Finding credible information on early fairground theatre is not easy, so inevitably attention must turn to that well documented event, Bartholomew Fair at London's Smithfield. It is said that in the reign of Charles II (1630-1685) the theatres of London closed during the fair to allow actors either to appear there, or run their own shows.
A good source of information on the theatrical scene at Smithfield during this period can be found in the "Book of Days" (published in 1869 and available online):
"One of the most famous of these great theatrical booths was that owned by Lee and Harper. These dramas are curiously indicative of popular tastes, filled with bombast interspersed with buffoonery, and gorgeous in dress and decoration. Settle's Siege of Troy is a good specimen of these productions, and we are told that it was in no ways inferior to any one opera yet seen in either of the Royal Theatres…
"The regular actors, as we have before observed, were transplanted to the fair during its continuance, and some of them were proprietors and managers of the great theatrical booths. Penkethman, Mills, Booth, and Doggett were of the number. The great novelist, Henry Fielding, commenced his career as part-proprietor of one of these booths, continuing for nine years in company with Hippisley, the favourite comedian, and others. It was at his booth, in 1733, that the famous actress, Mrs. Pritchard, made her great success, in an adaptation by Fielding, of Moliere's Cheats of Scapin…"
"…………The theatrical booths were still important features in the fair, and in 1715, we hear of 'one great Playhouse erected for the King's Players - the booth is the largest that ever was built.' In 1728, Lee and Harper produced a ballad-opera on the adventures of Jack Sheppard, and in 1730, another devoted to the popular hero - Robin Hood. During the run of the Beggar's Opera, it was reproduced by Rayner and Pullen's company at the fair."
By the 18th century the theatre was big business. In London many existing venues were expanded (or re-built altogether) while new theatres were constructed in towns all over the country.
As the industrial revolution created a "new" class of working people yet more theatres opened to satisfy demand and the 19th century became the age of "popular" entertainment. A good thespian could always find work at the big city theatres and for those less fortunate there were always the touring companies, some of whom used their own "portable" showbooth. Inevitably these "portables" found their way to Wakes and Feasts, Fetes and Fairs, with some of the fairground regulars becoming well known and successful.
One of the best documented shows of this period is that of John Richardson. It is said that Richardson's Theatre Booth could stage more than a dozen melodramas in a day, although Charles Dickens was more precise when he observed of Richardson's Booth "you have a melodrama (with three murders and a ghost), a pantomime, a comic song, an overture, and some incidental music, all done in five-and-twenty minutes."
For many years Richardson commanded the prime sites of English fairgrounds and provided the starting point for many a promising career, including, it is said, the great Edmund Kean.
Menageries
As popular as "the drama" was it was travelling menagerie that was the King of Shows in the 18th and 19th centuries. As overseas trade increased animals that had never been seen in Europe began arriving and their importation became a very lucrative business for those that indulged.
Commerce aside, these new arrivals created huge interest and fostered a public obsession with all things zoological and dangerous. As ever, showfolk were not slow to realise the potential behind public excitement and travelling menageries (plus numerous smaller animal-based exhibitions) were soon carting "exotic" animals around the country.
When a menagerie turned up at a fair it guaranteed the success of the event because of the excitement it caused, something that had an obvious knock-on effect for the shows that surrounded it. Everyone was a winner, except, of course, the animals.
Travelling menageries were seen as respectable due to the educational value attached to their exhibits. Before the age of the zoo a menagerie coming to town presented the only opportunity most people had of seeing animals up close.
Educational they may have been in one sense, but showfolk were also keen to add an element of jeopardy among their patrons by putting emphasis on the danger involved with keeping wild beasts.
Animal acts began to evolve, particularly involving the "taming" of lions and this combination of the exotic and dangerous proved irresistible to a wide-eyed public. Invariably menagerie shows offered "Lion Kings" and "Lion Queens" who risked themselves daily by entering the cages in the name of public entertainment.
The Circus
Circus on the fairground is often overlooked when discussion of fairground shows is in the air, but the fact can't be ignored that the Circus was big business during the 19th century. Circus proprietors paid just as much attention to the cycle of Wakes, Feasts and Well Dressings as their fairground cousins and competition between them could be fierce.
