Seymour Hicks

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

St. Hélier, Jersey, Channel Islands
Died6 April 1949(1949-04-06) (aged 78)
Hampshire, England
Occupations
  • Actor-manager
  • playwright
SpouseEllaline Terriss (1893–1949) (his death)

Sir Edward Seymour Hicks (30 January 1871 – 6 April 1949), better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing Edwardian musical comedy, often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss. His most famous acting role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Making his stage début at the age of nine and performing professionally by sixteen, Hicks joined a theatrical company and toured America before starring in Under the Clock in 1893, the first musical revue ever staged in London. Following this, he starred in a revival of Little Jack Sheppard at the Gaiety Theatre, London which brought him to the attention of impresario George Edwardes. Edwardes cast Hicks in his next show, The Shop Girl, in 1894. Its success led to his participation in two more of Edwardes's hit "girl" musicals, The Circus Girl (1896) and A Runaway Girl (1898), both starring Terriss. He first played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in 1901 and eventually played it thousands of times onstage. Hicks, along with his wife, joined the producer Charles Frohman in his theatre company and wrote and starred in a series of extraordinarily successful musicals, including Bluebell in Fairyland (1901), Quality Street (1902), The Earl and the Girl (1903) and The Catch of the Season (1904).

Hicks used his fortune from these shows to commission the building of the Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Hicks Theatre in 1906, opening the latter with a new hit show, The Beauty of Bath. His stage performances were less successful in later years, and he opted instead to star in music hall tours, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912). He continued to write light comedies, the most popular of which was The Happy Day (1916). On film, he first appeared in Scrooge and David Garrick both from 1913. Later notable films included The Lambeth Walk (1939) and Busman's Honeymoon (1940), and his last film was in the year of his death, 1949.

Life and career

Hicks was born in

St. Hélier on the island of Jersey. At the age of nine, he appeared as Little Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore at his school in Bath
. After that, he was determined to be an actor.

Early career

Hicks in "A Court Scandal", 1899

Hicks first appeared professionally on stage at the age of sixteen in a production of In the Ranks at the Grand, Islington. In 1889, he joined the theatrical company of

Girton College girls who can jabber Greek and Latin, read French, play golf, and indulge in manly exercises. Thisbe has an affectation for intellectuality – Ibsen, Spooks, and the new humor."[4]

Edwardes gave Hicks the chance to star in his next show,

Dreyfus Trial. The Hickses were frequent guests of Gilbert at his estate in Grim's Dyke. Hicks hurried back from America for the opening in December 1895. It ran for over a year.[6]

Another early success for the young couple was The Circus Girl (1896). Hicks and Terriss both had a comedy background, and they transformed the "lovers" roles in the new genre of Edwardian musicals from overly sentimental to mischievous and light-hearted characters exchanging witty banter. Hicks then worked as co-author on The Yashmak and then on one of the Gaiety Theatre's most successful shows, A Runaway Girl (1898), in which Terriss played the title role. This was followed by With Flying Colours (1899). Also in 1899, Hicks starred as the Duc De Richelieu in A Court Scandal, a comedy adapted by Aubrey Boucicault and Osmond Shillingford from Les Premières Armes de Richelieu by Dumanoir, at the Court Theatre.[7] The same year, he and Terriss adopted a daughter, Mabel, and Terriss gave birth to their second child, Elizabeth ("Betty), in 1904.[3]

Frohman years

Cover of Vocal Score

In early 1900, the Hickses played in their only Broadway show together, My Daughter-in-law, at the Frohman brothers'

old Lyceum Theatre.[8] They then joined forces with producer Charles Frohman and, in his company, over a period of seven years, they played the leads in a series of musicals written by Hicks, including Bluebell in Fairyland (1901 with music by Walter Slaughter and lyrics by Charles Taylor – this Christmas show for children was continually revived for the next four decades) and The Cherry Girl (1902). Hicks and Terriss also starred in Quality Street
in 1902. At that time, they moved to a new home, The Old Forge, at Merstham, Surrey. Their cul-de-sac was renamed "Quality Street".

Hicks also wrote the highly successful The Earl and the Girl (1903) and the successful The Catch of the Season (1904 with Herbert Haines and Taylor). Ellaline was pregnant with Betty, and so Zena Dare originated the leading role in The Catch of the Season until Terriss could assume the role. Dare's sister Phyllis Dare left the stage abruptly in 1905[9] and a Frederick Henry Wolfries spread rumors that she was pregnant by Hicks, and Hicks received written and verbal abuse for his alleged conduct. In November 1906, Wolfries appeared at the Liverpool Assizes accused of libelling Hicks, while passing himself off as Dare's brother. He was found guilty and sentenced to 8 months imprisonment.[10][11]

Hicks wrote, and Frohman produced, The Talk of the Town (1905 with Haines and Taylor),[12] The Beauty of Bath (1906 with Haines and Taylor; the show included additional lyrics by newcomer P. G. Wodehouse and additional music by Jerome Kern), My Darling (1907 with Haines),[13] and The Gay Gordons (1907). Hicks used some of the fortune he received from these shows to build the Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Hicks Theatre in 1906, which was renamed the "Globe Theatre" in 1909 and then the "Gielgud Theatre" in 1994. The Beauty of Bath was the first production at the theatre.

