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Art or Indecency? Tableaux Vivants on the London Stage and the Failure of Late Victorian Moral Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

Brenda Assael
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 744 - 758
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Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2006

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References

1 See Pennybacker, Susan, “‘It was not what she said but the way in which she said it’: The London County Council and the Music Halls,” in Music Hall: The Business of Pleasure, ed. Bailey, Peter (Milton Keynes, 1986)Google Scholar; Waters, Chris, British Socialists and the Politics of Popular Culture, 1884–1914 (Stanford, CA, 1990), 150Google Scholar; Bailey, Peter, Leisure and Class in Victorian England (London, 1987)Google Scholar; Faulk, Barry J., Music Hall and Modernity (Athens, OH, 2004), chap. 5Google Scholar, which provides a good description of morality opinion regarding tableaux.

2 Weeks, Jeffrey, Sex, Politics, and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800 (London, 1989), 86–93Google Scholar; Walkowitz, Judith, City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late Victorian London (Chicago, 1992), 81–120CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Pennybacker, “It was not what she said,” 136.

4 See Showalter, Elaine, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle (London, 1991)Google Scholar.

5 Among the numerous works in this field, see Ledger, Sally, The New Woman: Fiction and Feminism at the Fin de Siècle (Manchester, 1987)Google Scholar.

6 See, e.g., Rappaport, Erika D., Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London's West End (Princeton, NJ, 2000)Google Scholar; Walkowitz, Judith R., “Going Public: Shopping, Street Harassment, and Streetwalking in Late Victorian London,” Representations 62 (Spring 1988): 1–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight.

8 Mort, Frank, Dangerous Sexualities: Medico-Moral Politics in England since 1830 (London, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also McCrone, Kathleen E., Sport and the Physical Emancipation of English Women, 1870–1914 (London, 1988)Google Scholar.

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10 Callaway, Anita, Visual Ephemera: Theatrical Art in Nineteenth-Century Australia (Sydney, 2000), 67Google Scholar; Tours, Hugh, The Life and Letters of Emma Hamilton (London, 1963), 90Google Scholar.

11 Tours, Life and Letters, 156–57, 13–16.

12 Holmstrom, Kirsten Gram, Monodrama, Attitudes, Tableaux Vivants: Studies on Some Trends of Theatrical Fashion, 1770–1815 (Stockholm, 1967), 115, 126Google Scholar.

13 Altick, Richard, The Shows of London (Cambridge, MA, 1978), 343Google Scholar.

14 Ibid. On visual culture and national memory, see, e.g., Bratton, J. S., “British Heroism and the Structure of Melodrama,” in Acts of Supremacy: The British Empire and the Stage, 1790–1930, ed. Bratton, et al. (Manchester, 1991), 22–23Google Scholar.

15 Planché, J. R., The Court Beauties (1835), Dicks' Standard Plays no. 898 (London, 1887), 12Google Scholar; for other earlier examples, see Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, “The Other Side of Venus: The Visual Economy of Display,” in The Sex of Things, ed. Grazia, Victoria de with Furlough, Ellen (Berkeley, CA, 1996), esp. reference to lithographs, 117Google Scholar.

16 Poster, 14 March 1835, “Olympic Theatre”; see also posters from the following dates in 1835: 16 March, 17 March, 19 March, 21 March, 23 March, 24 March, 28 March, 30 March, 31 March, 2 April, 4 April, 6 April, 7 April, 9 April, 11 April, 28 October, 9 November, 5 December (Theatre Museum, Covent Garden).

17 Assael, Brenda, The Circus and Victorian Society (Charlottesville, VA, 2005), 4–5, chap. 2Google Scholar; Altick, The Shows, 342–45.

18 Patent no. 24,064 (1893), Rees, Terrance and Wilmore, David, eds., British Theatrical Patents, 1801–1900 (London, 1996), 105Google Scholar.

19 Bill, Palace of Varieties, 26 February 1894, Theatre Museum, Covent Garden.

20 Patent no. 19,841 (1895), Rees and Wilmore, eds., British Theatrical Patents, 122.

21 Goodrich, G. J., Tableaux Vivants and Living Waxworks with Directions for Stage Management (London, 1895), 42Google Scholar.

