Home » Archives » Pierrot Troupes in Wales » Pierrot Troupes in Llandudno » Oral History of Pierrots in Llandudno

Oral History of Pierrots in Llandudno

Interviews conducted with some of the people we met whilst working on the Seaside Follies project.
These interviews focussed on seaside entertainment in general and Will Catlin’s role in particular.
We would like to thank all those who took part and would welcome any further written or oral contributions to the work.

There is a section for your comments at the bottom of this page, so please leave your feedback or comments.

Will Catlin & his pierrots

What follows is a discussion conducted by Dr Tony Lidington, with two of Will Catlin’s descendants – Margot Catlin & Jane Smith, on the site of Will Catlin’s ‘Arcradia Theatre’ at Venue Cymru, Llandudno, on 5th June 2018.

Margot-Catlin-(daughter-of-Will)-Jane-Smith-(granddaughter-of-Will)-&-Dr-Tony-Lidington
Margot Catlin (daughter-of-Will) Jane Smith (granddaughter-of-Will) &-Dr Tony Lidington
Margot-Catlin-&-Jane-Smith
Margot-Catlin-&-Jane-Smith

John Williams – a personal view of Will Catlin, his seaside shows in Llandudno

As a boy, John went to watch Will Catlin’s shows and later he worked for him at ‘The Arcadia’. This interview was conducted by Samantha O’Rourke in July 2018, as he reflects upon the shows, the seaside atmosphere and  Will Catlin the man…

John Williamson
John Williamson

An overview of seaside entertainers and Will Catlin

Dr Tony Lidington talks about the history of seaside shows and Will Catlin’s role in creating a seaside empire of entertainment. Duration: 9′ 28″.

2 thoughts on “Oral History of Pierrots in Llandudno”

  1. Found all this very interesting as Will Catlin was my Grandmother Hannah Fox brother. We did have a group photo of the group but not sure where it went to.

    1. How fascinating! Thanks for getting in touch, Sheila. I have been working with both Jane Smith and Margot Catlin – would you like to be put in touch with either of them? We are trying to piece together Will’s history, so any information and images/memorabilia that you have would be most interesting. many thanks, Dr Tony Lidington

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top