And now for something completely different, welcome to voyeurs corner. Many of the postcards in my collection are postally used and many of those have been used to send birthday wishes or seasonal greetings. Others have been used as a way of keeping in touch in a time before the widespread availability of the telephone. Some of the more interesting messages are reproduced here.
| Subject/Postmark | Message | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gerda Krum ?6 Jun, 1907 |
Dear Miss Brown This in reply to your last card; i beg you to let my know wheter you take Steamer from Hull, or Newcastle, because they stops in different parts of the harbour. The weather here to is wet. This picture is of a actress, who is been shot by her husband last week, he shot himself to, but she is alive and well, she is the the favourite of the town, and has been playing the merry widow, all the winter. That is a play that has gone round the world. Now i send the best regards to you all. John Jorgensen. Postmarked Kobenhavn (Copenhagen) - addressed to Sheffield. The spelling and punctuation are as written - John's English was good but not perfect. The actress in the picture was Gerda Krum (1878-1953) - a Danish actress born in Copenhagen of theatrical parents. Her husband was Ludwig Nathansen, also an actor. Ludwig died that year, so he was apparently more successful in shooting himself than her. If she could be described as alive 'and well' only a week after the incident her wound could not have been that serious. |
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| Pauline Chase 30 Mar, 1907 |
Dear Marie Sorry could not get any PCs yesterday, so I am sending two now to make up for it. We had a lovely passage over and the weather here is still splendid. Have got seats to night at Peter Pan at the Theatre Royal. Am going out to Dinner-Tea tomorrow evening With Love, Mike Posted from Dublin to Liverpool. The 'passage over' presumably being the sea voyage across the Irish Sea from Liverpool to Dublin. A long way to go to see Peter Pan! |
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| Phyllis Dare 20 Feb, 1907 |
My Dear Nellie I am sending you two more Photos of your favourite actress. Uncle Fred. Lucky Nellie! |
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| Phyllis Dare 6 Mar, 1906 |
Saw Arthur off at L'Pool last night at 6 of. He is having nice weather for the start. F.R. Where was Arthur going, departing from Liverpool? Another voyager to Dublin, or perhaps a passenger for the Cunard or White Star Lines sailings to Boston and New York. |
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| Zena Dare 27 Jan, 1906 |
Dear Gerry I hope you will like this PPC. I will send you a nice one before I return. The blooming liberals have got in here, 1475 majority. Don't forget to write. Dotty Those blooming liberals, leave your door open for a second and they're in, sat on your sofa, drinking your tea and eating your biscuits.... |
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| Evie Green no postmark |
Dear Miss Ethel Will you meet me tonight corner of Ladywood Rd to take you to the concert hall, be sure and bring your opera glasses again, the same pair as last night. With Love Ernie B. Ernie and Ethel, was it true love? or was he just after those opera glasses?. |
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| Pauline Chase ? Aug, 1906 |
Dear C thanks ever so much for the sweet PC. It is one of the prettiest of her I've ever seen. Chrissie is simply grand in the "Lion and the Mouse". I've had some nice games of tennis but none with Winnie. Hope you will like this. It isn't half as pretty as yours, Best Love Physs The "Lion and the Mouse" was a play by Charles Klein playing it first run at the Dukes of York's at the time this card was posted (in Acton). But I don't have a cast list, so who was 'Chrissie'? |
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| Sybil Arundale 3 Jun, 1910 |
V I have sent you one of him before, I really forget from time to time, which I have sent. I do not think I told you of the awful storm we had the day after the King's funeral. The Friday was an extremely hot day and Saturday morning was so close I felt I could not breathe and it came over so dark and at 9.30 am was so dark we had to light up, then it rained heavily but the lightning was purple incessant and the thunder sounded like huge guns going off. In other parts it was even worse as some people were killed. Wow! Some storm!. |
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| Edna May 20 Apr, 1907 |
Dear Mabel Glad to hear you are feeling so well. Shall be glad to see you back. I went to the Pr of Wales Theatre and enjoyed myself a.i. with best love from Addie If Addie went to the Prince of Wales theatre in April that year she would have seen Isobel Jay in "Miss Hook of Holland" which had been running there since the end of January. |
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| Carrie Moore No date |
Carrie Moore played in Tom Jones very good. Trust you are a.i. Many thanks for PC. With much love from {illegible} Mother. Hope she was a better mother than her grammar! |
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| Decima Moore 19 Sep, 1907 |
Dear George If you get this in time {illegible} me some clean collars. We saw Decima Moore the other night. I have been golfing at Ravenscar, fine day. It is half way to Whitby. With love, yours {illegible} JG Decima Moore was on tour at the time as 'Becky Warder' in "the Truth" and presumably playing in Scarborough where the card was posted. |
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| Carrie Moore 3rd Mar, 1908 |
