15 Minutes of... STARS

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	76 Theatre Album of pictures of theatrical notables of the early 20th century), c1900-1912. The album "Kalamazoo" system brand, brown linen covers, grey pages, 460 pages, oblong folio (27 x 41.5cm). This very carefully compiled scrap album contains 22 original photographs, mainly silver gelatin prints, along with hundreds of photomechanical reproductions taken from illustrated periodicals. The original photographs strongly feature the actor/manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) in many of his renowned roles - Falstaff, Richard 11, , Mephistopheles , Lord Illingworth to name a few. Tree had been a professional actor since 1878. In 1887 he become the lessee and manager of the Haymarket Theatre - in 1893 staging the premiere of Wilde's 'Woman of No Importance". In 1897 he built Her Majesty's Theatre and produced a wide repertoire of plays from Shakespeare to poetic drama and children's plays. The company was the first to produce George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalian. Tree played the role of Henry Higgins (original photograph of him in this role is included in the album). Considered one of the finest Shakespearian actors of the time, Tree founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1904 and was knighted in 1909. Other actors include the Australian Oscar Asche (1871-1936) and his wife Lily Brayton. Asche and his wife joined Tree's company in 1902. He played opposite Tree and Ellen Terry in Marry Wives of Windsor. Also. H.B. Irving (1879-1919), son of Henry Irving, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937), Ellen Terry (1848-1928) Sarah Bernhard (1848-1923). The album has not been randomly compiled as each page contains carefully placed images relating to a particular play. Very often a printed caption or title has been added. There are some pencil notations indicating there were to be other clippings added. By using the "Kalamazoo" system (purchased by a British firm in 1904) the theatre-loving collector has been able to add pages at different times giving a more complete record. There is no indication on the pages as to which of several periodicals of the period, including Play and Playgoer and Society Illustrated, the clippings have come from. Such journals were full of illustrations of the actors and actresses in the latest plays as well as the stage and sets of current London productions. The unfortunately anonymous collector has left us a rich trove of English theatre in the first decade of the 20th century.	$1,850