Charlie Bray in character as a Dutch girl. Photographic postcard, 191-.

Charlie Bray, juvenile comedian & dancer (of Adeler & Sutton's companies)

Part of James Gardiner Collection: photograph album labelled ‘Drag’.

He is performing a funny curtsey and smiling at the viewer. Acts featuring singing and dancing troupes of children were popular items on music-hall and vaudeville bills in Europe and America in the early years of the twentieth century. The 1958 Stephen Sondheim musical 'Gypsy' based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee gives a very good idea of what life was like for these children, touring the country, going from one small theatre to another. Novelty dances in comedy costumes were standard routines, and the subject of the present work, dressed as a clog-dancing Dutch girl, is typical of the genre

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Item Information:

Identifier: g158bh574
Collection: James Gardiner 20th Century Drag Postcards
Institution: Wellcome Library
Date Issued: 1910 to 1919?
Genre: Photographs
Prints
Topic(s): Child actors
Clog dancing
Female impersonators
Resource Type: Still Image
Analog Format: 1 photograph : photoprint ;
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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