Dear Cecy While you are working try and work out these small items for me. (1) If one pennyworth of twopence is threepence, how much is fourpennyworth of fivepence at sixpence a lb? (2) When did March fall in May on the 27th of July? These are two nice easy problems for you brain to consider ain't they? "All happy things are". Balmy again Yours Sincerely O.J. So, twopennyworth of threepence is fivepennyworth of fourpence when March is in May and sixpence is worth a lb of July, yes I think I'm getting the hang of it... |
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| Phyllis Dare Indistinct |
Dear Albert Just a line to thank you for your PC's which were very nice. 25.15.21.18. 12.15.22.9.14.7. 19.23.5.5.20.8.5.1.18.20 Maud. The numbers are probably a simple code to allow a private message to be included on what is essentially an open medium. As none of the numbers are above 26, it is probably a simple numeric substitution code. Any budding cryptoanalysts out there? Site visitor Andrew Blake spotted the answer to this one, its just A=1, B=2 etc. which translates as "Your loving sweetheart" - ah bless her!. |
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| Sybil Arundale 4 Dec, 1908 |
ne xyuiyhg orggoy trio. hl nume gsumph xuio zli elais gsrh mlin. un hymxrmt u wuix glxue umx cirgrmt glnliile kyg zli hamxue. csug u sliirx xue xuclrmt. vy cuiyzao rz ela tl gl vlxymsun glnliile xuiormt unx mlg tyg cyg. ollprmt zlicuix gl gsrh grny mydg cyyp olby urmg ela. r xlmg gsrmp. ydkywg gsye croo cliie ela uvlag gsug hrmtrmt xyuiyhg vag vy zrin wsuop gsyn lzz. rg rh tllx lz ela gl hymx gsy kukyi glxue olby croo tl ak fli rg. cyoo xuiormt nrmy zlmxyhg olby unx prhhyh uocueh elaih vymmry. ml kukyi wlny xyui 5.30pm Another coded epistle, "I have stolen the secret plans for the new Gaiety theatre. I will meet you behind the clock tower tomorrow to hand them over. Bring the money and dont be late. I will wait until 5.30 pm". Well, thats what I think it says - unless you know better. Well wouldn't you just know it someone did! Heres the real translation supplied by that man Andrew Blake again who worked out the translation formula shown below: my dearest little girl. so many thanks darl for yours this norm. am sending a card today and writing tomorrow pet for sunday. what a horrid day dawning. be wareful if you go to bodenham tomorrow darling amd not get wet. looking forward to this time next week love aint you. i dont think. expect they will worry you about that singing dearest but be firm chalk them off. it is good of you to send the paper today love will go up for it. well darling mine fondest love amd kisses always yours bennie. no paper come dear 5.30pm It works from a simple translation table as follows (swapping over vertical pairs):
The last bit was added later in pencil so I guess it means the paper didn't arrive. The message is as it appears on the card, including some mistakes with m's and n's. |
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| Edna May 30th Jun, 1906 |
Dear Harold I have found you a bride. I hope she will suit you, if not why not? {signature illegible}. The photo was of Edna May looking very beautiful in a wedding gown - Harold should have been so lucky!!! |
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| Marie Lohr 21st Sep, 1918 |
Dear May I am having a lovely time in London. Went to see this actress in "Nurse Benson", she was lovely. I have been to the National Gallery and the pictures were beautiful. Hope you are quite alright. Love from Gladys. From June to November 1918, Marie Lohr was playing 'Lady Gillian Dunsmore' in "Nurse Benson" at the Globe Theatre. |
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| Adeline Genee 15th Oct, 1907 |
I received your nice PC with thanks. Excuse me for being so long in answering but I did not think I was owing you one. I have not had a PC from Imlach yet. I think I will send him one and ask if the stamps are all sold out in Fraserburgh. Tell him you get a score of P.Cards here for a 1/2. With love from Joy I could make a stingy Scotsman joke about him waiting for a letter to steam the stamp off, but being of Scots ancestry myself I wont. Anyway, 20 cards for a half of what? half a crown, half a sixpence, half a pound of sprouts, what? OK I give in, my facetious sense of humour has backfired. Please stop telling me that 1/2 is old notation for a shilling and tuppence, I'm old enough to remember going to school with a thrupenny bit in my pocket to buy a 'Beano' on the way home. |
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| Gertrude Elliott 13th Aug, 1904 |
My dear Anne, Have been looking round the town for "Isabel Jay on a chase" but without success. I can get it in Leeds where you got yours can I not? We will see tomorrow. Good luck for the last day of exam. Love from Eadie. The two members of the feline species are really most charming as you suggest, Ha! Ha! Izzy Jay on a chase, I haven't got that one either! As for the charming pussycats, just don't turn your back on the bullet headed little psychopaths! |
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| Daisy Le Hay 19th Nov, 1904 |
8.1.22.5 7.15.20 13.25 20.9.3.11.5.20 9 3.12.1.9.13 6.9.18.19.20 4.1.14.3.5 Am going home for week and you know what takes me. There was an awful smell of burning in Mitchell St. last night. Were you making toffee again. C.B. Another simple number substition code (A=1 etc). That part of the message read: have got my ticket i claim first dance Hope he wore steel toe-caps for that dance after what he said about her toffee! |
| Author: Don Gillan, www.stagebeauty.net. |
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