Henry Hallam (actor)

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Henry Hallam c. 1875

Henry Hallam (August 7, 1850 – November 11, 1921) was a British-born operatic tenor and early film actor who began his five decade career singing on stage in England and then Australia and on tour in Australasia and India. He later appeared in silent films in the United States.[1]

Early career

He was born as Henry Samuel Hallam Mayer in

The Daughter of the Regiment before singing in The Messiah in Melbourne at Christmas 1871.[2]

Australasia

Hallam in costume

In 1872 Hallam joined the Simonsen opera company for whom he sang Fritz in The Grande-Duchesse of Gérolstein and Manuel in The Rose of Castille. He appeared in 'Operatic Concerts' in Sydney before joining the music hall performer Harry Rickards with whom he toured Australia and New Zealand, singing ballads between Rickards' comic turns. In 1873 Hallam left Rickards and tried his hand at stockbroking but on losing all his money he returned to what he knew best - singing and performing, to which he added teaching. He appeared with the Alice May Opera Company and in November 1873 married the Launceston-born actress Mary Harriet Langmaid (1846–1874), who was a popular performer on stage in Sydney as 'Hattie Shepparde'.[2]

From late 1873 with the Alice May Opera Company Hallam sang the lead tenor roles in

The Daughter of the Regiment, Maritana and Geneviève de Brabant. In February 1874 Hallam stayed with the company when it embarked on a tour of New Zealand in which he sang the lead tenor roles in works including Satanella, Fra Diavolo, Der Freischütz and Cinderella. His wife left the tour and went home to Australia to give birth to their daughter, Hattie Cynisca Bella Shepparde Hallam, but she died of peritonitis in childbirth in September 1874 and the daughter shortly after in March 1875.[2] The two are buried together in Melbourne General Cemetery
with Mary Langmaid's mother.

Return to Britain

In April 1875

Bucalossi's comic opera Pom (1878). His son Henry Richard Hallam (1878-1942) was born at this time.[2]

Hallam toured as Alain in

musical comedy Capers at the Standard Theatre (1885) in a piece written by the American composer Richard Stahl in an attempt to launch his wife Bertie Crawford as a soubrette. While Hallam gained such reviews as 'Henry Hallam as the lover is a veritable oasis in this desert of vocal mediocrity or badness',[3] audiences laughed the show off the stage and the production was savaged by the critics. Stahl and Crawford fled back to America and Hallam went with them.[2]

In America

The 35-year old Hallam arrived in the United States in December 1885 and quickly found work with Rudolph Aronson's Company, for which he played Sylvio in The Enchantress with the New York Clipper describing his performance as 'weak and unsatisfactory'. The company next played The Mikado and The Bohemian Girl but the company failed and Hallam moved to the Casino Theatre to play Eugène Marcel in the popular Erminie. He remained at the Casino for over three years, appearing as Count de Rosen in Nadgy (1888), Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard (1888), the Duke of Mantua in The Brigands (1889),[4] Fritz in The Grand-Duchesse of Gérolstein, Goncalves in The Brazilian, Ange Pitou in La fille de Madame Angot among other productions before touring in Erminie and Giroflé-Girofla. His attempt at management of the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco failed and he returned to New York to play Risotto in The Mountebanks (1893) before marrying for the third time in 1893 - to the Dutch-Canadian soprano Josephine Davidson Schoff (1877-), who sang as Josephine Stanton. The problem was he was still married to Maggie Hogan, who did not divorce him until July 1895. The newlyweds toured with Alfa Norman and played in a summer season at Milwaukee before playing in La fille de Madame Angot. Hallam sang in The Isle of Gold which failed before touring in A Stranger in New York. On joining the Boston Lyric Company he played Pietro, Prince of Palma in Boccaccio, Pippo in La mascotte and sang opposite his wife in Fra Diavolo, The Fencing Master and in Scott Marble and Richard Stahl's Said Pascha.[2]

Later career

In March 1900 the Hallams left America for New Zealand where they toured with their own Josephine Stanton Opera Company in Said Pasha,

The Daughter of the Regiment, and the title role in Fra Diavolo. When the tour ended in 1904 the Hallams sailed for England where they played in music halls before sailing for Canada in 1907 and from their crossing into the United States.[1][2][5]

In 1912 Hallam began a new career as a character actor in silent films, going on to make over 130 films.[1]

Henry Hallam died in 1921 in New York aged 71 shortly after making his last film.

Selected filmography

Scene from Bonnie Annie Laurie with Peggy Hyland

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Henry Hallam". gsarchive.net.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurt Gänzl, One tenor: fifty years: four continents, umpteen countries, three wives, two fathers … Theatre Heritage Australia Inc
  3. ^ Public Amusements - Reynolds's Newspaper - London, England, 29 November 1885
  4. ^ Robert Ignatius Letellier, Operetta: A Sourcebook, Volume I, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2015) - Google Books p. 175
  5. ^ U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960 for Henry Hallam - St. Albans, Vermont, 1895-1954- Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  6. ^ "National Film Preservation Foundation: The Darling of the C.S.A. (1912)". www.filmpreservation.org.
  7. ^
    ISBN 9780810819115
    – via pages 101, 271, and 273.
  8. ISBN 9780313288586
    – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Henry Hallam".
  10. ISBN 9780899504940
    – via Google Books.
  11. ^
    ISBN 9780520209695
    – via Google Books.
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