Letty Lind
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress, dancer and acrobat, best known for her work in burlesque at the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
, and in musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
at Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
, in London.
Life and career
Lind was born at her parents' residence in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England, and was christened at Saint Thomas church. Her father, Henry Rudge, was a brass founder and chandelier maker. Her mother, Elizabeth Rudge, was an actress whose career was brief and confined mostly to the Birmingham area. Lind was one of the Rudge Sisters
Rudge Sisters
The Rudge sisters were British actresses and dancers from Birmingham.The sisters were actually first cousins. Their mothers were all sisters. The Rudge Sisters were:* Letitia Elizabeth Rudge - Letty Lind ,...
, all of whom became well known performers. Lind also had two brothers who were brass founders.
Early career
Lind first appeared on stage when she was about five years old as Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, then toured with American entertainer and writer Howard Paul (1830 - 1905) and his British wife from about the age of ten. The Pauls billed her as "La Petite Letitia." Howard Paul became Lind's lover and fathered two illegitimate children by her: a girl who died in infancy (1878) and a son (Henry Horace Howard Paul Rudge, b. 1880). Lind made her first London appearance under the name "Letty Lind" in Howard Paul's farce, Locked Out at the Princess's TheatrePrincess's Theatre, London
The Princess's Theatre or Princess Theatre was a theatre in Oxford Street, London. The building opened in 1828 as the "Queen's Bazaar" and housed a diorama by Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts. It was converted into a theatre and opened in 1836 as the Princess's Theatre, named for then Princess...
in 1879. In 1881, Lind left Paul's company. It is not clear exactly when their relationship ended, but Paul married Florence Kate Arthur in 1889.
After leaving Paul's company, Lind appeared in London and the British provinces for over twenty years in comedy, farce and pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
. Lind's first appearance at the Gaiety Theatre
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
was in December 1880 as a background performer in The Nine Days' Queen by Robert Buchanan. In 1882, she played at the Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
in The Exiles of Erin, and in Little Miss Muffet at the Criterion Theatre
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
. She returned to the Gaiety in 1882 in A Madcap Prince. She spent much of the next year at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in a revival of Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon). She continued to tour the UK for the next few years in Robert Buchanan's drama Storm Beaten, the pantomime Queen of Hearts and George Faucett Rowe's Fun in Bristol, among other shows.
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
at the Gaiety Theatre in a series of burlesques, beginning with Monte Cristo, Junior, taking over the role of Mariette, which was created by Lottie Collins
Lottie Collins
Lottie Collins was an English singer and dancer, most famous for introducing the song "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!"-Life:...
. Collins devised her own cross between skirt dancing and the Can-Can
Can-Can
The Can-can is a dance. It may also refer to:* Popularly, the Galop Infernal movement of Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, commonly associated with the dance* Can Can , a 2007 fragrance by Paris Hilton...
in her performance of her hit song 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay'. It was around this time that Lind fans began to number in the "tens of thousands" as her fame was spreading. Lind next played in Miss Esmeralda at the Gaiety (by A. C. Torr, Horace Mills and Meyer Lutz
Meyer Lutz
Wilhelm Meyer Lutz was a German-born English composer and conductor who is best known for light music, musical theatre and burlesques of well-known works....
). She was on loan to Augustus Harris
Augustus Harris
Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris , was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist.-Early life:Harris was born in Paris, France, the son of Augustus Glossop Harris , who was also a dramatist, and his wife, née Maria Ann Bone, a theatrical costumier...
's company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
for the Christmas pantomime, playing the princess in Puss in Boots. With George Edwardes's London Company, she spent most of 1888 and part of 1889 in Australia and the United States. Back in London, she starred in Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue
Ruy Blas and the Blase Roue
Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué is a burlesque written by A. C. Torr and Herbert F. Clark with music by Meyer Lutz. It is based on the Victor Hugo drama Ruy Blas. The piece was produced by George Edwardes. As with many of the Gaiety burlesques, the title is a pun...
