Barnum's circus came to England in 1897 and Ruth’s family lived in Earl’s Court near Olympia at that time, did Ruth perform with Jessie Almer in the circus, the circus had various water based entertainments that Ruth performed in 1917 as a Diving Belle
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail...hoto/498836617"Most outstanding of the foreign tours was the five-year stay of the Barnum & Bailey Circus in European countries from the fall of 1897 through the 1902 season. The circus was transported to England at the close of the tenting season in America in 1897 and played an indoor winter engagement at the Olympia in London.
Ruth performed with Dan Leno & Herbert Campbell in the lavish Drury Lane Theatre pantomimes in 1898 & 1899 and is remembered in Whimsical Walker's memoirs From Sawdust To Windsor Castle.
https://archive.org/stream/fromsawdu...0walk_djvu.txthttp://www.its-behind-you.com/gallery634.htmlhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=X...ed=0CDQQ6AEwAAVictoria & Albert Museum/Theatre Collection has photograph of Ruth Jezard as Columbine in production of The Forty Thieves which was printed in The Sketch on Jan 25th 1899.
Victoria & Albert Museum/Theatre Collection have programmes of the pantomimes Ruth performed in listed as playing Columbine:
1898: The Forty Thieves at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
1899: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Charlie Chaplin would watch these pantomimes honing his comic skills from Dan Leno - as Ruth emigrated to America we wonder if she knew Charlie Chaplin & also became involved with silent movies.
When Ruth and Albert Edward Court marry in 1900 Albert is a private secretary (possibly a theatre private secretary to The Empress Theatre in Lillie Road, as this where Ruth and Albert are living in the 1901 census), their wedding witnesses are Arthur Brooks comedian and later a recording gramophone pioneer, Albert Kingsley artist, along with Mrs Ellen Seymour.
Arthur Henry Brooks recording gramophone pioneer and comedy actor
http://www.exacteditions.com/read/gr...929-34848/23/2http://www.recordingpioneers.com/RP_BROOKS1.html#LifeThe Court family are known to have worked in the theatrical and entertainment businesses and their family history is lodged at the British Museum.
Ruth and Albert (known as Ruby and Edward) have a daughter Pearl Ruby Court in 1902 who tragically dies of an abdominal tumour removal complicated by measles and pneumonia in early 1904 and their son Edward Leslie Court is born in late 1904, Ruth emigrates to America from 1905/1912 and forms a common law marriage with married Edward Warren Congdon.
1912 THE PLAYER
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi...19120105.2.149Bert Levey, the San Francisco vaudeville agent, has moved into his magnificent new offices in the Alcazar Theatre building on O’Farrel Street, between Powell and Mason. He has leased all the front rooms on the first floor directly over the lobby of the theater, forming an elegant suite of five beautiful rooms fitted out for the comfort of the manager, artist and agent. Mr Levey went to considerable expense in fitting up such spacious quarters, and he can safely boast of having the finest vaudeville agency offices this side of Chicago.
Edward Warren Congdon worked for Bert Levey as a theatre manager at the Alcazar Theatre in his 1917 US WWI draft registration cards and calls Ruth Jezzard Congdon his wife.
Edward’s wife Jennie F Congdon (Montena/Montine) bigamously marries Walter Guy Shannon in 1917 having called herself Edward’s widow and Walter is found in prison during the 1920’s. Jennie’s brother Albert had previously died in terrible circumstances running across a railway line and falling under a train trying to escape from the crimes he committed.
Which ‘wife’ would receive Edward’s World War One pension or any other pension as sadly he died in 1919 from war wounds/flu pandemic/other unknown.