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Jul. 27th, 2005 12:34 pmThe life of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street began as a back page news account which, along with his deadly razors and “worst pies in London,” quickly passed into urban legend. He reemerged in a popular 1847 “penny dreadful” that captured the imagination of Victorian teens, long before Sondheim’s Tony award-winning play.
The dark, sensationalistic flavor of these “penny dreadfuls” fed the Victorian appetite for all things morbid, and their influence can still be seen in everything from Charles Dickens to Bram Stoker. With 19th century improvements in printing technology, Fleet Street printers were able to churn out eight-page dime novels when there was no other literature for young adults. Their detailed illustrated covers were almost as important as the story, since their readership’s literacy tended to be a tad sketchy. The colorful and often lurid tales were sold out of tobacco and sweetshops to Victorian era teens. Boys even formed clubs to pool their resources to buy the next exciting chapter, as they inevitably ended on a cliff-hanger.
To say critics loathed the "penny dreadful" would vastly understate the case. James Greenwood in 1874 called them a "plague" of poisonous literature. “Nasty-feeling, nasty-looking packets every one of them, and, considering the virulent nature of their contents, their most admirable feature is their extremely limited size.”
The story that introduced fans to the murderous Sweeney Todd is ironically the most long-lived and is now the signature piece for the penny dreadful. But Victorian pulp fiction spanned a variety of genres, sharing the same stock characters: the first ever was a romance written by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, “Maleaska: Indian Wife of the White Hunter.” There were also westerns (“The Half-Blood: The Stalking Panther”), and Jules Verne copycats featuring preposterous balloons bound for the moon (“Two Boys’ Trip To An Unknown Planet”).
Steven Sondheim discovered the story in 1973 while rehearsing for a London production of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury. Christopher Bond had rewritten the story adding layers of complexity to the ever-so-evil barber. Says Flora Roberts, "they had a piano player in the lobby and people drinking beer and eating meat pies ... It was such a fun atmosphere, very colorful. And I immediately saw why Steve was excited."
The dark, sensationalistic flavor of these “penny dreadfuls” fed the Victorian appetite for all things morbid, and their influence can still be seen in everything from Charles Dickens to Bram Stoker. With 19th century improvements in printing technology, Fleet Street printers were able to churn out eight-page dime novels when there was no other literature for young adults. Their detailed illustrated covers were almost as important as the story, since their readership’s literacy tended to be a tad sketchy. The colorful and often lurid tales were sold out of tobacco and sweetshops to Victorian era teens. Boys even formed clubs to pool their resources to buy the next exciting chapter, as they inevitably ended on a cliff-hanger.
To say critics loathed the "penny dreadful" would vastly understate the case. James Greenwood in 1874 called them a "plague" of poisonous literature. “Nasty-feeling, nasty-looking packets every one of them, and, considering the virulent nature of their contents, their most admirable feature is their extremely limited size.”
The story that introduced fans to the murderous Sweeney Todd is ironically the most long-lived and is now the signature piece for the penny dreadful. But Victorian pulp fiction spanned a variety of genres, sharing the same stock characters: the first ever was a romance written by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, “Maleaska: Indian Wife of the White Hunter.” There were also westerns (“The Half-Blood: The Stalking Panther”), and Jules Verne copycats featuring preposterous balloons bound for the moon (“Two Boys’ Trip To An Unknown Planet”).
Steven Sondheim discovered the story in 1973 while rehearsing for a London production of Gypsy starring Angela Lansbury. Christopher Bond had rewritten the story adding layers of complexity to the ever-so-evil barber. Says Flora Roberts, "they had a piano player in the lobby and people drinking beer and eating meat pies ... It was such a fun atmosphere, very colorful. And I immediately saw why Steve was excited."