Historic pantomime memorabilia from 100 years ago helps uncover family secret

Historic pantomime memorabilia from 100 years ago helped uncover a family secret, and today serves as a record of a lifetime of entertaining.

Leigh Lawson has posters, pictures and handwritten scripts from Ernest Adrim and Jimmy Wood touring productions, as well as programmes from two Littlehampton Christmas Pantomimes in the 1930s.

Her grandparents were both on the stage as Minnie Faulkner and Charlie Charlton in the early 1900s. Her grandfather's real name was Charles Speller and her grandmother was born Minnie Smith in Worthing in 1891.

Their son Leslie Speller, Leigh's father, was born in December 1914 in Littlehampton, in his grandparents' house. Charlie was in a show in Dublin at the time and Leigh still has the telegram announcing the birth. Minnie was back on stage within six weeks and Leslie was christened in St Ives, Cornwall.

Stage photographs from the early 1900s feature Charlie and Minnie, and Leigh also has a March 1914 poster from the touring show Robinson Crusoe, with their names included, Minnie playing Will Perkins and Charlie playing Will Atkins.

Leigh said: "I found the poster folded up in a shirt box full of old newspapers when Dad moved into a care home in 2005. He couldn't remember seeing it before and neither could I.

"It must have come to us when my grandmother died in 1982. The poster is dated nine months before my father was born, which must surely be significant and is probably why they kept it!

"It is extremely fragile, as thin as tissue paper, not made to last. It was scanned for me several years ago and digitally 'stitched' together, because it is so long and almost disintegrating.

"I can't help wondering if this was the tour when my grandparents first met, or first 'got together'. They did not actually marry until the end of October 1914, in Wandsworth Register Office, a fact hidden by Granny, who said they had married in 1913. We only found out after she died and her marriage certificate gave the year away.

"The late wedding could have been because of their touring commitments – they were not always in the same show. I used to ask her why there were no photographs of their wedding and she just muttered a non-committal answer – then I knew why! My husband and I lived together for five years before getting married, much to my father's disapproval, but, interestingly, Granny was always very supportive of us and told him we should live our lives however we wanted."

By 1920 Minnie and Charlie had stopped touring and were living in Littlehampton.

Leigh said: "My grandfather became a children's entertainer and Punch & Judy man, known as Uncle Charlie, until 1953. He also worked for Harry Joseph in the early days, managing the Casino for him in Littlehampton."

Harry Joseph was well known in the town and in theatrical circles, with his Pierrot troupe, concert parties and touring shows. Leigh has two of his pantomime scripts, the handwritten Cinderella and typed Dick Whittington.

Leslie adapted and produced both in Littlehampton, Cinderella under the auspices of the Arundel & Littlehampton District Boy Scouts Association in 1937 and Dick Whittington and his Cat with Littlehampton Amateur Pantomime Society in 1938.

Leigh said: "The Cinderella script has a slightly tasteless line about Suffragettes in prison. Dad has crossed that out for the 1938 production. Dick Whittington has lines that refer to the Boer War.

"I don't know if Harry Joseph's name and address, Portland Lodge, 10 River Road, Littlehampton, in the Cinderella script are in his own handwriting.

"I notice the character Buttons, the Baron's page, is called Ginger in Harry Joseph's version. It was changed back to Buttons by my father. The character of Buttons first appeared in 1860 and has sometimes been Pedro. I can find no reference to him ever being called Ginger, other than here."

There are many familiar local names in the Cinderella cast, including Nan Saxby, Winifred Carswell, Syliva Brabrook, Surrey Arms landlord Jim Childs and Jim Pegrum from the family of bakers, as well as Leslie's sister, Rita Speller.

Leslie went on to serve as a Pilot Officer in the RAF during the Second World War and was captured by the Germans in 1942. As a prisoner-of-war, he became part of the drama group at the Luftwaffe-run camp Stalag Luft III, made famous by The Great Escape, and acted in some of their productions.

Before and after the war, Leslie was also involved with Littlehampton Amateur Dramatic Society.

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