26 Dec. 1831: “Hop O’ My Thumb and his brothers: or, Harlequin and the Ogre,” pantomime by Charles Farley, appears at Covent Garden. William Henry Schofield Payne plays Medow Mawr, the Welsh ogre, and Elizabeth Poole plays Hop.
Elizabeth Poole might be the first woman to play Principal Boy, or a young male protagonist. (Although the identity of the first female Boy is disputed, the tradition derived from child labor laws which didn’t allow young children to play such roles.)
26 Dec 1840. In Planche’s Castle of Otranto or Harllequin and the Giant Helmet, adapted from Horace Walpole, Tom Thumb cameos alongside other popular and historical characters.
1845: General Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) goes on a wildly successful tour of Europe with P. T. Barnum. He performs in the play Le Petit Poucet by Dumanoir and Clairville, at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in France.
1846: ‘Hop o’ My Thumb’ or ‘The Ogre and his seven league boots’ written especially for Stratton by Albert Smith. It was performed at the Lyceum Theatre in March and at the City of London Theater in May. Stratton would have been eight years old at the time, though he was advertised as being older.
This Hop is a trickster figure; the comedic play opens with him emerging from a nut to meet King Oberon and the fairies, and then has him caper and dance his way through a retelling of the fairytale, eventually vanquishes the ogre and marries the smallest of his daughters.
December 21, 1854: Hop o’ my Thumb; or the Giant Ogre and his Seven League Boots.
December 26, 1857: Little Red Riding Hood; or Harlequin Hop o’ my Thumb and the Ogre with the Seven League Boots. Unknown author. Nottingham.
1862: “Hop o’ My Thumb, or the Ogre and the Dwarf” appears in Barnum’s American Museum. This showcases the two newest performers, Commodore Nutt (the smallest man in the world) and Monsieur Bihin (the largest). Barnum was clearly trying to recreate the success of Charles Stratton, right down to introducing Commodore Nutt with the same fairytale. The play takes place every afternoon and evening.
January 2, 1863: Hop o’ my Thumb and the Giant Ogre of the Seven Leagued Boots; or, Harlequin Prince A 1 and the Water Lilies of the Silver Lake. Liverpool.
1864: Hop O’ My Thumb and his Eleven Brothers, or, Harlequin & the ogre of the seven league boots, by E. L. Blanchard, is Drury Lane’s Christmas pantomime. In his journal, Blanchard notes sourly, “As usual, not half the effects carried out.” It seems to have gotten some good reviews, though. More masks by Dykwynkyn.
Hop was played by a child actor, Percy Roselle.
June 6, 1870-June 17, 1870. Hop o’ my thumb. A musical pantomime written by James Schonberg, performed at Wood's Museum and Metropolitan Opening Date.
December 26, 1872: Harlequin Hop o’ my Thumb; or, the Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, and the Ogre and his Seven-leagued Boots by Frederick Marchant.
December 23, 1876: Hop o’ my Thumb (Albion)
January 5, 1877: Hop o’ my Thumb (Newcastle)
December 24, 1880. FRANK WILLIAM GREEN Hop o’ my Thumb; or, Harlequin Nobody, Somebody, Busybody and the Wicked Ogre with the Seven-League Boots by Frank William Green at Surrey.
It was later performed at Alexandra Palace, December 26, 1881. Hop o’ my Thumb was played by Charlie Adeson, and his sweetheart Daisy by Edith Adeson, both child actors. “The two combined might be six feet high,” said Punch (January 8, 1881).
188-. Hop o' my thumb; or Harlequin Princess Pretty Eyes & the ogre with the seven-league boots: a fairy tale. Frank William Green.
1890: The Sleeping Beauty by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky has a cameo by Hop o’ my Thumb and his brothers.
December 26, 1892: Little Bo-Peep, Little Red Riding Hood and Hop o’ my Thumb, by Sir Augustus Glossop Harris and Wilton Jones, performed on Drury Lane. Music by J. Crook. This was a four-hour-long amalgam of three fairy tales; critics said the plot was too muddled (a “dramatic Cerberus”), and some of the humor was a bit vulgar. However, they praised the beautiful scenery with its creative use of electric lights, as well as an extravagant scene with the “Hall of a Million Mirrors.”
Henry Relph (stage name Little Tich) was a comedian and dancer who stood 4 feet 6 inches tall. This was his second pantomime, and he was very successful as Hop o’ My Thumb. His stage name led to the British slang term “titchy,” meaning small.
December 27, 1911: New York Headline: PANTOMIMES RULE IN LONDON THEATRES; " Hop o' My Thumb," at the Drury Lane, Heads List of 23 on Boxing Day.
1911: The ballet Ma mere l’Oye (Mother Goose) by French composer Maurice Ravel premieres on 29 January 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris. Among other fairytales it includes a piece inspired by Le Petit Poucet, translated here as Little Tom Thumb.
