toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 72
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Post by toff on Nov 19, 2022 19:01:38 GMT
vaultofevil.proboards.com/post/19889/threadAny idea of the origin of the story by "P. S." titled "An Actor of Parts"? It's in the 1965 anthology A Chamber of Horrors edited by John Charles Heywood Hadfield (1907-1999), but prior to that: P.S. "Oh, what a Horrid Tale!" The Christmas Companion, edited by John Hadfield. E. P. Dutton, 1939. P.S. "Oh, What a Horrid Tale!" The Fireside Book of Christmas Stories, edited by Edward Wagenknecht. Bobbs-Merrill, 1945. However, searching on "Ernie the actor" from within the story turns up something earlier: Hadfield, John, 1907- Ernie the actor, a seasonable tale. n.p., 1937. 7p. 19cm. "With Christmas greetings, from John and Anna Hadfield." archive.org/details/nationalunioncat225libr/page/126/mode/2up?q=%22ernie+the+actor%22Maybe Hadfield had included the story as a postscript to a Christmas letter, and thus assigned the pseudonym "P.S."? I've been lucky as far as DIY Christmas horror anthologies go, but a couple they wouldn't let me publish (yet) include one involving a ghost boot kicking people in the ass, and another where the traumatized narrator's identity is drifting between a young mother, a child, and a demon imagined from a then-new painting.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 20, 2022 10:41:48 GMT
Thanks for that, Christopher. No surprise it never occurred to me that An Actor of Parts had a history prior to A Chamber of Horrors. We once included it as a stocking filler on a Vault Ad Calendar (very R.I.P.).
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 72
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Post by toff on Nov 20, 2022 22:43:21 GMT
It is a fun story, I'm glad you had mentioned it!
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Post by dem bones on Nov 21, 2022 11:01:41 GMT
Wallace Morgan. Oh, What a Horrid Tale!, Edward Wagenknecht [ed.], Fireside Book of Christmas Stories, 1945. Wonder if we can find an anthologies worth of panto-themed supernatural/ horror stories? Mostly dead obvious, and much crossover with The Stage. Think there may be another in Haining's compilation of 'lost' W. S. Gilbert stories. Bram Stoker - The Star Trap: ( Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party, 1908. Peter Haining [ed.], Greasepaint and Ghosts, 1982, & Co.) J. B. Priestley - The Demon King: ( The Strand, Jan. 1931: Peter Haining [ed.], Greasepaint and Ghosts, 1982, & Co.) Eleanor Smith - Whittington's Cat: ( Satan's Circus, 1934: Richard Dalby [ed.], Virago Book of Ghost Stories: Vol 2, 1991, & Co.). Ruth Rendell - Loopy: ( Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Feb. 1983: Graham Masterton [ed.], Scare Care, 1989, & Co.). Ian Taylor – Behind A Painted Smile: (Darrell Buxton [ed.], 5th BHF Book of Horror, 2021).
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 72
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Post by toff on Nov 21, 2022 11:34:33 GMT
Fair question, though my understanding of English theatre traditions is limited. Pantomime, burlesques, harlequinades - all a bit of a blur to me. I've wanted to explore the role of theatre in the Christmas ghost tradition, though. It's clear it's had one.
I'd found a Christmas ghost story involving a performance of Shakespeare play, different kind of thing though. Also found a number of Christmas poems mentioning both Christmas ghosts and Clown, Harlequin, or Pantaloon (I can share though people generally haven't so much cared for a lot of the poetry I'd included, it's seemed). No stories involving pantomime that I recall offhand. But there are a bunch of stories I downloaded from newspaper databases on the basis of promising keyword hits that I still have to go through.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 19, 2023 17:05:12 GMT
Clark Fay William Templeton - Nobody Loves a Fairy: ( The Bystander, 29 November 1939). Thisbe Boxton the pantomime fairy inflicts bizarre onstage revenge upon her callous husband, the Demon King, and his chorus girl floozie.
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