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Laborers of the Nineteenth-Century Theater: The Economies of Gender and Industrial Organization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Tracy C. Davis
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Extract

In the purview of theater history, as on the theatrical stage itself, performers' and writers' command on attention is almost complete. Ancient Greek gave a word to its mask builders (skeuopoio), but apart from distinct vocabulary, history leaves few traces of theatrical laborers. A glance through any number of theatrical books, periodicals, bibliographies, biographical guides, and encyclopedias reveals the predominance of performers in the public eye, though managers, directors, designers, and critics occasionally attract scholarly studies. Even among novels, journalism, and theatrical guidebooks—genres that venture behind the scenes—the personnel that dress, light, paint, and build shows are rarely present. Their identity and labor is marginalized in the annals because it is marginalized in the conceptualization of what is important in theater production. Susan Todd takes unusual measures to challenge this tradition by documenting the experience of women stage managers in the contemporary theater, but in the historical realm this has not been attempted. Writers devote attention to how the stage actually worked (how stage effects were achieved and how the creative chain of command functioned), but to date no one has examined the structures and traditions of backstage labor by asking basic questions about the sociopolitical organization of the work.

Only in highly esoteric treatises or the lightest of literature do theatrica jewelers, armorers, weavers, hosiers, basket makers, shoemakers, furnishers, cosmeticians, perruquiers, costumiers, seamsters, dressers, property makers, carpenters, gas fitters, printers, or ticket takers usually appear. These are all specialized trades and occupations indispensable to the building and running of nineteenth-century theatrical entertainment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 32 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1994

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References

1 Todd, Susan, ed., Women and Theatre: Calling the Shots (London: Faber, 1984)Google Scholar.

2 Booth, Michael, Victorian Spectacular Theatre (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981)Google Scholar; Fitzgerald, Percy, The World Behind the Scenes (1881; reprint, New York: Benjamin Blom, 1972)Google Scholar; Moynet, M. J., French Theatrical Production in the Nineteenth Century (1873; trans. Max Reinhardt Foundation and Centre for Modern Theatre Research, 1976)Google Scholar; Rees, Terence, Theatre Lighting in the Age of Gas (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1978)Google Scholar.

3 The usual number of carpenters was thirteen; it was suggested that the theater retain twelve to fifteen in December and only seven or eight once the Christmas piece opened. After the austerity measures were adopted, only five were in regular employment. (Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., bMS Thr. 267.56/16–17.)

4 Harvard Theatre Collection, fMS Thr. 149/1–10 and bMS Thr. 267/39–57. All calculations exclude the orchestra, which was another all-male enclave.

5 The document is from the Harvard Theatre Collection's Elliston Papers (TS 1091. 192F, vol. 2 [of 3]) and is reproduced in Pieter van der Merwe, “The Staffing and Finance of a Minor Theatre c. 1827,” Theatre Notebook 43, no. 3 (1989): 100–104Google Scholar. See also the note by Knight, William George, Theatre Notebook 44, no. 3 (1990): 125Google Scholar.

6 Pick, John, The West End: Mismanagement and Snobbery (Eastbourne: John Offord, 1983), p. 89Google Scholar.

7 A woman's possible presence as a check taker is inferred from the traditional gendered lines of employment, supported by inspection of manuscript census data from each of London's theatrical districts and several provincial centers.

8 Hunt, E. H., British Labour History, 1815–1914 (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1981), pp. 57–116Google Scholar; Baines, D. E., “The Labour Supply and the Labour Market, 1860–1914,” in The Economic History of Britain since 1700, ed. Floud, R. and McCloskey, D. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 2:163Google Scholar; Flinn, M. W., “Trends in Real Wages, 1750–1850,” Economic History Review 27 (1974): 395–413Google Scholar.

9 Toole's Theatre Wages Book, January 12, 1884, Harvard Theatre Collection, MS Thr. 303, vol. 1.

10 This refers to the Palace Theatre, Rushden, March 16, 1913 (Northamptonshire Record Office, Ace. 1978/102 c.l). Figures from 1915 show the assistant engineer and chief stagehand earning 6 s. to 7 s. while other rates remained the same.

11 See petitions from Samuel Lane to the Lord Chamberlain in 1862 on behalf of the Britannia's employees. (Public Record Office, LC1.)

12 Dr. Doran, cited in Macqueen-Pope, W., Pillars of Drury Lane (London: Hutchinson, 1955), p. 187Google Scholar.

13 Era (January 8, 1887), cited in Booth (n. 2 above), p. 163Google Scholar.

14 Fitzgerald, p. 49.

15 Fitzgerald, pp. 43–44.

16 These remarks are based on exhaustive searches of manuscript censuses of central Glasgow, central Liverpool, and the London parishes of Lambeth, St. Paul (Covent Garden), St. Anne (Soho), St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. Mary-le-Strand, and St. Clement Danes in 1861 and 1881. Additional verification has been sought in Hoxton in 1861 and 1871, St. Johns Wood in 1861 and 1881, and Leeds in 1881. See Davis, Tracy C., “Theatrical Employees of Victorian Britain: Demography of an Industry,” Nineteenth Century Theatre 18, no. 1 (1990): 6–34Google Scholar; and Davis, Tracy C. and Davis, Jim, “The People of the ‘People's Theatre’: The Social Demography of the Britannia Theatre (Hoxton),” Theatre Survey 32 (November 1991): 137–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Comer, George, letter, “Imports on Touring,” Era (February 11, 1893), p. 12Google Scholar.

