CHERITON Fitzpaine Evening Organisation had a good audience for Catherine Devenish, whose subject was “Entertaining the Empire in the 1910’s”.

Catherine had researched her grandparents’ role in the Music Hall, and had discovered a photo album of her mothers, with postcards from all over the world.

In the 1900’s, Music Hall was very popular. Most towns and cities had a theatre, and impresarios such as Fred Karno recruited and trained many entertainers.

His HQ was based in East London’s “The Fun Factory”, and was quite an impressive building. Catherine’s grandfather worked for Fred, eventually becoming a booking manager for him.

Before the days of air travel, whole companies would travel on mailboats, the voyage taking up to 10 weeks, during which the entertainers would rehearse their acts.

Huge sets had to be conveyed in the hold. Gambling was rife, and some poor souls had lost their pay before arriving at their destination.

On land, in countries such as India, camel trains had to be used, and if the event was sold out it was not unusual for locals to climb up on nearby roofs to watch.

After the talk we were able to look at the various albums and scrapbooks, which created a lot of interest.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 1 at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall when Wendy and David Handcock, from Upham, will be giving an illustrated talk on their recent trek to Nepal. This is an open meeting, men allowed!

Mary Nunn