November 26, 1913-January 3, 1914: Drury Lane Company’s “Hop O’ My Thumb” goes to America. It is produced at the Manhattan Opera House in New York and, with its all-ages appeal and mix of political humor, becomes extremely popular, playing at Christmas and Easter. The elaborate production required two ships to transport, and the entire stage of the Opera House had to be rebuilt.
Iris Hawkins played Hop o’ my Thumb.
After 1916, eight years pass between Hop o’ My Thumb pantomimes.
1928: The “Stage” newspaper asserts that Hop o’ My Thumb and other fairy tale titles have vanished from the lists of pantomimes.
November 19, 1929: Though Hop o’ My Thumb has fallen out of favor as a pantomime, the story is not gone from theater entirely; the New York Times reports: “Hop o' My Thumb,” Charless H. Brown's play for children, will be presented by the Kiddies Show Shop at the Belmont Theatre next Saturday morning at 10:30 o'clock. An adult cast will perform the play.”
1957: The Palace Newcastle produces a Hop o’ My Thumb pantomime, with a puppet playing Hop. This is one of the last pantomimes about this fairy tale.
Elizabeth Poole might be the first woman to play Principal Boy, or a young male protagonist. (Although the identity of the first female Boy is disputed, the tradition derived from child labor laws which didn’t allow young children to play such roles.)
26 Dec 1840. In Planche’s Castle of Otranto or Harllequin and the Giant Helmet, adapted from Horace Walpole, Tom Thumb cameos alongside other popular and historical characters.
1845: General Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) goes on a wildly successful tour of Europe with P. T. Barnum. He performs in the play Le Petit Poucet by Dumanoir and Clairville, at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in France.
1846: ‘Hop o’ My Thumb’ or ‘The Ogre and his seven league boots’ written especially for Stratton by Albert Smith. It was performed at the Lyceum Theatre in March and at the City of London Theater in May. Stratton would have been eight years old at the time, though he was advertised as being older.
This Hop is a trickster figure; the comedic play opens with him emerging from a nut to meet King Oberon and the fairies, and then has him caper and dance his way through a retelling of the fairytale, eventually vanquishes the ogre and marries the smallest of his daughters.
December 21, 1854: Hop o’ my Thumb; or the Giant Ogre and his Seven League Boots.
December 26, 1857: Little Red Riding Hood; or Harlequin Hop o’ my Thumb and the Ogre with the Seven League Boots. Unknown author. Nottingham.
1862: “Hop o’ My Thumb, or the Ogre and the Dwarf” appears in Barnum’s American Museum. This showcases the two newest performers, Commodore Nutt (the smallest man in the world) and Monsieur Bihin (the largest). Barnum was clearly trying to recreate the success of Charles Stratton, right down to introducing Commodore Nutt with the same fairytale. The play takes place every afternoon and evening.
January 2, 1863: Hop o’ my Thumb and the Giant Ogre of the Seven Leagued Boots; or, Harlequin Prince A 1 and the Water Lilies of the Silver Lake. Liverpool.
1864: Hop O’ My Thumb and his Eleven Brothers, or, Harlequin & the ogre of the seven league boots, by E. L. Blanchard, is Drury Lane’s Christmas pantomime. In his journal, Blanchard notes sourly, “As usual, not half the effects carried out.” It seems to have gotten some good reviews, though. More masks by Dykwynkyn.
Hop was played by a child actor, Percy Roselle.
June 6, 1870-June 17, 1870. Hop o’ my thumb. A musical pantomime written by James Schonberg, performed at Wood's Museum and Metropolitan Opening Date.
December 26, 1872: Harlequin Hop o’ my Thumb; or, the Sleeping Beauty and the Beast, and the Ogre and his Seven-leagued Boots by Frederick Marchant.
December 23, 1876: Hop o’ my Thumb (Albion)
January 5, 1877: Hop o’ my Thumb (Newcastle)
December 24, 1880. FRANK WILLIAM GREEN Hop o’ my Thumb; or, Harlequin Nobody, Somebody, Busybody and the Wicked Ogre with the Seven-League Boots by Frank William Green at Surrey.
It was later performed at Alexandra Palace, December 26, 1881. Hop o’ my Thumb was played by Charlie Adeson, and his sweetheart Daisy by Edith Adeson, both child actors. “The two combined might be six feet high,” said Punch (January 8, 1881).
188-. Hop o' my thumb; or Harlequin Princess Pretty Eyes & the ogre with the seven-league boots: a fairy tale. Frank William Green.
1890: The Sleeping Beauty by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky has a cameo by Hop o’ my Thumb and his brothers.
