CHAPTER I The Adelphi, 1866-1903, and Famous Adelphi Dramas and Actors--The West London Theatre. 'HE first founder of THE ADELPHI THEATRE was a THE colour maker and sort of Jack-of-all-trades in the Strand, named John Scott. He had accumulated a very large fortune by the invention of a washing blue, called the "Old True Blue," manufactured from the sooty deposit of some peculiar wood; a discovery he had made by accident while travelling in the Black Forest. Being fond of the society of actors, whom he was in the habit of entertaining, his daughter conceived a passion for the stage, and persuaded him to .buy some ruinous old property in the rear and at the side of his dwellinghouse and build a theatre. The colour merchant was rash enough to invest £10,000 in purchasing leases and building a small theatre, which he christened the Sans Pareil. It was opened on November 27th, 1806, with an entertainment consisting of songs, recitations, imitations à la the elder Mathews, the whole being written and delivered by Miss Scott; the performance winding up with a display of fireworks. Such speculations on the part of outsiders almost invariably prove a disastrous failure; this, however, was a brilliant exception. John Scott was one of those persons who succeed in everything they undertake; he was indefatigable in his management, and of an evening would take off his coat, go into the cheap parts of the house, and pack the people close together; he used to boast that he thus often increased the takings by five pounds a night. Miss Scott also seems to have been a clever girl, who most ably seconded her father off the stage by her talents on. The usual prices gallery, Is.; the It was not long before the monologue and pyrotechnic entertainment developed into the dramatic, and the Sans Pareil became another thorn in the sides of the lessees of the patent theatres. were charged: boxes, 4s.; pit, 25.; doors were opened at 5.30, and the play began at 6.30,1 with half-price to boxes at 8.30. The company was evidently of the most mediocre description, everything depending upon that tremendously energetic and industrious lady, Miss Scott, who not only performed in all the pieces except the pantomimes, but, according to the playbills, wrote them nearly all; at the bottom of three-fourths of the programmes there is a line in italics, which informs the reader that "the whole of this evening's entertainment is written by Miss Scott." Sometimes this statement is modified-Miss Scott has only rearranged the scenes and situations-but she has always had something to do with the entertainment; her name has invariably a line to itself, is preceded by an "and," and is printed in very large caps., which strongly contrast with the very small type that was deemed sufficient for everybody else; unless it be some stray star from Drury Lane or Covent Garden-a star at the 1 This was the usual time of commencement even seventy years ago; in the middle of the 18th century it was six; the lack of a complete set of playbills at the British Museum renders it impossible to trace the intermediate times back to the three o'clock of Pepys's days. |