Fred Vokes (22 January 1846 â€" 3 June 1888) was a British music hall,
pantomime and burlesque dancer and actor of the 19th-century and a
member of the Vokes Family troupe of entertainers. For more than ten
years they were the central attraction at the annual pantomime at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from 1868 to 1879 when their popularity
began to wane. Because of his eccentric style of dancing he was billed
as the "Legmania" dancer.Frederick Motimer Vokes was born in
Clerkenwell in London in 1846 and was a member of the well-known Vokes
Family made up of three sisters, a brother and "foster brother"
(actually actor Walter Fawdon (1844-1904) who changed his name to
Fawdon Vokes and who outlived the rest of his "family") popular in the
pantomime theatres of 1870s London and in the United States. Their
father, Frederick Strafford Thwaites Vokes (1816-1890), was a
theatrical costumier and wigmaker who owned a shop at 19 Henrietta
Street, Covent Garden. Their mother Sarah Jane Biddulph née Godden
(1818-1897) was the daughter of Welsh-born strolling player Will Wood
and his actress wife.The eldest of the siblings, he was educated for
the stage from an early age, being tutored in acting by Mr. Chadwick
and in dancing, in which he excelled, by Mr. Flexmore. He made his
first appearance at the Surrey Theatre in 1854 aged 8 as the boy in
the farce Seeing Wright. The 1861 Census lists the 15 year-old Fred's
occupation as "Actor".With his sisters, Rosina, Victoria and Jessie,
and "foster brother" Fawdon, first as the "Vokes Children" and later
the "Vokes Family" they began to perform at music halls and at
pantomimes, and by their agility and humour made the name well known
to English and American theatre-goers. They made their début on
Christmas night in 1861 at Howard's Operetta House in Edinburgh and
made their London début at the Alhambra Theatre in 1862 when they
were billed as 'The Five Little Vokes'. They appeared at the Lyceum
Theatre in London on 26 December 26 1868 in Edward Litt Laman
Blanchard's pantomime Humpty Dumpty in which the critic of The Daily
Telegraph wrote that Fred Vokes '...dances as few men in this world
probably could dance or would wish to dance. The extraordinary
contortions of limb in which his dancing abounds â€" contortions which
in Mr Vokes’ hands â€" or rather legs â€" are not lacking in grace
â€" are highly suggestive of the impossibility of his suffering at any
time from such accidents as dislocations.' With his siblings he
traveled through a great part of the civilized world. Early in their
career, at the Lyceum Theatre in London, they danced in W. S.
Gilbert's pantomime Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren.
pantomime and burlesque dancer and actor of the 19th-century and a
member of the Vokes Family troupe of entertainers. For more than ten
years they were the central attraction at the annual pantomime at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from 1868 to 1879 when their popularity
began to wane. Because of his eccentric style of dancing he was billed
as the "Legmania" dancer.Frederick Motimer Vokes was born in
Clerkenwell in London in 1846 and was a member of the well-known Vokes
Family made up of three sisters, a brother and "foster brother"
(actually actor Walter Fawdon (1844-1904) who changed his name to
Fawdon Vokes and who outlived the rest of his "family") popular in the
pantomime theatres of 1870s London and in the United States. Their
father, Frederick Strafford Thwaites Vokes (1816-1890), was a
theatrical costumier and wigmaker who owned a shop at 19 Henrietta
Street, Covent Garden. Their mother Sarah Jane Biddulph née Godden
(1818-1897) was the daughter of Welsh-born strolling player Will Wood
and his actress wife.The eldest of the siblings, he was educated for
the stage from an early age, being tutored in acting by Mr. Chadwick
and in dancing, in which he excelled, by Mr. Flexmore. He made his
first appearance at the Surrey Theatre in 1854 aged 8 as the boy in
the farce Seeing Wright. The 1861 Census lists the 15 year-old Fred's
occupation as "Actor".With his sisters, Rosina, Victoria and Jessie,
and "foster brother" Fawdon, first as the "Vokes Children" and later
the "Vokes Family" they began to perform at music halls and at
pantomimes, and by their agility and humour made the name well known
to English and American theatre-goers. They made their début on
Christmas night in 1861 at Howard's Operetta House in Edinburgh and
made their London début at the Alhambra Theatre in 1862 when they
were billed as 'The Five Little Vokes'. They appeared at the Lyceum
Theatre in London on 26 December 26 1868 in Edward Litt Laman
Blanchard's pantomime Humpty Dumpty in which the critic of The Daily
Telegraph wrote that Fred Vokes '...dances as few men in this world
probably could dance or would wish to dance. The extraordinary
contortions of limb in which his dancing abounds â€" contortions which
in Mr Vokes’ hands â€" or rather legs â€" are not lacking in grace
â€" are highly suggestive of the impossibility of his suffering at any
time from such accidents as dislocations.' With his siblings he
traveled through a great part of the civilized world. Early in their
career, at the Lyceum Theatre in London, they danced in W. S.
Gilbert's pantomime Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren.
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