EDWARDES

[Evelyn Laye, English actress and singer, star of stage and screen.] Autograph Signature added at foot of pencil sketch of her by Kenneth Sephton.

Author: 
Evelyn Laye [née Elsie Evelyn Lay] (1900-1996), English actress and singer, star of stage and screen, associated with Noel Coward [Kenneth Sephton]
Laye
Publication details: 
No date or place. [1950s]
£90.00
Laye

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. After a stint as one of George Edwardes’ Gaiety Girls, she made her name in a number of revues, her performance in the lead role of the 1929 Broadway production of ‘Bitter Sweet’ prompting Coward to praise her grace and charm and assurance, which he said provoked one of the most prolonged outbursts of cheering I have ever heard in the theatre. She was less successful in Hollywood, starring in the Romberg/Hammerstein musical ‘One Heavenly Night’ (1931), a failure for Samuel Goldwyn.

[Ruby Miller, actress, one of the ‘Gaiety Girls’.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Popie’ (the theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope), regarding BBC TV, ‘the Gaiety fiasco’ and ‘Gaiety Girls who married out of the peerage & retired into the country’.

Author: 
Ruby Miller [Ruby Laura Rose Miller] (1889-1976), actress, one of George Edwardes' 'Gaiety Girls' [W. J. MacQueen-Pope [‘Popie’] (1888-1960), theatre historian]
Publication details: 
16 July 1957; on her letterhead.
£50.00

See her entry and his in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Ruby’. Begins: ‘Popie, darling, / What are we coming to? / You - as a pierrot with the “Fol-de-Rols”! / BBC/TV must be mad not to let you do a talk on the St. James’s. / But after the Gaiety fiasco I can believe anything of them.

[W. H. Berry (William Henry Berry), English comic actor and BBC broadcaster.] Two long Autograph Letters Signed to theatre historian W. J. Macqueen-Pope, full of reminiscence.

Author: 
W. H. Berry [William Henry Berry] (1870-1951), English comic stage actor associated with George Grossmith and George Edwardes, and BBC broadcaster [W. J. Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian]
Publication details: 
30 December 1947; on letterhead of Poplar Cottage, Beltinge Cliffs, Herne Bay. 6 March 1948; from Poplar Cottage.
£180.00

Berry was hugely popular during the Edwardian period and into the First World War. His greatest success was as ‘Mr Meebles’ in ‘The Boy’ (1917). See the recipient’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters signed ‘W. H. Berry’, and the second with long postscript on separate 12mo leaf signed ‘W. H. B’. In fair condition, aged and worn. ONE: 30 December 1947. 4pp, 4to. ‘This letter will be quite a “rat-tat from the past” (as Geo. Graves used to say), & its many a long year since I last saw you - & much has happened since “those were the days” & carriages were at 11.

[ Charles Hayden Coffin, actor and singer. ] Autgograph Letter Signed ('C. Hayden Coffin') to composer Herman Finck, regarding a forthcoming dinner.

Author: 
Charles Hayden Coffin (1862-1935), English actor and singer, associated with actor, George Edwardes.
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Savage Club, Adelphi, W.C.2. [ London ] 20 November [ no year ].
£35.00

2pp., 16mo. In fair condition, lightly-aged. Headed 'Re. Dec 2': 'I have put my name down & hope nothing prevents my being present - tho' a "young" Savage I trust that you can fix me near you & Sir Edward - | Do what you can - what an evening it will be!!' Finck's song 'In the Shadows' was one of the last to be played as RMS Titanic went down.

Typed Note Signed ('Geo R Sims') to F. Leslie Moreton.

Author: 
George R. Sims [George Robert Sims] (1847-1922), English journalist and writer.
Publication details: 
24 March 1900; on letterhead of 12, Clarence Terrace, Regents Park. N.W. [London].
£45.00

4to: 1 p. Text complete and clear, on aged, spotted and lightly-creased paper. He has exchanged letters with 'Mr Morell' 'with reference to "Faust up to Date" ', but does not believe any contract has yet been arranged. He does not have a copy of 'the Score and Band Parts': 'I should say Mr Geo. Edwardes or Mr Meyer Lutz has these.' Sims co-wrote 'Faust up to Date' with Henry Pettitt. The music was by Lutz. It was produced by Edwardes, and first performed at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 30 October 1888.

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