22 “The Tivoli Tableaux,” Daily Graphic, 2 August 1894, 10.

23 “Living Pictures: The Licensing Committee of the London County Council,” Woman's Signal, 18 October 1894, 244. Testimony given by Mr. Charles Morton (manager of the Palace Theatre before the LCC's licensing committee).

24 Parliamentary Papers (PP), Select Committee on Theatres and Places of Entertainment, 1892, vol. 18:461 (app. 15), 571.

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27 Sigel, Governing Pleasures, 120–21, 133.

28 Bailey, Peter, “Champagne Charlie: Performance and Ideology in the Music-Hall Swell Song,” in Music Hall: Performance and Style, ed. Bratton, J. S. (Milton Keynes, 1986)Google Scholar; in testimony given before the LCC licensing sessions, manager Charles Morton pointed to the socially diverse audiences at his hall, the Palace Theatre. See “Living Pictures: The Licensing Committee of the London County Council,” Woman's Signal, 18 October 1894, 244.

29 Edward Stewart Humphries, “Childhood: An Autobiography of a Boy, 1889–1906,” Brunel University Library, Working Class Autobiography collection, Tss. 361, n.d., 49.

30 Smith, Alison, The Victorian Nude: Sexuality, Morality and Art (Manchester, 1996), 25, 62Google Scholar.

31 Connor, T. W., “That's as Far as I Want to Go!” sung by Dan Crawley (London, 1911)Google Scholar.

32 Thornton, James, “Living Pictures” (London, 1894)Google Scholar.

33 “Walter,” My Secret Life (New York, 1966), 3:549–50Google Scholar; on “”Walter” and the “libidinous excesses” of the Victorians, see Mason, Michael, The Making of Victorian Sexuality (Oxford, 1994), esp. 46–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Marcus, The Other Victorians; on Madame Wharton, see Altick, The Shows, 230, 346–47.

34 “Walter,” My Secret, 4:655.

35 See, e.g., “The Living Pictures,” Woman's Signal, 2 August 1894, 1.

36 Annie Holdsworth, “Footlights: The Story of a Living Picture,” Woman's Signal, 20 December 1894, 391–92.

37 “Living Pictures,” New Review 11 (November 1894): 463–64Google Scholar.

38 See, e.g., “Press Comments on the Appeal to the Women of England,” Woman's Signal, 16 August 1894, 109.

39 Assael, The Circus and Victorian Society, 122; “The Living Pictures,” Woman's Signal, 2 August 1894, 1.

40 See, e.g., PP, Select Committee on Theatres and Places of Entertainment, 1892, vol. 18. Long before the creation of the LCC, a loophole in the Lord Chamberlain's censorship authority was made clear in the PP, Select Committee on the Regulation of Public Houses, Beer Shops, &c., 1854, vol. 14. The report pointed to the exclusion of poses plastiques from “stage plays” over which the Lord Chamberlain had jurisdiction (24–25).

41 Pennybacker, “It was not what she said,” 122; and Bland, Lucy, “‘Purifying’ the Public World: Feminist Vigilantes in Late Victorian England,” Women's History Review 1, no. 3 (1992): 397–412CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 LCC Theatres Committee Papers, inspection report, 7 July 1894, LCC/min/10,303, London Metropolitan Archives.

43 LCC Theatres Committee Papers, inspection report, 28 September 1894, LCC/min/10,303, London Metropolitan Archives.

44 Ibid.

45 “Living Pictures,” Daily Graphic, 8 February 1894, 5.

46 Quoted from Pennybacker, “It was not what she said,” 130. Inspector's report, LCC, 1893, although the date in her notes has been misquoted.

47 Smith, Alison, “‘The British Matron’ and the Body Beautiful: The Nude Debate of 1885,” in After the Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Aestheticism in Victorian England, ed. Prettejohn, Elizabeth (Manchester, 1999), 217–19Google Scholar.

48 Altick, chap. 21; Jenkyns, Richard, The Victorians and Ancient Greece (Oxford, 1980), chap. 1Google Scholar.

49 Quoted from Bristow, Edward J., Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain since 1700 (London, 1977), 212Google Scholar. Inspector's report, LCC, 24 November 1893, Q. Holyoake.

