Music hall artistes

[SASSY21]

Hello
I'm hoping to hear anybodys thoughts, as to how to start finding information on my grandmother/grandfather.
They were part of a troop that toured village halls, town halls etc, in the 1920-40s.
My grandmother was Margaret Collins nee McLuskey, b 1888, glasgow, her husband Vincent collins died, also a music hall artiste, but she continued to tour with Herbert Poole, my grandfather, on which I have no other information, except that he lived in Glasgow, and had connection with Newcastle-upon tyne.
I have left a message in the scottish music hall society hall site, but to no avail.
Love to hear peoples thoughts
many thanks

[Chicago-Jones]

I will answer two similar queries that SASSY21 posted in reference to her grandmother or grandfather in March 2009.
"Music hall artistes"
(where the following names were mentioned: Margaret Collins nee McLuskey, Vincent Collins, Herbert Poole)
"Herbert Poole music hall artiste"
(where the following names were mentioned: Herbert Poole, [grandmother’s] stage name was Lena Russel)

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While I am no expert of British theatre, variety or music hall, I have done some US research for theatre, silent film, and vaudeville performers.  So I can suggest a few places where you can look.

First, I would suggest joining several theatrical mailing lists or message boards.  For example, here are two I am currently on or have been in the past months.

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Occupations/THEATRE-UK.html

A Browse shows the activity on this mailing list dropped from 200+ entries per month in 2001 to less than 20 in 2010, suggesting there might not be many list members subscribed.  But “Mel” seems knowledgeable with British theatre resources (especially the newspapers) and can usually direct you to where to look; she has helped me.

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Occupations/THEATRICAL-ANCESTORS.html

A Browse of the Archives shows that this mailing list has dropped from 228 postings in Aug 2000, 102 in Sept 2000, and fewer than 10 in 2010 and 2009, suggesting there might not be many list members subscribed.  (I’ve also been on this list too.)

Poke around on Rootweb.com for other Mailing Lists and Message Boards, and you might find more under different performing occupations (theatre, vaudeville or variety, circus, music hall, …..).  Ancestry may have its own set, and specialized occupation websites may have their own forums too.  (Join for a few months, and if nothing happens, drop off.)
---

There were several theatrical magazines or newspapers in the UK I think ("The Echo" is just one that comes to mind tonight that I recently heard about, but there must have been several others) where performers or their acts were reviewed or mentioned, or may have swapped gossip (whose performing where this week).  (There similarly were some in the US - Variety is the most familiar one, but The New York Clipper which preceded it was even older.)   

Of course, local newspapers would have covered the programs of this performance troupe - but I'll leave you to find someone more knowledgeable in what is on-line and what is not among the local newspapers.  (If UK libraries are anything like US or Canadian libraries, they probably have microfilmed archives of the local or metro newspapers  or may have subscribed to databases for their patrons that are accessible with a library card.)

You mentioned individual names (Herbert Poole, Vincent Collins, Margaret Collins nee McLuskey who performed as Lena Russel).  Do you know if they were "cast members" of the traveling troupe of players (and thus may not have had individual "billing"), or could they at one time have performed as a "name act" (such as "Poole and Russel" or "Collins and Russel") like many variety artistes did?

And last .... have you "Googled" (or rather used a search engine) on all the names you mention (and spelling alternatives like "Russell" or "Pool")?  I say this because one never knows what new websites appear monthly or what memorabilia is being auctioned on eBay that might be related to your performers.

(I thought I'd found everything for my grandmother's first cousin, a Broadway actress and silent film actress, several years ago.  But her name popped up on an Australian theatre site (H.A.T.) where I had not expected to find her, and led to new stage credits in Australian newspapers (with the help of a librarian in Melbourne).  Then last Christmas I searched again, and after sorting through all the links I'd seen before, uncovered her on several new ones, including the NLA (National Library of Australia) which is digitizing all their newspaper collections , a similar newspaper site for New Zealand.

I hope that this rather wordy reply is helpful, 11 months after your original posting, and that you are still a registered user and will see it.

Cheers from a blustery, soon to be snowy, Chicago.

[SASSY21]

Hello Blustery
Many thanks for your message. I must admit I have put it all on the back burner, as I not been able to find anything at all.
So your message has been given me renewed vigour. To carry on again.
I had not thought about name variations, I shall try that.
The names I have are all I have. and a few photos, but no double act names. I seem to bang my head on the wall all the time, and not able to find anything out.
But sincere thanks for your info, that is brilliant, bless you.

Kind regards
sassy 

[Chicago-Jones]

Hello SASSY21 - here are today's suggestions .......

CHECK ALL NAME VARIATIONS, even "&" vs "and"
Name variations are very important - because newspaper reporters often took liberties with spellings, sometimes using two different spellings in the same article  (as I discovered).

In my case, I was tracing "Lilian TUCKER", a Chicago-born actress of Norwegian parentage.  But I quickly spotted her being credited as well under "Lillian TUCKER".  (An older English-born repertory actress also performed or was credited under the same two spellings, so I kept finding references to her.)  The New York Public Library even lumped their credits and clippings together in ONE folder in their theatre collection, so I spend two years just collecting and sorting through both of their credits and clippings after finally ordering (at great expense for their researcher to photocopy) all the content of their shared file in the NYPL theatrical collection.

