Gertie Millar

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Gertie Millar
Gertie Millar, c. 1906
Born
Gertrude Millar

(1879-02-21)21 February 1879
Manningham, Bradford, England
Died25 April 1952(1952-04-25) (aged 73)
Chiddingfold, England
NationalityEnglish
Occupation(s)Actress, singer
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1902; died 1924)​
​
​
(m. 1924; died 1932)​

Gertrude Ward, Countess of Dudley (

Edwardian musical comedies
.

Beginning her career at age 13, Millar was a prominent star of musical comedies for two decades. In 1902, she married the composer

The Marriage Market (1913), and A Country Girl
(1914).

After Monckton died in 1924, Millar married

the 2nd Earl of Dudley
.

Life and career

Millar was born in Manningham, Bradford, where her father, John Millar, was a mill worker, and her mother, Elizabeth (née Miller), was a worsted-stuff worker and dressmaker.[1]

Early career

Millar and husband Lionel Monckton

As a child, Millar performed in London

pantomimes, beginning with Babes in the Wood at the St. James Theatre in Manchester, at the age of 13.[2] She started out as a singer and dancer in the music halls of Yorkshire. Later, she moved to London where she was soon earning good notices and better pay appearing in variety show bills.[3] By 1897, she was playing the role of Phyllis Crosby in A Game of Cards at Shodfriars Hall, Boston, Lincolnshire. Next she toured in The New Barmaid in the role of Dora; in The Silver Lining; and as Sadie Pinkhose, the "other woman", in The Lady Detective.[1] In 1899, she played Dandini in a version of Cinderella at the Grand Theatre, Fulham.[4]

In the new century, she starred in a series of hit musical comedies produced by George Edwardes. In 1900, she played Isabel Blythe in the touring production of The Messenger Boy. Edwardes's next show was The Toreador in 1901 at the Gaiety Theatre in London. Lionel Monckton, one of the show's composers, had seen Millar in The Messenger Boy and requested that she be given the role of the bridesmaid Cora in the new musical, singing "Keep Off the Grass". She made the song popular and earned a second song, "Captivating Cora", and a third, "I'm not a simple little girl".[1] These hits established Millar in London. The Gaiety Theatre closed for renovations in 1902, and the last show at the old theatre was The Linkman; or, Gaiety Memories, with Millar starring as Morgiana. She married Monckton on 25 December 1902 in St. Mark's Church, Surbiton, England.[5] Monckton continued to write hit songs for her in subsequent shows.[3]

Millar and Edmund Payne in The Spring Chicken

Millar became one of the most photographed women of the

Hicks Theatre in the English-language production of Ein Walzertraum (A Waltz Dream, 1908) by Oscar Straus. Although Millar was able to sell the light musical comedy songs composed for her at the Gaiety, Oscar Straus's music was too demanding for her small voice, and she was sent to New York to star in the Broadway production of The Girls of Gottenberg.[1]

On the morning of 30 October 1905 at Millar's and Monckton's residence in Russell Square, London, Baron Gunther Rau von Holzhauzen, an infatuated young admirer of Millar's, shot himself with a revolver in Millar's boudoir. A maid discovered him hiding there, and she ran upstairs screaming to wake the Moncktons as the gun was fired. Von Holzhauzen died hours later at a nearby hospital. He visited and lunched with Millar occasionally over a period of many months and had written letters to her professing to love her and later expressing despondency over his finances.[7]

Later years

As Pierrot in Our Miss Gibbs

After she returned to London, from New York, some of Millar's biggest successes were still in front of her. They included the title role of the hit Gaiety musical,

The Marriage Market (1913). This was followed by the role of Nan in a major revival of A Country Girl (1914).[1] She also played Sallie Denbigh in The House of Bondage, a 1914 film.[9]

Millar and boys in The Orchid

World War I brought a change in the tastes of the theatregoing public. Edwardes died in 1915, and Millar's husband was in poor health.

2nd Earl of Dudley.[4] Before the war, he had been the Governor-General of Australia. Lord Dudley died in 1932.[11][12]

Millar (now Lady Dudley), survived her second husband by two decades and died at her home in Chiddingfold in 1952, aged 73. She left an estate valued at £52,354.[1][13]

Gallery

  • Millar in The Marriage Market
    Millar in
    The Marriage Market
  • Millar in 1900
    Millar in 1900
  • Gertie Millar
    Gertie Millar
  • Portrait of Gertie Millar, 1905, by Albert Henry Collings
    Portrait of Gertie Millar, 1905, by Albert Henry Collings

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Gänzl, Kurt. "Millar, Gertrude (1879–1952)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press (2004), accessed 16 April 2008
  2. ^ Obituary in Daily Telegraph, 26 April 1952
  3. ^ a b c d "Biography at The Golden Age of British Theatre". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d The Times obituary, 26 April 1952, p. 8
  5. ^ Ancestry.com, England, Select Marriages 1538–1973, FHL Film Number 1278894, Reference ID: item 7 402
  6. ^ "Pretty Faces Win Much Money", The St. Paul Globe, 1 May 1904, p. 24
  7. ^ "Tragedy in a Boudoir", The Advertiser, 5 December 1905, p. 10
  8. ISBN 1135887837
  9. ^ IMDB entry for Millar
  10. ^ "Article claiming that Millar was estranged from Monckton as early as 1905". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  11. MUP
    , 1981, pp. 347–48
  12. ^ "High Court of Justice: Lady Dudley's Separation Allowance", The Times, 7 November 1918, p. 2
  13. ^ "Death of Lady Dudley", The Times, 28 June 1920, p. 16

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gertie Millar.
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