WEBVTT - Drury Lane Ghosts 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.200 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.960 of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:18.480 Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. This episode was originally 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.080 gonna be another edition of Ghosts of the British Isles. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:27.120 This sort of still is, but it ended up being 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:31.560 all about specifically theatrical ghosts. As Andrew Dixon wrote in 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.400 an article for The Guardian in twenty fifteen, quote, there 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.000 is barely a theater in Britain that doesn't claim a 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.159 resident spook. History is littered with stories of phantoms, glimpsed 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:45.040 in the orchestra stalls or on stage, presences felt but unseen. 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:50.080 And so this particular episode is about theatrical ghosts. But 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:55.080 theatrical ghosts associated with one place, and that place is 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.880 specific and it has its own interesting history. That is 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.360 the Theatre Royal drury Lane. This theater is known by 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.920 a lot of names. Theater Royal drury Lane is one, 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.440 and perhaps its most accurate one, but it is more 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.039 often called the drury Lane Theater, sometimes just the Dreary, 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.760 et cetera. I picked this one because it's considered the 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.000 most haunted. But the thing is The ghost stories that 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.440 it has are many in number, but there's not a 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.360 lot of documentation about these sightings. So I thought, first 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.000 we would talk about this theater's history because it's really interesting. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:31.200 So this is one for the theater kids in the crowd, 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:33.640 and then we are going to talk about some of 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.600 the ghosts that are associated with it, including one whose 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.720 ghost is a previous podcast subject, and I don't think 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.759 we talked about him being a haunting entity on that one. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.040 I went back and checked and heard nothing about it, 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:49.000 so I don't think we did. We're like augmenting that story. Yeah, 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.800 we did mention this theater a lot in it, which 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.400 is why as I was reading through that line, I 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.560 kept being like, why, why is this familiar? Yeah? I 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.280 kept looking back through stuff and then went uh oh yeah, okay, okay. 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.240 So the Theater Royal Drury Lane in London is the 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.400 oldest theater of the city that's still in regular use. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.520 There've actually been multiple buildings on the site over the years, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.880 but they all operated under the same charter. Because of 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.320 this theater's age, it is home to a lot of 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.160 ghost stories. The theater is part of the City of Westminster. 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.040 That's a Borough of London and part of the city's 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.960 historic West End theater district. The name is actually a 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.359 little confusing because the theater's address and main entrance are 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.959 not on Drury Lane. They're on Catherine Street. Dury Lane 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.240 is one street over at the back of the theater. 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.920 The name may have come from another building that was 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.680 near the theater in its first incarnation, or because of 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:54.000 a renaming of the streets. One other theory is that 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.840 the name came from a previous theater run by the 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:01.640 Drury's first proprietor, which was and Drew Lane. The original 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.720 Theatre Royal Drury Lane opened on May seventh, sixteen sixty three. 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.440 It was built by Thomas Killigrew under a royal charter. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.960 That charter was part of a rebuilding of the arts 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.600 in England that followed the Puritan into Regnum, that period 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:20.160 from sixteen forty nine to sixteen sixty when England was 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.800 a republic and not governed by a monarch. In the 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.560 time preceding the interregnum, the theater had been largely sponsored 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:29.800 by the Stuart Court, and when we say the theater 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.080 we mean the theater scene of London, not this theater. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.400 After Charles the First was executed, an event that could 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.640 make a very good future episode. The Protestants sold his 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.560 art collection and banned theater for a variety of reasons 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.400 you will see summed up in different ways. When the 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.200 executed King's son, Charles the Second, regained the throne in 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:55.160 sixteen sixty, he was eager to re establish the cultural 0:03:55.200 --> 0:04:00.760 institutions the Puritans had closed down. A charming contempt. Account 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.080 of the granting of this charter and another reads quote. