Talk:Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool

I don't know who changed this page and left the sarcastic comment, however the page is more messed up now you've edited it....In the middle of the 'Pantomimes' section there’s about 7 edit links in the middle of the paragraphs.......If you're going to come out with sarcasm for my lack of respect for layout, typography etc.... at least have the decency not to mess it up even more! AndyP543 01:13, 24 August 2006 (UTC)


 * You just want to make the pictures as big as possible. Tell me do you work there of for them. You do seem to engaging in propgada edits. I did not mess it up. I reverted it to your version before you made the prictures overly big again. You haven't bothered to place them in the article just around it. I suggest you work out what you are doing before you carry on.--84.9.194.125 06:40, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm confused why you think that making the pictures larger is propaganda. I'm just trying to make them easy to view whilst reading the article. If you made more constructive comments about the layout then maybe I could make positive changes, however just leaving cheap, sarcastic comments isn't really helping anyone. Also I have not put any opinions into the article....only facts......so how is this propanganda? I'd be interested to hear your views...AndyP543 14:08, 24 August 2006 (UTC)


 * How now edited the layout, see if this is more to your taste. AndyP543 14:20, 24 August 2006 (UTC)


 * How do you know they are facts? Were are you references they should be listed at the bottom. I don't tiknk the pictures are propganda I just think they are to big. You seem to be editing only one page without siting references.--84.9.210.109 17:44, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

more on Happy Fanny Fields and Dr. Abraham Jacob Rongy
Here is all I have collected on my cousin Fanny Fields: Fanny (Fields) Furman	b: Sep 15, 1882 in Manhattan, NY Occupation: Famous Actress/Singer/Dancer/Comedian 1901-1914 d: Sep 12, 1961 in Manhattan, NYC, NY married Abraham Jacob (Roginsky) Rongy b: Sep 27, 1878 in Zoskowitz, Russia Now Poland			m: Jan 1, 1914 in NYC, NY Occupation: OBGYN d: Oct 11, 1949 in Manhattan, NYC, NY Naturalization: 1893

Fanny Furman followed in Joe, her brother-in-law's footsteps into show business trading her last name for his show business name of Fields. Fanny Fields, Known as "Happy Fanny Fields" was a Popular Vaudeville Dancer in NYC & London. She performed in British & Continental Music Halls in WWI & post war era. She performed the first Command Performance before royality in London. She retired from show business when she married a prominent doctor Abraham Jacob Rongy. She became active in fundraising for Lebanon Hospital which her husband founded and other Jewish medical organizations.

On her sister Anita: Showbusiness name for Anita Furman was "A.P." A NY dance Teacher in 1918 of the Hesitation Waltz and Ballet. She was a partner with her daughter, Radie Furman, d.1983 and Sister Happy Fanny Fields, d.1961, married Dr. Abraham Rongy. http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d1f.htm

On her brother Abraham: Owned a dance studio in Manhattan in 1910 - 1930 Census

On her brother-in-law Joseph: Vaudeville actor Joe Fields - Looking for info on my great granfather Joe M Fields his birth name was Joseph Manus. He married Beckie Furman and had 3 children. His sister "Happy Fanny Fields" was very popular in vaudeville in England. I think he as part of an act known as Gallagher and Fields. B 1869, D July 30 1953 in New York. Judith Lindo - mzzbea@aol.com

July 18, 1897 Brooklyn Eagle - Joes Fields, in German eccentricities, among others. Aug 8, 1897 Brooklyn Eagle - Bergan Beach - As many of the performers in the burlesque "The Belle of greater New York" at Bergan Beach, are obligated to begin rehearsals withthe companies for which they are engaged for the coming season, it has been withdrawn, and continuous vaudeville will reign for the balance of the season. Among the best known of the people engaged for this week are the following...Joe Fields, comedian... June 13, 1898 Brooklyn Eagle - It's Fifteenth Festival - Plattdeutschers begin the celebration at Ridgewood Park. Entertainers included Joe Fields, the dutch comedian.

