ALL OUR The rise and fall of Victorian variety
developed into a highly-regarded male impersonator as the craze associated with Vesta Tilley swept the country.
Rowley exploited his links with the locality in several ways. He organised charity football and cricket matches as well as donating the proceeds of certain performances, most frequently to Huddersfield Infirmary but also to workhouse children.
Local sportsmen made appearances on stage and he gave opportunities to local artists, particularly Walter Stockwell but also Joe Villiers, a singer from Crosland Moor, and Pim Pim ‘the ex-street tumbler who was unearthed in the pit at Rowley’s’. Christmas entertainments often had a local flavour.
The 1890 Christmas pantomime, written by Rolmaz, was entitled ‘The Prince of Paddock’ and referred to ‘the Castlegate Militia’, ‘Fair Daisy of Damside’ and to the prowess of the town’s football team! Rowley’s reputation enabled him to attract national figures, such as JC Heffron, who sang Rolmaz’s song ‘Where Did You Get That Hat,’ TW Barrett, whose ‘song on the woe of the football player was very well received’ and Charles Chaplain Snr in 1892.
Rowley also tapped into national themes. This was most dramatically demonstrated in July 1891 when a ‘company which, for variety and excellence [was] hard to excel on any provincial stage’ was assembled and the highlight was ‘the introduction of three heroic survivors of the Light Brigade, immortalized in Tennyson’s poem’.
Rolmaz wrote a special song praising the Balaclava heroes and it was sung that night by Master Herbert Bray. The song combined patriotism and sentimentality. The sheet music was sold for 1d. for the benefit of the Balaclava Heroes Fund.
In early 1896, the theatre, ‘having undergone a thorough cleaning, reconstruction of seating and most elaborate decoration’, re-opened as Rowley’s Empire Theatre. Plays became more important but, despite the change in emphasis, there were clear elements of continuity in the overall programme offered. Singers, comics and dancers were at the heart of performances.
Established favourites such as Walter Stockwell, Ella Dean and Carrie Heaton were ‘vociferously encored each night’. And there was also ‘the ever-green J W Rowley’.
Still ‘a popular favourite in his native town’ he delighted the crowds with his repertoire, not least the old favourite ‘Going Down to Derby’ [sic] during which ‘he showed in the acrobatic display with which he always accompanies this [song] that he is still as smart and agile as of old’.
On the surface Rowley’s Empire remained popular but behind the scenes all was not well. Strikingly, there was an air of desperation about some of the advertisements appearing in The Era. Rowley felt it necessary to stress ‘The Beautifully Decorated and Brilliantly Lighted Stage large enough for any production’.
Losses mounted (totalling some £25,000 over 10 years) and at the end of 1897 the theatre was sold to the Northern Theatre Company.
The theatre, a two-storied wooden building, became increasingly outdated and the local authorities were concerned with its safety. In 1904 they refused to grant it a licence and later that year it was demolished.
It was a sorry end and a blow to music-hall aficionados in town. However, change was afoot. The proprietors had already purchased the old Armoury and were converting it into what would become the Hippodrome – of which more later.