(1889), Mercedes in Carmen up to Data
Carmen up to Data
Carmen up to Data is a musical burlesque with a score written by Meyer Lutz. The piece was a spoof of Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen. The libretto was written by G. R. Sims and Henry Pettitt....
(1890), Euphrosynea in The Bride of Love (1890; her cymbal dance was a highlight of the production), and the title role in Cinder-Ellen Up Too Late (1891). She also appeared in a number of charity events.
Around this time, Lind became famous as a skirt dancer. Skirt dancing, popularized by Kate Vaughn in the 1880s, was a huge craze until around 1910. It fused the grace of ballet with the footwork of step-dancing, which was considered common and lacking in grace. The dance depended on the dancer's skill in manipulating up to 12 metres of fabric in the skirt of her costume. Skirt dancing's advantage over ballet was that people could do it at home, and it became popular among all social classes. Lind was able to differentiate herself from other skirt dancers because she had the benefit of classical training that most of them did not, and she often added an acrobatic touch to the end of her dances. When she danced in America in 1888, the critics were surprised to see a dancer who did not show her legs and breasts.
Musical comedy and later career
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
was taking over the London stage. Though Lind's singing voice was limited, it was said to be pretty, and she used it to its best advantage, becoming a popular musical comedy performer.
Lind's first musical comedy role was at the Shaftesbury Theatre as Maude in Morocco Bound
Morocco Bound
Morocco Bound is a farcical English musical in two acts by Arthur Branscombe, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Adrian Ross. It opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, on April 13, 1893, under the management of Fred J. Harris, and transferred to the Trafalgar Square Theatre on...
(1893) Morocco Bound was a great success, transferring to the Trafalgar Square Theatre in January 1894, and continued to run for a total of 329 performances. During the run of Morocco Bound, Lind published a short story in The Pelican. It was the tale of how a dancer coped during a performance when her petticoat string broke. In 1894 she wrote the music for a song, "Dorothy Flop", that her sister Adelaide Astor performed in a production of The Lady Slavey. The lyrics were written by Adrian Ross
Adrian Ross
For the NFL player see Adrian Ross Arthur Reed Ropes , better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
. She then played in Pick-me-up (1894, with George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
and Jessie Bond
Jessie Bond
Jessie Bond was an English singer and actress best known for creating the mezzo-soprano soubrette roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. She spent twenty years on the stage, the bulk of them with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.Musical from an early age, Bond began a concert singing...
).
After this, Lind rejoined George Edwardes's management to star at Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
in a series of hit musicals: A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall , Harry Greenbank and Sidney Jones . It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C...
(1894, as Alma Somerset), Go-Bang
Go-Bang
Go-Bang is an English musical comedy with words by Adrian Ross and music by F. Osmond Carr.The piece was produced by Fred Harris and opened at the Trafalgar Square Theatre on 10 March 1894. It ran for 159 performances. The show starred Harry Grattan, George Grossmith, Jr., Arthur Playfair,...
(1894, as Di Dalrymple), An Artist's Model
An Artist's Model
An Artist's Model is a two-act musical by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and music by Sidney Jones, with additional songs by Joseph and Mary Watson, Paul Lincke, Frederick Ross, Henry Hamilton and Leopold Wenzel. It opened at Daly's Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes and...
(1895, as Daisy Vane), The Geisha
The Geisha
The Geisha, a story of a tea house is an Edwardian Musical Comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philip....
(1896, as Molly Seamore), and A Greek Slave
A Greek Slave
A Greek Slave is a musical comedy in two acts, first performed on 8 June 1898 at Daly's Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes and ran for 349 performances. The score was composed by Sidney Jones with additional songs by Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross. The...
(1898, as Iris). Lind received excellent reviews for her roles in these musicals, emphasizing the grace of her dancing, her comic acting, her enunciation and her abilities at mimicry and imitation. Lind continued to appear at benefits, including ones for Edmund Payne
Edmund Payne
Edmund Payne , was an actor, comedian, singer and dramatist best known for his comic appearances in Edwardian Musical Comedy. His father was Edmund Payne, a master cabinet builder and his mother was Eliza Payne née Ince....
and Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren
Nellie Farren was an English actress and singer best known for her roles as the "principal boy" in musical burlesques at the Gaiety Theatre.Born into a theatrical family, Farren began acting as a child...