December 26, 1892: Little Bo-Peep, Little Red Riding Hood and Hop o’ my Thumb, by Sir Augustus Glossop Harris and Wilton Jones, performed on Drury Lane. Music by J. Crook. This was a four-hour-long amalgam of three fairy tales; critics said the plot was too muddled (a “dramatic Cerberus”), and some of the humor was a bit vulgar. However, they praised the beautiful scenery with its creative use of electric lights, as well as an extravagant scene with the “Hall of a Million Mirrors.”
Henry Relph (stage name Little Tich) was a comedian and dancer who stood 4 feet 6 inches tall. This was his second pantomime, and he was very successful as Hop o’ My Thumb. His stage name led to the British slang term “titchy,” meaning small.
December 27, 1911: New York Headline: PANTOMIMES RULE IN LONDON THEATRES; " Hop o' My Thumb," at the Drury Lane, Heads List of 23 on Boxing Day.
1911: The ballet Ma mere l’Oye (Mother Goose) by French composer Maurice Ravel premieres on 29 January 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris. Among other fairytales it includes a piece inspired by Le Petit Poucet, translated here as Little Tom Thumb.
November 26, 1913-January 3, 1914: Drury Lane Company’s “Hop O’ My Thumb” goes to America. It is produced at the Manhattan Opera House in New York and, with its all-ages appeal and mix of political humor, becomes extremely popular, playing at Christmas and Easter. The elaborate production required two ships to transport, and the entire stage of the Opera House had to be rebuilt.
Iris Hawkins played Hop o’ my Thumb.
After 1916, eight years pass between Hop o’ My Thumb pantomimes.
1928: The “Stage” newspaper asserts that Hop o’ My Thumb and other fairy tale titles have vanished from the lists of pantomimes.
November 19, 1929: Though Hop o’ My Thumb has fallen out of favor as a pantomime, the story is not gone from theater entirely; the New York Times reports: “Hop o' My Thumb,” Charless H. Brown's play for children, will be presented by the Kiddies Show Shop at the Belmont Theatre next Saturday morning at 10:30 o'clock. An adult cast will perform the play.”
1957: The Palace Newcastle produces a Hop o’ My Thumb pantomime, with a puppet playing Hop. This is one of the last pantomimes about this fairy tale.
1730: Tom Thumb the Great, a comedic burlesque with lots of satire, by Henry Fielding. Originally part of The Author’s Farce, it opened April 24 1730 and ran to March 1731. It would later turn out to be one of his most enduring plays, inspiring multiple musical adaptations and eventually naming the two main characters of Beatrix Potter’s Tale of Two Bad Mice.
Tom was played by Miss Jones, who was most likely in her teens or younger. This was part of the trend for Tom Thumb to be played by a child actor, sometimes as young as five years old.
24 March 1731: The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, premieres. This is an expanded version of Fielding’s original. Apparently, Tom Thumb is played by a male actor this time, “Young Verhuyck.”
31 May 1733: The Opera of Operas; or Tom Thumb the Great by playwrights Eliza Haywood and William Hatchett, developed from Fielding’s Tom Thumb the Great. It ran 13 nights at the Little Theatre until discontinued due to hot weather, though it was later started up again.
1780: Kane O’Hara adapts Tom Thumb, a Burletta from Fielding’s play.
1847. “Tom Thumb” performed at Liverpool Theatre Royal Adelphi.
26 December 1853. Harlequin and Tom Thumb, or Gog and Magog and Mother Goose's Golden Goslings, a pantomime by E. L. Blanchard. It begins with a paean to Progress, before Mother Goose arrives to begin the pantomime. In the cottage of Gaffer Thumb, Tom falls into a pudding, which is carried away by a tailor and eaten by a cow. Tom escapes but is then carried by a raven to Giant Grumbo’s castle, where he rescues King Arthur’s daughter Princess Poppet. Eventually finding his way to Arthur’s court via salmon, Tom asks to marry the princess. Arthur is reluctant, so Mother Goose transports everyone to Fairyland where they all take part in a harlequinade. It was performed before an extremely crowded theater; several critics complained of noise and being unable to understand the plot. However, the scenery, quick scene changes, and mechanics received praise.
December 26, 1860 – 1861. Harlequin and Tom Thumb; or, Merlin the Magician and the Good Fairies of the Court of King Arthur, by E. L. Blanchard, music by J. H. Tully. E.T. Smith took Her Majesty’s Theater for one season in 1860; to accompany the main apiece, the French opera Queen Topaze, Blanchard wrote Harlequin and Tom Thumb, a piece aimed primarily for children. Critics praised it for being fun and easy to understand, with excellent scenery as well as masks by the semifamous Dykwynkyn, plus a cow that swallowed Tom Thumb whole. Blanchard visited the first morning performance on December 29, saying that it went “very well” but was received by “a very indifferent house.”
