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Miniature theaters have existed throughout Europe for hundred of years. Do not, however, let the terms 'toy theaters' or 'juvenile theaters' mislead you. Those small stages were more than children's playthings. Adults used them to perform elaborate plays for family and friends. A predecessor to televisions, miniature theaters were an inexpensive way of bringing theatrical productions into the home.
EUROPEAN ROOTS
Miniature theaters have been around as long as full-sized theaters have existed. The Greeks and Romans would place small carvings of their favorite characters (often gods) in dramatically staged tableaux. Shakespeare owned a replica of his Globe Theater in which he blocked his characters' movements long before rehearsals. Such miniature stages, however, were too expensive for the general public. Many were constructed out of finely carved woods with silk curtains and intricate sets. Characters were delicately crafted three-dimensional figurines, some with ivory or porcelain faces & hands. Those tiny stages were more akin to ornate dollhouses than later toy theater models.
This was also the time of expansive military tableaux, puppet theaters and marionettes. Because of the price, space and time consumption of such adult amusements, they became either playthings for to the very rich or the livelihoods of traveling puppeteers. Vestiges of those latter traditions can been currently seen in museums or, in the case of classic Punch & Judy Shows, at Renaissance fairs.
Toy theaters did not become commercially viable until unassembled models were mass printed upon inexpensive flat card stock. Historians credit John Kirby Green in 1808's London as being the first major toy theater printer if not its modern developer. Within ten years, the affordable cardboard theaters became the rage throughout England and Western Europe.
Collecting toy theaters and their loose sheets and/or booklets was the equivalent of collecting comic books or baseball cards today. Print shops throughout London began producing toy theaters and their play booklets for additional income. Quality varied wildly. Some created exquisite works while others foisted crudely designed goods.
By 1890, however, toy theaters were in decline. Tastes had changed. Extravagant flashy spectacles in the real theater gave way to serious adult drama. Unfortunately, mature plays did not translate well into miniature. Adult dramas did not amuse children and were difficult to perform for their essential subtleties were lost.
Victorians also frowned upon the paper pirates and highwaymen found in juvenile dramas, saying that proper young men should be concerned with better things. What adults had played with and enjoyed as children was now not good enough for their own offspring. Toy theaters fell victim to Victorian hypocrisy and censorship. Although there had been a few revivals (most notably The Bumpus Revival in 1925), traditional toy theaters almost died out. Most toy theater printers went out of business and their printing plates were lost or destroyed. Today, only Pollock's in London still sells that magical art form in its original style.
AMERICAN REJECTION
Why did toy theaters not become popular in the United States or Canada? Bad timing. In 1808, the United States was still in its infancy. Thomas Jefferson was president over seventeen states and a vast unexplored frontier. Before Canada became a dominion in 1867, it was a group of colonies with an equally untouched wilderness. The people of North America were too busy trying to survive to play with toy theaters.
Juvenile dramas were also considered British luxuries, a concept many Yankees despised. The Revolutionary War was still fresh in American minds. Education was also not a top priority then. Many Americans were borderline illiterate, unable to completely understand the complicated little plays. Finally, shipping costs via boat plus taxes made them too expensive on North American shores. Toy theaters were a product no one but the elite wanted.
Eventually, some juvenile dramas made it to this shore, mostly along the Eastern seaboard. The bulk of the ones owned by Southerners went up in flames during the American Civil War (1861-1865). A few Northern collections still remain. New York City not only still has the largest collections of toy theaters on this side of the Atlantic but, for a while, had their only publishers as well.
By the time the American populace was educated enough to enjoy traditional toy theaters, like their European counterparts, their tastes had changed. Also, those who wanted juvenile theaters in this hemisphere could not order them from England anymore because most printers had gone out of business years before.
ORIGINAL STYLE MINIATURE THEATERS
Although there were many printers of miniature theaters and their plays, most were set to the scale created by John Green or, for those with limited space, a half size. In that way, parts from one theater set could be interchanged with another. This uniformity bolstered sales among all printers, especially those who treated the fad as a sideline rather than the cores of their businesses.
When purchased, each unassembled toy theater came with at least one play. Individual plays could be purchased separately on loose sheets or in booklets. Each independent play contained its own sets, character figures and scripts. Since the plays were produced in Europe, many booklets had the same script printed in multiple languages, usually English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Miniature theaters assisted children in learning other tongues, making them excellent projects for foreign language classes. Some booklets also came with sheet music for the piano as well.
Originally, the separate play sheets and/or booklets were inexpensive. "A penny plain or twopence coloured" meant, for one cent, you could buy a play with scenery and characters printed in black & white. Ones printed in bright colors cost two cents. Both types of sets sold equally well. The black & white versions were popular for their dreamlike quality. People also enjoyed coloring the pieces themselves. Furthermore, a penny was worth a lot more in those days.
If you wish to purchase 19th Century reprints of those theaters and plays, there are only two places in the world I know of where you can buy them. They are:
Pollock's Toy Museum
1 Scala Street,
London
W1P 1LT
England
Pollock's Toy Shop
44 The Market,
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 8RF
England
Pollock's have a nice little brochure they can send you. They are, quite frankly, the best around and their toy theaters not expensive. Even if you never cut them out, the little booklets are fun to browse through. If you know someone into theater or antiques, those toy theaters and play booklets make great gifts.
Mailing Tips:
If you are sending a letter to England from the United States or Canada, put three times the current local postage on the letter. In doing that, overseas mail gets there in half the time.
Enclose at least 2 I.R.C.'s [International Reply Coupons] with your letter to cover the return postage. I.R.C.'s are available at any post office and cost less than a dollar each.
Pollock's takes money orders and most major credit cards.
Yes, a free advertisement to the competition
but they are keeping the tradition alive.
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