JKG History Page

John Kilby Green & the History of the Toy Theatre

Chapter 5 - JK Green – The Plagiarist

• IK Green the Plagiarist

In JK Green’s first career as IK Green, we saw that he predominantly copied the works of William West. It was West that declared that Green was an excellent copyist in his interview with Henry Mayhew in 1850. So it came as no surprise that on his return in 1832 that he quickly got back into his plagiaristic ways.

• JK Green the Plagiarist or Originator

On Green’s “Miller and his Men” halfpenny frontispiece from 1835, Green declared that his edition is taken directly from Lloyd and he claimed to have the original drawings in his possession. This was possible, as Lloyd had recently retired. This is the only occasion that Green formally declared that he copied the work of others.

Pollock’s Frontispiece (reprinted from Green’s) for “Miller and his Men”

Clearly states, “Taken from Lloyds” and adds that the

“Original Drawings in possession of the Publisher”

(Image published with the kind permission of “Pollock Toy Theatres Ltd”)

David Powell writes:-

(Miller and his Men.) I am sure that "Taken from Lloyds" is Green's claim, as also the further claim about "drawings in possession of the publisher". By the time Green's halfpenny Miller appeared, Lloyd had gone out of business (though he was still publishing in 1833), and his plates had been acquired and re-published by Skelt. Green's Miller was thus a copy of a version now being published by his most powerful rival, and I presume his statement was intended to counter in advance any suggestion that he might be stooping to PIRACY. (Perish the thought!) Perhaps no one was convinced, as he never again made any pronouncement at all on matters of this kind. It is interesting that his previous play, Douglas, is said to be from Dyer, who was on the verge of going out of business, and may already have done so (though he was still publishing in mid-1834, so this is cutting it a bit fine). It seems possible therefore that Green began his repertoire of halfpenny plays with two not-quite-piracies of plays by recently-gone-out-of-business publishers. He may have reasoned that customers could not expect original work for so low a price, though if so he certainly climbed down from this position very quickly, as all or most of his productions during the next half-decade seem to have been quite original. Why Green should have had the original drawings of Lloyd's Miller I cannot guess. There is no sign that he ever acquired anything else connected with Lloyd.

As we look more closely at the list of plays produced by Green, we find more and more are copies, however there were some plays that were unique to Green. So why was it that one moment he was a plagiarist and in the next he was creating unique productions? I surmise that if a copy existed of a production that Green desired to publish, then expediency would naturally suggest itself to Green and that it would be cheaper and quicker to make a copy than to reproduce the artwork afresh. However when a play opened in the London theatres that Green wanted to see in print and no other publisher had attempted to issue their rendition of the play, then Green had to produce the work himself.

Most of Green’s copied plays were taken form larger penny plays. Therefore he was reproducing the work in a smaller format, a format in which the work hadn’t previously been available. Green wasn’t alone in this practice as the Skelts also made numerous halfpenny copies of larger format sheets. Not only did both publishers bring these plays out in a reduced scale but they also charged half the price namely ½d plain and 1d coloured. They were providing young impresarios with an opportunity to acquire plays that were previously unobtainable to them. This brought the toy theatre to many thousands of people who hadn’t previously had the funds to purchase the larger scale versions. No longer would they need to push their noses against the print-sellers shop windows, they now had an opportunity to purchases their desires.

The copying of plays gave Green two invaluable commodities. Firstly cash from their sales and secondly time to produce other works, works that no one else was going to produce. So Green’s plagiarism wasn’t one of simple greed, but one that helped him to contribute works that otherwise wouldn’t have been created for the small stage.

It could be argued, that by bringing the toy theatre to a much larger audience, Green’s was a benefactor for the industry as through his plagiarism as he helped to keep the toy theatre alive and thriving as the leading toy of the first half of the nineteenth century. What about the publishers he copied? Apart from the Skelts, it would appear that in most cases the original publisher had either died or retired by the time Green made his copies. Perhaps he should have paid a royalty, but I doubt if that occurred to Green, especially as most of his works were of a smaller scale. In copying the work of the Skelts he probably felt safe from any prosecution, as they also were known to be plagiarists.

