Randall Kay Williams (17 July 1846 – 14 November 1898) was a Victorian showman noted for popularising moving pictures on British fairgrounds. The first known reference to a cinematograph exhibition in Williams' show was at Rotherham Statute Fair on 2 November 1896.
Williams toured Britain for 25 years, first with a ghost illusion show, and then with a bioscope. He reached the height of his career in the summer of 1897 when he exhibited at the Victorian Era Exhibition in Earl's Court, London with a show designed specifically to pay tribute to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
Williams was also an outspoken advocate for the travelling show community and a founding member of the United Kingdom Van Dwellers’ Protection Association, the fairground trade organization which evolved into what is known today as the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain.
Early life Williams was born in Liverpool on 17 July 1846 and spent his entire life "on the road." His father, Thomas, came from an extended family of showmen with roots in Warrington. The Williams family began travelling with fairground shows in the mid 1840s and got their start in the business by making automaton figures and touring with waxworks and mechanical exhibitions.Warrington Standard and Times, 10 December 1870, p.2 The mechanical exhibitions presented on Victorian fairgrounds consisted of a number of visual displays incorporating three-dimensional models with various moving parts. Each individual display was presented against an aptly painted scenic background. A typical exhibit portrayed some scene or event such as a colliery village or a battlefield re-enactment. Williams's father's show in 1870, for example, represented the loss of Her Majesty's ship "Captain" and depicted a storm and rescue at sea. The exhibition also included a model of a coal pit and had over one hundred mechanical figures.Bolton Evening News, 30 Dec 1870, p.2, 10 December 1870, p.2Bolton Chronicle, 7 January 1871, p.3
The Williams family toured with shows until the early 1900s when they diversified into rides and other fairground attractions. Their various exhibits included waxworks and mechanical displays, photography and fine art exhibits, ghost shows, and cinematograph exhibitions.
Ghost illusion show Williams' primary interest was the ghost illusion show he started in 1871. A ghost illusion show was a type of stage show that combined theatrical presentations with the optical technique known as Pepper's Ghost. Ghost illusions were popular in British theatres throughout the 1860s but did not appear in fairground shows until the early 1870s.
The travelling show’s adaptation of Pepper’s Ghost was typically a short stage play, consisting of three acts and a comic song - all done in about twenty minutes. The final act usually ended with a ‘transformation scene' depicting the final passage from this life to the next, and during which, at least one ghostly entity made its appearance. The ‘ghost,’ a life-like, three dimensional and free moving apparition was the reflection of a living being (an actor) who was brightly lit up by limelight, and positioned off stage, out of sight of the audience’s view.
Putting on the ‘ghost’ was a rather costly undertaking for travelling show proprietors. The essential requirements were a source of lighting (limelight), a large mirror, and a large sheet of plate glass upon which to reflect the images. The glass had to be erected so that it sat at a 45-degree angle at the front of the stage and, it had to be housed in a box specially built for transport. The final component was a platform-type stage built high enough to accommodate the actors (the ghosts) who worked directly below and to the front of the stage, as well as the limelight worker, whose job it was to illuminate the actors whose images were reflected onto and through the glass. An enclosure or partition was erected around the front of the stage to prevent the audience from seeing all the activity that was going on below the surface.
The programs for Williams' show varied, but audiences were usually treated to at least one melodrama and a comical farce or two. His show at the New Year’s fair in Bolton, Lancashire in 1873 advertised a program of “a specially written adaptation of the late Chas. Dickens’s Christmas story of the Haunted Man;” “Gounod’s famous Opera of Faust and Marguerite;” “the tableaux illustrative of the heart-stirring poem of Little Jim, the Collier’s Child;” “the thrilling legend of Adrian, the Avenger;” “The Goblin’s Haunt, introducing the Gorgeous Transformation Scene;” “the Seraph or Living Head;” and other “Entertainment of Prestidigitation.” Bolton Evening News, 2 January 1873, p. 2
Williams' show was part ghost illusion theatre, part variety show. The artists he employed included actors, song and dance teams, ballet dancers, mummers and comedians like the Great Little Titch and magicians like Leotard 'Boz' Bosco (James Frederick Greethead.) He also hired international acts such as The Brothers LaFayette (American tight rope walkers) and Professor Howard (an American illusionist). By the early 1880s, Williams' show had many of the same trappings as a theatrical touring company. The show’s crew in Manchester at the time of the 1881 census consisted of a number of actors, actresses, comedians, musicians and comic singers, as well as a set decorator and a dramatic author.