Joseph Fields - Actor - Smart Woman (1948) drama - uncredited - Paula's Assistant. www.uk.imdb.com UNCONFIRMED! Note: Not to be confused with Joseph Albert Fields (the writer) 1895-1966, son of Lew Fields (vaudeville act Weber & Fields, born Moses Shanfield), brother of Herbert and Dorothy Fields. Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Manhattan, New York, New York; Roll: T623 1118; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 839 March 19, 1899 - Brooklyn Eagle - Casey's Wife by Robert J. Donnolly. "Charecters Impersonated by THE IRISH; John G. Sparks, Laura Bennett, Grace Hazard, C. Gillingwater, Josie Clayton and others. THE HEBREWS; Joe Walch, Fanny Fields, Julia Lee, Gus Frankel, Marie Clayton and others." Dec. 5th 1899 - Brooklyn Eagle - Hyde & Behman's - "Fanny Fields in a German dialect and dances gives a good act as does George Evans, black face comedian and singer." April 8, 1900 - Brooklyn Eagle - Hyde & Behman's - "A great Big Laughing Show this week matinees same as the evening performances at Hyde & Behman's - Happy Fanny Fields, the German comedienne and other well known performers." April 15, 1900 - Brooklyn Eagle - A Resort for Ladies and Children - Performing amongst others "Miss Fanny Fields a newcomer in the field of Dutch dialect." April 17, 1900 - Brooklyn Eagle - Hyde & Behman's - "Fanny Fields the German Maiden, is another good number with her dialect songs and stories." Oct 21, 1900 - Brooklyn Eagle - The Star - "Happy Fanny Fields is twelve minutes of fun peculiarly her own." Oct 23, 1900 - Brooklyn Eagle - The Star - "A clean cut show with sufficient variety to please the most excting frequenter of the star, is offered by Reilly and Woods this week. There is not an objectable feature throughout...Fanny Fields is as jolly as ever..." April 2, 1902 - Brooklyn Eagle - Vaudville Houses - The Novelty - "On the bill Happy Fanny Fields." Sept 28, 1902 - Brooklyn Eagle - London Theatrical Gossip - "Music Halls Monopolized by American Performers - Elfie Fay, Fanny Fields and R.G. Knowles are proving popular."

Fanny Fields 1884-1961 American vaudeville comedienne - Happy Fanny Fields at the Tivoli music hall, London, 1902 Miss Fanny Fields, who is one big bubble of mirth and merriment, tells, amongst a lot of other funny stories, how she stood in the front ranks of the crowd on Coronation day [9 August 1902], when a big burly man came and stood "right in front of my face. When I had recovered my breath, I touched him on the shoulder and said, 'My friend, are you opaque?' 'No, mum,' says he, 'but I'm O'Brien'".' (The Playgoer, London, September 1902, p.337)

The Royal Court Theatre is a theatre at 1 Roe Street, Liverpool, England Three years later, Arthur Lawrence was appointed the theatre manager. Starting with Aladdin, it was Lawrence who put the Royal Court firmly in the centre of the panto map. The biggest music hall stars of the day would appear in the Court’s “annual”. George Robey, Harry Lauder, Little Hetty King as Aladdin Tich, the Three Sisters Levey and the Poluski Brothers all helped to make the Royal Court’s pantomime among the most famous in Britain. With the ownership of the theatre passing to Howard & Wyndhams Ltd at the turn of the century, the growth of pantomime blossomed.

Arthur Lawrence quoted in The Liverpudlian, November 1938:

In 1906, in Aladdin, I had Hetty King and Happy Fanny Fields, together with Malcolm Scott and Harry Tate-some combination. I produced at the Court, in twenty-six years, twenty pantomimes. The 1906 panto was the biggest success. We averaged takings of just under £2,000 a week, and that in a theatre supposed to hold no more than about £275 at full capacity. Our pantomimes would run elsewhere for about five years, so Liverpool was thus a pantomime manufacturing centre. 'Happy' Fanny Fields, They were all made here- scenery, dresses, jokes and music, and all. I may mention, also, that we had a stage unsurpassed for its equipment. Every kind of trap ever known on a stage was in being

That pantomime Aladdin was repeated, with almost the same cast, at the Adelphi Theatre in London the following year. A chorus of over 100 Voices boasted the posters. A magazine was produced in Liverpool solely devoted to pantomimes.

