Playbill, Poster, Programme, forms of the atrical advertising. Although posters—placards hung on posts—are believed to have been used in London and Paris about the middle of the 17th century (earlier announcements were probably written on a wall, as in Pompeii), the first known English poster, which probably served also as a playbill for distribution by hand, is in the Public Record Office and dates from 1672. The earliest survival from an established theatre is dated 1687, and advertises a performance at
Drury Lane of
A King and No King, by Beaumont and
Fletcher. In the 19th century the poster was enlarged to contain descriptions of scenery and the names of scene-painters, such as Telbin and
Stanfield, as well as actors, but this made it too large to be manipulated with comfort, and in the 1850s the
Olympic Theatre, followed by others, began to issue small playbills folded in the middle, and initially free, for use in the theatre. Advertisements first appeared in theatre programmes in the 1860s, which also saw the beginning of the ‘magazine’ programme.
Large coloured posters first appeared in France in the 19th century, and such artists as Jules Chéret, beginning in 1866, and especially Toulouse-Lautrec in the 1890s made the poster into a work of art; the hoardings of Paris in 1895 reached a standard never surpassed. The Beggarstaff Brothers produced some splendid posters in England, among them work commissioned by Irving for the Lyceum. Posters for
melodrama, however, loomed much larger on English hoardings of the last 25 years of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th than any other kind of theatrical advertisement. Before 1900 American posters resembled those for English melodrama, but well-known artists such as Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell later took up the work. The traditions of the artistic poster were carried on in the 20th century in England by Frank Brangwyn, Lovat
Fraser, and others. The European poster in the early 20th century was much influenced by the French school of designers, and the influence of
Reinhardt was manifest in German theatrical publicity.
Theatre programmes gradually became more elaborate. About 1880 thin cardboard programmes came into use for a time, often printed in colour. Programmes of the 1880s varied enormously in size, and almost every theatre had its own cover design. After 1910 the 6 in. by 9 in. programme became common and there was more uniformity. Since the First World War programmes have generally been booklets containing theatre news and other articles as well as information on the particular production together with advertising. A few theatres, including the
National Theatre and those occupied by the
RSC, provide a free cast list. The advertising of theatrical productions is now fairly modest. Whereas hoardings in Paris and other cities in the 1890s mostly displayed advertisements for theatres, music-halls, and other entertainments, there is now much greater competition provided by the ampler funds of other vendors.
