a sight to see.
And here’s a girl talking to her teddy bear.
Groups of “juveniles” were very popular in the halls and some performers continued to perform as juveniles long after they could sensibly claim to be so young. In terms of collecting I can’t successfully repair the damage to this card digitally, though it’s still of interest.
There’s a fine line between music hall performers and those who would once have been exhibited in “freak shows.” According to sideshowworld.com “Lady Little travelled all over the world. In 1913 she was 23 inches tall and weighed 12.75 lbs.” Contrast the indignities suffered by the Elephant Man and the popularity with royalty of “General” Tom Thumb.
Contortionists were another staple of the music hall and variety.
And of course there were the ever popular exotic acts.
The TV programme “The Good Old Days” did a good job of reproducing some famous acts but it was clearly a highly sanitised version of what a real music hall bill was like.
In the popular imagination the Tiller Girls are more like the colour photograph above. This one was taken in 1990 by Paul Groves for the Daily Telegraph. Those of us of a certain age will think back to seeing the Tiller Girls on Sunday Night at the London Palladium in the 1960s.
Most people will be surprised to learn that the photo of the “tennis players” above were also Tiller Girls. In fact there have been many Tiller Troupes and Tiller Girls over the years, starting in 1894 when John Tiller established a school of dance where girls were drilled to perform routines with military precision. (He’d probably be banned from Strictly Come Dancing these days).
Above are two Tiller troupes from 1916.
Tiller troupes were popular additions to music hall bills and to pantomimes. On the back of this card is written “Put me amongst the Girls” but the signature is unreadable.
Even these curious ladies are Tillers.
There are so many Tiller-trained groups that some of them went under different names. The Palace Girls for instance were trained in a Tiller school.
Every end of pier show would have their own Tiller Girls and, of course, they were used to sell sheet music.
These Tiller Girls are from 1954.
Another Daily Telegraph photo from 1988 of a Tiller Girls reunion, but which version or are they just a mix from different troupes?
This newspaper cutting gives some idea of Tiller’s involvement in his work. The date’s not certain but the cuttings were with two postcards dated 1916.
If you want to know more about Tiller’s Girls then the book by Doremy Vernon is the place to go. The book’s out of print but easily available on auction sites.
Material from a file belonging to Cynthia Williams about her entry into the Miss Secretary of Great Britain 1965 competition. I don’t know how many years this competition ran for as I can find nothing about it on the internet.
This is Cynthia arriving for the competition.
And this is Cynthia photographed for the competition.
In contrast this is clearly an amateur photo of Cynthia and her cat. Much more charming I think.
Another photo presumably from a family album.
And a candid snap which was also in the file.
As well as the photos there are pages of correspondence about the competition, good luck cards, accommodation details and so on.
This newspaper clipping confirms Cynthia was a runner-up in the competition and won a £50 prize, well worth having in the mid 60s. Note her street address was given – not something we’d expect to see today.
How many other files exist in attics documenting the ordinary and extraordinary exploits of everyday people? When they surface they are much more interesting than the lives of modern “celebrities.”
Ruth Wells was evidently a 1960s model and most of the photographs I have of her were clearly taken by a professional, although there are some amateur ones too. One photo has on the back “Height 5’5” Bust 34” Waist 24” Hips 35” Hair Dark Brown Brown Eyes.” Some of the photos are stamped ”Newnes and Pearsons” on the reverse who I believe published many popular magazines. There’s not much else on the back of the photos but one has handwritten “Taken for Women’s Own about 3 years ago.” I have 70+ photos of her including clippings from magazines.
I’ve taken a good number of photos from contact prints and done some minimal restoration. Above is one of the sheets plus I’ve enlarged a couple of cells which have been marked up for cropping and removing blemishes which someone would have had to do old school style, long before computer retouching. There’s nothing new about retouching, just faster and easier ways to do it.
She looks the part for someone who would appear in popular magazines of the time and would appeal to the general audience rather than just the swinging 60s crowd.
She looks wholesome even in the swimsuit shots!
Once again I am astonished at how collections like this just get thrown out or end up in house clearances. These photos are a lovely glimpse into a piece of social history as well as coming from someone’s private collection. There’s more personal information including wedding photographs which I haven’t included here or on my Flickr feed. We worry about privacy in the digital age but the information in some of the newspaper clippings I have on Ruth even give the address of where the married couple were going to live.
