Blog

Invaded by Suffragettes? Or the Germans?

15/10/2014

I was just casually reading through Votes for Women from 23rd January 1914 when this leapt out at me and made me giggle:

0 Comments

Late Night Supper, 1958

9/9/2014

0 Comments

The final hurrah of the Actresses' Franchise League was in December 1958 at a special Ball held in the Savoy Hotel.
The programme for the event is fantastic - a treasure trove of information and a tantalising glimpse into what sounds like an amazing evening. The great and the good had their dinner at 8pm but there was a later "Actresses' Supper" served at 11pm, presumably so that actresses in shows could come and join the festivities after their performances had come down.

0 Comments

Magic, Suffrage and Sexism

26/8/2014

4 Comments

This article was published in the Observer newspaper on 24th August 2014 - it was originally published by the same paper on 24th August 1986 and is about the vote of the Magic Circle, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, in that year on whether to allow female magicians to become members of the organisation.

4 Comments

Sweet Adeline... near and yet so far!

1/8/2014

0 Comments

Researching my PhD about the Actresses' Franchise League and their work has been and remains wonderful - there's been so much to find and it's a treat to look for it. I've discovered that I love tracking things down! The absence of archives or papers for the most longstanding and active members of the League has been the most frustrating part, although of course it's always worth being optimistic about the future.

Then there are the near misses... here are two that I've experienced that are to do with the actress Adeline Bourne.

0 Comments

Trays for Women part 2 - an update!

29/6/2014

0 Comments

You might have read my blog post about the Actresses' Franchise League and their conversation with a manager of the Empress Rooms in London in 1914...

If you haven't then please do by clicking here!

I took advantage of the newly opened Newsroom at the British Library to look up the original story in the Daily News... hoping that it might be possible to find which member of the AFL had drawn the sketches... and discovered that Votes for Women had put a rather positive spin on the end of the story,
one which I had believed and then blogged about.

0 Comments

It might have happened this way... I do hope so

17/5/2014

0 Comments

Picture the scene thus:

Two Edwardian actresses meet
whilst walking through Covent Garden.

It's a balmy afternoon some time in autumn 1913.

0 Comments

Actresses' Franchise League game!

29/3/2014

0 Comments

I've created an Actresses' Franchise League version of the popular 2048 game - it's like a sliding block puzzle game. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like:

0 Comments

Trays for Women - can they handle it?

27/1/2014

0 Comments

Last week the press reported negative comments made by the leader of UKIP about working women who take time off to have families - challenged about his views on working mothers he said "I can't change biology"

This old-fashioned (to be kind) and backward (to be honest) view reminded me of some equally ridiculous and sexist discrimination towards working women - in this case actresses - almost exactly a century ago...

On 29th January 1914 the Actresses' Franchise League held a Tea Dance at the Empress Rooms in Kensington.
It was a fundraiser for the League and as well as
Tea and the Tango, there were all sorts of other entertainments, including palmistry.
Well-known actresses became waitresses for the occasion to serve the tables and thereby hangs a tale...

0 Comments

Swimming for the Cause

23/12/2013

4 Comments

Paddington Swimming Baths - July 9th 1909

Women only Swimming Entertainment! 8.30-10.30pm

4 Comments

A Story about a Cat and a Mouse

22/9/2013

0 Comments

This little duologue, by 'A. L. Little' appears in the 9th May 1913 edition of newspaper of the Women's Freedom League, the Vote.

"Uncle McKenna" is supposed to be the the Liberal MP Reginald McKenna, who was the Home Secretary from 1911-1915. The duologue refers to the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act of 1913, a piece of hotly contested legislation popularly known as the "Cat and Mouse Act" which allowed suffragette hunger-strikers to be forcibly fed to the point of near death, then released on license to recuperate and imprisoned again to continue their sentence as soon as they were well enough... and when they were back in prison they went on hunger-strike and were forcibly fed to the point of near death at which point they were released on license to recuperate and imprisoned again to continue their sentence as soon as they were well enough... [repeat]

You can read about it online here and the debates in the House of Commons are available to read on Hansard.

Interesting that the "cat" in this duologue is female rather than male... does that make it seem more or less cruel?

The Story
By A.L. Little

British Infant: Tell me a story, Uncle McKenna.

U. Mc. (sleepily): Well, sit down and keep quiet. There was once a cat -

British Infant: How nice! Do go on, uncle!

U. Mc.: And she caught a mouse -

British Infant: Oh!

U. Mc.: She mauled it awhile, then let it go -

British Infant: But why?

U. Mc.: Oh - er - just to gain time, you know. So she caught it again -

British Infant: And mauled it again?

U. Mc.: Yes. Then she let it go. So she caught it again and mauled it again. And then -

British Infant: But didn't it die?

U. Mc.: Not yet. Well, she mauled it again.

British Infant: Again? Well, I don't see much fun in that.

U. Mc.: Oh - well - it wasn't exactly fun, you see.

British Infant (hotly): Then, what was it?

U. Mc.: Don't interrupt. So, she let it go. Then -

British Infant: Then what, uncle?

U. Mc.: Well, then she mauled it again, you know. And after, she let it go. Then she mauled -

British Infant (outraged): But that's not a story. It's stupid!

U. Mc. (slowly): That's what everyone said.

0 Comments

The Importance of Ella Kew-Shun

16/9/2013

0 Comments

Lyn Gardner's blog in the Guardian a month ago in August 2013 was entitled "Do stage actors mumble too much?" and quoted statements by both actress Imogen Stubbs and Rada's Artistic Director Edward Kemp that deplored a "naturalistic, mumbling style" and directors who encouraged it, "believing that laidback mumbling is more truthful."

0 Comments

To An Anti-Suffragist

17/8/2013

0 Comments

I've been tidying my desk - an incredibly rare occurrence - and going through my various research notebooks, rediscovering. This poem was amongst the rediscoveries. I love the passion of the voice in it as well as the challenge and anger and was curious to find out more about the writer. But first, the poem itself!

It was published in the WSPU's paper, Votes for Women, on 13th June 1913.

0 Comments

Celebrating Walk for Women and the NUWSS in Hyde Park!

28/7/2013

0 Comments

Yesterday some of us gathered at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park to commemorate the NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies) and the women who marched from around England and Wales in July 1913. Culminating in a 50,000 strong gathering of women in Hyde Park on 26th July 1913, the NUWSS supporters were constitutional suffragists who walked from their communities to London to show the Government how many women wanted the right to vote.

Many many walks have been organised to honour the women. You can find out more on the Walk For Women website.

The week before I'd been to see a new play about the NUWSS pilgrimage. Written by Natalie Mc Grath and directed by Josie Sutcliffe, Oxygen has been performed along the route that the suffragists took from Lands End to London.

0 Comments

My Homage to the Actresses' Franchise League

21/7/2013

0 Comments

Whilst on tour in the UK in the autumn of 2009, I thought a lot about the Actresses' Franchise League, local suffrage societies across the country and the history of performers being on tour. I decided that I would speak the final speech by 'Woman' in Cicely Hamilton's 1909 play "A Pageant of Great Women" on the stage in every venue that I knew had held, or was old enough to have held suffrage meetings or performances or might have been where members of the Actresses' Franchise League performed during their careers.

I chose the speech from "Pageant", not only because it's beautiful, passionate and full of hope but also because it was one of the most widely performed suffrage plays in the period 1909-1914 and so therefore the most likely to have been done in that venue or town. Some venues were particularly special to me - and being in the Theatre Royal Margate was a thrill as so many AFL members had started their careers and trained in Margate with Sarah Thorne!

0 Comments