Cicely Courtneidge
Encyclopedia
Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge DBE
(1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an English actress and comedienne. The daughter of the producer Robert Courtneidge
, she was appearing in his productions in the West End
, by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.
After the outbreak of the First World War, her father had a series of failures and temporarily withdrew from production. No other producers offered the young Courtneidge leading roles in musical comedies, and she turned instead to the music hall
, learning her craft as a comedienne. In 1916 she married the actor and dancer Jack Hulbert
, with whom she formed a professional as well as a private partnership that lasted until his death 62 years later. They acted together on stage and screen, initially in a series of revue
s, with Hulbert frequently producing as well as performing.
Courtneidge appeared in 11 British films in the 1930s, and one in Hollywood, finding this work to be very lucrative. She and Hulbert also recorded for Columbia and HMV, returning to the stage in the late 1930s. During the Second World War, Courtneidge entertained the armed forces and raised funds for the troops. She then had a long run in Under the Counter, a comedy in which she received glowing notices. Notable among her other successes was Courtneidge's performance in Ivor Novello
's musical Gay's the Word
in 1951–52. During the rest of the decade, she focused on revues and straight plays.
After the mid-1960s, Courtneidge concentrated on the non-musical theatre, appearing in the West End and on tour in a range of plays, both serious and comic. While appearing in her last West End run in 1971, she celebrated 70 years on the stage. Afterwards, she continued to work for a further five years before retiring.
, while her father was touring Australia with the J. C. Williamson
company. The family returned to England in 1894. Courtneidge was a member of a theatrical family. Her parents were the Scottish producer and actor Robert Courtneidge
and his wife, Rosaline May née Adams (stage name Rosie Nott). Rosaline was the daughter of the opera singer Cicely Nott and the sister of three other actresses including Ada Blanche, a well-known pantomime
star. In 1901, at the age of eight, Courtneidge made her stage debut as the fairy Peaseblossom in her father's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester
.
Courtneidge was educated in England and, for two teenage years, in Switzerland. On returning from the latter, aged 15, she embarked on an acting career, with the approval and encouragement of her parents. Robert Courtneidge cast her in small ingénue
roles in his productions. Her London West End
debut was at the Apollo Theatre
in the comic opera
Tom Jones
(1907), which had a libretto co-written by her father. Her first starring role was Eileen Cavanagh in the long-running Edwardian musical comedy
The Arcadians
, which she took over from Phyllis Dare
in 1910. In the piece that followed, The Mousmé (1911), which also featured a book co-written by her father, she was cast in one of the two leading female roles alongside Florence Smithson.
At this stage in Courtneidge's career, there was some feeling in theatrical circles that her elevation to star status was largely due to her being Robert Courtneidge's daughter. Reviewing The Mousmé, The Observer
wrote that the co-authors had "failed to supply any adequate dramatic raison d'être for the prominent character of Miyo, a fair-haired Japanese damsel, embodied by Miss Cicely Courtneidge with much sprightliness but far too much effort, facial and otherwise, of coy significance." The Times
liked her better and praised her "pretty impudence and roguery".
Courtneidge continued to star in her father's productions. In September 1913, she played the part of Lady Betty Biddulph in the musical comedy The Pearl Girl. The cast included Ada Blanche; this was the third successive production in which aunt and niece had appeared together. Also in the cast, in the role of Robert Jaffray, was the 21-year-old Jack Hulbert
, making his professional debut after success as an amateur while a Cambridge
undergraduate. In June 1914, Courtneidge and Hulbert starred together in The Cinema Star, an adaptation by Hulbert and Harry Graham
of Die Kino-Königin, a 1913 German comic opera by Jean Gilbert
. The piece was a hit for Courtneidge and her father, playing to full houses at the Shaftesbury Theatre
until Britain and Germany went to war in August 1914; anti-German sentiment brought the run to an abrupt halt.
In 1914, Courtneidge and Hulbert became engaged to be married, but their plans were delayed by Robert Courtneidge's insistence that they should wait for two years before marrying. They complied with this injunction and did not marry until February 1916. Soon after the outbreak of war, Hulbert joined the army. Courtneidge continued to appear in her father's productions in the West End and on tour. These were revivals of The Arcadians and The Pearl Girl and three unsuccessful new shows, The Light Blues, My Lady Frayle and Oh, Caesar! (all 1916). The failures put her father temporarily out of business, and as no other producer invited her to star in musical comedy, she turned instead to music hall
Variety show
s. The Times later wrote that this was the first step in a new career as a comedienne "specializing in cameo character sketches". After an early variety engagement in Manchester, the critic of The Manchester Guardian
wrote of her "pleasant voice and much charm of manner" in sketches and songs: "one may express a preference for Miss Courtneidge as the hospital sister, presented with all the bright graciousness which properly belongs to the character, over her more elaborate representation of the Flying Corps 'knut'."
Courtneidge later recalled of her first years on the halls, "When I started, my name was in such small print you could hardly read it. Music hall is the toughest thing in the world. ... I often used to get the bird, and I've had pennies thrown at me many a time." Nevertheless, she mastered the genre, according to her biographer Derek Pepys-Whiteley:
in 1918. She and Hulbert planned to work together in "light-hearted humour and burlesque, in revue
and musical comedy". Their first revue was Ring Up, by Eric Blore
and Ivy St. Helier
, at the Royalty Theatre
in 1921; they received good notices, but the material was weak, and the show was not a great success. Courtneidge returned to variety, appearing at the London Coliseum in 1922.
