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Caricature
Cooke, George - Enlarge image
Caricature
- Place of origin:
Hanley, England (made)
- Date:
October 1904 (drawn)
- Artist/Maker:
Cooke, George (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pen and ink and wash on paper
- Museum number:
S.392:21-2002
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This caricature is of The Three Meers when they were performing at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Hanley, during the week of 17 October 1904. They were billed as ‘An Eccentric Wire Act. Fifteen Minutes of Continuous Laughter’. It is one of the many superb caricatures of Edwardian music hall performers that were drawn by the artist George Cooke when he was based at the Grand Theatre. He compiled them in a series of albums. This one is signed by Alf Meers, who invented his ‘endless wire trick’ for the act.
The Three Meers were on a bill in 1904 that was topped by Charles T. Aldrich, the quick-change star whom Cooke also drew. When The Three Meers appeared at the Grand previously, in May 1903, they had returned from a tour of the Continent. A reviewer noted that ‘the daring nature of the feats and novel balancing positions caused almost continuous rounds of applause’. Many acts that we now associate with circus were popular on the variety stage in the early 1900s. Comical wire acts still feature in the circus. They require great skill to appear to have none.