What follows is an abridged advertisement place by Circus proprietor Charles Adams in Wheelers Manchester Chronicle on April 10th 1824 (1/2). It provides a glimpse of the components of a 19th century Circus show appearing at the once famous Knott Mill fair, Manchester:
"EASTER FAIR, KNOT MILL - ADAMS'S OLYMPIC CIRCUS, CAMP FIELD will OPEN on EASTER MONDAY, the 19th of April, 1824 - MR ADAMS respectfully informs the Gentry, his Patrons, and the public at large, that during the year he has been making preparations on a very extensive scale, and having selected his company from the principal Circuses, and from the Royal Coburgh, Astley's, and Surrey Theatres, London, he intends opening the above place of entertainment for the ensuing fair, when he will have the honour of introducing his matchless STUD of HORSES, which excited the great admiration and the most unbounded applause at the London Theatres, and at the minor theatre in Manchester, during the last season, in the various melodramas of "JOAN OF ARC", "TIMOUR THE TARTAR", "THE SECRET MINE", etc, etc - Mr. A is enabled confidently to challenge, not only any company in England, but in all Europe, to equal the three following female performers, viz the wonderful prodigy, the INFANT SAQUI, the inimitable MISS YOUNG, and that astonishing equestrian heroine, MISS KING.
"Part of the following will take place each performance - HORSEMANSHIP in its various branches by the first juvenile performer MASTER C. ADAMS, and the celebrated MR AVERY, of Astley's Theatre, London - the SLACK WIRE in FULL SWING, by the astonishing MISS YOUNG, from the Adelphi Theatre, London - A GRAND EQUESTRIAN ENTRÉE of the WHOLE STUD - the SPORTS of the RING will be contested by a number of excellent performers, viz. YOUNG ADAMS, MASTER C. ADAMS, SMITH, CARNAGY, AVERY, PARSLOE, WELLS, CARTER, HICKEN, MONSIEUR COLUMBIA, etc, etc - the astonishing abilities of that wonderful prodigy, the INFANT SAQUI, who will go through her matchless performances on the TIGHT ROPE - DOUBLE HORSEMANSHIP by the well-known YOUNG ADAMS and MISS KING……."
As can be seen, the Circus at this point in time was an equestrian spectacle supplemented by activity like clowning, tight-rope walking and acrobatics, etc. It was also equally "at home" in the theatre as it was outdoors.
Boxing
Displays of pugilism were common on the fairground in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some bouts would have been classed as "exhibitions", others were between boxers seeking to please a crowd sufficiently for coins to be thrown into the ring. Bookies invariably made a killing on this type of fight.
The fight game wasn't exactly organised in those days and often the big name fighters and champions supplemented their income with regular jobs, or by exhibiting their skills as part of a travelling show. In the 1860s, for example, the champion Jem Mace was a champion boxer, a publican, a gym owner and appears to have employed various trainers, sparring partners and "hangers on".
What follows is an advertisement he placed in Bell's Life in London on September 15th 1861 (6/5) and provides some insight into how Mace kept busy between championship bouts. At this point in time he was engaged to a Circus and at some of the venues mentioned a fair would undoubtedly have been taking place:
"Jem Mace (Champion of England) begs to thank his friends and the public generally for the immense patronage bestowed on him, at his residence, and also on his tour through Yorkshire and Lancashire.
"The liquors sold at his hostelrie are of the finest brands on the market. All sporting papers taken in. The Champion's sparing saloon should be visited by those who admire the noble art. It opens every Saturday and Monday evening, under the able management of Jack Brooks.
"Mace begs to announce to his country friends that he, in conjunction with M. Pablo Fanque's Great Royal Alhambra Circus, will visit Hyde, Lancashire, this day (Saturday); Glossop, Monday; thence through Chesterfield to Sheffield, on Friday and Saturday, when, in addition to the daring and wonderful feats performed by the celebrated artistes of M. Pablo Fanque, Mace will set-to with his black from America, and show his Champion of England's belt, the Middleweight belt, with his magnificent Cups, Sheffield trophies, etc, acknowledged by all to be the most handsome and valuable a pugilist has ever received.
"The Champion will be at home every Saturday night and Sunday to welcome all friends at his far-famed hostelrie, The Old King John, Holywell-Lane, Shoreditch."
Unknown to Mace things were about to change and with the introduction of the Marquis of Queensberry rules in 1867, the sport of boxing entered a new era. The bad, brawling, bareknuckle days of old-time pugilism disappeared and it is said that the enthusiasm Mace exhibited for gloved fighting went a long way to make the new rules popular.
