Signor Alsepti Introduces the Edeophone

[Richardcarlin]

Have just got a similar card with all four of them without instruments...hasn't arrived yet in the postbox but will post when it comes.  I remember the earlier one!  Would love to have a copy of that again!

[malcolm clapp]

On 12/15/2019 at 2:25 AM, Steve Mansfield said:

I would want to know more about Revrd. Hilier and his ‘playing upon two instruments at once’ ... if that didn’t draw the crowds I don’t know what would! 

 

I, too, would like to know more....

Could the Rev Hillier have been Signor Alsepti himself, but with a quick costume change? He obviously had access to clerical garb as referenced in Stephen's post regarding his belonging to the Franciscan Brothers.

(Pure speculation of course...)

I have a faint recollection of reading a press clipping of another well-known player of the period doing something similar as a music hall turn.

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by malcolm clapp
Amended info

[Stephen Chambers]

On 12/18/2019 at 6:41 PM, Stephen Chambers said:

 

There's a good match in the fourth quarter of 1930 that may well be him: Arthur Webb, born 1862, age 68, died at Lambeth (a lot of music hall artists lived in Brixton, which is in Lambeth), Volume 1d, page 357.

 

But you'd need to order the Death Certificate to be sure.

 

Indeed it looks like somebody has already researched this, in that the V&A website indicates (in relation to one of his clown costumes) that Arthur Webb died in 1930:

 

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O155096/the-brothers-webb-clown-costume-theatre-costume-unknown/

[Stephen Chambers]

10 hours ago, malcolm clapp said:

 

Could the Rev Hillier have been Signor Alsepti himself, but with a quick costume change? He obviously had access to clerical garb as referenced in Stephen's post regarding his belonging to the Franciscan Brothers.

 

I expect it would have been Rev. William Isaac Hillier: http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s08761&pos=2131&action=zoom&id=11884

 

Only I wonder which two instruments?

 

Quote

I have a faint recollection of reading a press clipping of another well-known player of the period doing something similar as a music hall turn.

 

With two concertinas, it'd probably be John Hill Maccann: http://www.concertina.com/maccann-duet/howtoplay/images/P05.htm

Edited December 20, 2019 by Stephen Chambers

[Richardcarlin]

Mark Rosenthal:  Sorry I forgot to give the details on the newspaper obituary for Signor Alsepti; it appeared in: The Exeter Flying Post or, Trewman's Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser on 11 Mar 1897, page 3 

 

Regarding Census records with various spellings of Alsept's original name, I note that census takers often misspelled names so it's hard to say if the original last name was Alsop, Alsep or Alsept.  I agree that changing it to "Alsepti" was probably to give the name an Italian flavor -- Italian musicians being more "classy" than English ones.  

[Stephen Chambers]

On 1/15/2020 at 8:19 PM, Richardcarlin said:

Regarding Census records with various spellings of Alsept's original name, I note that census takers often misspelled names so it's hard to say if the original last name was Alsop, Alsep or Alsept.  I agree that changing it to "Alsepti" was probably to give the name an Italian flavor -- Italian musicians being more "classy" than English ones.  

 

The process for taking the (first modern) 1841 Census was that "census forms were delivered to every household a few days before the day of the census. These were to be completed by the householder and collected by the enumerator on 7 June, the day after the census. The Population Act 1840 created an offence of refusing to answer a census question, or providing false information. Failure to comply with the demand to complete a census form was an offence and penalised by a fine. The enumerator would help in the completion of the form if, for example, the householder was illiterate." (Wikipedia)

 

So, unless everyone in the household was illiterate, the information provided was filled in by the family, and had (by law) to be accurate.

 

 "Signor" Alsepti was criticised, in print, in his lifetime (1895), for having "deemed it expedient to adopt an Italian pseudonym."

Edited January 17, 2020 by Stephen Chambers

[d.elliott]

 

 

 

 

 

Surrey Street Music Hall, later Sheffield Public Lending Library, where the 'introduction' took place

 

[Stephen Chambers]

On 12/19/2019 at 6:53 PM, Richardcarlin said:

As a teaser, here's an early Fayre Four photo when they had long hair!  It's signed and dated (on back) 1920.

 

And here's a low resolution scan of the Sisters Webb post card that I previously sent you in 2003 (I'll take a better one and email you with it):

 

 

I see both photos were taken by Fred Bustin in Bristol, and describe their act in the same terms - as a Musical Speciality.