Horace and Edna Mashford, performers: papers

Scope and Content

Notes detailing plans for Horace and Edna Mashford's shows, including song choices. Notebook also contains loose letter from H. Snowdon to Horace and Edna.

Administrative / Biographical History

Horace Mashford (b. 1908?) was a light comedy entertainer and part of the Oval Entertainers. He toured extensively in the UK and performed in music hall, vaudeville, revue and pantomime, often with his wife and stage partner Edna. Together they are best known for sketches such as a Comedy Hunting Episode and Crinoline Days.

Horace was brought up in the hotel business but in 1926, at the age of eighteen and without any previous experience, he had a resident season in his hometown of Cleethorpes. He then performed for two years with a concert party at Dunoon, Scotland, before touring with Reg. A. Maddox’s concert party, Fun o’ the Fayre and from 1931 to 1934 he toured with Cecil Morley’s Masquerade Follies. In 1939 he produced Arcadian Follies, the resident show at the Seabourn Pavilion in Sunderland and in the Autumn he performed in Ronald Brandon’s company Here We Are with E.N.S.A.

In 1940 a resident season at the Scala, Southport, was cancelled owing to the sudden death of Edna in an accident. On his way to sign a contract for the juvenile lead at the Prince of Wales’ Theatre in London, Horace was offered the opportunity to go to the Middle East, where he broadcast from Cairo, Alexandria, Nairobi, Jerusalem and Baghdad. On his return to England, in December 1944, he toured with a hospital unit for a few months.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is available for consultation in the V&A Department of Theatre and Performance's Reading Room, which is located at Blythe House, 23 Blythe Rd, Olympia, London, W14 0QX. The Reading Room is open Tuesday to Friday between 10.15 am and 4.30 pm. Access to it is by appointment only. To request an appointment please email tmenquiries@vam.ac.uk or telephone 020 7942 2698.

Access to some of these files may be restricted. These are identified at file level.

Conditions Governing Use

Archival material may not be photocopied. Arrangements can be made to photograph material in the reading room using non-flash photography.

Appraisal Information

This collection was appraised in line with the collection management policy.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Gwendoleyne Playle, 2008.

Accruals

No further accruals are expected.

Related Material

See also the core collections of the V&A Theatre and Performance Department. Material relating to this collection may be found in several collections, including the biographical, productions, company and photographs files.

Unless there were duplicate copies, the original programmes and flyers have been transferred.

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