Playbill — Playbill for the Argyle Theatre of Varieties Birkenhead, week commencing 1st March 1909, Liverpool, 1909
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1909
Playbill in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (museum number S.458-2016), made in Liverpool, dated 1909, attributed to Griffith, Sam. The museum's brief description reads: Playbill advertising the programme at the Argyle Theatre of Varieties Birkenhead for the week commencing 1st March 1909, starring Harry Lauder.
Letterpress, printed by Sam Griffith, Liverpool. Gift of Neil Crawford.. Museum description: Broadside playbill printed in red blue and yellow on white paper mounted on brown card, with some pinholes and discolouration at each corner. The playbill lists the performers, with Harry Lauder's name the largest. The others appearing on the bill were Lillie Lassah, comedienne and dancer; Fred Fyne and Johnnie Hurley as Fyne and Hurley, 'the coster and the dude'; Millie Payne, comedienne; The Kilties' Camp, in a Scottish military sketch including piping, singing and dancing; John Robbs, the tenor vocalist from the Oxford Music Hall, London; Rose Trio, comedy acrobatics and contortionism; Pat Lynch, 'the dancing demon'; W.G.
Wesley 'quaint comedian', and the Four Royal Scots in their musical sketch While the Cat's Away introducing Scottish Folk, Gaelic songs and instrumental solos. The bill includes a series of 'novel life-motion pictures' by Brown's Royal Bioscope. The orchestra was conducted by Mr. E. Denney; the theatre manager was Mr. D. J. Clarke. The museum records it as Letterpress on paper, measuring Height 88.8 cm; Width 28.6 cm.
These details come from the museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
This is a typical example of an eye-catching Variety playbill from a thriving early 20th century Variety theatre that also included the popular novelty of 'moving pictures' on its programme. Printed in three colours, it features the name of the great Scottish star Harry Lauder in the biggest typeface. Harry Lauder (1870-1950), born in Edinburgh, worked in a colliery and as a music hall and concert party singer before making his name in London in 1900 with comic routines about Scottish and Irish life. After his success in pantomime and the popularity of his song 'I Love a Lassie' Lauder undertook his first American tour in 1907 and his second in 1908, described on this poster as: 'a success unparalleled'. Lauder became the highest paid Variety entertainer of his day and received a Knighthood in 1919, partly for his services to entertainment during the Great War. The Argyle Theatre Birkenhead opened in 1868 as a music hall, and despite a change of direction from 1876 to 1890 when it was renamed the Prince of Wales Theatre, became one of the leading Variety theatres in the country after reverting to its original name and purpose. It claimed to be the first theatre outside London to show animated pictures as a Variety turn, and in 1910 showed the funeral of Edward VII. Always immensely popular attracting big stars, it was destroyed by fire in an air-raid on 21st September 1940.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- paper, ink
- Dimensions
- Height 88.8 cm; Width 28.6 cm
Technical characteristics
- Technique
- Letterpress on paper
- Maker recorded
- Griffith, Sam
- Place recorded
- Liverpool
Identification
- Museum object name
- Playbill
- Museum object number
- S.458-2016
- Museum system number
- O1362061
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and catalogue references against a specialist reference.