Centenary of Old Vic Founder

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23073, 25 June 1938, Page 16 (Supplement)

Centenary of Old Vic Founder

CEREMONY. AT THEATRE The centenary of the birth of Emma Cons, Victorian philanthropist and reformer, to whose inspiration the modern Old Vic owes its beginnings, was marked by a short ceremony in the theatre last month. Emma Cons was a London woman of immense drive and energy, who found early in life that the career of an artist that she had planned for herself was not adequate to combat the forces of ugliness and poverty which she saw about her. She was a pupil of Ruskin, but abandoned art in favour of social work. The Old Vic in 1879 was a particularly disreputable music-hall. Miss Cons, with a resolute band of helpers, among whom were Sir Arthur Sullivan and Carl Rosa, bought the remainder of the lease and transformed the place into the "Royal Victoria Coffee Music Hall," where entertainment on teetotal lines of a much higher class could be provided. The venture was not an immediate success, but gradually the famous Old Vic clientele came into being. Samuel Morley, a wealthy philanthropist, and the Duke of Westminster came to the rescue at a crucial moment, and Morley College grew up as part of the original foundation. Lilian Baylis, Miss Cons' niece, was appointed general manager of the theatre, and under her direction popular opera was presented, and at last, in IUI4, Shakespeare. But Miss Cons never lived to see this development. She died in 1912, after a busy career of social service.