She was born in
Lambeth in London in 1874, one of two daughters of William Carlo (born 1839), a packer and porter, and his wife Phoebe Emma
née Rawlings (1852–1926), an actress. In 1881 she was being educated at the Walnut Tree Walk School in Lambeth. as Hare, Dorothy D'Alcourt as Dormouse and Sidney Harcourt as Hatter in
Alice in Wonderland '' Already an experienced child actress having played Margery Daw in the
pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk in
Brighton in 1878 aged 4 years, aged 12 Carlo was cast as Alice in the original production of the musical
Alice in Wonderland, which played from 23 December 1886 to 2 March 1887 at the
Prince of Wales Theatre in London to positive reviews, with the critic for
The Theatre writing, "Miss Phœbe Carlo being very successful as the little heroine... she played in a delightful and thoroughly artistic fashion, and in this respect she was closely followed by a tiny mite, Miss Dorothy D'Alcort, who plays first the Dormouse. ..." Another reviewer wrote, "Mr. Clarke was fortunate in securing the services of that clever child-actress, Miss Phoebe Carlo, as the heroine. Miss Carlo was safe and reliable in the part, and, by her acting, made up for her not very good singing voice." From March 1887 she continued to play the character in a regional tour until the last performance on 17 August that year, following which adverts were placed announcing that Phoebe Carlo was “at liberty” from 20 August 1887. Charles Dodgson (
Lewis Carroll) had first seen Carlo on New Year's Day 1883 when, aged 8, she was appearing at the
Avenue Theatre in Joseph Cave's
pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat, which he returned to see twice again. Next she played Ned in
Henry Arthur Jones's
The Silver King, which Carroll saw three times, following which he called at her family home where he met her and her mother, receiving permission from the latter to take Carlo to the
Royal Academy to see
Holman Hunt's
Triumph of the Innocents. She became one of his child friends and received an invitation to visit him during his holiday at
Eastbourne. On 11 July 1885 Carroll recorded in his diary: "...went to town by the 9 a.m. Called on Mrs. Carlo, and talked over plan of having Phoebe down to Eastbourne." On 24 July he travelled to London by train to fetch her, returning with her to his lodgings in Lushington Road. She was 11 years old and unchaperoned. In October 1886 Carroll saw Carlo acting in
The Governess and settled on her to play Alice in his forthcoming production of
Alice, dressing her at his own expense and sending her for tutoring to
Kate Terry. Towards the end of the production Carroll considered Carlo was beginning "to play mechanically", and by the time of the 1888 revival he thought her "too old and too tall" to play Alice, with the role going to
Isa Bowman. The difference in language and deportment was a matter of upbringing, Carlo being the daughter of a packer and porter while Bowman was the daughter of a Professor of Music (a music teacher) and had been educated at a convent and private schools. Carlo was one of the two Babes in the
pantomime The Babes in the Wood produced at the
Prince's Theatre, Manchester on 21 December 1889 with a cast that included
Little Tich. Phoebe Ellen Joel died in London in July 1941. ==References==