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.200 King Charles the Second, at his restoration granted two patents, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.440 one to Sir William Davenant and the other to Thomas 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:18.000 Killigrew Esquire and their several heirs and assigns forever for 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.200 the forming of two distinct companies of comedians. The first 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.440 were called the King's Servants, enacted at the Theatre Royal 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.640 in Drury Lane, and the other the Duke's Company, who 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.560 acted at the Duke's Theater in Dorset Garden. About ten 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.680 of the King's Company were on the Royal household establishment, 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.359 having each ten yards of scarlet cloth with a proper 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.719 quantity of lace, allowed them for liveries, and in their 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.359 warrants from the Lord Chamberlain were styled Gentlemen of the 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.400 Great Chamber. Whether the like appointments were extended to the 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.920 Duke's Company, I am not certain. Can I just tell 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.360 you how much I love the idea of having a 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.040 job or title where they're like, here's your bolt, so 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.040 a fabric, go have your clothes custom made. That sounds dreamy. 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.640 But to go back to the theater. Killigrew was a dramatist. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.440 He wrote the plays The Parsons, Wedding, the Prisoners and 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.200 Clara Scilla, and the theater company that Killigrew founded was 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.279 known as the King's Men in addition to the King's Servants, 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.320 and the theater opened with the nickname the King's Playhouse. 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.200 That theater, which costa reported two four hundred pounds to 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.640 build at the time, so that was pretty expensive, staged 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.360 The Humorous Lieutenant, a tragic comedy by John Fletcher, as 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.839 its opening play. The theater actually closed for a couple 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.839 of years, for sixteen sixty five and sixteen sixty six, 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.760 but once it reopened it had a lot of success 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.520 for several years, but then that success was halted on 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.240 January twenty fifth, sixteen seventy two, when the theater burned 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.400 to the ground. The theater was rebuilt in sixteen seventy four, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.880 though its footprint changed as it was expanded considerably. It 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.400 is believed, although not conclusively documented, that Sir Christopher Wren 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:06.279 may have been the architect responsible for its construction. When 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.719 the new four thousand pound facility opened on March twenty six, 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:14.160 sixteen seventy four, Killigrew stayed on as Master of the Rebels. 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.640 In sixteen eighty two, the two companies that had been 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.600 formed in the sixteen sixty two charters were merged into one, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.360 and Killigrew was still involved with this newly formed group 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.440 until his death, that was on March nineteenth, sixteen eighty three. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.919 One of Killigrew's most significant contributions to the theater was 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.080 the use of women actors instead of troops consisting exclusively 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.680 of men. Samuel Peeps noted in a diary entry from 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:46.120 before the opening of the Jury Theater play staged by Killigrew, 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.440 of which he says, quote and here the first time 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.080 that ever I saw women come upon the stage. Killigrew 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.120 continued this practice at Dury Lane. Yeah, that was not 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.280 common practice yet. From seventeen ten to seventeen thirty three, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.599 the Drury Lane Theater was wildly successful, and it was 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.800 home to the earliest productions of a lot of famous plays. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.800 The credit for this success is often given to the 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.920 way it was run, which was the work of three men, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.920 Robert Wilkes, Collie Sibber and Thomas Dogget. It was actually 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.200 sibbers autobiography that we read from in the account of 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.320 how the two charters were granted earlier. These men had 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.240 all been very closely tied to the theater for some time. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.480 Early publications of the manuscript for the Humorous Lieutenant Liz 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.880 Cibber is one of the performers, and in seventeen thirteen 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.320 Barton Booth joined the three man management team when Thomas 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:42.120 Dogget retired. But then in the seventeen thirties, when Sibbers retired, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:47.280 the theater was taken over by Charles Fleetwood. Unlike his predecessor's, 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.440 Fleetwood was not a good manager. Under his leadership, a 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.040 series of events that came to be known as the 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.040 Drury Lane Riots took place. A letter from Horace Walpole, 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.560 who we've talked about on the show before, to Horace Mann, 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:05.640 who I don't think we've talked about on the show 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:09.320 for mentions being at one of these riots. Quote. The 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.760 town has been trying all this winter to beat pantomimes 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:17.040 off the stage. Fleetwood, the master of Drury Lane, has 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.720 omitted nothing to support them, as they support his house. 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.640 About ten days ago he let into the pit great 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.880 numbers of bear garden bruisers, that is the term, to 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.360 knock down everybody that hissed the pit. Rallied their forces 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.240 and drove them out. I was sitting very quietly in 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.400 the sideboxes, contemplating all this. On a sudden the curtain 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:43.280 flew up and discovered the whole stage filled with blaggards, 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:47.280 armed with bludgeons and clubs to menace the audience. This 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.240 raised the greatest uproar, and among the rest who flew 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.079 into a passion. But your friend, the philosopher in short, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.560 one of the actors, advancing to the front of the 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.520 stage to make an apology for the manager. He had 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.000 scarcely begun to say, mister Fleetwood, when your friend, with 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.240 the most audible voice and dignity of anger, called out, 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:12.920 he is an impudent rascal. The whole pit huzzad and 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.480 repeated the words, only think of my being a popular orator. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.960 I just think that's adorable. I really loved reading a 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.040 lot of mariswaalbole stuff. When I was working on that, 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:31.680 I stood up and yelled, it's just so charming. The 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.880 cause of the riots is often choked up to rising 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.680 ticket prices, but modern scholarship makes the case that it 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.240 was really much more complex than that. Part of it 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:46.760 the inclusion of pantomimes instead of higher grade of theater, 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:51.240 which not everybody liked. Fleetwood had been steadily losing public 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.880 trust for years, and in the year before the riots, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.360 the actors had a conflict with Fleetwood when he refused 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.839 to guarantee their wages for the season. The actors had 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.400 staged a walkout over treatment ten years earlier, in seventeen 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.160 thirty three, but in seventeen forty four, when this was 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:11.400 going on, their only recourse was to file a legal action. 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.840 They were no longer legally allowed to form their own 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.200 theater if they left this one. Although the actors did 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.600 lose their legal filing against Fleetwood, the whole thing left 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.640 Fleetwood's already weak reputation with the public just completely ruined. 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.640 After the seventeen forty four riots, he sold his stake 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.400 in the theater and left the country settling in France. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.679 Will continue to discuss the many people who managed the 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.560 Theatre Royal Drury Lane, but we will first take a 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:52.640 quick sponsor break. In seventeen forty seven, the theater changed 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.000 hands yet again, to run under the management of David Garrick. 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.640 This was another period of incredible success and credit praise. 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.080 Garrick's Drury Lane run lasted three decades, and he appeared 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.760 in many of the venue's productions during that time. Before 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.800 he retired in seventeen seventy six, he gave a farewell 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.280 performance in a play called The Wonder In. This last 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.800 show for the beloved actor and manager was so anticipated 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.480 that it seemed that all of London showed up. There 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.640 was not enough space in the theater to accommodate the crowd. 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.520 Accounts note that the staging was changed that night so 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.640 that Garrick was alone on stage during his final lines 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.440 as he bid farewell to his life on the stage. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.440 In seventeen seventy six, Richard Brinsley Sheridan took the helm 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.959 of the Jury Theater and he continued its run of excellence. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.760 It was during his tenure there that he wrote and 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.600 premiered The School for scandal, but though the quality of 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.840 the plays was good, the quality of the building was not. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.520 Over the years, a lot of problems had cropped up 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:00.880 in the theater and its age eventually surpassed management's ability 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.160 to keep up. In seventeen ninety one, the theater closed 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.120 temporarily in the building. This was, as you recall, the 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:11.120 second one was demolished. For the next several years, the 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:14.600 company continued to stage plays, but they were performed a 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.000 little less than a mile away at Theatre Royal Haymarket, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.480 while the new building was erected at the Drury Lane location. 