Fanny Fields in Aladdin. By the 1920’s the death of Music Hall was under way, and the Royal Court panto mirrored its decline.Hetty King Gone were the stars with their own personal songs to be replaced by “free” songs that anyone could sing. The Royal Court panto ended, replaced each Christmas by musical comedy, or a visit by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Court_(Liverpool)

Howard and Wyndham Limited 1888 - 1948 -60 Years of Pantomime and Beyond J.B. Howard (1841 - 1895) and Frederick WP Wyndham (? - 1930) were well known figures in Edinburgh theatrical life as both managers and actors. Theatre impresario and actor, Wyndham trained in Edinburgh under William Murray at the Theatre Royal, which once stood in Leith Street. In 1883, he formed a partnership with J.B. Howard to run the Royal Lyceum Theatre, which became the theatre management company Howard & Wyndham Ltd. in 1895. They also leased the Theatre Royals in Edinburgh and Glasgow and the Royalty Theatre in Glasgow. Only weeks after the formation of the company, Howard died from stroke in his office, aged 54 1909 - 10 Aladdin  - Bessie Butt, Harry Tate, Harry Claff, Regan & Ryan, Doris Deane, Dorothy Firman, Happy Fanny Fields, Malcolm Scott  F.W. Wyndham A Robert Arthur Production http://www.its-behind-you.com/howardwyndham.html

NANSI RICHARDS (JONES) was born on the 14th.May 1888 and died on the 21st. December 1979. Her interest in the harp began at the age of 10 when she surreptitiously crept into a bedroom where she was staying and played in her nightdress. She owned her first harp at 12. Her first teacher was Tom Lloyd, who won first prize at the Chicago World's Fair, both for making and playing. Nansi attended the Guildhall School of Music in London for only one year, leaving to join the comedienne, "Happy" Fanny Fields on the Music Halls.Fanny Fields was famous for her Laughing Songs and for the Frog Dance,

England's Oldest Hitmakers - Round the Town: Following Grandfather's Footsteps; A Night at the London Music Halls by Luc Sante February 21 - 27, 2001 The very fetching Happy Fanny Fields escaped from America, where she was one of a zillion "Dutch" (that is, German-accented) comedians, to London, where she cornered the market. http://www.ronworld.f9.co.uk/actinfo.htm and http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0108,sante,22418,22.html

Of Self and History: Exchanges with Linda Nochlin - art historian Art Journal, Fall, 2000  by Moira Roth Nochlin regales me with stories about her grandparents and her parents, and about her great-uncle Abraham, a wealthy dapper gynecologist, who meets and marries Happy Fanny Fields, a glamorous star of the British vaudeville stage. "We have quite an assortment of pictures and postcards of her, mainly in her Dutch Girl costume, but here is one of Fanny as Gretchen in 'Aladdin.'" We browse around in piles of loose photographs, some dated and some not, and through many photo albums, old and new. We search through the 1938-39 volume of Who's Who in American Jewry to find biographical entries on her two grandfathers, Jacob Heller and Harry Weinberg. http://www.findarticles.com/

Recorded - "The Suffragette" - Happy Fanny Fields on the recording "Round the Town-A Night at the [BOX SET] [Audio CD] Donegan; Davies; Dury...and "Round The Town: Following Grandfather's Footsteps", A Night at the London Music Halls, BCD 16021-1 DK, 16021-2 DK, 16021-3 DK, 16021-4 DK, Bear Family Records, P.O. Box 1154, D-27727, Hambergen, Germany. The gold standard for music hall comps and a Tony Barker enterprise (he of Music Hall magazine) through and through, from producing the package through writing the liner notes to providing the discs and visual material. 106 songs on four CDs, a beautiful LP-sized 132-page hardcover book (that wouldn't look out of place on a tony coffee table) chock-full of bio material, sepia portraits and color reproductions of sheet music, and lyrics for each song, all printed on good stock paper. The track selection mixes the old warhorses with lesser-known material, all in great-sounding masterings. Bear Family usually focuses on encyclopedic reissues for individual artists; this time, they, in collaboration with Barker, have crafted as desirable a mixed compilation as any from Rhino or any other industry leader. My highest recommendation.

