Laura Bayley

Laura Bayley
Bayley (at right), with George Albert Smith, in The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899)
Born	1864 (1864)
Died	1938 (aged 73–74)
Nationality	British
Other names	Laura Eugenia Smith Mrs. George Albert Smith
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker
Spouse(s)	George Albert Smith

Laura Eugenia Bayley (1864 – 1938) was a British actor and filmmaker, active in the Brighton School of early cinema pioneers. Born in Ramsgate, Bayley performed onstage in Victorian burlesques, revues, and pantomimes, often with her three sisters. After marrying the showman George Albert Smith, she entered the world of early experiments with motion picture film; she played main roles in many of the most important films Smith made between 1897 and 1903, including The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) and Mary Jane's Mishap (1903).

Behind the camera, Bayley likely played a significant hand in the creative development of Smith's fiction films, and may have directed some of those currently credited to him. She also directed and supervised numerous other films on her own, including a series for an early show-at-home projector design. Film historians have highlighted her prolific career as a film performer as well as the creative talent she brought to filmmaking.

Bayley was born in 1864 in the English seaside town of Ramsgate. She and her sisters Blanche, Florence, and Eva worked together as performers for J. D. Hunter's Theatre Company, which produced a "burlesque" extravaganza every year at the Brighton Aquarium.The Brighton Society, in 1887, praised "the Misses Bayley … who, by their charming vocal selections added so considerably to the success of the burlesque Brown and the Brahmins".

Bayley's three sisters also performed without her for some Aquarium productions, such as in Cinderella and Dick Whittington in August 1890 and again in the latter in 1892, but the four sisters were reunited at the Aquarium for Babes in the Wood in 1894, about which the Brighton Herald commented that "The Robin Hood of Miss Laura Bayley is a distinctly comely and cheery Robin Hood".

In 1888, when Bayley was twenty-four, she married George Albert Smith in Ramsgate. Smith was a young stage entertainer, performing hypnosis acts and second sight routines in local venues, including the Brighton Aquarium. The couple had two children, Harold Norman and Dorothy Eugenie, in 1889 and 1890, respectively. In 1892, Smith acquired a lease on St. Ann's Well and Wild Garden, a pleasure garden in Brighton; it reopened under his management the following spring. Together, Bayley and Smith mounted summer fancy dress parties, attended by as many as 2,000 costumed patrons, at the garden. Smith also gave magic lantern performances and dioramic lectures, and exhibited the newly invented Edison phonograph, as part of the garden's entertainments.