50 See Showalter, Sexual Anarchy, chap. 8; see also Walkowitz, Judith, “The ‘Vision of Salome’: Cosmopolitanism and Erotic Dancing in Central London, 1908–1918,” American Historical Review 108, no. 2 (April 2003): 337–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Barthes, Roland, “Striptease,” in Mythologies, trans. Lavers, Annette (London, 1972), 84–87Google Scholar.

51 “Living Pictures: The Licensing Committee of the London County Council,” Woman's Signal, 18 October 1894, 244–45. Testminony given by Mrs. Ormiston Chant before the LCC licensing session. See similar statement in “The LCC and the Empire License,” Woman's Signal, 1 November 1894, 289; see also Bland, “Purifying,” 405; Bristow, Vice, 209–10.

52 Quoted in transcript, 10 October 1894, LCC Theatres Committee Papers, the Theatre of Varieties, 1889–1904, LCC/min/10,303, London Metropolitan Archives; see also “The Empire Theatre: An Interview with Mrs. Ormiston Chant,” Woman's Signal, 1 November 1894, 274.

53 For a general discussion of the female gaze, see Kaplan, E. Anne, “Is the Gaze Male?” in Power of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Snitow, Anne, Stansell, Christine, and Thompson, Sharon (New York, 1983)Google Scholar; Wolff, Janet, “The Invisible Flaneuse: Women and the Literature of Modernity,” in The Problems of Modernity: Adorno and Benjamin, ed. Benjamin, Andrew (London, 1989)Google Scholar; and, more recently, Gardner, Viv, “The Invisible Spectatrice: Gender, Geography and Theatrical Space,” in Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies, ed. Gale, Maggie B. and Gardner, Viv (Manchester, 2000)Google Scholar.

54 Of course, she does not describe herself in these terms; see Mrs.Chant, Ormiston, Why We Attacked the Empire (London, 1895)Google Scholar; see also Jeffreys, Sheila, The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality, 1880–1930 (London, 1985), 15–16Google Scholar; Trudgill, Eric, Madonnas and Magdalens: The Origins and Development of Victorian Sexual Attitudes (London, 1976), 14Google Scholar.

55 LCC Theatres Committee Papers, transcript, 10 October 1894, the Theatre of Varieties, 1889–1904, LCC/min/10,303, London Metropolitan Archives.

56 Ibid.

57 “County Council and Licensing,” Era, 13 October 1894, 16.

58 Bland, “Purifying,” 406.

59 “County Council and Licensing,” Era, 13 October 1894, 16.

60 “Living Pictures,” Woman's Signal, 9 August 1894, 86.

61 “Ecclesiastical Intelligence,” The Times, 8 June 1907, 7, col. C.

62 “Living Statuary,” Vigilance Record, July 1907, 49–50.

63 See the following from the Vigilance Record: “British National Committee,” April 1907, 27; “Living Statuary as Entertainment,” April 1907, 31; “Living Statuary,” May 1907, 36–37; “Living Statuary,” May 1907, 38–39; “Meeting in Hull,” July 1907, 53; “Meeting in York,” July 1907, 54; and “Meeting at Blaenavon,” July 1907, 56.

64 “Living Statuary,” Vigilance Record, July 1907, 50.

65 For various aspects of the national efficiency question, see Searle, G. R., The Quest for National Efficiency, 1899–1914 (Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar; Friedberg, Aaron L., The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905 (Princeton, NJ, 1988)Google Scholar; and Green, E. H. H., The Crisis of Conservatism: The Politics, Economics and Ideology of the British Conservative Party, 1880–1914 (London, 1995)Google Scholar.

66 “The LCC and Amusements,” Era, 29 June 1907, 16; “Living Statuary,” Vigilance Record, July 1907, 49–50.

67 “The LCC and Amusements,” Era, 29 June 1907, 16; Jeffreys, The Spinster, 25–26; see Hall, Leslie A., Hidden Anxieties: Male Sexuality, 1900–1950 (London, 1991) 3, 70–71Google Scholar, for discussions about masturbation.