According to my early researches the following plays were unique to Green:-

Belphegor the Conjuror

Daughter of the Regiment

Life of a Soldier

Lord Darnley

Lord Mayors Fool

Sixteen String Jack

Wapping Old Stairs

Robin Hood

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Sleeping Beauty

The following plays were later brought out by Matthews in the 1890's, so Green's were unique at the time he published them:-

Robert Macaire

State Secrets

David Powell added:-

I think all the plays in your Green-only list are correct. Assuming that we discount the later versions of Mathews, G. Skelt, and the penny packet people (much of which probably derives from Green anyway), the following titles can arguably be added:

Blue Jackets

Cinderella (Mrs Hebberd's version was of a different play altogether)

Jack Sheppard

Rookwood (same subject-matter as Skelt's Richard Turpin, but a very different play)

Wreck Ashore (same subject-matter as Skelt's The Rover's Bride, but a very different play)

And all Green's other pantomimes (apart from Guy Fawkes, where he clashed with Skelt) can be added likewise:

Harlequin and Oliver Cromwell

Harlequin and Riddle-me-ree

Harlequin and the Giant Helmet

Goody Goose (roughly the same subject-matter as Mother Goose, but essentially a different pantomime)

Jack the Giant Killer (not to be confused with Jack and the Beanstalk, which is a different story [Speaight should not have lumped these together]; and early versions by West and Jameson are of different pantomimes altogether)

With HARLEQUIN Robin Hood and HARLEQUIN AND Uncle Tom's Cabin (better to give the full titles in this context), there are Webb's versions of the straight plays, but this does not affect Green's versions of the pantomimes; and with Jack Sheppard, there is Skelt's version of the pantomime, but again this does not affect Green's version of the straight play. Finally there is said to be a Hodgson and Co. version of Sleeping Beauty, but this an 1820s melodrama or spectacle, not the pantomime of 1850. Also a West version, which I can't remember anything about off hand, but cannot have anything to do with the pantomime done by Green

The following table details the extent of Green’s plagiarism, but at the same time it also shows clearly that many plays performed at Astley’s, Queen’s, Sadler’s Wells and The Surrey theatres were unique to Green.

Copied plays in YELLOW Part copied plays in ORANGE Unique Plays in GREEN

Plays not highlighted are under investigation to see if they were copies or unique to Green.

Date	Play	Original Theatre Production	Copied From	Produced by Redington/Pollock
29-Aug-1833	Jonathan Bradford (1d)	Surrey	Unknown if a copy or original
01-Jan-1834	The Miller & his Men (1d)	Covent Garden/Haymarket	Unknown if a copy or original
01-Nov-1834	Douglas	Drury Lane	Dyer?	Yes
01-Nov-1835	The Miller & his Men	Covent Garden/Haymarket	Lloyd 1d	Yes
??-???-1835	The Miller & his Men (Miniature)	Covent Garden/Haymarket	Unknown if a copy or original
15-Feb-1836	Robert Macaire	Adelphi/Lyceum	Unique to Green – Matthews 1898
04-Apr-1836	Red Rover	Adelphi	A Park ½d	Yes (Not complete)
30-Apr-1836	Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves	Covent Garden/New Theatre	Unknown if a copy or original	Yes
19-Sep-1836	Brigand	Drury Lane	West 1d?	Yes
26-Dec-1836	Harlequin & Guy Fawkes	Covent Garden	Part copy from Skelt
01-Mar-1837	State Secrets	Surrey	Unique to Green – Matthews 1894
01-Apr-1837	Lord Mayors Fool	Astley’s	Unique to Green	Yes
01-Jun-1837	Wreck Ashore	Adelphi	Unique Version	Yes (Not recorded by Speaight)
01-Dec-1837	Blue Beard	Covent Garden/Drury Lane	Unknown if a copy or original
01-Feb-1838	Wapping Old Stairs	Surrey/Haymarket	Unique to Green
01-Apr-1839	Lord Darnley	Surrey	Unique to Green	Yes
26-Dec-1839	Jack Sheppard	Surrey/Adelphi	Unique Version
15-Apr-1840	Rookwood	Sadler’s Wells	Unique Version
01-Oct-1840	Children in the Wood	Haymarket	Skelt Late Park 1d	Yes
21-Nov-1840	Waterman	Haymarket	Reversed from Skelt	Yes
14-Dec-1840	Black Eyed Susan	Surrey	Copy Unknown?
01-Jan-1841	Aladdin	Covent Garden/New Theatre	Orlando Hodgson 1d	Yes
01-Jul-1841	The Maid & the Magpie	Covent Garden	Orlando Hodgson 1d
05-Sep-1841	Silver Palace	Sadler’s Wells	Skelt ½d	Yes
25-Dec-1841	Harlequin & the Giant Helmet		Unique Version
15-Apr-1842	Blue Jackets	Adelphi	Unique Version	Yes
18-Jun-1842	Battle of Waterloo	Astley’s	Skelt ½d	Yes
01-Sep-1842	Woodman's Hut	Drury Lane	Unknown if a copy or original
25-Dec-1842	Harlequin & Riddle-me-ree		Unique Version
26-Dec-1843	Harlequin Robin Hood	Queen’s/Sadler’s Wells	Unique to Green
31-Oct-1844	Cinderella (First print)	Covent Garden	Unique Version	Yes
26-Dec-1845	Therese	Drury Lane	Unknown if a copy or original
26-Dec-1846	The Forest of Bondy	Covent Garden	Unknown if a copy or original
05-Apr-1847	The Flying Dutchman	Adelphi	Unknown if a copy or original
24-Dec-1847	Harlequin & St George	Drury Lane	Unknown if a copy or original
10-Apr-1849	Timour the Tartar	Covent Garden	Skelt late Park 1d	Yes
15-Apr-1849	Cinderella (Second Print)	Covent Garden	Unique Version	Yes
26-Dec-1850	Sleeping Beauty	Queen’s	Unique to Green	Yes
15-Apr-1851	Belphegor the Conjuror	Queen’s	Unique to Green
01-Sep-1851	Richard III	Drury Lane	Skelt late Lloyd 1d	Yes (Not complete)
18-Nov-1851	Blackbeard the Pirate	Sadler’s Wells	Unknown if a copy or original	Yes (Not complete)
01-Jul-1852	Mary the Maid of the Inn	Drury Lane	Skelt late Lloyd 1d
26-Dec-1852	Harlequin & Oliver Cromwell		Unique Version
28-Mar-1853	Uncle Tom's Cabin	Royal Pavilion	Unique to Green
26-Dec-1853	Dick Whittington & his Cat	Sadler’s Wells/Covent Garden	Unknown if a copy or original	Yes
15-Apr-1854	Life of a Soldier	Britannia	Unique to Green
11-Aug-1854	The Corsican Brothers	Princess	Unknown if a copy or original	Yes
31-Oct-1854	Tom Thumb	Covent Garden	George's Cruickshank's illustrated playbook
26-Dec-1854	Battle of Alma	Astley’s/Surrey	Unknown if a copy or original
26-Dec-1854	Jack the Giant Killer	Olympic, Drury Lane, Lyceum, Regency	Unique Version	Yes
10-Apr-1855	Battle of Balaclava & Inkerman	Astley’s	Unknown if a copy or original
26-Dec-1855	Rob Roy	Covent Garden	West 1d?
26-Dec-1856	Dred	Queen’s/Surrey	Unknown if a copy or original
01-Jan-1857	Sixteen String Jack	Sadler’s Wells	Unique to Green
01-Sep-1857	Daughter of the Regiment	Drury Lane/Surrey	Unique to Green	Yes
??-???-1859	Goody Goose	Marylebone	Unique Version