OH! BLOW THE SCENERY ON THE RAILWAY 1910 Recordings Cylidisc 508 George Lashwood – Oh! blow the scenery on the railway/ The moonlight promenade; Jock Lorimer – The motor car; Vesta Tilley – Sidney’s holidays/ The girls I left behind me; Will Evans – The beauty doctor; Rich & Rich – We don’t want a girl/ Jenny, my own true love; Albert Whelan – The story of a trombone player; George Formby – Old King Cole/ 1,2,3,4,5; Happy Fanny Fields – When Schultz fights the drum; G H Elliott – How do you do, my baby?/ There’s a little cupid in the moon; Tom Foy – My girl’s promised to marry me; Whit Cunliffe – Up she goes; Ella Retford – I’m looking for Grahame White/ Molly Molloy; Barclay Gammon – The Suffragette’s Anthem; Billy Williams – The only bit of English we have got; Billy Merson – The fireman

Songs of suffragettes & speed, spooning and simple love. From adulation of aviators to sorting out the suffragettes, from fervent patriotism to Tom Foy's winsome romance, what a fascinating song picture of life in 1910 Britain. More superb transfers by Julian Myerscough http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/musichall/page5.html

Recording - Duprez, May Moore   `Happy' FANNY FIELDS

Filmography - TV Series: "Toast of the Town" (1948) ... aka The Ed Sullivan Show (new title) Original Air Date: 10 November 1957 (Season 11, Episode 7) guest Fannee Fields as Herself. http://www.imdb.com/

HAPPY FANNY FIELDS AND THE FOUR LITTLE DUTCHMEN (1913) Production countries - Great Britain - Silent Movie http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/227547

"Happy Fanny Fieldds 1884-1961 The American Dutch Girl" HAPPY FANNY FIELDS RECORDINGS. Double Dutch Fusilliers....1909 Jumbo 414 England And Germany....1909 Jumbo 414 Suffragette [The]....1909 Jumbo 435 When Schultz Fights The Drum....1909 Jumbo 435 MISS FIELDS ON FILM. B.F.C. 03935 [4/1913] HAPPY FANNY FIELDS AND THE FOUR LITTLE DUTCHMEN [450ft] Selsior Fanny Fields MUSICAL. Dance to synchronise to cinema orchestras www.aftertheball.net/WillEvans2.html

Ariel Records- An incomplete listing of this label, classified by the numerous sources this company used. Issued by the giant shop, JG Graves of Sheffield, Ariel records were available by mail order. They were pressed for Graves by manufacturers from about 1910 to 1937. During this time there were issued a bewildering variety of recordings from contemporary pre World War 1 Music Hall treasures through rare Twenties Jazz recordings on Parlophone down to the more mundane fare of lesser known artists of the Sound Recording Company. Very few lists of Ariel records seem to have survived, and whilst none of the recordings are original to this label, collectively they represent an important document of the breadth and scope of British as well as some American recording from this period. It is impossible to ever produce a complete discography, in the absence of the necessary catalogues. However it is only by listing known issues and getting collectors to add their own information to this that we will ever approach a near complete listing. Our difficulties are compounded by the fact that recordings from one source were sometimes reissued from another source, but using the original Ariel catalogue number. The label, except where noted, was a reddish brown colour, with the pressing data around the foot - this gives an initial guide as to the recording source. IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER ARIELS IN THE SAME SERIES as that published in the current issue PLEASE SEND US DETAILS. We will add your information and acknowledge your contribution. Issues from the Jumbo label, Catalogue numbers on Ariel: 1500 to 2097 Label information : 1. Recorded in London Reproduced in Prussia 2. Made in England Dates:c1911-1914 1967 Happy Fanny Fields England & Germany Double Dutch Fuseliers Lxo788 Lxo789 http://www.78rpm.co.uk/record.htm

Grace, Beauty and Banjos (Oberon Books 1999) by Michael Kilgrraff VAN DER VENN (fl c1930s) ...and his Dutch Band - See MACARI and Happy FANNY FIELDS for other Nederlanders.