ORGANIZE FINDINGS - into a TIMELINE
I would suggest organizing your findings into a Timeline - summarize every piece of information - by date, publication where found, type (clipping, travel document, bill, photo, ....), name used (including spelling variations found), country/province/city,  every theatre name, etc.  A Timeline will help you discern where they toured, as well as in what years/decades nothing was found - for example, did they retire, stop touring, take another profession, have a child.... or just cannot be found.  And show you what you know, and where you might have to look next.

I originally used a Word Table format (4 columns) because I could print it on 8x11 paper, but today might find Excel format easier to use (even if I have to print it on 8x14 page).  Lilian TUCKER's Timeline summarizes US Census entries, US passport applications, newspaper clipping or display adv bylines found (+ name publication), names of plays or movies, city/state/theatre where performing (or where silent film playing), death date, passenger list entries (she performed in Australia and traveled to Europe)...  I quickly spotted the bulk of info was from 1908-1921 (her performance years) but also spotted other newspaper references in unexpected places (society parties, bankruptcy, reading poetry on the radio, Hollywood gossip column slipped that she was working the night shift in a bomber plant during WW2 when she was almost 60).  I did the same for the "other" Lillian TUCKER too.  (And I have yet to update it with the newer Googled findings I recently discovered.)

So the key to tracking anyone who performed for a living, in any country, is to organize what you know or found in a Timeline and look for patterns (did their troupe tour the same towns/cities in the same order year after year) that may suggest new things to investigate.

TRACE THE TROUPE OR THEATRE COMPANY, not just the performers
Another suggestion is to look for the name of their troupe if known, and trace its movement.  (They may have been recruited for a few shows, released to do something else, then rejoined ..... and lived somewhere during the inevitable summer heat). 

For example, in summer when the US theatres became unbearably hot (no windows, no ventilation), most performers either performed in "roof top" mini-theatres (physically on the flat roofs of buildings to use the cooling evening breezes) or at water-side performance pavilions (cooled by off-shore breezes) in vacation communities to where city dwellers escaped.  Some performers took the summers off to rest (especially the constantly touring vaudevillians) or to return home (especially those UK variety artistes performing on US vaudeville stage).  Broadway actors might have joined touring companies that took their shows on the road to smaller US cities and larger towns.

I've run out of ideas today, and don't have time to "Google" your names.

I hope you'll report new discoveries soon (when you can devote more time or money to your quest).

Chicago-JONES

[casalguidi]

You could try the archive of "The Stage" although I'm not sure what the coverage is like for Scotland http://www.thestage.co.uk/

Casalguidi

[Chicago-Jones]

casalguidi's suggestion to check archives of THE STAGE, a theatrical newspaper, may have yielded some results.

I suspect each of the performers that SASSY21 named may have been performing longer than the 1920-1940 timeframe originally indicated, though her grandmother (as” Lena Russell”) may have toured with POOLE in that time frame.  (Since she was born in 1888, and assuming she went directly on stage as early as 18 if not earlier, she might have been performing as early as 1905, and possibly under other names including her birth name or first husband’s surname, before picking “Lena Russel/Russell”?) 

A quick check of the various names (but not all alternate spellings) from her original two postings yielded some snippets with publication dates within a  1905-1940 timeframe.  So it might be worth a “fiver” (slang for £5 “5-pound note”) for a 24 hour pass to view them in the Archives of THE STAGE.

HERBERT POOLE shows 1   (search for just POOLE shows 2 more from 1950s and later but forename differed)
Thursday, March 23, 1905, p 13 – snippet gave no hints, but right time frame so worth a look

VINCENT COLLINS showed 3, but this one may be worth a peak:
Thursday, July 08, 1926, p 8 – “Births, Marriages, etc.” – might record Vincent’s death, or mention the name of their act?

McLUSKEY showed 5, but only this one may be worth a peak (unless there were others performing as “McLuskey” or she was not consistently using the “Lena Russell” stage name)?  (Also check alternate sound-alike spellings since newspapers were notorious for misspelling names.)
Thursday, October 04, 1928, p 11 – “The Variety Stage” –

 “LENA RUSSEL”  yielded no matches, but “LENA RUSSELL” yielded one worth checking:
Thursday, January 13, 1910, p 27 – “Wanted Engagements, Variety Artistes” – Your grandmother could have been “between engagements” or looking to land her first one in 1910 as a new artiste?

“MARGARET COLLINS” yielded 30 snippets, most 1948 and later, but only one worth checking:
Thursday, July 30, 1908, p4 – “The Provinces”

(Could she have also have used the simpler Maggie instead of the more formal Margaret in her early days- Maggie Collins, Maggie McLuskey - which I did not take the time to check tonight?  It is important to track each name under which she may have performed or by which she may have been known - personally (as in a Census or legal document such as a birth record) as well as professionally (as in clippings, memorabilia, ...) so that nothing is overlooked.)

Regarding coverage of Scotland by THE STAGE, there must have been some (at least in the major cities).
For example, "Glasgow” yielded over 1000 hits (most modern), with these 3 spotted from the 1905-1940 time period:
Thursday, February 10, 1927, p 23 is a “Wanted” seeking first class comedy reviews for Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow”
Thursday, August 05, 1926, p21 – “Fred Collins Variety Agency Ltd” was seeking acts
Thursday, November 13, 1930, p 30 – “Wanted, Star Attractions”

Kindest regards (3 inches wet snow hit Chicago Monday instead of 12 .. whew)
 Chicago-JONES

[SASSY21]

Hi Chicago-Jones
Thank you so much for finding this information out. it is much appreciated. as I have not had a chance to find the time to proceed.
It will give me a good help when I do.
Kind regards
Sassy