• Who copied JK Green?

Plagiarism was rife in the toy theatre publishing world. We can see clearly that Green copied others but did anyone copy Green? The answer is a resounding “yes!” Obviously we have Redington and Pollock, but they weren’t really copying Green’s works, as they rightfully owned the plates they published from. Most notable of the plagiarists to copy Green, was A How Matthews of Acton who between the years of 1886 to 1906 created the following works, all of which are either complete copies or taken from various sources, the latter was probably in an effort to avoid being sued for breach of copyright, which become law in its own right in 1902:-

Year	Title	Copied From
1886	Flying Dutchman	Various sources (Not complete)
1887	Cinderella	Pollock (therefore Green)
1888	Miller & his Men	Various Sources
1888	The Maid & the Magpie	Various Sources
1891	Jack the Giant Killer	Various Sources (Not complete)
1893	Tom Tug (The Waterman)	Various Sources
1895	Blackbeard the Pirate	Green
1898	Robert Macaire	Green
1902	The King of Burning Mountains (The Silver Palace)	Pollock (therefore Green)
1903	Red Rover	Park
?	Jock O’Newbury or the State Despatches (State Secrets)	Green
?	Brigand	Webb
?	Blue Jackets	Pollock (therefore Green)

Another notable copyist was G Skelt of 24 Clairview Street, St Helier, Jersey. G Skelt was an assumed name; he was born George Wood and later changed his name to George Cornetta in recognition of the Italian family he lived with for most of his young life. On his arrival in Jersey, he took the name of Skelt to deflect any claims for breach of copyright and to give the appearance of being a descendant of the original Skelt family. There has been no evidence to support this claim.

G Skelt copied just two of Green’s publications and these were only intended for private consumption, in that they were never released for general sale until after his death in 1956:-

Year	Title	Copied From
19??	Flying Dutchman	Green
19??	Douglas	Green

A comparison between Green’s Douglas and G Skelt’s pirated copy.

G Skelt’s was a lithograph print from Green’s print, with imprint changed and agents removed.

After his death in 1956 Benjamin Pollock Limited acquired all G Skelt’s prints.

Chapter 6 - JK Green - The Final Years

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