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Widow Twankey
Widow Twankey (originally Twankay, sometimes Twanky) is a female character in the pantomime ''Aladdin''. She is a pantomime dame, played by an older man. History The story of Aladdin is drawn from the ''Arabian Nights'', a collection of Middle-Eastern fables. It was first published in England between 1704 and 1714; and this story was dramatised in 1788 by John O'Keefe for Covent Garden as a harlequinade and included the character of 'Aladdin's Mother' (but unnamed) played by Mrs Davett. She was the widow of a tailor (as in the original story) and this was the profession in many later versions. In 1813, she had the same profession but was the Widow Ching Mustapha, and again in 1836, played by Eva Marie Veigel (Mrs Garrick), but the character was not yet comic nor played by a man. In 1844 a burlesque version of the story described Widow Mustapha as 'a washerwoman with mangled feelings'. However, in productions of the same year and most others up to 1891 she is involved with tai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1896 DanLeno-WidowTwankey
Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation (later known as X-rays). * January 6 – Cecil Rhodes is forced to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, for his involvement in the Jameson Raid. * January 7 – American culinary expert Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook. * January 12 – H. L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. * January 17 – Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War: British redcoats enter the Ashanti capital, Kumasi, and Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I is deposed. * January 18 – The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time. * January 28 – Walter Arnold, of East Peckham, Kent, England, is fined 1 shilling for speeding at (exceeding the contemporary speed limit of , the fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilkie Bard
Wilkie Bard (born William August Smith) (19 March 1874 – 5 May 1944) was a popular British vaudeville and music hall entertainer and recording artist at the beginning of the 20th century. He is best known for his songs "I Want to Sing in Opera" and "The Night Watchman". Early life Bard was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, Lancashire. He began as an amateur singer and comedian, aged 21, and his acts included the part of a coon singer"Song on Balcony", ''Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette'', 8 August 1939, p. 6. and a character who had a bald head and who wore a black spot on each eyebrow. He also performed in female character roles, specifically with his hit song "I Want to Sing in Opera". Bard had a long career in pantomime and introduced tongue twisters such as "She sells seashells by the seashore", based on a song he performed in the show "Dick Whittington and His Cat" in Drury Lane in 1908. In 1919 he went to America where he performed in vaudeville, making h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Les Dawson
Leslie Dawson Jr. (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter, who is best remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and Mother-in-law joke, jokes about his mother-in-law and wife. Early life Les Dawson was born at Collyhurst, Manchester, on 2 February 1931, the only child of bricklayer Leslie Dawson, Sr. (2 August 1905 - 10 April 1970) and Julia Nolan (14 January 1908 - 29 September 1957) who was of Irish descent. His first job was in the parcels department of the Manchester The Co-operative Group, Co-op. He worked briefly as a journalist on the ''The Bolton News, Bury Times''. Career Early in life, Dawson wrote poetry and kept it secret. It was not expected that someone of his working class background would have literary ambitions. In a BBC Television documentary, he spoke of his love for canonical figures in English literature, in particular the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb (writer), Charles Lamb, whose florid s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Campbell
Herbert Campbell (22 December 1844 – 19 July 1904), born Herbert Edward Story, was an English comedian and actor who appeared in music hall, Victorian burlesques and musical comedies during the Victorian era. He was famous for starring, for many years, in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane's annual Christmas pantomimes, predominantly as a dame. Born in Lambeth, Campbell started his performing career appearing in amateur bands and quickly toured London's music hall's during the early 1860s. He decided to leave after a few years and adopted the stage name Herbert Campbell. He joined the minstrel performers Harman and Elston and the trio became known as ''Harmon, Campbell and Elston''. In 1868, Campbell decided to pursue a solo career as a comic vocalist and quickly established himself as a popular music hall comedian. In 1871 he made his first pantomime appearance in ''King Winter'' at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool and became a leading pantomime dame over the next decade. In 1882 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensive shopping district and night-time economy. The entire town had a population of 192,064 as of 2011, whilst the wider borough had a population of 384,837. Historically an ancient parish in the Wallington hundred of Surrey, at the time of the Norman conquest of England Croydon had a church, a mill, and around 365 inhabitants, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Croydon expanded in the Middle Ages as a market town and a centre for charcoal production, leather tanning and brewing. The Surrey Iron Railway from Croydon to Wandsworth opened in 1803 and was an early public railway. Later 19th century railway building facilitated Croydon's growth as a commuter town for London. By the early 20th century, Croydon was an important industria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wyn Calvin
