Evening star., 1927-09-11
REEVES PAST|ME
OF ANCIENT DAYS
Mayfair Restores Toy The
ater ExtoIIed by Robert
Louis Stevenson.

Correspondence OF the Associated Press.
LONDoN.-Mayfai has taken up
'new" fad, pastime that was old
century ago. It is the penny
plain, tuppence colored' toy theater
of which Robert Louis Stevenson
wrote.
1t is quite fashionable to have a
miniature stage for the parties held
in the select district east OF Hyde
Park. The toy theater is placed in
the center OF a table and the tiny
old.fashioned oil footlights are lighted.
The guests group around to watch the
tiny pastehoard actors. manipulated
on the end Of slender rods, disport
themselves. while persons in the audi
ence, or behind a screen, read the
corresponding parts from n play.
There is a long list of plays to
choose from. ranging from "Oliver
Twist" and Don QuiXote" to the gor-
geous spectacle of "Timur the Tartar" :"
Real Story Revealed.
The real story. however is not in
the vagaries of Mayfair but in Ben
jamin Pollock, 71-yearold friend of
Robert Louis Stevenson, who has been
making these toy theaters in his
cubbyhole shop in Shoreditch for the
past so years. He succeeded his
fatherin-law. John Reddington, who
made them in the same place for 40
years before Pollock took charge.
Pollock is a shy. modest. little man.
with gray hair and a slight stoop,
acquired from hending over his work
bench; counterpart OF Charles
Dickens noted toymaker. Caleb Plum
mer.
He was making another OF his little
theaters for Sacheverell Sitwel when
interrupted and insisted on putting
on his Sunday coat to be phot0-
graphed in his little, out-of.the-NaN
shop at 73 Hoxton street, in the
shadow of Shoreditch Church.
Stevenson Becomes Interested.
at must have been some 40-odd
wears ago that Mr.. Stevenson became
interested in my little shop" he SAID.
.'He was not in such good health
then. That was just before he went
out to the. South Seas and died.
"Mr Stevenson was particularly in
terested in the colored plates.
AZ remember the first time he
came in. He had been passing by and
saw some of my prints in the window:
How much are tlfey?' ne asked. And
/ told him what l always told any one
penny plain. tuppence colored.
Well, he came frequently after that.
The scenes and characters of the
tov theaters. as well as the ht oks tor
the plays themselves, are all copied
from early London theaters. They
are printed from copper plates, In
some instances more than 100 years
old.
Many of the original caricatures
were made by George Crulkshank,
contemporary of Gillray and Phiz,
who did much of the illustrating ol
Charles Dickens books.
Does Own Lithographlng.
Pollock has a small hand press in
n hack room hardly large enough TO
turn around in, where he Autographs
4he sheets himself. The purchaser
nastes the sheets on cardboard, cuts
nu. the figures and scenes and uses
them according to furnished direc-
lions.
Famous men and women nave
found their way to the shop, among
them George r. Sims. q. X. Ches
terton, Gordon Craig. son OF Ellen
Terry, and the Sitwells.
Pollock and q tobacconist, II. j.
Webb of Old street. are the only sur
yivors of what was once a fiourishing
trade in London. Webb dates the
vogue of the toy theaters back to
1917. Before 1870, when the demand
began to wane, he says. the Webbs
kept 80 employees and Ave presses
busy.
Despite the temporary impetus given
the business by society taking up the
theaters, when Pollock and Webb go
1t seems likely that the trade OF
s'penny plain, tuppence colored' viii
go with them.