It was this rule change which also changed the nature of the fairground boxing show. The fact that the fighters now had to wear gloves wasn't the point - because what really happened was the sport became legitimate.
This led to fighters being hired to travel with a show and men from the paying crowd would be challenged to step into the ring and try their luck against them. Boxing shows of this type were to remain on the fairground for over 100 years, the last of which stopped travelling in 2001.
Shows of the 19th Century
History shows us that performance activity based around Theatre, the Circus and Boxing evolved independently of the fairground and could be sustained without it. The Circus in particular is a comparatively recent phenomenon.
Shows that have their roots in fairground and would stray no further from it have followed a different path. These evolved slowly over the centuries and back through the mists of time they were either held in the open air, or in crude canvas booths.
Over time they would become bigger, more solidly structured and more elaborate, with platforms appearing infront of them upon which performers offered sneak previews of the delights within. The exact nature of this progress is difficult to measure and it is only recent history that can be followed with any certainty.
Improving road conditions during the 19th century made getting around with heavy loads much easier. As a consequence showfolk were able to provide bigger, more elaborate shows for the public they served.
Wagons started to be designed with the shows in mind, with the showfront itself being built into the side of the largest vehicles, while smaller ones were finished with elaborate artwork, carving and gilding. The remainder of the show was built around these elements and, in time, gaps for large fairground organs and "light engines" found their way onto the designer's blueprints.
As the century progressed travelling Waxworks, Ghost (illusion) Shows, Art Galleries, Marionette Shows, Peep Shows and Photographic Booths roamed the highways of Britain, all groaning under
the weight of the elaborate embellishment of plush Victorian opulence.
Waxworks
There was a time where Waxwork shows could be found at every Feast and Fair in Britain, although for our purposes it was in France where the waxwork story really began. The mother of Marie Grosholtz worked as a housekeeper for the physician, Dr. Philippe Curtius, who was skilled in creating the wax models he used to illustrate anatomy. Curtius eventually started to "do portraits" and moved to Paris where he began to create models of contemporary "celebrities" for display, with Marie as his assistant.
When Curtius died in 1794, he left his collection of waxworks to Marie. In 1795, she married François Tussaud. In 1802 Madame Tussaud went to London with her waxwork collection but was unable to return to France because of the Franco-English war. As a result she travelled throughout Britain and Ireland exhibiting wherever she went. No prizes then for guessing where the inspiration for the fairground waxwork show came from.
The set pieces of the Waxwork show were like three-dimensional versions of the older peep show that offered historical tableaux via optical lenses and changing, candlelit, painted backcloths.
The arranging and dressing of the waxwork figures was an art in itself. Each show carried an extensive wardrobe and delighted audiences everywhere with life-sized mechanical figures in superb costumes.
The displays offered by the travelling Waxworks were invariably melodramatic and often aided by mechanical effects. Historical scenes like the Death of Nelson were popular items, as were the inevitable chamber of horrors featuring the severed heads of notorious criminals - while religion and the Royal family were also fairground winners! A "lecturer" was always on hand to describe each tableau in great detail.
Ghost Shows
Of all the shows that performed on the fairground it was the Ghost Show of the late 19th century that had the greatest "wow" factor.
Based on a "phenomenon" called "Pepper's Ghost" (that used a sheet of glass set at an angle to show reflections of things hidden from an audience) the Ghost Show appeared nothing less than sensational to a public susceptible to trickery and illusion. Stage curtains could be arranged such that the glass was invisible and ghoulish figures could be made to appear amongst real actors.
Ghost Shows were able to produce all manner of spine chilling apparitions and the finale often used the illusion to its utmost by projecting ghosts into midnight graveyards.
Henry Pepper first presented his illusion in December 1862 and it did so well over that Christmas period that he was to spend the next decade developing the idea and touring it around theatres and halls.
As ever, showfolk were quick to catch on and illusion shows based on the Pepper idea began to appear. Exponent extraordinaire of the fairground Ghost Show was the great Randal Williams, a magician-turned-showman who apparently got bored with conjuring and decided to jump onto Pepper's Bandwagon in the early 1870s and hung on for the next 20 years with creations like the "Grand Phantascopical Exhibition" and the "Great Hobgoblinscope".
