|
|
Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Kate
Vaughan |
Catherine
Candelin |
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.'
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