Advertisements for an anonymous magician appeared in English newspapers in January of the year 1749. The ads described what sounded like impossible and miraculous acts to be presented. One example:
Continue readingThe Bottle Conjuror
Hoaxes
Satire through the Centuries
Sarah Siddons was born in Wales in 1755. She became one of the most prominent actresses of the 18th century, famous in particular for playing Lady Macbeth. She remains notable and memorable even today. The Sarah Siddons Society in Chicago presents theatre scholarships in her name annually.
Siddons made her first appearance in Dublin in 1784. An Irish newspaper, apparently, felt that the hype surrounding her over in London was out of control.
What follows is their writeup, as documented a century later in English As She Is Wrote, which was itself published well over a hundred years ago, in 1883.
Continue reading Truth in Advertising
The street in front of The Olympic Theatre
Source: Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, Vol. 1 No. 10 (Saturday, September 6, 1851), Boston, p. 152
In the year 1840, the following very clever advertisement was used to promote a production of 1940! or, Crummles in Search of Novelty. Continue reading
Subways are for Sleeping
It was January of 1962. The Broadway production of Subways are for Sleeping at the St. James Theatre was getting weak reviews. Ticket revenues were low, and in need of some magic.
Producer David Merrick had a trick up his sleeve that he had been saving for several years. He spent some time making some interesting arrangements, and then prepared the following advertisement for every major New York newspaper.
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