Letty Lind
[4] After leaving Paul's company, Lind appeared in London and the British provinces for over twenty years in comedy, farce and pantomime.
She spent much of the next year at Her Majesty's Theatre in a revival of Jacques Offenbach's Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon).
She continued to tour the UK for the next few years in Robert Buchanan's drama Storm Beaten, the pantomime Queen of Hearts and George Faucett Rowe's Fun in Bristol, among other shows.
In 1887, Lind began her long and successful association with George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre in a series of burlesques, beginning with Monte Cristo Jr., taking over the role of Mariette, which was created by Lottie Collins.
She was on loan to Augustus Harris's company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for the Christmas pantomime, playing the princess in Puss in Boots.
Back in London, she appeared in Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué (1889), played Mercedes in Carmen up to Data (1890) and Euphrosynea in The Bride of Love (1890), where her cymbal dance was a highlight of the production,[6] and the title role in Cinder-Ellen Up Too Late (1891).
Lind was able to differentiate herself from other skirt dancers because she had the benefit of classical training that most of them did not, and she often added an acrobatic touch to the end of her dances.
[8] In 1894 she wrote the music for a song, "Dorothy Flop", that her sister Adelaide Astor performed in a production of The Lady Slavey.
After this, Lind rejoined George Edwardes's management to star at Daly's Theatre in a series of hit musicals: A Gaiety Girl (1894, as Alma Somerset), Go-Bang (1894, as Di Dalrymple), An Artist's Model (1895, as Daisy Vane), The Geisha (1896, as Molly Seamore), and A Greek Slave (1898, as Iris).
[2] Lind received excellent reviews for her roles in these musicals, emphasising the grace of her dancing, her comic acting, her enunciation and her abilities at mimicry and imitation.
[10] Lind continued to appear at benefits, including ones for Edmund Payne and Nellie Farren,[11] and in her own music hall shows, singing her repertoire from her famous roles.
Lind made her final public appearance at the Gaiety Theatre, singing one of her first hits, "Listen to my tale of woe" from Ruy Blas.
She had a queer and very attractive little croak in her voice, and an elementary, little-girlish way of saying things which made them peculiarly engaging, and caused her saying of them to stick in the memory with a permanence which their wit or point might by no means justify.
Add to this the enchanting lissomeness and beauty of all such movements as she was mistress of, and a stage personality (as we call it) which was like no one else's, and there is more than justification for the glow which the remembrance of her performances kindles.
