Hollingshead was born in
Hoxton, Greater London, the son of Henry Randall Hollingshead. He was educated at Homerton. In 1861, he acted as the "special correspondent" for
The Morning Post during the London famine. He also wrote essays, short stories and dramatic criticism. Beginning in 1864, and for several years thereafter, he contributed to
Punch magazine, mostly writing on political topics related to social reform. He advocated the principles of Mill and
Jeremy Bentham. One of his best-known essays was an 1857 piece called "The City of Unlimited Paper", which became famous during the monetary panic of 1857. Hollingshead wrote a number of books from the 1850s into the 1860s, including
On the canal: a narrative of a voyage from London to Birmingham (1858);
Under Bow Bells (1860, a collection of some of his essays),
Rubbing the Gilt Off (a collection of his early political essays (1860)
Ways of Life (1861, a volume of humorous papers), and
Underground London (1862). Other publications included a collection of humorous stories entitled
Rough Diamonds and two volumes of miscellaneous essays called
Today. He also wrote plays. and
Footlights (1883). Beginning in the 1890s, he wrote a number of memoirs and more books about the theatres that he had managed. In 1892, he also published
The Story of Leicester Square, tracing the history, geography and architecture of the London neighbourhood from earliest times through the date of publication. His memoir entitled
My Lifetime, published in 1895, explores his life and career through that date. During his tenure at the Alhambra, Hollingshead introduced London audiences to the
Can-Can. Hollingshead is also credited with inventing the practice of holding general matinées.
The Gaiety Theatre In 1868, Hollingshead took over the Gaiety Theatre, which had been a large
music hall. The auditorium was rebuilt and, under Hollingshead, it became a venue primarily for musical
burlesque, variety, continental
operetta, including several operettas by
Jacques Offenbach, and light comedy, under Hollingshead's management, from 1868 to 1886. The theatre opened on 21 December 1868, with the successful
Robert the Devil, by
W. S. Gilbert, a burlesque of the opera
Robert le Diable. Gilbert also wrote
An Old Score for the theatre in 1869. Another early production was
Alfred Thompson's
Columbus!, or the Original Pitch in a Merry Key (1869).
Nellie Farren starred in both
Columbus and
Robert the Devil. She continued as "Principal Boy" at the Gaiety for the next 25 years, first under Hollingshead and then under
George Edwardes. Other Gaiety stalwarts were
Edward Terry,
Kate Vaughan and
Fred Leslie. The theatre's music director,
Meyer Lutz, composed or arranged the music for many of its most successful burlesques. '', the first
Gilbert and Sullivan work In 1870,
Henry James Byron's ''Uncle Dick's Darling'' starred a young
Henry Irving. This was the last play that theatre buff
Charles Dickens saw before his death. Other pieces at Hollingshead's Gaiety in 1870 included
Dot (
Dion Boucicault's version of
The Cricket on the Hearth); and
The Princess of Trebizonde, based on the
Jacques Offenbach operetta (1870).
Thespis, the first collaboration between
Gilbert and Sullivan, played at the theatre in 1871, with Farren as Mercury and
J. L. Toole in the title role. Offenbach's
Les deux aveugles played in 1872, starring
Fred Sullivan. This was followed by such works as
Shilly-Shally (1872) by
Anthony Trollope and
Charles Reade;
Antony and Cleopatra (1873); and
The Battle of Life, (based on
Charles Dickens's Christmas story of that title). Two other
Dion Boucicault plays produced by Hollingshead's company in the early 1870s were
Night and Morning and
Led Astray. Boucicault's
Don Caesar de Bazan was travestied in Byron's
Little Don Caesar de Bazan. '' In the late 1870s, the theatre became the first to install electric lighting on its auditorium. Hollingshead's productions there included
The Bohemian G-yurl and the Unapproachable Pole (1877), Byron's farce
Little Doctor Faust (1878) Byron's
Handsome Hernani, or The Fatal Penny-Whistle (1879); and
Robbing Roy (1879).
Meyer Lutz's
Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves was performed in 1880 (Hollingshead had produced a highly successful charity production called
The Forty Thieves at the Gaiety in 1878), and a burlesque of
Aladdin, by
Robert Reece, in 1881. These were followed by
Little Robin Hood (1882), a burlesque by Reece,
Blue Beard (1882),
Ariel (1883, by
F. C. Burnand, based on
The Tempest),
Don Yuan, Byron's
Little Don Caesar de Bazan (a send-up of Boucicault's play),
Mazeppa (1884),
Little Jack Sheppard (1885),
Monte Cristo Jr. (1886), and dozens of others.
John D'Auban choreographed the Gaiety burlesques from 1868. In addition to these burlesques, the theatre produced comedies such as Congreve's
Love for Love, Vanbrugh's
Relapse,
The Grasshopper (1877, an adaptation by Hollingshead of
Henri Meilhac and
Ludovic Halévy's
La Cigale), and a number of farces. Nevertheless, burlesque and risque operettas were the normal fare at the Gaiety. Hollingshead called himself a "licensed dealer in legs, short skirts, French adaptations,
Shakespeare, taste and musical glasses." In 1886, George Edwards took over the lease to the Gaiety. ==Notes==