Lydia Thompson

Lydia Thompson
Lydia Thompson in Bluebeard (1872)
Born	Eliza Hodges Thompson (1838-02-19)19 February 1838 Covent Garden, London, England
Died	17 November 1908(1908-11-17) (aged 70) London, England
Occupation	Dancer, comedian, actress, theatrical producer

Lydia Thompson, born Eliza Hodges Thompson (19 February 1838 – 17 November 1908), was an English dancer, comedian, actress, and theatrical producer.

After dancing and performing in pantomimes in Britain and then in Europe as a teenager in the 1850s, she became a leading dancer and actress in burlesques on the London stage. She introduced Victorian burlesque to America with her troupe the "British Blondes", in 1868, to great acclaim and notoriety. Her career began to decline in the 1890s, but she continued to perform into the early years of the 20th century.

Thompson was born in Brydges Street, Covent Garden, London. Her father was Philip Thompson (c.1801–1842) and her mother was Eliza (née Cooper). Her father owned the Sheridan Knowles, a public house. Thompson was the second of three surviving children, including actress Clara T. Bracy. Her father died in 1842, and her mother remarried Edward Hodges. By the age of fourteen, Thompson had left home and joined the stage professionally as a dancer.

In 1852 she became a member of the corps de ballet at Her Majesty's Theatre. By the following year she was playing a solo role, Little Silverhair, in the pantomime Harlequin and the Three Bears, or, Little Silverhair and the Fairies at the Haymarket Theatre. In 1854 she danced at the old Globe Theatre in Blackfriars Road, in James Planché's extravaganza, Mr Buckstone's Voyage Round the Globe. She gained wider public attention later that year at the St James's Theatre in The Spanish Dancers, a burletta by Thomas Selby, playing the famous dancer Señora Perea Nena. The Times dismissed the piece but praised her performance highly: "It was no burlesque; it was one excellent dancer following in the steps of another, catching the spirit of her model, and rivalling her in the audacity of her execution. The youth and beauty of Miss Thompson gave an additional charm to her Andalusian feats."