Bransby Williams The Music Hall Irving Rotary Real Photo Postcard

NR28 Antique real photo postcard of historic actor and comedian Bransby Williams - Please note this particular postcard from Rotary seems very scarce (cat no 1191Q). It has some edge corner ageing but just to reverse only - the postcard (other than light surface imperfections) is outstanding unused condition - overall vg+ to ex minus but allowing above is great.

Bransby Williams (born Bransby William Pharez; 14 August 1870 3 December 1961) was a British actor, comedian and monologist. He became known as "The Irving of the music halls". Williams became a great success, and he appeared before King Edward VII at Sandringham House in a Royal Command Performance on 3 December 1903, when he performed the characters from Dickens as well as his impersonations of famous actors and comedians of the day. In 1905 and 1907, he toured in the United States. On 7 January 1914, in King's Hall, Covent Garden, Williams played Anthony Durdles in the mock trial of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin Drood. At this all-star event G.K. Chesterton was Judge and George Bernard Shaw was foreman of the jury. In 1922, Williams toured the UK with his own company as actor-manager, performing in a series of plays based on Dickens, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Barnaby Rudge. In 1923, he purchased the stock of the late Sir Henry Irving, which he used in his tour of The Lyons Mail and in March of that year he played Hamlet for the first time at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Birmingham. Later he also bought the stock of Laurence and H.B. Irving. In June 1923, he appeared at the Lyceum as both Micawber and Peggotty in David Copperfield, after which he and his company toured Canada. Williams regularly appeared in pantomime, making his first appearance in that medium playing the Baron in Babes in the Wood at the Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool in 1906, and appearing at the London Palladium as 'Abanazer' in Aladdin in 1926. He appeared in a Royal Variety Performance before King George V and Queen Mary on 27 May 1926.

He appeared in a number of films, including Royal England, a Story of an Empire's Throne (1911); Hard Times (1915) as Gradgrind; the title role in Adam Bede (1918); The Adventures of Mr Pickwick (1921); Scrooge (1928), made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process; The Common Touch (1941); Those Kids from Town (1942); Tomorrow We Live (1943); The Agitator (1945) and Judgment Deferred (1952). He also made a number of audio recordings for Edison, including The Awakening of Scrooge and The Street Watchman's Christmas, both in 1913