![Tom Manders 1838](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Tom_Manders_1838.jpg)
Thomas Manders (22 December 1797–28 October 1859) was an
actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...
and
low comedian of the early 19th century.
Early life and career
Tom Manders was born in
High Holborn
High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and Sou ...
in London in 1797. He was originally intended for a commercial life, and for that purpose joined the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
in 1814 but was pensioned off in 1821 when his office was abolished by the withdrawal of one-pound notes. He married Louisa Powell (18011880) in 1820. A keen theatre-goer, he attended performances most evenings after work and having tried his hand as an amateur actor on numerous occasions decided to turn professional in 1822. On the recommendation of
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble (25 November 1775 – 12 November 1854) was a Welsh-born English actor of a prominent theatre family.
Life
Charles Kemble was one of 13 siblings and the youngest son of English Roman Catholic theatre manager/actor Roger Kemble ...
he was taken on by John Saville Faucit but did not feel that his talents were being recognised under Faucit's management so instead Manders went out into the provinces.
[(Anon.), ''Actors by Daylight; or Pencilings in the Pit'', Vol. 1, j. Pattie (London) (c. 1838)]
– p. 242 Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
Return to London
![Thomas Manders as Sam Slap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Thomas_Manders_as_Sam_Slap.jpg)
He began a provincial career with his wife
[Tom Mander - Theatrical Obituaries from 1844 - 1889]
/ref> before unsuccessfully going into theatre management in Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
for a period. He appeared in Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
, Weymouth and Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...
as an actor. He was invited to appear at the Theatre Royal in Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
by its manager George Smith. The sudden death of his father in 1829 forced Manders to return to London where he returned to the stage, this time rather more successfully, under the management of John Kemble Chapman at the City Theatre in Milton Street
Thomas Milton Street Sr. (April 25, 1941 – November 28, 2022) was an American businessman, a Pennsylvania state senator from Philadelphia, and the brother of former Philadelphia mayor John F. Street. Originally a street hot dog vendor, he ro ...
, where he appeared as Justice Greedy in ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts
''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'' (c. 1625, printed 1633) is an English Renaissance theatre, English Renaissance drama, the most popular play by Philip Massinger. Its central character, Sir Giles Over-reach, became one of the more popular villains ...
'' opposite Edmund Kean
Edmund Kean (4 November 178715 May 1833) was a celebrated British Shakespearean stage actor born in England, who performed, among other places, in London, Belfast, New York, Quebec, and Paris. He was known for his short stature, tumultuo ...
as Sir Giles Over-reach.[
After working in various minor theatres Manders went to the Strand Theatre under the management of Harriet Waylett for whom he played Cupid in the ]burletta
In theater and music history, a burletta (Italian, meaning "little joke", sometimes burla or burlettina) is a brief comic opera. In eighteenth-century Italy, a burletta was the comic intermezzo between the acts of an ''opera seria''. The extended ...
''Loves of the Devils''. He also played at the Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout m ...
and was at the Queen's Theatre for some sixteen years where he was a great favourite. He was the original Tom Stag, a noisy, good-humoured bailiff, in the farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...
''Captain Stevens'' (1832).[
]
Later life
Manders went into management with John Kemble Chapman at the City Theatre where he became a great success playing the low comedy
Low comedy, also known as lowbrow humor, in association to comedy, is a dramatic or literary form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, figh ...
roles. At the Queen's Theatre he played Sam Slap in ''The Rake's Progress'' (1833) and Sarah Gamp
Sarah or Sairey Gamp, Mrs. Gamp as she is more commonly known, is a nurse in the novel ''Martin Chuzzlewit'' by Charles Dickens, first published as a serial in 1843–1844.
Mrs. Gamp is dissolute, sloppy and generally drunk. She became a noto ...
in ''Martin Chuzzlewit
''The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit'' (commonly known as ''Martin Chuzzlewit'') is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialised between 1842 and 1844. While he was writing it ...
'' (1844) in a production authorised by Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
.Malcolm Morley, 'Martin Chuzzlewit in the Theatre'
'' The Dickensian'' Vol. 47 (Jan 1, 1951): 98 He became the landlord of the Sun Tavern in Long Acre
Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its coach-makers, and l ...
, a popular theatrical rendezvous,[ and the Marquis of Gransby in Knightsbridge. A "richly humorous actor of comic parts",][Clarke, John M. ''London's Necropolis: A Guide to Brookwood Cemetery'', Sutton Publishing (2004), p. 213 ] he was considered by the author of ''Actors by Gaslight'' to be a worthy successor to the great comedian John Reeve, but and Manders disappeared into obscurity.[ His wife, Louisa Manders, suffered several accidents during her long career as an actress, including a fall from the flies at ]Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...
in 1834. Later she was famous for playing older women.[
]
Thomas Manders is buried with his wife in the Actors' Acre in Brookwood Cemetery
Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manders, Thomas
1797 births
1859 deaths
Actor-managers
English male stage actors
19th-century English male actors
English impressionists (entertainers)
Male actors from London
Burials at Brookwood Cemetery