THE SOCIAL DYNAMIC AND ‘RESPECTABILITY’ between 1861 and 1911 But no matter how true these figures are in spirit, they are misleading in detail A simple statistical manipulation such as prorating the acting population to the general population in each census year makes the rate of increase among actresses fall to 709 per cent between 1861 and 1911, which is 320 per cent less than otherwise thought When used properly, the published censuses provide otherwise unrecoverable documentation, but before accepting the results it is incumbent upon a historian to prove the reliability of the data Comparisons between the published reports and the enumerators’ manuscripts demonstrate the importance of using the primary sources from which the published censuses are abstracted To this end, the particulars of every theatrical employee residing in the London parishes coinciding with the West End theatre district and the enormous parish of Lambeth,7 and in central Glasgow8 and Liverpool9 have been transcribed from the manuscripts of 1861 (the first year in which occupational data is used in the published census) and 1881 (the most recent census made available under the hundred years rule) Remarkably, none of the occupational totals published for London’s parishes in 1861 accord with totals taken anew from the manuscript, and no factor consistently accounts for discrepancies The margin of error is enormous: the published census misrepresents the acting profession by a range of –25 per cent to +16 per cent Faulty addition may not be the sole cause of the inaccuracies The explanation may lie in the census supervisors’ inconsistent classification of performers’ specialties For example, holograph marks suggest that vocalists (whether concert singers or panto choristers) were just as likely to be classified ‘musicians’ as ‘actors’, with contradictory interpretations apparent even in neighbouring registration districts Wide variations in local classifying practice seem to have stemmed from inadequate direction in the unwieldy office of the Registrar-General Therefore, having noticed that a good number of music hall performers declared themselves as vocalists, all vocalists are included in this study for the sake of consistency and greater accuracy This provides a sound data bank of consistent, controlled evidence for a cross-section of Britain’s theatre centres in the most populous cities Every performers’ name, address, age, birthplace, living arrangements, marital status, family grouping, and occupational self-description is known and manipulable as a variable Significant refinements and corrections of the published reports are possible 41