Expert’s Choice
Alison Young is the British Music Hall Society’s vice chair and secretary
At the British Music Hall Society ( britishmusichallsociety.com) we regularly receive inquiries from those seeking to trace their theatrical relatives. We always recommend the British Newspaper Archive ( britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk), which has revolutionised theatre research with the digitisation of the main theatrical newspapers including The Era (1838–1939), The Stage (1880–2007) and The Music Hall and Theatre Review (1889–1912), as well as publications such as The Referee (1877–1914) and The Entr’acte (1870–1907) which contain much theatrical content. Theatre and sport often went hand in hand as can be seen from such publications as The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (1874–1970).
The archive also has a myriad of local papers, with their many advertisements for productions in town that week and coming the next. These are also more likely to contain reviews of productions and performances rather than the theatrical press, which often kept the content to theatrical gossip and listings. By way of an example, the issue of The Era published on 1 August 1880 has a column devoted to “The London Theatres” and another focusing on “The London Music Halls”, and then other cities had “Amusements in Liverpool [or Edinburgh, or Newcastle etc]” sections.
What were known as ‘calls’ were published until the 1950s, listing the theatre, the name of the performer to appear in the following week and the time they were to arrive for the first rehearsal. Narrowing your search to, say, The Stage and ‘calls’ from a particular time period, together with the performer’s name, is a very helpful way to piece together a forebear’s career.