Sminky,

I was just rereading this snippet:

JBG "took possession" of the Gaiety, Hanley, on Dec 5th 1887 (he still remained General Manager of the Victoria at Bolton). After his death in 1889, his wife Mary Ann took over, with Dot Geoghegan becoming "the youngest directress in the profession". JBG's funeral took place on January 24th 1889 - he was buried at Heaton Cemetery, Bolton. His widow died at Hanley on Tuesday June 4th 1889. After that there is no further mention of a Geoghegan connection with the Music Hall.

Where did the info come from? I was just wondering if it's possible that Mary Ann and Dot are the same person? Surely if she had taken over from her husband running the place, wouldn't she be the directress? I'm not sure about the structure of Music Halls at this time - would there be a separate 'director' job from the manager?

Dot could have been a sort of 'nickname' or an odd abreviation - I know that Mary Ann was often abbreivated to Polly, so Dot isn't that much of a stretch! She would have been about 55 at this point. It doesn't sound particularly young does it? But then we don't know how old any other directresses there were in the profession or indeed how old they were.

She would certainly have been in a position to take over after 40 years as his 'wife' surely?

Just a theory...