Saturday, June 17, 2017

Saturday's postcard: Miss Hilda Trevelyan (and cat)*


This undated, never-used postcard features Miss Hilda Trevelyan and a cat in a basket. Presumably, it's her cat. There is also a very nice shelf of books behind them.

This is a bit of a "trading card" postcard. Trevelyan (1877-1959) was a famous English stage actress (who assumed her stage name years after being born as Hilda Marie Antoinette Anna Tucker). She created the role of Wendy in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and played it on stage nearly 1,000 times. Here's a short excerpt from a 1979 article by Andrew Birkin in The New York Times about the play's history:
"Barrie's first choice for Wendy was expecting a baby, so they settled on another young actress, Hilda Trevelyan. Hilda's nervous excitement at being offered the part, of which she had been told nothing, heightened into sheer anxiety when she received her first rehearsal notice: 'Rehearsal — 10:30 for Flying.'"
Trevelyan also had a tiny, uncredited role in Hitchcock's The 39 Steps.

This postcard was part of the "YES OR NO" Series and has a stamp box that asks for writers to affix a halfpenny stamp.


Historical footnote
*-The first "Saturday's postcard" on Papergreat appeared on February 5, 2011.

1 comment:

  1. That hair .... I would be a miserable looking specimen of a woman if I tried to do that.

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