Tom Thumb was played by child actress Lilia Ross.
December 26, 1862: Tom Thumb; or, Merlin the Magician and the Fairy in the Grotto of Silver Shells by Henry Saville Faucit, performed in Northampton.
December 16, 1871. Tom Thumb the Great; or, Harlequin King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, by E. L. Blanchard. Performed at Drury Lane. On Boxing Day, it had three repeats by popular demand. As usual with Drury Lane, there were several scenes involving children, opening with a living doll’s house and including a scene where Tom Thumb’s miniature army performs military maneuvers. It ended with a ballet. Tom was played by child actor Master John Manley.
1875. Jack the Giant Killer and Tom Thumb, or, Harlequin, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Written by Frank W. Green.
2004. A modified version of Tom Thumb the Great appears with a potato playing the lead role.
Tom was played by Miss Jones, who was most likely in her teens or younger. This was part of the trend for Tom Thumb to be played by a child actor, sometimes as young as five years old.
24 March 1731: The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, premieres. This is an expanded version of Fielding’s original. Apparently, Tom Thumb is played by a male actor this time, “Young Verhuyck.”
31 May 1733: The Opera of Operas; or Tom Thumb the Great by playwrights Eliza Haywood and William Hatchett, developed from Fielding’s Tom Thumb the Great. It ran 13 nights at the Little Theatre until discontinued due to hot weather, though it was later started up again.
1780: Kane O’Hara adapts Tom Thumb, a Burletta from Fielding’s play.
1847. “Tom Thumb” performed at Liverpool Theatre Royal Adelphi.
26 December 1853. Harlequin and Tom Thumb, or Gog and Magog and Mother Goose's Golden Goslings, a pantomime by E. L. Blanchard. It begins with a paean to Progress, before Mother Goose arrives to begin the pantomime. In the cottage of Gaffer Thumb, Tom falls into a pudding, which is carried away by a tailor and eaten by a cow. Tom escapes but is then carried by a raven to Giant Grumbo’s castle, where he rescues King Arthur’s daughter Princess Poppet. Eventually finding his way to Arthur’s court via salmon, Tom asks to marry the princess. Arthur is reluctant, so Mother Goose transports everyone to Fairyland where they all take part in a harlequinade. It was performed before an extremely crowded theater; several critics complained of noise and being unable to understand the plot. However, the scenery, quick scene changes, and mechanics received praise.
December 26, 1860 – 1861. Harlequin and Tom Thumb; or, Merlin the Magician and the Good Fairies of the Court of King Arthur, by E. L. Blanchard, music by J. H. Tully. E.T. Smith took Her Majesty’s Theater for one season in 1860; to accompany the main apiece, the French opera Queen Topaze, Blanchard wrote Harlequin and Tom Thumb, a piece aimed primarily for children. Critics praised it for being fun and easy to understand, with excellent scenery as well as masks by the semifamous Dykwynkyn, plus a cow that swallowed Tom Thumb whole. Blanchard visited the first morning performance on December 29, saying that it went “very well” but was received by “a very indifferent house.”
Tom Thumb was played by child actress Lilia Ross.
December 26, 1862: Tom Thumb; or, Merlin the Magician and the Fairy in the Grotto of Silver Shells by Henry Saville Faucit, performed in Northampton.
December 16, 1871. Tom Thumb the Great; or, Harlequin King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, by E. L. Blanchard. Performed at Drury Lane. On Boxing Day, it had three repeats by popular demand. As usual with Drury Lane, there were several scenes involving children, opening with a living doll’s house and including a scene where Tom Thumb’s miniature army performs military maneuvers. It ended with a ballet. Tom was played by child actor Master John Manley.
1875. Jack the Giant Killer and Tom Thumb, or, Harlequin, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Written by Frank W. Green.
2004. A modified version of Tom Thumb the Great appears with a potato playing the lead role.
“Have I Got One For You,” a 1968 musical adaptation of Thumbelina for an adult crowd, composed by Jerry Blatt. “Thumby’s” prince is a jerk and she winds up marrying the toad, Joshua. The production was a flop, but Blatt would later resurrect it as the 1973 children’s musical “Thumbelina.”
Sources
http://www.its-behind-you.com/storyhopomythumb.html
Campbell, Jill. Natural Masques: Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays and Novels.
Nicoll, Allardyce. History of English Drama, 1660-1900
Richards, Jeffrey. The Golden Age of Pantomime: Slapstick, Spectacle and Subversion in Victorian England
Campbell, Jill. Natural Masques: Gender and Identity in Fielding's Plays and Novels.
Nicoll, Allardyce. History of English Drama, 1660-1900
Richards, Jeffrey. The Golden Age of Pantomime: Slapstick, Spectacle and Subversion in Victorian England
