1876 marked a great epoch in the history of the London theater, as in this same year the 'quartette' was formed, a quartet which instantly became famous, and which was the foundation stone for that success which has never since deserted the Gaiety Theater.Nellie Farren, Kate Vaughan, Edward O'Connor Terry(1844-?), and E. W. (Teddy) Royce! in 'Little Don Cæsar de Bazan,' was when Kate met with instantaneous success, and from that time forward became the supreme ruler in the Terpsichorean field.

-- Kate Vaughan, who created a new era in the world of dancing, whom thousands came to see for the grace of her art, and of whom John Hollinshead wrote: 'In all the troubles and worries of rehearsals she was never once known to be wanting in patience and perfect courtesy,' a tribute that could be rendered to but few.

   Kate, by her institution of the long-skirted form of dancing, called the Skirt Dance , took by storm the hearts of all theatergoers, for the grace and charm of the new style could not be denied, and the superiority. On the model of Kate Vaughan's style is built practically all that is best in the Stage dancing of today, and had it not been for her happy inspiration a very different type of dancing might now be in vogue.

   Her theatrical history practically starts with her appearance in the Gaiety Quartette in 1876, though she had been on the Stage, occasionally dancing and acting, for some years before this. Her maiden name was Candelin, but she, in company with her sister Susie Vaughn, took the name of Vaughan, when they helped to form the "Vaughan Dancing Company," a well-known combination in the early eighteen seventies. She had before this studied dancing and acting under Mrs. Conquest at the famous "Grecian Theater," and her first appearance in the 'legitimate drama' was with Miss Litton's company at the Court Theater in 1872.

   In all of these, Kate Vaughan won her way into the hearts of the people, and no one was more sorry than her Gaiety audiences when she relinquished her dancing shoes for the theatre. Had not her dancing prowess so completely overshadowed her efforts in this direction, she might have made a big name for herself as an actress also. As it was, her rendering of Peg Woffington in 'Masks and Faces' drew forth the genuine praise of the critics, and in many other parts she showed that she had the capabilities of a great actress.

   But it was in the Gaiety Burlesques that her people loved to see her, and many recalled the tumultuous applause that greeted her as Alice in 'Dick Whittington' -- one of her big hits, when she made her bow, dressed in a lilac-tinted early Victorian costume, with white furs and a big white muff. How different was all this to her last days, forgotten and almost unknown, in far-off Johannesburg!

Kate married Frederick Arthur Wellesley, grand nephew of the Duke of Wellington and that the marriage ended in divorce and a huge scandal. She was also known to always wear Long Black Gloves and carry a lace handkerchief.

   -NOTE: Some books cited The Skirt dance as the 'Twentieth Century Skirt Dance.'