68 LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, 5 June 1907, 77, LCC/min/10,728, London Metropolitan Archives; “The LCC and Amusements,” Era, 29 June 1907, 16; by contrast, organizations like the Boys’ Brigade attracted boys away from such pursuits; see Springhall, John, ed., Sure and Steadfast: A History of the Boys’ Brigade, 1883–1993 (London, 1983), 26–27Google Scholar; see also Hall, Hidden Anxieties, 29–32.

69 “Living Statuary,” Vigilance Record, May 1907, 38; “Living Statuary,” Vigilance Record, July 1907, 50.

70 London Council for the Promotion of Public Morality, report, 1907, 4, A/PMC/97, London Metropolitan Archives.

71 On the connection between beliefs and behavior, see Mason, Michael, The Making of Victorian Sexuality (Oxford, 1994), 40–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 For instance, the Newcastle Town Council refused to get involved; see, from the Vigilance Record: “Living Statuary in Newcastle,” August 1907, 63; “Protest against the Living Statuary in Newcastle,” September 1907, 70; “Living Statuary Exhibition at Newcastle,” November 1907, 87.

73 LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, 19 June 1907, 307, LCC/min/10,728, London Metropolitan Archives.

74 “The LCC and Amusements,” Era, 29 June 1907, 16.

75 “London County Council,” Times, 26 June 1907, 12, col. F.

76 “Living Statuary,” Vigilance Record, July 1907, 50; London Council for the Promotion of Public Morality, report, 1907, 5, A/PMC/97, London Metropolitan Archives.

77 On Headlam's ideas about LCC cultural policy, see Waters, British Socialists, 149–52.

78 See LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, 3 July 1907, 336, LCC/min/10,728, London Metropolitan Archives, for various letters sent to them, including from Messr. Walter Gibbons of the Holborn Empire (26 June 1907); Mr. G. Flenister of the London Pavilion (27 June 1907); Mr. A. Selyn, who performed at Collins’ Music Hall (27 June 1907); Mr. O. Stall of the London Hippodrome (27 June 1907); Mr. T. G. Richards of the Royal Cambridge Music Hall (1 July 1907); Mr. J. Tozer of South London and Euston Music Hall (26 June 1907).

79 For example, letter from A. Selwyn, 27 June 1907, LCC/min/10,728, London Metropolitan Archives.

80 “The LCC and Amusements,” Era, 27 July 1907, 17.

81 LCC Theatres Committee Papers, inspection report no. 1672, 26 May 1909, the Theatre of Varieties, LCC/min/10,872, London Metropolitan Archives; LCC Theatres and Music Halls Committee, 26 March 1909, the Palace Theatre of Varieties, LCC/min/10,730, London Metropolitan Archives.

82 See the following from Music Hall and Theatre Review: “Music Hall Morality,” 25 January 1912, 57; “The County Council as Censor,” 8 February 1912, 89; “Music Hall and Morals,” 15 February 1912, 105. On power disputes between the LC and LCC, see “The Censorship,” 30 September 1909, 635; see also Johnston, John, The Lord Chamberlain's Blue Pencil (London, 1990), 127Google Scholar.

83 On Maud Allan, see Walkowitz, “The ‘Vision of Salome’”; letter from Meredith Frodd, editor of London Chat, to the LCC, 4 April 1908, LCC/min/10,872, London Metropolitan Archives.

84 On cinema, see Kuhn, Annette, Cinema, Censorship and Sexuality, 1909–1925 (London, 1988)Google Scholar; on “khaki fever,” see Woollacott, Angela, “‘Khaki Fever’ and Its Control: Gender, Class, Age, and Sexual Morality on the British Homefront in the First World War,” Journal of Contemporary History 29 (April 1994): 325–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on the lesbian novel of the 1920s, see Doan, Laura, Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of a Modern English Lesbian Culture (New York, 2001)Google Scholar.

85 Van Damme, Shiela, We Never Closed: The Windmill Story (London, 1967), chaps. 5, 8Google Scholar.

86 On the complex relationship between individualism and collectivism in this period, see Harris, Jose, Private Lives, Public Spirit: Britain, 1870–1914 (London, 1993), 11–13Google Scholar; Freeden, Michael, The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform (Oxford, 1978)Google Scholar; Mayhall, Laura E. Nym, The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860–1930 (New York, 2003), 40–82Google Scholar.