Williams' phantasmagoria was popular with fair-going audiences. A reporter who attended the show at Glasgow Fair in July 1880 wrote that, "Not the least amusing show on the ground is Randall Williams' "Hobgoblinscope," in which ghosts, phantoms, and goblins appear and disappear, and sing and dance in such a way as to puzzle the auditors to distinguish between illusion, and bodily impersonation."Glasgow Evening Citizen, 14 July 1880, p. 3
The Victorian Era Exhibition 1897
Williams reached the pinnacle of his success in 1897 when he was invited by showman-entrepreneur, Imre Kiralfy, to exhibit at the Victorian Era Exhibition in London. His show that year was designed specifically to pay homage to Queen Victoria’s sixty year reign and it included a number of short plays, films of the Queen’s Jubilee Procession (filmed 22 June 1897) and a tableau vivant representation of the Queen surrounded by flags of all nations.George Speight: Professor Pepper’s Ghost, Theatre Notebook, Vol. 43, #1, pp 23-24, Society for Theatre Research The exhibition guide billed the show as ‘Pepper’s Ghost,’ stating that “Mr. Randall Williams, who has made many improvements on the original, will present, amongst other features, distinct and apart from the Ghost Show, a representation of Her Majesty’s Coronation, and the chief scenes from the present Jubilee Year, all the characters being dressed in costumes of the period.” Victorian Era Exhibition Guide, 1897, p.45
Ghost show presentations The Haunted Man: Bolton New Year's Fair 1873 Adrien the Avenger: Bolton New Year's Fair 1873 Goblin's Haunt: Bolton New Year's Fair 1873 Faust, or The Devil and The Doctor (in 3 acts) or Faust and Marguerite: Bolton New Year's Fair 1873; York Martinmas Fair 1880; Sowerby Rushbearing Festival 1886; Bingley Hall, Birmingham, 1886-87 'World’s Fair at Bingley Hall', Birmingham Daily Post, 25 December 1886, p. 3 The Aerial Phenomenon: Pembroke Hall, Liverpool, Christmas 1874 Era, 20 December 1874, p. 6 Chawbacon's Troubles: Pembroke Hall, Liverpool, Christmas 1874 The Misanthrope: Pembroke Hall, Liverpool, Christmas 1874 Death of Little Jim or Little Jim, The Collier`s Dying Child (based on the poem by Edward Farmer): Pembroke Hall, Liverpool 1874; Sowerby Rushbearing Festival 1886 Hebden Bridge Times & Calder Vale Gazette, 1886 Crackskull Abbey (a spoof on the antics of real-life fraudster, Arthur Orton, who masqueraded as the missing heir, Sir Roger Tichborne): Hull Fair 1874 "A Visit to Hull Fair", Hull Packet & East Riding Times, 16 October 1874, p. 6 Pagoda of Zegerzeneth: Nottingham Goose Fair 1875 Nottingham Journal, 25 September 1875, p. 1 Little Jen, the light of the collier's homestead: Halifax Fair 1877 Bradford Daily Telegraph, 28 June 1877, p. 4 Pilots Grave: Peterhead, Scotland 1881 East Aberdeenshire Observer, 23 September 1881 Paddy Mile's Boy, or Ghost at the Wake: Peterhead 1881 The Dying Fisherman’s Child: Peterhead 1881 The Twin Brothers, or the Duel to Death: Aberdeen, 1881 Aberdeen Evening Express, 29 September 1881, p.1 Corsican Brothers: Bolton, 1883 Bolton Evening News, 31 December 1883, p. 3 Maria Martin; or the Murder in the Red Barn: Bolton, 1883 Demon of the Alps: Bolton, 1883 Ten Nights in a Bar Room: Bolton, 1883 Life and Adventures of Charles Peace: Barrow-in-Furness: 1884 Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser, 10 June 1884, p.2 Mistletoe Bough: Chesterfield, 1884 Derbyshire Courier, 6 December 1884, p5 Fall of Khartoum (a melodrama depicting the death of General Charles Gordon at the Battle of Khartoum in late January 1885): Aston Fair 1885 Aston Chronicle, 30 May 1885 “Gorgeous Illuminated View of St. Peter’s Church, Rome. With the Celebration of High Pontifical Mass”: Birmingham 1888 Aston Chronicle, 26 May 1888, p.8 Otto Brand, or the Murder of the Hull Fisher Boy: Hildethorpe, 1889 Bridlington and Quay Gazette, 23 November 1889, p.2 Maniac Lover, or the Bonnie Lass of Bridlington: Hildethorpe, 1889 The Bells, "as played by Henry Irving" (The Bells was a three-act play by Leopold Davis Lewis. Henry Irving was the British actor most commonly associated with the lead role): Boston May Fair 1895 Lincolnshire Echo, 7 May 1895, p. 3 The Colleen Bawn (based on a melodrama by Irish play-write Dion Boucicault): Boston May Fair 1895 Faith, Hope, and Charity: Boston May Fair 1895 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (accompanied by James Tipton's “Eva, A musically illustrated service compiled and arranged from Uncle Tom's Cabin"): 1896 Era, 22 February 1896, p. 19 Adrian the Betrayer: Victorian Era Exhibition, Earl's Court, London 1897 "Professor Pepper’s Ghost", Theatre Notebook, Vol. 43, No. 1, London, 1989
Ghost illusions were the mainstay of Williams' show for a quarter of a century with the 'ghosts' making their final appearance at Nottingham Goose Fair in October 1897. The show travelled under various names over the years including The Great Hobgoblinscope (1872 - 1885); The Great Ghost Show (1881 - 1895); and Randall Williams Grand Electroscope and Mammoth Phantoscopical Exhibition (1896-1897).
Cinematograph show Travelling showmen played an important role in introducing the new medium of moving pictures to the British public in the late 1890s. In fact, the speed at which the cinema took off in Britain was due, in large part, to the combined network of exhibitors (travelling showmen) and performance venues (the fairs and fairgrounds) that was already in place.
Williams was one of the first showmen to exhibit films on the fairgrounds. The first known reference to a cinematograph exhibition in his show was at Rotherham Statute Fair on 2 November 1896."Provincial Theatres", Era, 7 November 1896, p. 25 It is likely, however, that he exhibited films two weeks earlier. Williams referred to his first cinematograph as the "Electroscope" and, at Hull Fair in October that year, he had been advertising “The Electroscope and Living Pictures.” Hull Daily Mail, 16 Oct 1896, p.2 The following month, he became the first showman to exhibit films at the World’s Fair, an indoor fair held each year over the Christmas holiday period at the Royal Agricultural Hall in London.Era, 26 December 1896, p. 18 Williams's next stop was the Valentine's Fair at King's Lynn, Norfolk in February 1897, where it was reported that "Randall Williams’ Cinematographe Pavilion did immense business."
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