What follows is an abridged version of an article appearing in the Hebden Bridge Times & Calder Vale Gazette in 1886:
"Williams' Phantoscope, or Ghost Show.. offered to the public the best entertainment ever known for 1d.... An entertainment which was at once refined, comical and instructive, the first part being highly educational, while the latter part caused the most serious of persons to roar with laughter.... The performance began with the play of 'Faust and Marguerite' in three acts, also introducing little Jim, the Collier's lad, and ending with a grand transformation scene of living waxworks.... After the three acts, the part of Jim, the Collier's lad was composed of a scene showing the supposed grave in the churchyard, with the angels hovering above, and the cottage adjoining. After this came the comical ghost part and then the grand transformation scene followed, closing the performance, the whole of which had taken about 10 minutes."
By 1890 Williams was travelling a more elaborate version of the Ghost Show, as can be seen from the following piece from The Critic of October 11th 1890, describing his appearance at Hull Fair:
"Next to Barnum, the most successful showman will be on the job in the shape of our jolly old friend, Randall Williams. He has a magnificent ghost exhibition this year, and at each performance can seat no less than a thousand persons. His show front is dazzingly beautiful, and looks as though the mint had been exhausted to supply the gold with which it is decorated.
Inside, he has all new scenery and effects, and he has brought his own traction engine for the purpose of lighting up by electricity. His performers are actors and actresses from London and provincial theatres, and we can safely promise all those who patronise the great Randall of the Williams' ilk, a startling treat."
The "dazzingly beautiful" showfront of Randall Williams is significant because at this time the styling was every bit as important as the show itself.
Extravagance and grandeur
As Britain passed from the Victorian era into the Edwardian fairground was wrapping itself in a cloak of extravagance and decorative grandeur that had never been seen before. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the lives and expectations of the whole country. The so-called working classes had certainly borne the brunt of these changes and the hardships that went with them, but as the 19th century ended things were looking up a little.
Conditions were such that a middle-class was emerging that was able to enjoy time off from the workplace and had a bit of spare cash in their pockets - and it was for this spare cash that competition was fierce.
This was the era when a whole industry based on leisure began to develop. It was boom time for coastal resorts that were fed a constant torrent of visitors by the new and expanding rail network. All this was helped by the factory system with many workplaces closed for a couple of weeks each summer, thus allowing the workforce to escape.
Despite all of this poverty was still a big issue, although the fair could be relied upon for a cheap day out. That said, the public still wanted more for what little money they had, and with the plush interiors of the Music Hall and Theatre to contend with showfolk had to adapt if they were to survive.
Consequently the flag-like banners adorning the travelling shows began to be replaced by huge facades that were groaning under the weight of exotic carving and extravagant artwork.
The Cinematograph
The last word in extravagance (and, indeed, the last word for the big fairground show) was uttered by the show that was to "inherit" the fairground from the Ghost Show and blow all the other shows away in the process, the travelling Cinematograph.
Research into the idea of "moving pictures" began in Europe and America in the 1880s. The race to develop a credible projector was won by the Lumiere brothers, who first demonstrated their Cinematographe in Paris, on March 22nd 1895. The following year it was brought to London and demonstrated at the same time as a rival device, the Theatrograph (or Animatograph as it was to become) of Robert Paul.
Who finished first in this race was not important to most people. All that mattered was the fact that a great technological Genie had been released from its bottle and soon Cinematograph equipment was being widely advertised. Cinematography was to prove a revolutionary idea for fairground shows and again focused attention on Randall Williams
When the World's Fair opened in the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington (London), on Christmas Eve 1896 the Ghost Show of Randall Williams was giving exhibitions of Lumiere's device, as can be seen from this extract from The Era on December 26th, 1896:
"Randall Williams ghost show is again located here, but they have this year abandoned the spectral business and are giving an exhibition of animated pictures, an alteration that appears to meet with approval".
The reporter here misses the point because the public saw the Cinematographe as a true wonder of the age. People didn't care that the films were rubbish, or that the Cinematographe itself sounded like a factory machine, this was true magic!
During the following travelling season Williams took the Cinematographe all over the country showing (among other things) Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession.
Audiences all over Britain couldn't get enough of these Living Picture Shows and it wasn't long before the travelling Cinematograph (or Bioscope Show) became a serious fairground attraction. By the late 1890s the proprietors of Ghost Shows, Marionette Shows and Waxworks had either made the change to cinematography, or were including it alongside their existing attractions. Films were even shown at the Circus!
For about 10 years "cinema" ruled the fairground and as time went on the quality of the show, the equipment and the variety of films improved dramatically. But novelty has a shelf life and the problem was that showfolk couldn't hold public attention for long. Besides, they didn't have a monopoly and films were being shown in Theatres and Music Halls, etc.
Worse was to come. The "permanent" picture hall was becoming a feature of public life in America and it wasn't long before this happened in Britain. By 1910 the fairground Cinema boom was effectively over and by 1912 the trade press was full of advertisements placed by showmen looking to offload uneconomic equipment.
By the time Europe had got back on its feet after the first World War fairground Cinema was gone forever and although fairground shows continued in one form or another for decades to come, the golden age had ended. The future belonged to the rides.
The long goodbye
So, what happened next? Although diminished in appeal and shorn of its Victorian and Edwardian splendour, "live" entertainment continued on the fairground into the 1970s and beyond.
The coming decades were characterised by the bizarre (how about Tommy Morgan the world champion weight guesser, for example), the salacious and the strange, although to the end the Fairground show didn't stray far from its origins. Things like boxing continued unabashed, the Circus became shrink-wrapped into shows presented by Paulos, Chipperfields etc, the latter reputed to have a show that sat 500. Shrinkage occurred with menagerie-type shows as well, although Bostock & Wombwell were on the road until 1931. Miniature zoos were popular, or animal shows became "specialised" as Monkey Shows, Mouse Shows and even the Flea Circus. Animal exhibitions were also common featuring the likes of Nero the largest dog in the world, Dolly and Bobby the tiny racehorse twins, Billy the Giant Pig, or Flossie the smallest cow.
A variation on a theme was offered by "freak" animals preserved in formaldehyde (this followed a long tradition), or by examples of taxidermy. In these cases it was things like the Six-Legged Sheep, the Albino Blackbirds, the Hairless Calf, or the Giant Rat from Spain that ruled the roost.
Other die-hards included Marionette shows, one of which continued into the 1930s and old fairground favourites like fire eaters, contortionists, strongmen popped up every now and then.
For a long while rude stuff was quite common too. There were Posing Shows and "Living Art Studies". There were Cabaret Girls and the Talk of the Town Strip Show. There were scantily clad Jungle Girls and Mermaid Shows. There was even a show that combined Striptease and Knife Throwing!
Human curiosities were never far away either. Dwarfs and Midgets abounded, the latter sometimes travelling in troupes and trained as conjurors or acrobats. Then there were the Armless Wonders that played darts and the piano and shaved with their toes. Never far away was the Fat Girl Show, or people like Queenie, the girl with a thousand eyes. Then there were Living Pixies, Siamese twins and the "smallest normal man alive."
An unusual variation on the theme was the Kie Show, something unimaginable in the 21st Century. Kie Shows "offered a British view of native African behaviour" and presented displays of Colonial battles fought in Africa, Zulu confrontations, "savages" brandishing spears and talking in strange tongues and natives walking on broken glass or hot coals.
The Wild West Show is also worthy of note, something inspired by the European visits of Buffalo Bill. A bit like Elvis many years later Buffalo Bill spawned a number of British impersonators who carried on the "tradition" of the Wild West long after its popularity waned in America.
"Texas" Bill Shufflebottom was one such showman and from the 1880s until the 1960s the Wild West Shows performed by the Shufflebottom family were popular fairground attractions.
Also added to the mix were more "modern" offerings like the Wall of Death and the Globe of Death. The Wall is a motorcycle show that has its roots in America and is probably the fairground equivalent of board racing, or the Motor Drome - a very steeply banked motorcycle race track comprised of wooden boards. The Globe of Death is a spherical metallic cage inside which motorcycles circulate.
So, is the fairground show dead? The answer would appear to be "yes, but…" One thing that also carried on after the first World War was the Illusion show, although "the girl in the Goldfish Bowl" of the 20th century was perhaps no match for the 19th century Ghost Show of Randall Williams.
What perhaps was however, was the emergence of something called the Dr. Fryte Freak Show in 2003. Based on a Victorian illusion this thoroughly modern show proved a hit at big events like Nottingham Goose fair and Hull fair. Dr. Fryte was still doing business in 2006, thus carrying the fairground show into yet another century. Quite how long the tradition will last is open to debate, but the fact that it has lasted this long is testament to the tenacity of showfolk everywhere.
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