Front: A studio photo of a man in a dirty rugby or soccer type outfit, posing in a droll way. He has mussed up hair and a moustache. Autograph: Best Wishes George French George French (1876-1938) was a popular Scottish Music Hall and Pantomime theatre star at the turn of the 20th century. He was a gifted character comedian. One of his most popular characters was a "madcap Geordie Footballer" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a55iAwMXylo) which might be depicted in the photo on this card. More often, postcard images of him as this character featured him in a striped team jersey (http://www.ebay.ie/itm/GEORGE-FRENCH-Music-Hall-Theatre-Pantomime-Scottish-Actor-AUTOGRAPH-FOOTBALL-/301970330286?hash=item464ed592ae:g:qhEAAOSw7ehXQ2iJ), so this may be another character or an earlier version of the character. He was one of the performers at the 1912 Royal Music Hall Command Performance in London. It was a big deal for the Music Hall business as previously it had the reputation of being too low brow for Royalty to pay attention and the performance for the Royal Family of King George lent it legitimacy. Sources: Book "Scotland and the Music Hall 1850-1914" by Paul Maloney, Manchester Univ. Press pg. 104-105 https://books.google.ca/books?id=hn1kuc21R8cC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=GEORDIE+THE+FOOTBALLER+CHARACTER+BY+GEORGE+FRENCH&source=bl&ots=wYbe6C4V2u&sig=meTUOTbi7bnLHmW_inJdkng_zpQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip-v6H9oTNAhUm_IMKHRmgD_0Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=GEORDIE%20THE%20FOOTBALLER%20CHARACTER%20BY%20GEORGE%20FRENCH&f=false http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GEORGE-FRENCH-Music-Hall-Theatre-Pantomime-Scottish-Actor-AUTOGRAPH-FOOTBALL-/301970330286?hash=item464ed592ae:g:qhEAAOSw7ehXQ2iJ Back: