This caricature shows C. Hayden Coffin (1862-1935) as Lord Lorrimer in On The Air at the Brighton Theatre Royal on 5 November 1934. It was drawn by Gilbert Sommerlad (1904-1976), a rehearsal pianist and orchestral violinist at the Brighton Theatre Royal from 1932 until 1936, and at the Oxford New Theatre from 1936 for over forty years. Sommerlad sketched the stars on stage when he wasn't needed in the orchestra pit, compiling the sketches in a series of albums.

The musical farce On The Air was written by Bromley Challenor and May Elliott, and starred Hayden Coffin with Bromley Challenor as Jimmy Lorrimer. It was set in Lord Lorrimer's house and Jimmy Lorrimer's palace in Persia and featured musical numbers including 'If Ophelia had Married Hamlet' and 'You're the Girl of my Heart'. C. Hayden Coffin was the son of an American dentist who settled in Britain and himself studied dentistry before turning to the stage. His first professional appearance was in 1884 and he established himself as one of the great matinee idols of the day when he appeared in Dorothy at the Gaiety Theatre in 1886. He starred in a string of musical comedy hits in the 1890s including A Gaiety Girl, An Artist's Model, The Geisha and A Greek Slave.