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.439 The third building for the Drury was designed by architect 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:29.000 Henry Holland and his project started right after the second 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.400 was torn down. When it opened in April seventeen ninety four, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.600 it had this beautiful blue and white interior color scheme 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.640 described as just being very richly decorated. And this new 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.160 theater was once again bigger and could hold three thousand, 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.120 six hundred eleven audience members. This theater was built with 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.040 the latest and safety materials and was touted as being fireproof. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.440 It even had a water tank series mounted above the 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.920 curtain to rapidly douse any flames on stage. But although 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:04.400 those fireproof claims were inaccurate, which is a sad theme 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.600 and supposedly fireproof theaters, it burned down in eighteen oh 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.800 nine and the Troop once again had to relocate to 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.080 the Haymarket then the Lyceum Theater, while the Jury was 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:19.119 rebuilt for the fourth time. One of the most delightful 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.920 aspects in my opinion of the fourth construction project was 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.839 that the architect Benjamin Dean Wyatt published a book about 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.120 its design titled Observations on the Design for the Theater 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:35.080 Royal Drury Lane as executed in eighteen twelve, accompanied by plans, 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.760 elevation and sections of the same. And the reason it's 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.800 delightful is that this book is available online. It is 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.240 something anybody can look at and will link it in 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.360 the show notes. It walks through the whole process from 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.080 the formation of a joint stock company and subscription sales 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.560 to fund the project, and Wyatt is very clear about 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.400 the challenge of this building project, noting quote the pecuniary 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.280 embarrassments of the property were at that time so great 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:05.800 that considerable doubts were entertained whether it would ever be 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:10.440 practicable to surmount those embarrassments. But they did get the 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.280 money together, and this fourth Theater is often referred to 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.000 as the Modern Theater. It's the one that is still 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:20.440 standing today. It took several years for the Fourth Theater 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.640 to be erected, but in eighteen twelve the jury opened again. 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.480 This marked the start of a really exciting time in 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.120 the theater, as the new facility was built to handle 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:33.400 large sets and could achieve more stunning visual effects. Five 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.520 years after the Modern Theater opened, the stage was lit 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.480 by gas lamps, making it the first theater in Britain 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:44.080 to do so. This new era headlined Edmund Keene as 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.200 its lead actor, and it did quite well for a while. 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.800 Keene's death is very closely tied to the theater, as 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.280 he was in the middle of a performance of Othello 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:57.200 in eighteen thirty three when he collapsed on stage, and 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.800 at that point his son Charles, who was playing Iago, 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:04.360 caught his father as he crumpled. Edmund reportedly said there 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.520 on stage, Oh God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles. 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.920 He never recovered and he died a few weeks later. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.240 After this, the theater again went through a rough phase 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.400 for the four decades after Keene's frightening collapse on stage. 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.040 The theater really didn't have a real success. In eighteen 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.760 nineteen it had been leased by Stephen Price, a theater 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.960 empresario from New York, and after he gave it up 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.560 in eighteen thirty, the least kind of had a revolving 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.520 door of managers. Yeah, I was like, I'm not going 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.720 to go through this whole list in the episode, because 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.080 it's literally like from April of this year to November 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.600 of this year, this guy tried it, got scared and left, 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.680 and then the next guy just tried to make a 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:48.520 quick buck and then he was out, and then the 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.080 next guy wanted to do something big but didn't like 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.200 it was. It's a very sad quick list of no accomplishments. 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.240 In eighteen seventy nine, Augustus Harris assumed management of the 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:03.360 Drury and he really invigorated the lagging space. Under Harris, 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.360 melodrama reigned supreme and it became one of the most 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:11.120 popular entertainments of London. After Harris, the Drury once again 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.320 had a successful leader at the Helm in Arthur Collins. