Definition of "melo"

Bar burlesque & Penleyan comedy I am becoming tolerant of this insipid British drama. Even bad melo doesn’t cause me to vomit as it did of old.

1889 December 24, Ernest Dowson, “To Arthur Moore”, in Desmond Flower, Henry Maas, editors, The Letters of Ernest Dowson, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, published 1967, page 121

One is a melodrama about Bolshevism—the break up of the Armies in 1917—what one wd call a West End melodrama as opposed to a Lyceum melo.

1920 April 23, Aldous Huxley, “To Arnold Bennett”, in Grover Smith, editor, Letters of Aldous Huxley, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1969, page 183

She learned to read and write on the road and between scenes backstage, under the tutorship of the “female heavy” of a melodrama company. Meanwhile Mary listened and learned of the world about her. She heard a very great deal of the chesty gossip of melo actors discussing “when I was with Belasco,” and came to learn that on this wonderful Broadway Belasco was master.

1923, Terry Ramsaye, “The Romantic History of the Motion Picture”, in Photoplay, page 41

True life was melo about the first woman the George Cross. (As a stump word, ‘melo’ is short for ‘melodrama’.)

1971 August 26, Radio Times

The Roots of Heaven..John Huston’s melo about elephant conservation.

1973 December 20, Radio Times

“And a melo?” Miss Collins asked. Richard looked to Miss Joyce for help. “A melodrama! You don’t know?” A somewhat astonished Miss Joyce commented. “The only plays melo companies perform are melodramas. There are several of them touring out there,” broadly gesturing with her arm. “They’re known as ‘blood and thunders.’ A good melo actor can work all year round. […] Melos are a good place for a young actor to start,” she added.

2012, Bill Thomas, Upstage, Downstage, Cross: An Actor Emerges in Early English 20th Century Theatre, AuthorHouse, page 155