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Caricature
Cooke, George - Enlarge image
Caricature
- Place of origin:
Hanley, England (made)
- Date:
December 1904 (drawn)
- Artist/Maker:
Cooke, George (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pen and ink and wash on paper
- Museum number:
S.392:43-2002
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This caricature is of the comedy double act Macnally & Macnally, or The New Macs, as the Broker’s Men in Cinderella by J. Hickory Wood at the Theatre Royal, Hanley. The pantomime opened there on 26 December 1904. 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 of Varieties in Hanley. He compiled them in a series of albums.
The New Macs, and Morny Cash who appeared as the page in the pantomime, provided much of the comedy business in Cinderella. They made their entrance in the forest scene with a motorised wheelbarrow and performed the duet ‘Two Dandy Swells’. They sang, did stepdancing and clog dancing, came on in one scene in nightgowns, and showed ‘how a glass of beer can be drunk with one hand’ to the apparent delight of the audience. The New Macs may have been a revamped version of the double act that was on the bill at the Middlesex Music Hall in London in 1887 and at the London Pavilion in 1891. When they appeared at the Grand Theatre of Varieties at Hanley again in September 1906, they were billed as ‘Comedians, Patterers and Dancers’.