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.040 And Collins did not reinvent the theater's image. He continued 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.360 more or less in the vein of Harris. He basically 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.720 was like, we have a successful blueprint, I just need 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.720 to keep executing it. Musicals debuted at the Jury in 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.520 the nineteen twenties. Prior to this, it was considered the 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.560 home of dramatic theatrical performance, but it opened its stage 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:39.160 to musical theater to meet the demands of London's theatergoers. Yeah, 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:41.040 it's funny because now a lot of plays had end 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.200 up on Broadway start in London and like musicals are 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.760 super big. At the time, it was like should we 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:50.680 do this our reputation. During World War Two, the theater 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.480 became the home of the Entertainment National Service Association. You'll 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.680 see that listed as ENSA. This organization was started to 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.960 provide entertainment to BRI's troops during the war, and its 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.560 first large scale production was a variety concert that was 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.439 broadcast by the BBC at the same time it was 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.160 being performed before an audience at the Dreary. The theater 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.159 did sustain minor damage from bombing during the war, but 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.720 was able to repair and reopen in nineteen forty six. 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.879 Pacific eighteen sixty, a play written by Noel Coward, was 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.440 its first production after World War II, the theater was 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.000 given status as a Grade one Site of Historical Significance 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.120 in nineteen fifty eight. At the close of the twentieth century, 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.720 the theater was purchased by Andrew Lloyd Weber, who wrote Katz, 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.800 Phanom of the Opera, Jesus Christ, Superstar and Avida, among others. 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:45.720 This was part of one hundred and forty five million 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.919 dollar bid that included nine other theaters in London. In 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.560 a press interview, Weber stated that this bold move was 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:58.160 about keeping room for fresh, unique material on the stage, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.320 noting quote, it is vital that the theater be in 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.320 the hands of people who know and love the theater. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.960 Otherwise our lifeblood is taken away from us, and there's 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.000 no room anymore for the old fashioned producer who will 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.600 back shows that take risks. I would like to think 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.359 that we will be more sympathetic to shows that deserve 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.719 a break to survive. There are lots of shows that 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.560 don't look good on paper and appear not to be 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:26.879 good business, where we'll say, let's get behind this and 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:31.199 hope it pays off. I love that. Incidentally, while I 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.800 was researching this, I discovered that if you have a 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:41.439 double last name. You have to hyphenate it in English 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.800 standard writing. That's how I found it out. So I 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.520 don't know when we call him Weber, if we should 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.320 call him Lloyd Webber or not. But Andrew Lloyd Weber 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.440 has really followed through on his promise. He spent or 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:56.760 reported sixty pounds to refurbish the theater, restoring it back 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.359 to its eighteen twelve design, while also modernizing it to 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.840 include new cafes and bars to make it like a 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.160 destination for your entire day. You could hang out there. 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.800 It added disability access, It added more comfortable seating as 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.679 well as a lot of various technical additions that enable 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.040 really state of the art production values. And this renovation 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:20.280 won the twenty twenty two Theater Building of the Year Award, 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:22.320 which I did not know about until I was working 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.280 in this but it is given out by the Stage 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.240 Awards each year. Okay, time for ghosts, but before we 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.080 dig into the spectral inhabitants of Juryland, we will hear 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:44.520 from sponsors that keep the show going. Because of its 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.719 long history, the theater in Drury Lane has long been 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.520 rumored to be haunted, and some of these ghosts have 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.680 great stories of their own. So first up is kind 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.359 of a short one. It's Charles Keene, the son of 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.359 actor Edmund Keene, who we mentioned earlier. You'll recall Edmund 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.280 collapsed into Charles's arms on stage. Charles, like his father, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.240 became an actor, and he also became a theater manager, 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.520 and his ghost is said to frequently take a seat 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.080 in the front row and wait for plays to begin, 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.120 and when the curtain rises and the stage lights come up, 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:22.560 Charles vanishes. And then there's Charles Macklin. Macklin's ghost has 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.600 a good bit of documented backstory on why it might 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.520 be lurking in the theater, and that is related to guilt. 