A Marvellous Large Double Sided & Hand Painted "Electric Theatre" Fairground Sign

Origin: English
Period: Mid Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1930-40
Width 58 inches
Height: 24 inches
Depth: 2.75 inches (at maximum)

Serving up lashings of awe-inspiring nostalgia is this wonderfully hand painted vintage sign in fantastic all round condition, designed to draw in the crowds at fairgrounds all over the land.

Double sided and hanging from two hooks, the board, painted in an iridescent blue green ground, boldly advertises “The Beautiful Electric Theatre…. Scenes From All Over The World” in brightly coloured fiery orange, lime green and sunburst yellow shadowed script.

Once part of a travelling showman’s set, the ‘Electric Theatre’ was no doubt a portable electric bioscope and/or theatre of varieties playing on cinematic themes using any combination of bright lights, music, actors, troupes and more, forming a huge part of popular entertainment at fairgrounds many moons ago.

The nineteenth century had seen the gradual decline in fairs as marts of trade and the emergence of the amusements side of the events, and by the 1900s, the bioscope shows continued to grow in popularity and shows such as Hancock's Palace of Varieties was followed by Anderton and Rowland's Grand Empire Show, J. Jones' Electric Theatre and Chipperfield's Electrograph, who all competed for business during the first decade of the twentieth century.

In short, this is a very attractive piece of fairground history and is such, hugely decorative. Beautiful? Yes? Electric? Most certainly.