This day in Theatre History: May the 2nd

On May the 2nd 1838 Robert Reece was born. Reece was born in the West Indies, his Father was a barrister who worked at the Inner Temple. Reece trained for the law courts but ended up never being called to the Bar, instead he took a succession of different jobs that allowed him to pursue his writing. In 1865 his first professionally performed piece debuted at the Royalty Theatre, it was the libretto to the operetta Castle Grim. Following this he had works debut at many theatres including the Globe Theatre, The Gaiety, The Olympic and eventually The Folly Theatre which saw his greatest success with Les cloches de Corneville which ran for 700 performances over 2 years. Despite his success Reece still fell on hard times, he died in 1891 at the age of 53.

Violet Melnotte was born in 1856 in Birmingham. Melnotte made her first professional performance at the Theatre Royal Hull in Pantomime. She made her London debut in 1876 at the Folly Theatre and a few months later joined the D'Oyly Carte company for their 1877 production of Happy Hamstead. It is as a theatrical manager that we remember Melnotte, in 1892 she built the Duke of Yorks Theatre London alongside her husband Frank Wyatt. Melnotte ran the Duke of Yorks up until her death in 1935. The Duke of Yorks theatre changed the West End by shifting many theatres to the St Martins Lane district creating what is now the epicentre of Theatreland UK. Not only content with building a theatre Wyatt and Melnotte built what is currently believed to be the longest continuous Cinema in the UK the Duke of Yorks picture house in Brighton which she ran until 1918.

Violet Melnotte may be gone but it seems that she has left something of herself behind in the Duke of Yorks Theatre, it is said that where she used to sit in the auditorium to watch dress rehearsals and first nights there can be heard sounds during rehearsals even today.

Clyde Fitch was  born in 1865. He would go on to be the first American playwright to get published and was the most popular playwright of his day. Fitch's annual earnings are reported to have been approx $250000 which would translate to around 5 million dollars today. He was incredibly popular and his works were a staple of early cinema produced in Hollywood. In 1915 alone 8 of his plays were adapted for the cinema. What Fitch represents is a move away from the European drama's dominance of the American stage and really the first step in the USA's move to producing popular works by American authors, without Fitch there would have been no Odets, no Miller and no Albee.



In 1944 The Crime of Margaret Foley was presented at the Q Theatre. It was written by Percy Robinson and Terrence de Marney. It starred Arthur Sinclair, Peter Cushing and Ian Fleming. You can read a small review of the production from the Catholic Herald at this link here.

You may note that the programme pictured above is from the production at the Comedy Theatre London, this was presented in 1947. The pictured programme is for sale at star-dot-star.net which specialises in Theatrical items be they books, recordings or ephemera. To see more on this programme and the website please click this link here.