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.719 This story is often summed up as Charles Macklin murdered 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.440 another actor by stabbing him in the eye with his cane, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:41.040 and that is technically correct, but the actual events as 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.640 they played out are more tragic. This is a case 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.159 where some petty bickering escalated in a way, but a 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:51.000 line was crossed accidentally, and it all began with a 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.560 wig in seventeen thirty five when Macklin, who was a 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.480 popular Irish actor who was at the height of his 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.399 fame at Their Dreary, had prepared to go on stage 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.520 by dressing and applying his makeup, but he could not 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.960 find the wig that went with his outfit. He then 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:11.080 saw that actor Thomas Hallam was wearing it. Hallam was 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.080 a low ranking actor in the troop, kind of one 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.920 of those people that filled a lot of small extras 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:20.120 type roles, and seeing him and his wig incensed Macklin. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.440 Hallam was persuaded to give up the wig and he 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.000 went to the props room to get another and switch out, 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.760 and that might have resolved things, but when Hallam then 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.640 came back with his new wig, he threw the original 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.920 wig at Macklin said something kind of, you know, incendiary, 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:40.879 and after a brief moment where it still seemed like 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.840 things might be okay, Macklin reportedly said to Hallam, quote, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.399 God damn you for a blaggered scrub rascal. How durst 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.960 you have the impudence to take this wig. Hallam replied 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:56.040 by saying that Macklin was also a rascal, and Macklin 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.479 picked up his cane and thrust it in Hallam's face. 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:03.679 It seems like this was intended like as an admonishment 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.040 and a threat. He was not trying to strike him 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:13.720 in the eye, but then Hallam was bleeding profusely from 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.399 his eye. Maclin later described his own shock at the 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.040 scene quote, good God, said, I what have I done? 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.600 And I threw the stick into the chimney. He sat 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.639 down and said to mister Ames's son, who was dressed 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:30.040 in woman's clothes, whip up your clothes, you little bee, 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:34.040 and urine in my eye. But he could not, so 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:38.719 I did. As we know, sometimes people have used urine 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:43.800 to treat wounds, thinking it was sterile. You don't do it. 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:48.840 Don't pee on wounds, and especially not eye wounds. But 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.439 Maclin really thought he was being a good guy uh 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:55.480 by doing so. But at this point this seemed like 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:59.639 a gross but minor injury. Hallam was taken into a 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:02.199 room to lie down where he could be treated. One 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:04.400 of the women in the troop was looking after him, 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:07.840 and meanwhile, the play started and Maclin went on and 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:10.120 did his role. But then when the show was over, 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.000 Maclin was informed that the wound was actually quite serious 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:16.320 and that it was very likely going to prove fatal, 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.160 and at that point he fled the theater. Hallum died 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.800 the following day, and Macklin surrendered himself to the police 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.880 after a wilful murder indictment was issued. Macklin was tried 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:31.840 at the Old Bailey and represented himself in the end. 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:36.360 After many character witnesses passed through to support Macklin's story 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.440 that the death had been accidental and that he had 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:42.720 been shocked and upset when he realized what had happened, 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.920 the actor was found guilty not of murder but of manslaughter. 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:50.960 His sentence was that he was quote to be branded 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:54.640 on the hand and discharged. It seems like he may 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:57.280 not have ever even been branded though, and when he 0:23:57.320 --> 0:23:59.520 went back to the stage he was applauded by the 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.760 audience in attendance, although there were protesters who wanted him 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:08.520 fired permanently. Yeah, he actually sued the organizer of those 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:12.280 protests and won. It kind of dragged out for a 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:16.080 long time where he tried to kind of regain his reputation, 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:19.640 and it dragged out because Macklin lived a long time 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:22.760 after this incident. He died in seventeen ninety seven at 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:27.000