Category Archives: Theatre

Family history, Poulson, Theatre

Peter & David put Bromley theatre on the map

Peter Goss

I knew a bit about my godfather (Peter Goss) and Dad (David Poulson) running the New Theatre, Bromley, and had previously posted about them taking over the lease in late 1954. I recently combed through old newspapers to better understand their first few years trying to win back audiences, build a repertory company and balance the books. I came away impressed – gobsmacked – at how much they did, at a time so many provincial repertory theatres were struggling.

David Poulson

Commercial television began in 1955 compounding worries about the impact of films and BBC television on keeping live theatre outside of London’s West End financially viable. According to an interview Peter gave to a local paper in 1961, he and Dad had worked out what they could afford for rent if they were to cover their costs for quality productions and told Rank (the landlord) their rate was too high – then offered them half what they were asking! Peter’s view was “This is not just our theatre, it’s Bromley’s theatre”

Two and a half years after they opened, a local paper covered their work in a story headlined: “HOW TO MAKE A SUCESS OF REPERTORY” – crowds coming out of the repertory company outnumbering those from the cinema.

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Family history, Procktor, Theatre

Wild-&-artsy second cousins – William Thomas Procktor’s great grandchildren

Looking into my 2nd great grandfather’s time in Canada in the 1870s, I filled in a few blanks on my family tree on Ancestry. A couple of the names rang a bell as ones my mother had mentioned, but I didn’t know how these people were related to her. I don’t recall ever meeting them, but in researching the family connection, it’s not surprising that my mother knew of them. It’s not clear how well she knew them, but it turned out she and they were second cousins – all three were great grandchildren of William Thomas Procktor who sailed to Canada in search of work in 1870.

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Family history, Poulson, Theatre

Two young actors start a repertory theatre

New Theatre Bromley
New Theatre Bromley

Peter Goss, my godfather, and David Poulson, my Dad, met while working as actors in repertory theatre at the Theatre Royal, Bath in August 1954. Both had been in weekly rep for several years, long enough to have some idea about how to produce a play as well as act in it. When I asked my mother, actress Yvonne Forster, whether it was Dad’s youthful good looks that attracted her, she said it was his ability to bring order to a chaotic production she was acting in (in Dartford). In some scribbled notes Dad made for a memoir (which he never completed), he described a performance where he was acting as a human door hinge for a broken part of a set (in between being fired by a furious producer!) – the show must go on…

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Family history, Poulson, Theatre

The Wastrel marries again – a widow from a well-known family

John Walden Poulson – The Wastrel – was my great grandfather and his first wife Polly (Mary Ann) was my great grandmother. After she died, he married Polly’s sister Emily, but ran off to Canada leaving his six children behind. It was only recently I learned that he had married a third time – no more children as Bertha was a 45-year-old widow when they were married.

Bertha Hollyer, neé Buckstone, John Walden’s third wife, came from a very famous theatrical family with sisters and brothers who followed in their father John Baldwin Buckstone’s footsteps and became actors. I have no pictures of Bertha, but based on pictures of two of her sisters, I’m guessing she was beautiful. He certainly didn’t marry her for money as there wasn’t any – her famous father had died when Bertha was 3 following a bankruptcy where he lost the lease of the Haymarket Theatre which he had run for over 20 years, in spite of the success of many of the plays he wrote as well as his own performances. Continue reading The Wastrel marries again – a widow from a well-known family →

Family history, Poulson, Theatre

Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition?

Young John David William Poulson

Growing up, I thought Poulson was an unusual name – not many around us in Bromley. It was often misspelled (so you learn “P as in Peter, o-u-l-s-o-n”) or mispronounced – we said it POLE-SUN not POOL-SUN. Poulson is not only fairly common, depending on the location, but some of the people who shared the last name – and in the case of my father, grandfather and his cousin, first and last name – got themselves into trouble with the law and generated all sorts of unsavory press coverage! Continue reading Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition? →