Panto In Brighton
24th November 2013
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Ellen Elizabeth Rollason was born London in 1839 and started her stage career as a child actress in pantos. In 1865, she joined the company of Henry Nye Chart in Brighton, based at his Theatre Royal, and married him in 1867.

When Henry died 1876, Ellen took over management of the theatre and continued to build on her late husband’s work. Realising that the she needed to attract audiences with the big names of the London stage, she introduced the concept of the Thursday and Saturday matinee shows.

These ‘Flying Matinees’ involved getting actors appearing in West End productions to agree to come down for afternoon performances, on special trains, and hiring extra train carriages for the 4.45pm train back to London, so they could be in time for their evening shows. By the end of the 19th century, every major stage name, including Lily Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt, Edmund Kean, David Garrick and Sir Henry Irving, had appeared at Theatre Royal Brighton.

But, for all her commercial success, Ellen Nye Chart never forgot her humble origins: not only did she created the tradition of the Theatre Royal's annual Christmas pantomime, every year she invited all 1,100 inmates and staff of the Brighton Workhouse to a performance, free of charge.

In 1888, they presented her with an inscribed plaque, which read ‘Many of us will, on the next reoccurrence of your invitations, be in the world of shadows, but when we meet at the last great transformation scene, the things which you have done for the poor and friendless will be written in letters of gold above your head’. Ellen Ny Chart died in 1892; her funeral was attended by hundreds and brought the streets of Brighton to a standstill.

It’s appropriate, then, that two of the greatest ever pantomime ‘dames’ lived right here Brighton.

Jack Tripp MBE (1922–2005) was an English comic actor, singer and dancer who appeared in seaside variety shows and revues and became best-known for his many performances as a pantomime dame. Born in Plymouth, he was a successful tap dancer and became known as the town’s ‘Fred Astaire’. During WWII, he joined ‘Stars in Battledress’ and performed in Europe and the Middle East.

After the war, he was with the Fol-de-Rols concert party for many years, and starred in his own summer seaside show, Take A Tripp. He appeared in more than 50 pantomimes — The Stage once described him as ‘the John Gielgud of pantomime dames’ — but his own favourite was the lead in Mother Goose, which was his last panto, in 1996. 

By 2000, Tripp had retired and moved, with his life partner Allen Christie, to Hove. He died on July 10 2005, aged 83, at Brighton General Hospital and his funeral was held at the Downs Crematorium on July 18. Stars in attendance included Roy Hudd — Tripp’s favourite panto partner, who wrote and directed the 1996 Mother Goose — John Inman, Anita Harris and Janet Brown. In the 1960s, Jack Tripp lived at 22 Charles St.

During the 1950s, Tripp performed in comedy shows with another legendary panto dame, Dougie Byng, who lived in Arundel Terrace, Kemp Town. He started his panto career in the 1920s — not as a dame, but as the Grand Vizier in Aladdin at the London Palladium in 1921. However, just three years later, Byng appeared as the first of his many pantomime dames: Eliza in Dick Whittington and His Cat. Unusually, Byng decided that his dames would be more glamorous than others, and designed all his own panto costumes.

Byng was also a celebrated cabaret and revue star, and enjoyed one of the longest ever stage careers — an incredible 72 years. His great friend and one-time lover, Noel Coward, described his nightclub act as ‘the most refined vulgarity in London’.

You can learn more about Ellen Nye Chart, the Theatre Royal and Dougie Byng in The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton, available in paperback or Kindle editions: http://www.rosecollis.com/books/new-encyclopedia-of-brighton/

And, if the festive season doesn't appeal to you, then join Rose Collis and VG Lee for their distinctly un-festive show, 'Bah Humbuggers!': http://www.rosecollis.com/bah-humbuggers/

www.rosecollis.com

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About the Author

Rose Collis

Member since: 16th October 2013

Writer, performer and alternative historian, I've lived and worked in Brighton since 1997. My work includes everything from my one-woman show, 'Trouser-Wearing Characters' to my non-fiction books, including...

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