Various Postcards can be found on eBay. Like this one listed "FANNY FIELDS as Gretchen in Aladdin" - postcard Publisher: Rotary 7007F - USA - 1907. FANNY FIELDS as Gretchen in Aladdin - postcard (Hands on hips pose) Black & white gloss photo of American vaudeville comedienne, Fanny Fields (1884-1961). Unused. Asking $9.20

FANNY FIELDS - Signed card  - Superb signature from this Great music hall comedienne 'By the side of the Zuider Zee'. £20 / $39 http://members.aol.com/ttwible/stage.htm

This auction is for a rare programme from a Royal Performance before KING GEORGE V on July 1st, 1912 at the Palace Theatre in London ... The concert included twenty-four acts followed by a "Variety's" Garden Party which involved many of the performers as well as prominent guests in attendance. Headliners for the special performance included HARRY LAUDER singing "Roamin' in the Gloamin'", CECILIA "Cissy" LOFTUS in "Impressions of Artistes" and Russian Ballerina ANNA PAVLOVA assisted by Laurent Novikoff and members of the Russian Imperial Ballet ..... The remaining acts included PIPFAX and PANLO Essentrics in "Humpsti Bumpsti"; BARCLAY GAMMON and a Grand Piano; THE PALACE GIRLS (Produced by John Tiller); CHIRGWIN the White-Eyed Kaffir; THE BOGANNYS "Five Minutes in China Town"; FANNY FIELDS "The Happy Dutch Girl"; PAUL CINQUEVALLI as "The Human Billiard Table"; HARRY TATE in "Motoring"; IDA CRISPI and FRED FARREN in "Everybody's Doing It"; VESTA TILLEY singing "Algy, the Piccadilly Johnnie"; LA PIA in "The Dance of Fire" and "The Spirit of the Waves"; LITTLE TICH as "The Gamekeeper" and his Big Boots; ARTHUR PRINCE and Jim in a Nautical Ventriloquial Scene; ALFRED LESTER assisted by BUENA BENT in "The Village Fire Brigade"; CLARICE MAYNE and "That" fellow, J. W. TATE at the piano, singing "I'm Longing for Someone to Love"; CHARLES T. ALDRICH presenting a series of Quick-Change Characters (Buffalo Bill, David Garrick, Fagin and The Jew); GEORGE ROBEY as "The Mayor of Mudcumdyke"; Magician DAVID DEVANT presenting Sleight of Hand Mystifications and his Original Illusion entitled "The Artiste's Dream" and WILKIE BARD will "Want to Sing in Opera" ..... Sir HARRY LAUDER (1870-1950)... Current bid: US $42.00 on eBay

Fred Peel to Marry Fanny Fields When Fred Peel, who last Winer was business manager of Joe Weber's company, went to England a few weeks ago, the impression got around that he was to engage players for work in this country. Yesterday if was announced that he will marry Fanny Fields, who is now singing in London music halls, but who ten years ago starred in "Casey's wife" of which Mr. Peel was business manager. New York Times June 30, 1907 Fred Peel found Dead at Lambs Fred Peel, one of the best known advance agents and company managers in the theatrical buisness, was found dead in bed in his room at the Lambs' club yesterday morning. He had been a sufferer from Bright's disease for several years. Mr. Peel was 53 years old, and was a native of London, Ontario... New York Times May 6, 1914

Composer Biographies A.J. [Arthur J.] Mills (1872-1919) Prolific lyricist born in Richmond, Surrey, A.J. Mills usually teamed up with Bennett Scott. Among his hits were Charles Bignall's "What Ho, She Bumps" (with Harry Castling, 1901); Alf Chester's "Why Did I Leave My Little Back Room" (with Frank W. Carter, 1901); Marie Kendall's "Just Like The Ivy (I'll Cling To You)" (with Harry Castling, 1903); Happy Fanny Fields' "By The Side Of the Zuider Zee" (with Bennett Scott, 1906); Whit Cunliffe's "Fall In And Follow Me" (with Bennett Scott, 1910); and Marie Lloyd's "When I Take My Morning Promenade" (with Bennett Scott, 1912). http://www.james-joyce-music.com/songb_15_composer.html

