Maidie Andrews
Maidie Andrews | |
---|---|
Camden Town, London, U.K. | |
Died | 13 October 1986 Kensington, London, U.K. | (aged 93)
Occupation(s) | Actress, singer |
Years active | 1916–1922 |
Relatives | Robert Andrews (brother) |
Maidie Andrews (27 September 1893 – 13 October 1986) was an English actress and singer who, in career that spanned six decades, was a child actress and later a stage beauty who appeared in
Early life
Maidie Andrews was born in Camden Town in London in 1893, the only daughter and second eldest of four children of Ada Harriet née Judd (1873–1946) and Walter Andrews (1861–1935), variously a furniture remover, a horsebus inspector and a refreshment attendant.[1][2] Her younger brother Robert Andrews, born as Reginald Frank Andrews (1895–1976),[3] was also a British child actor and later a stage and film actor. He is perhaps best known as the long-term partner of Ivor Novello.[4][5]
Child star
A theatrical child star, she made her professional stage debut shortly before her 10th birthday as Master Sterling in The Climbers at the Comedy Theatre in September 1903,[6] playing Alice in Alice in Wonderland at the same theatre during the Christmas period 1903–04.[7][8] Of her performance as Alice the critic of Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper wrote, 'Mr. John Donald, the manager, is fortunate in having secured for the artless Alice such a winsome little actress as Miss Maidie Andrews, who evokes interest for all she says and does.'[9]
She was Cissie, one of the Babes in the pantomime Babes in the Wood opposite Phyllis Dare as Charley at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham (1904–05),[10] while in July 1905 she was Little Joan in Where the Crows Gathered at the Criterion Theatre.[11] Early 1907 saw her touring as the Second Twin in Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up opposite Zena Dare.[12][13] She reprised the role of Alice in the children's musical Alice in Wonderland (1907–08)[14] opposite Alice Barth as the Duchess and the Red Queen at the Apollo Theatre in London.[15] She toured as the First Twin in the 1909-10 tour of Peter Pan opposite Pauline Chase as Peter.[13] In February 1910 she appeared as Mrs Darling and First Twin in Peter Pan at the Duke of York's Theatre opposite Herbert Hollom, the first male Peter Pan.[16][17]
Stage career
She was in the national tour of the
She was Sue Smith in the original London production of
She was Mrs Stirling in Noël Coward's musical Pacific 1860 (1946) opposite Mary Martin and Graham Payn. It was the first show to play at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane after World War II. She played the drama teacher Monica Stevens in Ivor Novello's last musical Gay's the Word (1950–51) opposite Cicely Courtneidge and Thorley Walters at the Saville Theatre in London.[24]
Andrews was La Toulouse in the musical Wedding in Paris (1954) opposite Anton Walbrook and Evelyn Laye at the London Hippodrome. In 1959 she played Brigette Blair in a national tour of the farcical comedy Fool's Paradise, again opposite Courtneidge.[25] She was Bonita Belgrave in the original production of Noël Coward's Waiting in the Wings opposite Sybil Thorndike and Marie Lohr and a cast of elderly actresses which premiered in Dublin on 8 August 1960 at the Olympia Theatre, and in the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre on 7 September 1960[26] before going on a national tour.[27]
Television and film
Her television appearances included
Later life
In 1939 she was living with her widowed mother Ada Harriet Andrews at Littlewick Green at Cookham in Berkshire.[31] In 1950 she was living there with her youngest brother Cyril Walter Andrews.[32]
Maidie Andrews spent her last years living in the family home of 37 St Mary's Mansions, St Mary's Terrace in Kensington. She died here in 1986 aged 93. In her will her estate was valued at £158,260.[33] She never married.
References
- ^ 1901 England Census for Maidie Andrews, London, Islington, Upper Holloway: Ancestry.com (subscription required)
- ^ 1911 England Census for Maidie Andrews, London, Battersea, South West Battersea: Ancestry.com (subscription required)
- ^ General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office. © Crown copyright.
- ^ Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England © Crown copyright.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 16 Nov 2007
- ^ Wearing, J. P., The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014), p. 154
- ^ Wearing, p. 165
- ^ a b Biography of Maidie Andrews, Stage Beauty website
- ^ Review of Alice Through the Looking Glass, Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 27 December 1903
- ^ 'Young Players of the Day, and a Possible Player of the Future', The Sketch, 15 February 1905, p. 165
- ^ Wearing, p. 250
- ^ Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1907), Leeds Pay Bills Database
- ^ a b Touring Seasons 1908-09 and 1909-1910, Peter Pan on Stage and Screen
- ^ Wearing, p. 384
- ^ Alice in Wonderland (1898), Savile Clarke Alice Productions - Lewis Carroll Resources database
- ^ Hanson, Bruce K.,Peter Pan on Stage and Screen, 1904-2010, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers (2011), 2d ed., p. 361
- ^ Peter Pan: (Why) Should he Rather Be Played By A Woman?, Philologica Jassyensia, An III, Nr. 1, (2007), p. 123-128
- ^ a b Stage career of Maidie Andrews, Theatricalia website
- ^ Review of No, No, Nanette, The Play Pictorial Magazine, No. 279, Vol. XLVI (1925)
- ^ Review of The Three Graces, The Play Pictorial; London Vol. 44, Iss. 266, (Mar 1924): 101-116
- ^ Conversation Piece on Broadway (1934), Broadwayworld.com
- ^ Set to Music (1939), Broadwayworld.com
- ^ Maidie Andrews on Broadway, Playbill, the Largest Broadway Database Online
- ^ Programme for Gay's the Word (1951) at the Saville Theatre
- ^ Programme for Fool's Paradise (1959), Palace Theatre, Manchester
- ISBN 0-472-11390-9, pp. 275–76
- ^ Programme for Waiting in The Wings, The Opera House, Manchester (1960)
- ^ The Dancing Years (1956), BBC Radio Times Listings (1923 to 2009)
- ^ Cast of Sunday's Child (1959), Nostalgia Central database
- ^ Filmography of Maidie Andrews, British Film Institute (BFI) Database
- ^ 1939 England and Wales Register for Maidie Andrews, Berkshire, Cookham RD: Ancestry.com (subscription required)
- ^ Berkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1965 for Maidie Andrews, Windsor: Ancestry.com (subscription required)
- ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Maidie Andrews, 1987: Ancestry.com (subscription required)