This vintage real photo postcard features English actress and Gaiety Girl, Olive Morrell (1877-1937). In this portrait postcard, she is holding playing cards. Morrell is most associated with her roles in Edwardian musical comedies. Olive was raised in Highgate, near London. An introduction by her singing teacher, led her to theatrical producer George Edwardes. The introduction opened a path for her to perform at London’s Gaiety Theater. Olive was a gaiety girl. Gaiety Girls was the name given to the chorus girls acting in the musical comedies at the theater. The “girls” were beautiful and they danced and modelled bathing suits and the latest fashions onstage. The gaiety girls were considered more respectable than the women performing at London’s burlesque houses. Morrell was a very popular real photo postcard model. Reviewers of her stage performances often commented about her beauty. In 1908, Olive was married to an Australian politician, Willie Kelly. The publisher of this postcard was a London firm (B. B.). Olive’s photo portrait was taken by R. W. Thomas. The postcard dates back to about 1906. This vintage postcard is in very good condition (see scans).
Buy this original Vintage Real Photo Postcard (includes shipping within the US) #5329
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$12.48
Buy this original Vintage Real Photo Postcard (includes international shipping outside the US) #5329
To purchase this item, click on the Pay with PayPal button below
$24.48
The pretty woman featured in this real photo postcard is Mable Woods. She was a theater actress. I could find little biographical information about her. I did discover that sometimes her name appeared as “Mabel” Woods rather than “Mable” Woods. I stumbled across a couple of real photo postcards in which Miss Woods made an appearance. Two of these cards were individual portraits of the actress but another postcard paired her with an actress name Rose de Vella. Mable Woods and Miss de Vella toured India together, performing in the chorus line for one of the “Gaiety Girls” touring companies. Irish born, George Edwards (1852-1915) was the theater manage of London’s Gaiety Theater. At one point he had sixteen touring companies. He had a propensity for hiring pretty young women to work as “Gaiety Girls”. These women were the chorus girls appearing in Edwardian musical comedies that began in the 1890’s. These women were an important ingredient for staging a successful musical production. They danced and appeared on stage in bathing attire and in the latest fashionable clothing. Unlike the corseted actresses from earlier musical burlesque shows, Gaiety Girls were viewed as respectable and refined. One writer reports that Gaiety girls “were polite, well-behaved young women”. Many Gaiety girls progressed to very successful acting careers. The list of former Gaiety girls reads like a hall of fame of celebrated actresses. Gaiety girls that catapulted to major roles include Marie Studholme, Mabel Love, Ellaline Terriss, Lily Elsie, Gladys Cooper, Phyllis Dare, and Gabrielle Ray. These and other starring alumni of the chorus, kept the moniker “Gaiety Girls”. The young women performing in Edward’s shows peaked the interest of wealthy gentlemen who became known as “Stage Door Johnnies”. They would wait outside the stage door and invite the actresses to dinner at fine restaurants. A number of women accepted the invitation. Sometimes the women would eventually marry one of these dates. A number of these women married noblemen, while others became the wives of professionals. In the book, “The Gaiety Years”, author Alan Hyman refers to the chorus as becoming “a matrimonial agency for girls with ambitions” to marry titled men. This postcard is in very good condition (see scans).
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