Victorian Entertainment: There will be Fun
Entertaining exhibition at the British Library focusing on five Victorian entertainers to showcase the popular entertainments of the time. There was a lovely video recreating the act of each performer alongside play bills, posts and other ephemera. They included magicians, a mesmerist, a circus impresario and a musical hall and pantomime star. I was fascinated by John Neil Maskeyne who established the Egyptian Halls as a venue calling it the Hall of Mystery, There was a contemporary film that he’d made and shown there of a conjuror pulling eggs from his mouth and then removing his head for it to appear in a giant egg next to him. It still amazed today and the gentleman next to me and I both reacted with shock when it happened. It was nice to include Dan Leno and emphasis his role in creating the idea of the Pantomime Dame, very topical. There was a nice original film in his section too showing him having tea with his family and fooling around. Another Londo...