London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
KEELEY AND LEIGH MURRAY AT THE OLYMPIC.
The camp at Chobham supplied the title for a play at the Olympic, which I class amongst the earliest of my The cast included Robert Keeley and Leigh Murray, and, I fancy, Miss Charlotte Sanders. But of the lady I am not at all sure. I rather think I am talking of a period long before her time-the palmy days of the Strand Theatre, when Jimmy Rogers and Johnnie Clark used to share with Patty Oliver, Marie Wilton, and the actress I have just mentioned, the honours of the evening. But I distinctly recollect that Leigh Murray, the elegant light comedian, appeared in the undress uniform of a cavalry officer and pitched his tent in Mr. Keeley's front garden. Then Mr. Keeley himself appeared in a dressing-gown to secure the decease of an early-crowing fowl. I do not remember the plot, but I suppose he must have been a guardian of the walking lady who had attracted the affectionate regards of the uniformed Leigh Murray. And here I am reminded that thirty or forty years ago an officer of the British army never appeared without his regimentals-on the stage. I have quite forgotten the name of the walking lady of the period, but fancy she was called Miss Katherine Rogers. No doubt is in one of the volumes of I do not think that Mrs. Keeley was in the cast, although she appeared about this time at the Olympic with her husband in a farce founded upon the Licensing Act, called . | |