9 - A New Venture

Summary

Aldridge began 1828 in the Midlands of England, shuttling in January and February between theaters in Coventry and Birmingham, which were only eighteen miles apart. In both cities he performed with the same company, one run by a Mr. Melmoth who was not a particularly effective manager. Melmoth had scored a success in Coventry earlier in January by engaging Miss Maria Foote, “a beautiful actress, whose amatory and matrimonial affairs were somewhat sensational” and who consequently drew large crowds to the theater. During the same month he had also engaged Miss Graddon, a vocalist from London's Drury Lane and Surrey theatres, but receipts at the box offi ce fell off sharply after Miss Foote left. The rest of the company were undistinguished and at times deplorably unprofessional; “some of the performers were imperfect [in their lines], a circumstance which Miss Foote endeavoured to remedy, with a tact and good humour which done her much credit.” Melmoth needed another star of some notoriety to complement Miss Graddon, so he invited the African Roscius to share the stage with her.

They first appeared together on January 14 in The Slave, with Miss Graddon playing Zelinda to Aldridge's Gambia. Melmoth, assuming his leading lady to be the bigger attraction, gave her top billing in newspaper advertisements and on the evening's playbill. The African Roscius was mentioned only halfway down the bill and in much smaller type. After the first performance, however, Aldridge joined Miss Graddon at the top of the bill announcing their reappearance in The Slave a few days later, but her name still appeared in larger print. By the time they reprised their roles in Birmingham the following week, the African Roscius had achieved typographic parity with Miss Graddon, and in his subsequent appearances in January and February in The Revenge, The Castle Spectre, Oroonoko, and The Padlock at both Coventry and Birmingham he was heralded alone at the top of the bill. By then Miss Graddon had left the company, and she never again appeared with Aldridge anywhere in the British Isles.