The Women of the Family

Sisters Poole / Sisters Lorne / Three Pooles

The next three groups all seem to be quite intertwined, so I’m going to group them under one heading, although I’ll try to look at them sequentially.

Part I – The Sisters Poole

There is evidence that between the middle of 1890’s and about 1908 or so, a new group formed – “the Sisters Poole”. We have a real problem discussing this group for a couple of reasons – first, their individual identities are only mentioned a couple of times in advertisements and reviews, and second, because there were actually two groups calling themselves “the Sisters Poole” performing in London at the same time!

I think this is a good place to supply some more background. I’ll try to keep it brief.

One of the striking things about doing this research is just there were at least two (and possibly three) large Poole families in show business in London at this time. One of these families was apparently quite prosperous and owned theatres and shows, while the other included the manageress of one of the large London theatres. I don’t think I need to tell you that neither of those families was ours!

Joseph Poole seems to have been a very wealthy man who owned or managed a number of theatres in England. He died in 1906, and from the very deferential article about his funeral we learn that he had four brothers, George, Charles W., Harry and Fred. Charles W. Poole travelled around England with the “Myriorama” a contraption which projected pictures of famous events onto screens around the theatre in some way. It was famous at the time, and there is even a book about it by someone named Hudson John Powell. Because Charles W. Poole was quite famous, his descendents have posted his genealogy on the internet, so we are pretty sure that he was no relation to us. As a result we can safely forget about him except as a source of confusion to anyone doing research on the Poole family.

We have less information about the other Poole family. Joseph J. Poole was the owner of the South London Palace, a large theatre. That’s his name in big letters at the top of the poster on the cover of this article. After he died in 1882, he widow, Mrs. Ellen Poole took over management of the theatre. Sadly, it appears she was bankrupt when she died in 1895.

To make things more interesting (a.k.a. confusing), many of the acts of “our” Pooles, including the “Poole Zanlo and Poole” permutations I discussed above and all of the acts I will discuss below, performed at theatres either owned by Joseph Poole, or managed by Joseph J or Ellen Poole. To make matters yet worse for the researcher, they also sometimes performed as part of a show which included Charles W. Poole’s “Myroriama”.

Anyway, Ellen Poole’s daughters, Violet and Evelyn, appeared to have styled themselves as performers. This can be seen by an advertisement placed in January of the same year of 1895 in which there was an observation in the newspaper that “The Sisters Poole (Violet and Evelyn), daughters of the popular manageress of the South London Palace...” were performing. Since it was J. J. Poole’s wife who was the manager of the theatre, and we have no one named Violet and Evelyn in our family, those Sisters Poole aren’t ours – not that we know of, anyway.

However, there is considerable evidence that at least some of our Pooles did perform as the “Sisters Poole.” While it is very difficult to distinguish between the two groups calling themselves the Sisters Poole, in January of 1895, an advertisement appeared which stated: “the Original Sisters Poole, late of the Poole’s Minstrels...”. Later, in 1897, we have a single joint advertisement in which both the Poole Minstrels and the Sisters Poole are seeking work, giving the same return address. Based upon those advertisements, if we accept that the Poole Minstrels were “our” Pooles, then at least one of the two “Sisters Poole” teams have to have been ours too. Unfortunately, because of the difficulty of distinguishing between the two groups, it is certainly possible that some of the references to “Sisters Poole” which I have compiled thinking they were “our” Sisters Poole were actually Violet and Evelyn.

So, if the “Sisters Poole” were “our” Pooles, how many sisters were in the group? And which sisters? Unfortunately we really can’t be entirely certain. As usual, we’re going to have to try to use the few threads we have to knit a handkerchief. Also as usual, it may well be that there was a rotating roster of family members who went into and out of the group, as inclined or required. We also need to remember that these were young women, who during the time we’re talking about probably got married. Certainly we know that Florrie was married, because her husband, Ted Reed was mentioned in the newspaper articles when she died in 1896. We do not as yet know whether she had any children. Remember also that this was the Victorian Era, and that performing acrobatics and clog dancing while pregnant would have been particularly scandalous. Even the word pregnant was considered risqué.

