The Theatrical Histories of Jack the Ripper
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Murder, Myth, and Melodrama: The Theatrical Histories of Jack the Ripper by Justin Allen Blum A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Justin Allen Blum, 2015 Murder, Myth, and Melodrama: The Theatrical Histories of Jack the Ripper Justin Allen Blum Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies University of Toronto 2015 Abstract In 1888, several murders in the London boroughs of Whitechapel and Spitalfields became the first modern serial killings reported by mass-circulation daily media. These were identified with “Jack the Ripper,” a name that still resonates in popular culture and entertainment. This dissertation looks to the theatrical culture of London, arguing that theatre and drama provided models for the creation of this figure, which has the cultural status of a “myth” in the sense defined by Roland Barthes. Drawing on the vocabulary of Barthes and on Diana Taylor’s idea of the “scenario” as a unit of enacted narrative with mythic cultural force, four case studies from a variety of London stages trace how ideas and anxieties about urban modernity were taken from the stage and used by newspaper writers and the public to imagine the Ripper. The first looks at a production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that took place at the same time as the murders, showing how these modeled the killer for a middle-class audience. The second describes an illegal basement theatre in the East End that used representations of the murdered women as one of its variety of entertainments, arguing that these both resisted and confirmed definitions of the murders, the victims, and Whitechapel itself as “obscene.” A third case looks at London Day By Day, a successful 1889 melodrama, arguing that this was the first representation of the Ripper on ii a legitimate stage, albeit in a conflicted and partially-obscured way that nevertheless reveals how crucial melodrama and its iconography was to popular understandings of the murders in the first place. The final case study looks at The Lodger, a 1914 novel that was adapted to stage and screen, tracing how urban legends about a possible killer functioned to consolidate the image of the murders in the 20th century. In conclusion the contemporary practice of “Jack the Ripper Walking Tours” is briefly surveyed to argue that contests over visuality, poverty, obscenity, and urban space that had important currency in the late-Victorian theatre are an integral part of the Ripper myth and remain relevant to this day. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iv Table of Figures vi Acknowledgements viii Introduction: Myth Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow 1 The Autumn of Terror 3 Mythology, Monstrosity, and Scenarios of Gendered Violence 11 Theatre Audiences, Imagined Communities, and Friends of 15 Friends Chapter 1: Seeing Double at the Lyceum: Richard Mansfield, Dr. 24 Jekyll, and Dr. Jack Dr. Jekyll, Double Consciousness, and Irving’s Lyceum 30 Repertoire Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Jack, and Dr. Phillips: Promethean Science and 43 the Medical Murderer Legitimate Artist or “Quick-Change Artiste”?: Critical 57 Reception of Mansfield’s Transformation Conclusion: Dr. Jack and Dr. William Withey Gull 73 Chapter 2: The Ripper, the Fat Lady, and the Demon Barber: The 78 Penny Theatrical Tradition in the East End The Whitechapel District Board of Works v. Thomas Barry 83 Image, Mass, and Urban Spaces and Spectacles 86 Waxes, Freaks, and the Objects of Anatomy 101 Class Conflict and Myth in the Popular Dramatic Tradition 112 Conclusion: The Penny Theatrical Legacy 130 iv Chapter 3: Always Already the Ripper: 133 London Day by Day on the London Stage George R. Sims at the Adelphi: Journalism, Realism, and 135 “Realizations” Fact Bleeding Into Fiction: A Pall Mall Gazette Review and 146 George Hutchinson’s Suspect Realizing the Ripper: Scene VII of London Day By Day 156 Conclusion: Jack l’eventreur and the London Theatrical Press 177 Chapter 4: Who Is The Lodger? Urban Legend From Page, to 182 Stage, to Screen The Lodger on Page, Stage, and Screen 186 Urban Legends, Secret Knowledge, and “Good Stories” About 199 Jack The Ripper From Gothic Thriller to ‘Bloomsbury Comedy’ 209 Reworking the Iconography of The Lodger Across Media 214 Conclusion: A Ripper in Light, Shadow, and Fog 229 Conclusion: The Ripper After Censorship and in the Streets 234 Tourism, Performance, and Vision 240 Ripper Tourism and Myth Today 246 Bibliography 257 Appendix I: Image Permissions 269 v Table of Figures 1.1 Double exposure photograph of Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 30 Hyde. (Courtesy Library of Congress) 1.2 Illustration of Henry Irving in The Bells. From The Stage 12 December 1871. 35 1.3 Henry Irving and Frédérick Lemaître as Robert Macaire. 38 2.1 Illustrated Police News cover, 13 October 1888. 