John Lawrence Toole as Tom Cranky in 'The Birthplace of Podgers'

Inscriptionback to top

On mount, lower right, inscr. in pencil: ‘J.L. Toole / as Podger’

This portraitback to top

This photograph shows Toole in costume as Tom Cranky, in the one-act farce The Birthplace of Podgers, which opened at the Lyceum Theatre, London, on 10 March 1858. The role is identified by the pencilled inscription on the mount, and by the anonymous print which seems directly adapted in reverse from Watkins’s photograph and is entitled ‘Mr J.L. Toole / As “Tom Cranky” in the “Birthplace of Podgers”’. Copies of this print are in the Harry Beard Collection and Gabrielle Enthoven Collection (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, S.1649-2012 and S.463-2011 respectively).

A copy of this photo issued by John & Charles Watkins, now in the Guy Little Collection (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, S.139:521-2007) identifies the part as that of Jeremiah Fluke in Behind Time at the Adelphi Theatre, which the print cited above rules out.


Dr Jan Marsh

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