Silk programme produced for the Grand Opening Night of the Bordesley Palace Theatre and Stage Circus of Varieties, Birmingham, 3 August 1903

Silk programme on cream silk in blue typography on three panels with integral fringe to top and bottom. Printed on both sides to fold in three with an image of the theatre in the front central panel. Three panels recto, the right and left panels giving information about performance times, ticket prices, and the other theatres owned by Moss Empires, and three panels verso, left and right with decorative motifs and the text 'GRAND Opening Night MONDAY, AUGUST 3rd, 1903', and the central panel within a decorative border giving the name of the Proprietors, Moss Empires Ltd, the names of the Managers H.E. Moss & Oswald Stoll, the name of the General Manager. Frank Allen; the Acting Manager Geo. F. Thompson, and the programme.

The selvages at top and bottom are frayed to form a fringe. Produced by Moss Empires Ltd. for the 'Grand Opening Night' of the Bordesley Palace Theatre and Stage Circus of Varieties, Birmingham, 3rd August 1903.

The Bordesley Palace Theatre and Stage Circus of Varieties, Birmingham, formerly the Imperial Theatre, was managed by Horace Edward Moss and Oswald Stoll when it was acquired by the Moss Empires Organisation, described on the programme as 'The Latest Amusement Organisation.' The theatre was re-modelled, refurbished and re-lit, according to the programme note, as a cost of £6,000. This silk programme was produced for the opening night of the theatre, 3rd August, 1903, with a Variety programme featuring the vocalist Beatrice Willey; the 'musical grotesque' act of the Brothers Webb; the comedian Fred Lincoln; Mendel, the blind pianist and composer; Wilson & Waring, comedians; The New York Quartette, vocalists and dancers; the Klein Family, trick cyclists; Peggy Pryde, comedienne; Dan Dee, American comedy juggler, and the American Bioscope. The Assistant Manager was Mr. W. Machin and the Stage Manager Mr. R.B. Wilson.

A note on the programme lists the other Moss Empire Theatres as the London Hippodrome, the Liverpool Olympia, the Birmingham Hippodrome, the Empire Theatres in Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, and in London the Empires at New Cross, Hackney, Holloway, Stratford and Shepherd's Bush. Also the Palace Theatres at Manchester, Leicester and Hull, the Manchester Hippodrome and the new London Coliseum.

S.235-1991