I know it was just a month ago that I first posted about Lily Elsie, but I find her so beautiful that I had to do another post so soon!


Lily Elsie (LE): They called me Little Elsie.

Spencer Edwards (SE): It may be supposed, then, that you commenced your professional career when quite a child?

LE: That was so. I sang ballads. Some friends were flattering enough to call me the infant Patti.

SE: And you took to the stage, I suppose, as the duck takes to water?

LE: Well, I played in the pantomime Red Riding Hood [at the Queen's Theatre, Manchester, Christmas 1896] when I was only eleven years of age, and, subsequently, I went to the [music] halls. My first regular engagement for theatrical work was a tour of M'Kenna's Firtation [a farce by E. Selden, first produced at the Opera House, Coventry, 1 August 1892].

SE: A natural sequence, I see. First the flirtation, then regular 'engagements,' and now the honeymoon - A Chinese Honeymoon.

LE: You may put it that way if you like (laughing sweetly).

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Lily Elsie with her toy terrier dog.
LE: There, mamma, that's what I should like to do when I'm a woman!' Of course, there was an indignant chorus of the 'hush' sort, and the wonder was that I was not led out and taken home in disgrace. - (Lily proclaiming to her Mama that she wants to be an actress at the age of 8)

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These are just snippets from an interview with Lily Elsie. (Credits and links to follow)

Credits: G. Spencer Edwards, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, London, Saturday, 28 May 1904. { Full Interview }

"Everyone agrees that Lily Elsie has the most kissable mouth in all England... she possesses the Cupid's bow outline with the ends curving upward delicately, all ready for smiles.... Strangely enough, the women of the land were among her most devoted admirers." - Lily Elsie Recalls her Renunciation", Atlanta Constitution, 21 November 1915 from Wikipedia





Edwardes took Elsie to Lucile for what might today be called a 'style makeover'. One of the first things they did was to make her alter the style of her hairdressing and after one or two experiments to see what suited her, evolved the fashion of coiling it neatly and flat to that beautifully shaped little head of hers. The result was a complete change in her appearance and Edwardes was as delighted with it as much as she was.




Although her fame and fortune came entirely from public appearances she was painfully shy. After just a few years on the stage she retired to a quite life away from the public eye.





Lily Elsie was an English actress and singer in the early 1900s. Her dresses, jewelry, and headpieces for her roles in plays such as "The Merry Widow" and "A Chinese Honeymoon" are so beautiful to me, I could even see some of the jewelry and hair accessories translated to modern day wear. Oh, so much loveliness!

Image Credits: Lily Elsie Set, LIFE Magazine