Original Cast Photographs
George Grossmith as Ko-Ko
Mounted on paper
Inscribed: “You don’t suppose, as a humane man, I’d have accepted the post of High Executioner if I hadn’t thought the duties were purely nominal?” – The Mikado
George Grossmith, a performer of many talents, is especially remembered for the role of Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, in The Mikado, which he created and performed throughout its first, hugely successful, run from March 1885 until January 1887. On the first night he suffered such nerves, Sullivan recalled, that “it nearly upset the piece.”
LENT BY THE IRVING S. GILMORE MUSIC LIBRARY, YALE UNIVERSITY
The Sidney Rose Collection of Gilbert and Sullivan, Box 7 Folder 1