1912 Cinderella Christmas Pantomime Postcard
As a child, Christmas time meant not only a time of Father Christmas and wish lists, magic and stories, gift giving and receiving, but also a time of joyous festivity and fun, including the British tradition of a Christmas panto (pantomime). I would always attend several over the Christmas and New Year period.
Christmas pantos have been a stalwart of British culture since the turn of the Twentieth Century, as this postcard attests and were usually faerie tale based.
This postcard from my large faerie tale postcard collection of a Cinderella pantomime was produced by David Allen and Sons in December 1912 for the Princes Theatre in Shaftesbury, Avenue where twice daily at two and half past seven:
"The Princess Fairy Pantomime, Cinderella, produced by Walter and Fredrick Melville. Featuring a full pantomime company with Elise Craven as Cinderella, Jewel St Leger as The Prince, Harry Roxbury as Buttons. Also starring Venie Clements, Scott Barrie, Sims Woolley, Woodhouse & Wells and a host of others. Popular prices: Stalls 5s and 3s, Grand Circle 4s and 2s. 6p (all numbered and reserved), Pit Stalls, 2s, Pi 1s, Gallery 6p. Box Office open from 10 to 10. Telephone 5983 Gerrard."
There was one theatre my Grandmother used to take me to when I was a child, where at the end of any panto, Christmas or otherwise where they sang the following:
"Oh why does a brown cow give white milk,
When it only eats green grass?
Oh I don't know! You don't know!
Oh don't you feel an ass?
Oh why does a brown cow give white milk,
When it only eats green grass?"
That silly song has stuck in my memory all these years, nearly half a century later!
1912 Cinderella Christmas Pantomime Postcard
As a child, Christmas time meant not only a time of Father Christmas and wish lists, magic and stories, gift giving and receiving, but also a time of joyous festivity and fun, including the British tradition of a Christmas panto (pantomime). I would always attend several over the Christmas and New Year period.
Christmas pantos have been a stalwart of British culture since the turn of the Twentieth Century, as this postcard attests and were usually faerie tale based.
This postcard from my large faerie tale postcard collection of a Cinderella pantomime was produced by David Allen and Sons in December 1912 for the Princes Theatre in Shaftesbury, Avenue where twice daily at two and half past seven:
"The Princess Fairy Pantomime, Cinderella, produced by Walter and Fredrick Melville. Featuring a full pantomime company with Elise Craven as Cinderella, Jewel St Leger as The Prince, Harry Roxbury as Buttons. Also starring Venie Clements, Scott Barrie, Sims Woolley, Woodhouse & Wells and a host of others. Popular prices: Stalls 5s and 3s, Grand Circle 4s and 2s. 6p (all numbered and reserved), Pit Stalls, 2s, Pi 1s, Gallery 6p. Box Office open from 10 to 10. Telephone 5983 Gerrard."
There was one theatre my Grandmother used to take me to when I was a child, where at the end of any panto, Christmas or otherwise where they sang the following:
"Oh why does a brown cow give white milk,
When it only eats green grass?
Oh I don't know! You don't know!
Oh don't you feel an ass?
Oh why does a brown cow give white milk,
When it only eats green grass?"
That silly song has stuck in my memory all these years, nearly half a century later!