90 2.2 “The Pandemonium of Posters” cartoon, Punch, 13 October 1888. 95 2.3 Detail of Booth’s 1889 “poverty map,” showing Whitechapel High Street 100 2.4 Detail of Illustrated Police News cover, showing Annie Chapman examined 103 by Dr. George Bagster Phillips, 29 September 1888. 2.5 Illustrated Police News cover, 24 November 1888, illustrating Ripper suspect 110 descriptions. 2.6 Illustration of an anatomical “Venus.” (Wellcome Trust Collection, under 111 Creative Commons License 4.0) 3.1 Luke Fildes, Houseless and Hungry (1872). 138 3.2 George Cruikshank, The Drunkard’s Children, plate 10. 146 3.3 Map of Whitechapel showing the location of 9 supposed Ripper murders, Pall 150 Mall Gazette, 16 September 1889. 3.4 “The Stage Villain,” engraved by J. Bernard Partridge for Jerome K. Jerome’s 156 Stage-Land (1906). 3.5 Engraved digest of scenes from London Day By Day, Illustrated Sporting and 158 Dramatic News, 19 October 1889. 3.6 Detail of figure 3.5, showing Mons. Marius as Henry de Belleville 158 committing the murder in Scene VII of London Day By Day. 3.7 Pair of Illustrated Police News images showing Ripper victims lying supine. 159 vi 3.8 Cover of the 1845 serialization of Varney the Vampire. 160 3.9 Frame from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. 161 3.10 Advertising bill showing scene VIII of London Day by Day (© The British 170 Library Board, Evan 398) 4.1 Walter Sickert, Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom (1906-7) 201 4.2 Henry Ainley in Who Is He? (Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum, Theatre 211 and Performance Archive) 4.3 Ivor Novello’s first appearance in The Lodger: A Tale of the London Fog. 216 4.4 Cartoon showing the supporting cast of Who Is He? wrapped in mufflers 218 (Courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum, Theatre and Performance Archive) 4.5 John A. Teniel, “The Nemesis of Neglect,” Punch 29 September 1888. 233 vii Acknowledgements Archival research toward this thesis was conducted with the support of a dissertation travel grant from the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto, as well as that of an Arthur Lindsay Fernie Research Fellowship from the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. My graduate study was funded in part by a Connaught Scholarship from the University of Toronto, as well as by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. In addition to Stephen Johnson, who served as the primary advisor, the committee that supervised this thesis included Professors Nancy Copeland and Charles Keil. John Astington served as a member of the defense committee, and the external examiner was Jim Davis of the University of Warwick. Much of what is good in this work is the result of their valuable insights, and all errors are mine. viii Introduction: Myth Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow “Who is Jack the Ripper?” is a question that has been answered in dozens of ways in hundreds of works of fiction, non-fiction, and more than a few that have described themselves as the latter, while most definitely being the former. The question continues to be enthusiastically addressed today in a whole range of literary, dramatic, and other cultural products. One answer is proposed by the contemporary cable television drama Penny Dreadful: the unsolved Ripper murders are mentioned several times in the first season, which is set in London in the 1890s and has Dracula, Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Grey, and an American werewolf as principal characters. In this series from writer John Logan, who has also penned scripts for James Bond films, Jack the Ripper is one Victorian monster among many in a sexually-charged narrative world, wherein spectatorial pleasure comes from admiring the slickly gothic mise-en-scène, while recognizing the equally suave play of meta-fiction. In a more ostensibly factual medium, Russell Edwards’ recent claims to have identified the Ripper as the Polish barber Aaron Kosminski, an identification made through the analysis of DNA on a shawl allegedly worn by one of the victims, is no less marked by reference to genre tropes. The “World Exclusive” that Edwards authored for the Daily Mail in advance of the release of a book detailing his investigation features maps, photos of suspects, and other visual “evidence” arranged in a fashion resembling the pin-boards familiar from television police procedurals like CSI. In its online incarnation it includes a video discussing DNA testing; this is characterized by the paradoxical combination of copious jargon and minimal specificity, a mixture familiar from the way in which television crime programs refer to scientific 1 testing in the pursuit of plot points.1 In this news story, as in so many before it naming a variety of men as suspects, Jack the Ripper is the perp who is finally fixed within a meticulously assembled web of evidence at the end of a procedural whodunit.