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David Beeching's second production introduces no less than four new
acting members, including his wife, Dee who, I think we are safe to assume,
is the lady in the nurse's uniform at the extreme right. Another new
face is Albert (Bert) Gallop, identified by Aubrey Sinden as the
male on the right (out of the three males). Bert is to become a
familiar face over subsequent years, easily identified by his distinctive quiff ... except, of
course, in this photo because he is looking the wrong way.
The gentleman on the extreme left must be
Stanley Bull (the manservant), which leaves David Beeching as the
slightly startled looking male in the centre. Comparing this
against the photograph of the previous production, I wouldn't have recognised DB instantly,
but then it is rather difficult under a hat like that.
Other than the afore-mentioned Dee Beeching,
the ladies are more difficult to identify. Both Alex Mailer and
Doris Taylor Smith should feature in both pictures, but the quality
is not good enough to make a positive identification. The cast list
in this instance is of little help because, when you study it, you
will see that Alex Mailer purports to be Marjorie Vanderford's
grandmother, and I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't see a three
generation age gap between any of these ladies*. I guess that the Players
suffered from the perennial problem of attracting a broad spread of ages.
*Note - the author of these notes has
more sense than to attempt to guess the age of a lady, but if
pressed to do so, will always err on the side of caution and
give an unrealistically low estimate.
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