, and in her own music hall shows, singing her repertoire from her famous roles. She sang in the music halls for only a few months. In 1899, Lind is believed to have made her only appearance at the Palace Theatre, London
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
, in a programme celebrating Charles Morton's 80th birthday. That same year, she again performed the princess in the pantomime Puss in Boots, this time at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
.
Lind also played Clotide in The Gay Pretenders by George Grossmith, Jr. at the Globe Theatre (1900) and Ellen in The Girl from Kays
The Girl from Kays
The Girl from Kays is an English musical comedy with music by Ivan Caryll, Paul Rubens, Wilhelm Meyer Lutz and Edward Jones, book by Cecil Cook and lyrics by Adrian Ross and Claude Aveling...
at the Apollo Theatre (1902), her last performance in a West End show. In 1903, Lind returned to the stage to try her luck again in the music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
s. Lind made her final public appearance at the Gaiety Theatre, singing one of her first hits, "Listen to my tale of woe" from Ruy Blas. It was part of the last night performance at the Old Gaiety, which was demolished soon afterwards. She retired from performing at the age of 41.
Last years and family details
Lind spent the rest of her life in SloughSlough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
, England, living a peaceful life on the farm. Lind was the best known of the five Rudge Sisters
Rudge Sisters
The Rudge sisters were British actresses and dancers from Birmingham.The sisters were actually first cousins. Their mothers were all sisters. The Rudge Sisters were:* Letitia Elizabeth Rudge - Letty Lind ,...
, who were all actually first cousins. Sarah Rudge, professionally known as "Mille Hylton" (1870-1920), worked in the theatre and the music halls making a name for herself as a male impersonator. Elizabeth Rudge, a West End actress professionally known as "Adelaide Astor" (1873-1951), married George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr.
George Grossmith, Jr. was a British actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies...
in 1895. Lydia Rudge, professionally known as "Lydia Flopp" (1877-1963), appeared in pantomimes. The youngest Rudge Sister, Fanny Rudge, had a long and successful career in Australia under the name "Fanny Dango" (1878-1972).
Besides her son with Howard Paul, she had another son, John R. H. Rudge (b. 1892), whose father was acknowledged to be the third Earl of Durham
John Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham
John George Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham KG, GCVO, PC , known as Viscount Lambton until 1879, was a British peer....
. It is not clear when her relationship with Durham began, but it is clear that it continued throughout her life. Lord Durham wanted to marry Lind, but was unable to do so because of the divorce laws. His wife had been in an insane asylum for years, and he was unable to break his marital ties to her.
Lind died at her residence at Brookside, Salthill, Slough, at the age of 61, having become ill rather suddenly that year. Her obituary from The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said, "She was very pretty; she was very graceful; there was something appealing about her which might almost be called childish. She had a queer and very attractive little croak in her voice, and an elementary, little-girlish way of saying things which made them peculiarly engaging, and caused her saying of them to stick in the memory with a permanence which their wit or point might by no means justify. Add to this the enchanting lissomeness and beauty of all such movements as she was mistress of, and a stage personality (as we call it) which was like no one else’s, and there is more than justification for the glow which the remembrance of her performances kindles." Lind's funeral took place at St. Mary's Church, Slough, on Friday, 31 August 1923, and she was buried in Windsor Cemetery.
External links
- http://footlightnotes.tripod.com/20040619home.htmlPhotos and reviews of Lind in Go-BangGo-BangGo-Bang is an English musical comedy with words by Adrian Ross and music by F. Osmond Carr.The piece was produced by Fred Harris and opened at the Trafalgar Square Theatre on 10 March 1894. It ran for 159 performances. The show starred Harry Grattan, George Grossmith, Jr., Arthur Playfair,...
] - Information about skirt dancing and Lind
- More on Lind and skirt dancing
- Includes a Midi File of a song composed by Lind