A June 1895 description of a show indicates that “Last, but by far not least, come the Sisters Poole (Florrie and Lottie)...” However, we also know that Olive Poole also performed with the Sisters Poole, because she was identified in a 1905 review of a Sisters Poole performance as being “a fine clog dancer”. As well, a review of a March, 1906 Sisters Poole show said that Olive Poole, "sings and dances in fine style". Although she would have been only 13 in 1895, when we have the first record of the “Sisters Poole” group which we can be certain was placed by “our” Pooles (as opposed to the daughters of the theatre manageress – I told you this was complicated) Olive could easily have been performing right from the beginning. I should note that there is no specific mention of the youngest child, Hette, anywhere in the newspaper articles, although she was identified as a dancer in the 1901 census.

Part II Sisters Lorne / The Three Pooles

Here’s another group I can only make suppositions about. In 1897 we see a series of joint advertisements seeking work for both the Poole Minstrels and the “Sisters Lorne”. When I first saw this, I assumed it was simply a cost-saving measure between friends. I subsequently noticed however that the Sisters Lorne were being described as “clever clog dancers”. Sound familiar?

Most of the references were for two Sisters Lorne, but one or two referred to three. Then I found this August, 1899 advertisement: “WANTED, Known, Bob Poole, of Two Pooles, will Join his Sisters, the Sisters Lorne, and be known as the Three Pooles". I have no idea why Olive and Ada would call themselves the Sisters Lorne. Perhaps it was an inside joke; we just don’t know. Certainly The Sisters Poole name was taken!

Regardless, the discovery that “The Three Pooles” was another family group of course caused me to search for “The Three Pooles”, which resulted in this reference, also in August of 1899:

It’s a little hard to read, so I’ll translate: “THREE POOLES (OLIVE, ADA AND BOB), Variety Entertainment and Marvellous Acrobatic Dancers; also Little Star, Juvenile Wonder. Two distinct turns nightly. Liberty Sept. 11th and 18th. All letters to 37 King-Street, Hull, Yorks." 37 King Street, Hull, Yorkshire was Ted Poole’s address, so not only do the names Olive, Ada and Robert (Bob) match up with Ted and Olive Poole’s children but they use his address as their contact location. Olive, Ada and Bob were 17, 16 and 19 respectively in 1899. The Three Pooles did get some work, and we can follow them until the end of the century via various advertisements and reviews.

Searching for The Three Pooles (Olive, Ada and Bob) alerted me to another group of dancers also called “The Three Pooles” which was active between 1892 and 1894. The descriptions of their performances sounds like our family, but there isn’t any information I can find about their individual names, so whether they were our people or not, or whether they were related to Ted or Tom, or both, I just can’t tell. However, there is one review 1893 review which is so florid I can’t resist quoting it:

“...The Three Pooles, a trio of dancers consisting of two girls and a youth. In their final clog dance the eldest girl, whose shapely understandings are cased in tights, turns handsprings and goes over in the fashion made popular by Mr. J. W. Rowley, these little exercises being merely thrown in as adjuncts to some prettily executed and novel steps. The reception accorded to the Pooles was remarkably enthusiastic.” Editorial comment: What exactly are shapely understandings?

As a final note, I should mention that we catch occasional glimpses of Olive doing a solo clog dancing routine until 1906.

That brings us to the end of what I have learned about these groups. Compared to the Poole Brothers and Zanlo it’s a little thin on hard evidence, but perhaps we will be able to learn more eventually. So in the absence of facts, I’m going to tell what my active imagination tells me.

We know that Ted Poole died early in 1901. We can see that the performances of the Poole Minstrels tapered off fairly quickly after Flora’s death in 1896, and that the Sister Poole, Sisters Lorne and Three Pooles groups began performing about that time. Did Ted have a lingering illness which limited his ability to perform? If so, the others would have needed to step in quickly to support the family. In England at that time the “social safety net” was extremely limited – to a large extent you worked, begged or starved. So I think the Flora and Beatrice (Lottie) formed the Sisters Poole to take up that slack as their father fell ill. Distraught after their sister Flora’s death in 1896, Lottie and Tom briefly had plans to perform together, but did nothing other than place the announcements in the newspapers. Then Olive convinced her sister (and perhaps her parents) that she was old enough and a good enough performer to take Flora’s place and perform in the Sisters Poole with Lottie. Olive and Lottie performed as the Sisters Poole when Lottie wasn’t busy with other things, but that wasn’t enough work, so Olive and Ada formed the Sisters Lorne.

This is all just idle speculation, which I assure you is based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever. After all, what’s the point of doing all this work if you can’t have some fun with it?

On to more solid ground now.