MUSIC HALL MAGAZINE Music Hall contains well-researched in-depth biographies of the named British music hall performers, with a list of their recordings, films, songs, etc. Subscription is £10 for 2 issues. If you want to subscribe, or order back issues, please send payment (Cheques, etc. payable to A. Barker, please) to Tony Barker, 68 Hawkes Road, Mitcham, Surrey, CR4 3JG, or email me (see home page for email address) if you require further information. MH8. T.E.Dunville - Happy Fanny Fields http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/musichall/page1.html

More on Dr. Abraham Jacob Rongy originally Roginsky

Author          : Rongy, Abraham Jacob, 1878. Title             : Childbirth: yesterday and today; the story of childbirth through the ages, to the present, by                      A. J. Rongy ... 20 illustrations. Publisher    : New York, Emerson books, 1937. Description : 192 p. incl. front. (port.) illus. 20 cm. Subjects      : Obstetrics -- History. : Birth (In religion, folk-lore, etc.).

Author          : Rongy, Abraham Jacob, 1878. Title             : Safely through childbirth; a guide book for the expectant mother, by A. J. Rongy. 20 illustrations. Publisher     : New York, Emerson books, inc., 1937. Reprinted 1948 Description  : 192 p. incl. front., illus. 20 cm. Notes           : "Supplementing my book on 'Childbirth: yesterday and today'."--Pref. Subjects      : Pregnancy. Obstetrics.

Dr. Rongy is the Author of classic book " Abortion - Legal or Illegal?" (1933). He was the Inventor of "Twilight Sleep" for Childbirth. Abraham is in Who's Who in American Jewry & The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. The doctor was the VP of the American Jewish Congress 1925 & Chairman of Zionist Org. of America in 1935. He was the founder of Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx.

...The files on contraception and eugenics, along with a history file (containing mostly historical outlines and articles from the English publication, the Malthusian), a file on Malthus and Malthusianism, a large amount of material on Sex Education, including early pamphlets and publications from England, Sweden and the U.S., and the Legal files make up a core collection of historical materials on the roots of the American birth control movement.... Of particular interest are the files on abortion, which include research, statistical information and some apocryphal stories on the illegal abortion industry, as well as some influential arguments in favor of legalizing abortion, such as A. J. Rongy's "Abortion and Birth Control." Sophia Smith Collection - Smith College - Margaret Sanger Papers, 1761-1995 http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss43.html

...As a matter of fact, this power to pass sentence upon and to end, under certain conditions, unborn human life is the so-called 'legal right' of doctors right here in New York state. Some doctors are not satisfied with the restricting conditions; they want even more power; they want to liberalize the law and gain further legal rights over unborn human life. Dr. A. J. Rongy, ,a Jewish physician in New York City, has written a book to promote this campaign. He thus puts himself on record, to use his own words, 'as a true believer in the ideals of liberalism.' Like Lord Moynihan, the British doctor 'who expects only opposition from Roman Catholics,' like the birth control propagandists, who became fanatical whirling dervishes at the mention of the Catholic Church, Dr. Rongy speaks quite frankly about the unalterable stand of the Catholics against physicians tampering with unborn life. He states quite clearly that Christianity in the beginning launched a drastic revolution against pagan morality. And then note this: 'The pendulum is swinging back and we are close to the ancient ways of thought.' Right, Dr. Rongy. We are simply weltering in a damnable sea of pagan ideology and pagan conduct. Does that explain why a western District Attorney declared in 1932 that there were over fifty deaths in one year alone in his city from criminal operations, in violation of the doctor's famous Hypocratic oath. If the medical profession loses the confidence of the people, it will be the medical profession itself which is to blame. The end of medical science is to save human life, not to stop it at its source, not to destroy unborn life, not to end disease and suffering by slaying the patient. The doctors in regard to contraception, sterilization, unborn life and euthanasia should refuse to be the grave diggers of the nation or of humanity... Rev. Ignatius -W. Cox, S. J, Ph.D. "Mercy Killing is Murder" Author was a Professor of Ethics, teaching on Fordham University (United States). This speech was broadcasted by Radio Station WLWL on November 15,1935 Source: www.wandea.org.pl/ mercy-killings.htm

Contributed by Susan Field Saycheesebits at hotmail.com P.S. I have Photographs —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.238.88.204 (talk) 22:35, 9 February 2008 (UTC)