Later stage work

Drawing of Hicks in Quality Street

In The Dashing Little Duke (1909; with

French Croix de Guerre. Hicks was briefly declared bankrupt in 1915.[17][18]

Hicks and Terriss concentrated on comedy roles and music hall tours in later years, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912), singing and dancing 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. Their one return to musical comedy, Cash on Delivery (1917), confirmed the public's preference for comedy revues and music hall. Hicks continued to write light, escapist comedies, such as The Happy Day (1916), Sleeping Partners (1917) and, after the war, satiric farces, such as Good Luck and Head Over Heels (1923) and adaptations of French farces (The Man in Dress Clothes).

Film career, Scrooge and later years

Hicks with Terriss and their daughter Betty

Hicks appeared in three early silent films: Scrooge and David Garrick in 1913, and A Prehistoric Love Story in 1915, all directed by Leedham Bantock.[19] He decided in 1923 to produce his own films. His first film, in which he starred, was Always Tell Your Wife, which was based on one of his plays. While making that film, Hicks fired the director and hired an unknown young director to make his debut: Alfred Hitchcock.[20] Hicks directed Sleeping Partners (1930) and Glamour (1931). In addition, over a dozen films were made either from his plays or his scripts, and he starred in about twenty films, many with his wife. One of his early films was Money for Nothing (1932)[19]

In 1931, he was awarded the

Legion of Honour for his promotion of French drama on the English stage. Hicks was knighted in 1935.[21] In 1934, he had taken over Daly's Theatre in London, where he produced and appeared in a series of successful plays including Vintage Wine that he and Ashley Dukes adapted from a novel.[citation needed] He also directed and appeared in The Miracle Man at the Victoria Palace Theatre.[21]

Hicks's most famous role was that of

Pathé Pictures released the 1913 film in America under the title Old Scrooge. This 1926 print has been released on DVD. The 1935 Scrooge was the first feature-length film version of the story with sound. The film has been praised for its vivid atmosphere, but most of the ghosts in the film are not seen on screen, except for the Ghost of Christmas Present (Oscar Asche). Donald Calthrop portrays Bob Cratchit, and Maurice Evans
has a bit part as one of Scrooge's debtors. Most prints in circulation are of the abridged, six-reel (hour-long) version. The film was seldom seen due to the popularity of the 1938 and the 1951 film versions of Dickens's novel. Poor-quality prints were shown on television in the 1980s, but in 2002 the film was restored to its original eight-reel length and issued on DVD. In 2007 the hour-long version was issued in a colourised edition.

Among his other film appearances, Hicks starred in the film version of his show

He continued appearing on stage and in films until a year before his death in Hampshire, England, at the age of 78.

Notes

  1. ^ Alexis Barquin (ed.). "Under the Clock". The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  2. ^ Special Collections: K Plays, University of Minnesota, 8 April 2005, accessed 18 November 2009
  3. ^ required.)
  4. ^ Peck, Russel A. "Pantomime, Burlesque, and Children's Drama", University of Rochester (1995), accessed 2 April 2021
  5. .
  6. ^ Stedman, pp. 307–08
  7. ^ A Court Scandal Archived 10 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ My Daughter-in-law, IBDB, accessed 11 April 2012
  9. ^ Triesman, Susan. Dare, Phyllis, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 20 November 2011
  10. ^ Gardner, Viv (2019). Gale, Maggie B. (ed.). Women performers and the law in the long Edwardian Period. Manchester University Press. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Oates, Phil. "Phyllis Dare libelled in Liverpool". Liverpool Miscellany. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  12. ^ Moss, Simon. Programme and description of The Talk of the Town, Gilbert & Sullivan, a selling exhibition of memorabilia, Archive: Other items
  13. ^ My Darling, the Guide to Musical Theatre, accessed 25 February 2010
  14. ^ Johnson, Colin. Information about, and MIDI files for, The Dashing Little Duke, 2003, The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 31 March 2018
  15. ^ Lamb, p. 206
  16. ^ Seymour Hicks, British Musical Theatre, 31 August 2004 Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 2 February 2012
  17. ^ "Mr. Seymour Hicks", Western Times, 3 December 1915, p. 10
  18. ^ "Mr Seymour Hicks and his Creditors", The Glasgow Herald, 19 October 1915, p. 9
  19. ^ a b c d "Hicks, Seymour", British Film Institute, accessed 1 April 2012
  20. ^ Always Tell Your Wife, British Film Institute, accessed 1 April 2012
  21. ^ a b "Veteran Actor of British Stage", The Queenslander, June 27, 1935 (reprinting a London dispatch of June 8, 1935), p. 4

References

  • Biography of Hicks
  • .
  • Autobiography: Seymour Hicks: 24 Years of an Actor's Life (Alston Rivers, London, 1911)
  • Autobiography: Difficulties (London, 1922)
  • Autobiography: Between Ourselves (Cassell, London, 1930)
  • Autobiography: Night Lights (London, 1938)
  • Autobiography: Me and My Missus (Cassell, London, 1939)
  • Autobiography: Vintage Years (London, 1942)
  • Guida, Fred: A Christmas Carol and its Adaptations: A Critical Examination of Dickens' Story and Its Productions on Screen and Television Publisher: McFarland & Company (1999)
  • P. Hartnoll (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 4th ed. (London, 1983)
  • Stedman, Jane W. (1996). W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre. Oxford University Press. .

External links