Wyn Calvin MBE OStJ (born Joseph Wyndham Calvin-Thomas; 28 August 1925 – 25 January 2022), known affectionately as "The Clown Prince of Wales" and "The Welsh Prince of Laughter", was a Welsh comedian, pantomime dame, television and theatre actor, radio personality, television chat show host, after-dinner speaker, lecturer, philanthropist and newspaper columnist.The incredibly colourful life of the Welshman celebrating 75 years in showbiz - Wales Online He worked with numerous stars within the entertainment industry including Harry Secombe, Bob Hope, Christopher Biggins, Shirley Bassey, Frankie Vaughan, Vic Morrow, Bud Flanagan, Roy Hudd, Max Boyce, Morecambe and Wise and Ken Dodd. Life and career Born in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, he was the seventh of eight children in the Calvin-Thomas family. At the age of four, the family left for Cardiff. His father John Calvin-Thomas felt there would be a better chance of employment there. Calvin was a pupil of Kitchener Road School and Rad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coventry Theatre
The Coventry Theatre was a 2,000-seat theatre located on Hales Street in Coventry, England. It opened in 1937 as the New Hippodrome and was renamed the Coventry Theatre in 1955. In 1979 it was purchased by businessman Paul Gregg and became the Coventry Apollo. It closed in 1985 with a performance by Barbara Dickson. In its later years the building became a bingo club before being demolished in 2002. Alan Melville Alan Melville (19 May 1910 – 18 April 1983) was a South African cricketer who played in 11 Tests from 1938 to 1949. He was born in Carnarvon, Northern Cape, South Africa and died at Sabie, Transvaal. Early life and cricket career Melville w ...'s comedy '' Castle in the Air'' premiered at the theatre in 1949 before transferring to the West End. References Theatres in Coventry Demolished buildings and structures in England Buildings and structures demolished in 2002 {{music-venue-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Butterworth
Peter William Shorrocks Butterworth (4 February 1915''Prisoner of War Collection'' National Archives – 17 January 1979) was an English actor and comedian, best known for his appearances in the ''Carry On'' series of films. He was also a regular on children's television and radio, and was known for playing on ''''. Butterworth was married to the actress and impressionist |
Hammersmith Theatre
The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on Lyric Square, off King Street, Hammersmith, London."About the Lyric" ''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved 9 May 2008. Background The Lyric Theatre was originally a music hall established in 1888 on Bradmore Grove, Hammersmith. Success as an entertainment venue led it to be rebuilt and enlarged on the same site twice, firstly in 1890 and then in 1895 by the English theatrical architect . The 1895 reopening, as The New Lyric Opera House, was accompanied by an opening address by the famous actress |
Frank Birch
Francis Lyall "Frank" Birch, (5 December 1889 – 14 February 1956) was a British cryptographer and actor. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. During World War I, he served as a lieutenant commander with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and served in the Atlantic, the Channel and the Dardanelles before joining the Naval Intelligence Division (Room 40) from 1916-19. Birch wrote a satirical history of Room 40, ''Alice in ID25''. Birch was appointed an OBE in 1919. He was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, between 1915 and 1934 and a lecturer in history at Cambridge from 1921 until 1928. Birch left Cambridge to pursue an acting career in the 1930s, including the role of Widow Twankey in pantomime. In 1939, he was part of a BBC television production in a Teresa Deevy play "In Search of Valour". He joined the Naval section at Bletchley Park in September 1939, and later became Head of the (German) Naval Section. He had to face the shortage o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richmond Theatre
The present Richmond Theatre, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is a British Victorian era, Victorian theatre located on Little Green, adjacent to Richmond Green. It opened on 18 September 1899 with a performance of ''As You Like It''. One of the finest surviving examples of the work of theatre architect Frank Matcham, the building, in red brick with buff terracotta, is listed building, listed Grade II* by Historic England. John Earl, writing in 1982, described it as "[o]f outstanding importance as the most completely preserved Matcham theatre in Greater London and one of his most satisfying interiors." History The theatre, originally known as the ''Theatre Royal and Opera House'', is structured into the familiar stalls, dress and upper circles, with four boxes at dress level. The auditorium is a mixture of gilt detailing and red plush fabrics, covering seats and front of circles. Its interior and exterior has been used as a movie set in many films (e.g. ''Evita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Biggins
Christopher Kenneth Biggins (born 16 December 1948) is an English actor and television presenter. Early life Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of William and Pamela Biggins. He was brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, attended St Probus school where he took elocution lessons and participated in local drama groups. His first lead stage role was at the age of 17 in a Stage '65 production of Molière's ''Le Médecin malgré lui'', leading to work with a local repertory theatre company. Career Television One of Biggins' earliest roles was on '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' in Series 2, as the character Mr. Donaldson in the episode " An Object of Value" (1972). He appeared as the regular character Lukewarm in the situation comedy ''Porridge'' (1974–1977) starring Ronnie Barker. Other comedy shows he appeared in include ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'' (1973) and ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' (1973, 1978). He played Nero in the BBC's version of ''I, Claudius'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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