Adult Learning Courses www.bl.uk/events/adult-learning-courses

Course Description

Behind the Myth of Music Hall

Dates Wednesdays 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 November and 7 December 2016 Times 18.00–20.00 Location Harry M Weinrebe Learning Centre Level All levels Class size Maximum 16 participants

Course description The smell of grease paint, the dim glow of a gas-lit auditorium and the loud call of a – these are the things that spring to mind when we think of Music Hall. It’s a quintessentially British institution, spawning generations of stand-up and much of the vibrant popular culture we still experience today. But what if everything you thought you knew about Music Hall, was wrong?

In our six-week course accompanying the Library’s new exhibition, There will be Fun, Dr Fern Riddell will challenge the preconceptions of Victorian Music Hall as a gentle, old-fashioned and bring to life the darker, far more radical side of our earliest form of mass entertainment. You’ll learn how Music Hall transcended its working class roots, became the birthplace of British cinema, how it showcased exciting new technologies and provided a home for militant women’s rights campaigners – with an audience stalked by serial killers and suffragettes.

Throughout the course you’ll encounter original footage and recordings, culminating in a private view of rare Victorian ephemera drawn from the ’s outstanding collections.

Week 1: Is there any such thing as an original idea? Where does Music Hall come from? Setting out to challenge any preconceptions of Music Hall as a gentle and cosy institution, we’ll start our course by exploring how the song and supper rooms of the 18th century, full of bawdy songs and fuelled by alcohol, gave birth to a new form of entertainment – part circus, part song, highly political and extremely dangerous – the Music Hall was born!

Week 2: Show time! Diving straight into the heart of Music Hall and using the life of 19th-century magician Evanion as a guide, our second session will introduce you to the different types of acts and new technologies – such as the cinema and wireless – that could be found on a Music Hall stage. What role did the Chairman play? What connects the Lumière Brothers to the Empire and a travelling magician? And what secret messages are there to be found in a Music Hall poster?

The British Library | Behind the Myth of Music Hall 1

Week 3: How to build an empire, from Egypt to the East End In week three we’ll introduce the capitalist empire builders of the Music Hall. How does one man build his own empire, and what did that mean to the Victorians on a wider scale? Looking at the rise of Jingoism and confronting the Music Hall’s attitude to race, we’ll examine the working life of travelling acts and troupes, such as ‘Lord’ George Sanger’s travelling circus, and, as with Maskelyne’s Egyptian Hall, the influence of other cultures on the Music Halls themselves.

Week 4: ‘It wasn’t what she said, but how she said it’: codified language in the Music Halls In week four you’ll discover the secret world of language and meaning created by Music Halls to transmit cultural messages under the ever-watchful eye of their sensors. From ’s socially incendiary ‘She Sits Among The Cabbages And Peas’ to ’s autobiography Hys Booke, we’ll look at how the acts themselves were responsible for making their own myths and constructing our rose-tinted view of the Halls. But what was the truth behind these unique performers, and are they far more radical than we first believed?

Week 5: Victims or vixens? Women with power In the most challenging session in our course, we’ll explore the darker side of Music Hall. From the casting couch, to prostitution, and a serial killer’s stalking ground, Music Hall has never been portrayed as a safe place for women. However, women like Annie De Montford and Militant Suffragette and Music Hall star, Kitty Marion, lived and worked with great success on the Halls. What does their legacy tell us about women on the stage, and the dangers they faced?

Week 6: The myth of memory – what does Music Hall mean today? In our final session we’ll be joined by Helen Peden, Curator of Printed Heritage Collections 1601-1900 and curator of the Library’s new exhibition There Will Be Fun. Helen will lead a viewing of key collection items from the Music Hall world, including some original posters, leaflets, tickets and other rare ephemera. We’ll end with a final discussion on how the popular culture of the Music Hall was used as a form of social control.

Tutors This course is led by Dr Fern Riddell, with contributions from British Library curator Helen Peden. Fern has recently completed a PhD in sex, suffrage and Victorian Music Hall at King’s College, London and appears regularly on television and radio as an expert in all things Victorian. She is the author of A Victorian Guide to Sex (Pen and Sword, 2014), and the historical consultant for prime- time BBC and Amazon , Ripper Street.

Previous skills, knowledge or experience None required. A willingness to participate in group discussion will help you get the most from this course.

Suggested reading R A Barker, British Music Hall: An Illustrated History (The History Press, 2005) Dagmar Kift, The Victorian Music Hall: Class, Culture and Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 1996) Matthew Sweet, Inventing the Victorians (Faber & Faber, 2002)

Facilities and refreshments Please note that the Learning Centre will open to participants 15 minutes before the stated start time. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided at each session.

The British Library | Behind the Myth of Music Hall 2