Hello Kelly,
Thanks for the post, so very nice to hear from you. My grandfather's sister Sophia Chipperfield (b 1868 Petersfield) married Jimmy Chittock (aka Chideock ) in 1896 in Cambridge ? I would love to know more and to share with you. Do you have any pictures? email me (*)?
I have this except from: "The Travelling Cinematograph" by Kevin Scrivens and Stephen Smith ........
James Chittock's father was an apprentice baker in Norwich, but at 18 left to become an animal trainer with George Wombwell's Menagerie, with whom he spent the next 20 years. When the show was dispersed he began on his own with performing canaries, hares and ponies. James was born in 1841 and brought up in the business. Father and son were animal trainers par excellence. When old enough, James left his family, married, and travelled his own show. In "TheShowman" he was described as being from one of the "oldest and most representative families of the aristocracy of the road." His first show featured his famous troupe of performing dogs and monkeys, considered the best travelling. It opened at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, each winter for over 30 years, and rarely travelled far from the London area. On seeing the success Randall Williams was having with his Cinematograph at the World's Fair in 1896, James Chittock invested £500 and began to show moving pictures using a projector acquired from R.W. Paul, his first show being at a fair in Birmingham in 1897. He claimed that so popular was the new enterprise that he netted, in coppers, £40 a day.
The films were offered as an additional draw to the live performances, and the show became known as the "Queen Cinematograph". Comprising two 12ft living wagons, with scenery making a show-front 36ft in total. A barrel organ stood on the stage,but he also had a bandwagon on which it could be transported. Inside was a 15ft back stage wagon, and the shuttered booth, containing galleries and seats,was 70ft in depth and seated about 500 people.The men's living van was fitted to carry shutters, gallery, seats, etc. Advertisements assured people that no indecent pictures were exhibited at this establishment, and that parents could safely take their children. As well as the films, which at the Agricultural Hall in January 1898 included popular scenes of the Jubilee Procession, there were still performances of trained dogs and monkeys.
The Era reported in 1899 that "Chittock's dogs and monkeys, admirably trained, very docile, active and obedient, add their performances to the main attraction to Chittock's tent - the excellent Cinematograph which the proprietor makes the strong point of his exhibition." The following year a report from the same source explained that the show relied "on the prevailing military feeling."
The Boer War was certainly sustaining interest in the cinematograph show. Later it was billed as the "Empire of Varieties" when magicians, jugglers, clowns, ventriloquists and singers interchanged with a cinematograph exhibition said to be of instructive and amusing pictures. By now it toured only the southern counties, paying an annual visit to the World's Fair in the Agricultural Hall at Christmas. "I never take big jumps, nowadays, like the old-time showmen," Mr. Chittock explained in an interview in 1902. Amongst the reasons for this were the competition and high ground rents charged for shows. Leicester, for example, wanted £20, whereas twenty years before they charged nothing. Members of the family paraded on the front stage, giving a clever display of buffoonery and artistic dancing, while Mr. Chittock, with his waxed and pointed moustache and his portly figure, beat a large drum loudly to entice the public.
"A typical specimen of a grand old school of British showmen is Mr. James Chittock," wrote The Showman in 1909, "still in active work and with no intention as yet of retiring from the field of his endeavours."
His second marriage was to Sophia, James Francis Chipperfield's daughter, who was 27 years younger than himself. She was an able equestrian and juggler. Tom Norman was instructed to sell the Bioscope Show, and originally the auction was due to take place at his premises in East Croydon on 26th July 1910, however it was withdrawn from the sale at the last moment and offered for sale by private treaty shortly afterwards, although presumably it was not sold as there is a reference to theshow loads being involvement in a road accident in June 1911.
When James died in February 1912 the family were left in distress and William Irvin launched an appeal for help from fellow showmen to help them continue with the show.
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