18 Harvard Theatre Collection, bMS Thr. 267/55.1.

19 Jenkin, Roger, The Wig-making Clarksons: In Search of their Lives and Times (Ilfracombe: Arthur W. Stockwell, 1982), p. 38Google Scholar; and London Post Office Directories.

20 Birmingham Reference Library, Lee Crowder Deposit 409–10; Harvard Theatre Collection, bMS Thr. 267/55.1.

21 Daniel Brice commenced business in Lambeth; T. Brown, Moss Cantor, Samuel Cantor, Samuel May, Lewis Henry Nathan, Isaac J. Nathan, John Simmons, and Simeon Simmons each carried out business at a different address in the West End; and James McLean operated a business in the City.

22 Diaries of Frederick C. Wilton, Mitchell Library, Sydney, New South Wales, MS 1181. See also Davis, Jim, ed., The Britannia Diaries, 1863–1875: Selections from the Diaries of Frederick C. Wilton (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1992)Google Scholar.

23 Data are derived from London Post Office Directories, but this source is not comprehensive. Though never listed in the Directories, Richard Alliston (wig maker in the Strand), for example, had enough fame to attract postal enquiries from theatrical concerns in Birmingham (Birmingham Reference Library, Archives, MS 725/9).

24 Jones, Gareth Stedman, Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship between Classes in Victorian Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

25 From the manuscript censuses.

26 Booth (n. 2 above), pp. 85–86.

27 Booth, Michael R., ed., Victorian Theatrical Trades: Articles from the Stage, 1883–1884 (1883–1884; reprint, London: Society for Theatre Research, 1981), pp. 5–10Google Scholar. This promotion does not accord with the manuscript census of 1881, but the women may have lived beyond the neighborhoods surveyed.

28 Greenwall, Harry J., The Strange Life of Willy Clarkson: An Experiment in Biography (London: John Long, 1936), pp. 24–25Google Scholar. Greenwall probably had access to Clarkson's business records soon after the proprietor's death, but the records have disappeared and the data cannot be confirmed.

29 Booth, ed.,p. 27.

30 Ibid, pp. 15–17.

31 Ibid., p. 19.

32 Ibid., p. 2.

33 Berg, Maxine, ed., Technology and Toil in Nineteenth-Century Britain (London: CSE Books; Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1979)Google Scholar.

34 Diaries of Frederick C. Wilton, Mitchell Library.

35 Eaton, Jack and Gill, Colin, The Trade Union Directory: A Guide to All TUC Unions, 2d ed. (London: Pluto, 1981), p. 309Google Scholar.

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37 Fanny Stirling to Helen Taylor, November 27, 1856, vol. 54 (Harriet Taylor Papers, London School of Economics).

38 Vanbrugh, Violet, Dare to Be Wise (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1925), p. 48Google Scholar. Male actors could, but rarely did, retain personal dressers, partly because their costuming did not require it. The higher their billing, the higher their wages, and the higher the likelihood that they performed in uncomplicated conventional attire with few changes. The few who retained personal dressers were likely to be the managers themselves or music hall artistes who played several houses a night and changed en route in their carriages.

39 A history of the North American union (National Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees [NATSE], later International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees [IATSE]) likewise mentions only male trades in connection with the earliest conventions (1893 onward). Baker, Robert Osborne, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada (Ph.D diss., University of Kansas, 1933), pp. 1–3Google Scholar.

40 Saul, S. B., The Myth of the Great Depression (London: Macmillan, 1969)Google Scholar.

41 Davis, Tracy C., “The Sex Ratio: Social Demography and the Female Surplus Question on the Victorian Stage,” Nordic Theatre Studies 3 (1990): 71–74Google Scholar.

42 When projectionists became eligible to join IATSE in 1908, the rate of new membership each year more than doubled (Baker, p. 7).

43 J. M. Fournier to J. L. Graydon, manager of Middlesex Music Hall, August 18, 1891 (Greater London Record Office, LCC/MIN/10, 855).

44 Marsh, Arthur and Ryan, Victoria, Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Vol. 1 Non-manual Unions (Farnborough, Hampshire: Gower, 1908), pp. 142–43Google Scholar.

45 Based on the total number of theatrical service personnel in the 1911 published censuses of England and Wales and Scotland.

46 Eaton and Gill (n. 35 above), p. 309.

47 Davis, Tracy C., “Theatrical Charity and Self-Help for Women Performers,” Theatre Notebook 41, no. 3 (1987): 114–28Google Scholar.