ABSTRACT
In 1908, this letter, written by a resident of Tufnell Park, arrived at County Hall. It concerns the music hall sketch, ‘A Bride for Living’, then playing at the Islington Hippodrome:
Stop what I consider the most horrible and offensive scene ever put upon a stage. I am referring to when she hangs her paramour in mistake for her husband, she first covers him in a sheet and commences to hoist him up in full view of the audience, but the effort is too much so she winds the cord thru a wringing machine. The body is then allowed to hang, while the husband returns and she commits suicide, about seven minutes.
My father committed suicide by hanging some years ago, I as a boy discovered him, by that you can tell what a thrill of horror ran through me to witness such a scene again. All the people near me at once said it was disgusting and not fit for any stage. I have never written a letter of complaint but this fills me with disgust to such an extent that I trust you will endeavour to stop it being performed with so much reality. 1