In 1923, Courtneidge and Hulbert appeared in The Little Revue, produced by Hulbert. The Times wrote of the show, "there is no reason why it should not have a dozen successors, all as good." There were, in fact, five successors, described by Pepys-Whiteley as "a series of uninterrupted successes throughout eight years, in which both partners had star parts." These shows played in the West End and on tour in the UK, and in 1925 the Hulberts made their Broadway
debut in their current revue, By-the-Way. The New York Times
found the show "beguiling". The fourth in the series, Clowns in Clover, contained one of Courtneidge's most celebrated sketches, "Double Damask", by Dion Titheradge, in which her character, Mrs. Spooner
, and two shop assistants become entangled in tongue-twisters. When Courtneidge's 1932 recording of the sketch was reissued in 1972, The Gramophone said, "it is an enduring classic comedy sketch as funny now as it was then".
In 1931 Courtneidge and Hulbert suffered a serious setback when they discovered that their financial manager had been speculating with their money, suffering heavy losses and putting their business into liquidation. Hulbert accepted responsibility for all the business's debts and undertook to repay every creditor. To achieve this, he and Courtneidge temporarily went their separate professional ways, reasoning that they could earn more as individual stars than as a double act. A boom in the film industry enabled both to earn large sums; Courtneidge appeared in 11 British films and one Hollywood film in the 1930s. She was amused to find that in eight weeks in a film studio she could earn more than she could in a year in the theatre. She and Hulbert managed to work together on several films, including The Ghost Train
(1931) and Jack's the Boy
(1932).
During this period, Courtneidge and Hulbert made gramophone records for Columbia
and HMV
. Both made solo recordings, and Courtneidge recorded songs and sketches with other artists, including Leo Sheffield
, and Ivor McLaren and Lawrence Green, with whom she recorded "Double Damask" in 1932. With Hulbert, she recorded such numbers as "Why has a cow got four legs". Courtneidge's solo discs include another of her most celebrated sketches, "Laughing Gas" (1931).
Courtneidge did not return to the theatre until October 1937, playing the dual roles of Mabel and her daughter Sally in the musical Hide and Seek, co-starring with Bobby Howes
, produced by Hulbert. "We are very much amused," said The Times. Courtneidge and Hulbert were finally reunited as a stage act in Under Your Hat, a spy story co-written by Hulbert, with music and lyrics by Vivian Ellis
. According to Pepys-Whiteley, this was their favourite of all of their joint productions. It ran at the Palace Theatre
until April 1940 and was then filmed for the cinema.
and Florence Desmond
, Courtneidge led professional opposition to a wartime proposal to allow theatres to open on Sundays. Instead, they proposed that only charity shows for the troops should be permitted on a Sunday. The Hulberts appeared together in another musical, Something in the Air in 1943. The show received only moderate praise, although the performances of the two stars received good notices.
At the end of the war, Courtneidge had a long run in Under the Counter, a comedy produced by Hulbert. Its theme was the black market in luxury goods and the heroine's shamelessness in manipulating it to her advantage. This struck a chord with British audiences after the privations of the war, and the play ran for two years. When Hulbert took the production to Broadway, the premise of the piece meant nothing to New York audiences, and it ran for only three weeks. Hulbert and Courtneidge then took the play to Australia, where it fared better. The Australian Quarterly
wrote:
On their return to England, the Hulberts presented a new musical, Her Excellency (1949), which did moderately well. In 1950, Courtneidge was cast in one of her greatest successes, Ivor Novello
's musical Gay's the Word. Ivor Brown
wrote in The Observer, "Miss Courtneidge is so indefatigably and abundantly herself that it is her show or nobody's." After a pre-London tryout, the show opened in the West End in February 1951 and ran until May 1952. In 1951 she was appointed CBE
.
In the 1950s, Courtneidge's career turned from musicals to straight theatre and revue. In London and on tour she played in the revue Over the Moon (1953), and the plays The Joy of Living (1955), Star Maker (1956), The Bride and the Batchelor (1956), and Fool's Paradise (1959).
she played an elderly lesbian, living in a drab London flat with her cat, recalling her career as an actress and forlornly trying to keep in touch with former friends. The Times described her performance as a triumph. In 1962 and 1963, she and Hulbert starred alongside Vic Oliver
, in the BBC radio sitcom Discord in Three Flats (1962).
In 1964, Courtneidge accepted the role of Madame Arcati in the London production of High Spirits
, a musical adaptation of Noël Coward
's Blithe Spirit
. This was an unhappy episode in her career. Coward himself co-directed, and the two clashed constantly in rehearsal. The notices for the piece were dreadful, and those for Courtneidge's performance scarcely better: The Guardian wrote of "a woeful excess of underplay", and The Observer commented, "The sight of Cicely Courtneidge hamming it until she drops in purple harem knickers with diamanté cycle clips isn't honestly hilarious enough to carry the evening."
The last London production in which the Hulberts appeared together was a well-reviewed revival of Dear Octopus
at the Haymarket Theatre
in 1967 with Richard Todd
, Joyce Carey
and Ursula Howells
. Courtneidge, in the part originally made famous by Marie Tempest
, won uniformly excellent notices. In 1969, Courtneidge turned to television, playing a working-class role as "Mum" in the first series of the LWT
comedy On the Buses
, opposite Reg Varney
.
Courtneidge's theatre work in the 1970s included tours of Agatha Christie
's The Hollow
and Peter Coke's Breath of Spring, both with Hulbert. In 1971, Courtneidge starred in the farce Move Over, Mrs Markham at the Vaudeville Theatre
, playing "a prudish authoress from Norfolk, bemused by all the flying exits, unexpected entrances, and atmosphere of incipient carnality." During this, her last West End run, she celebrated 70 years on stage. In 1972 she was appointed DBE
. In 1976, she and Hulbert toured in a semi-autobiographical revue, Once More With Music.
One of her last appearances was in a royal gala performance at the Chichester Festival Theatre
in June 1977, celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee
. The performance was called God Save the Queen! and had an all-star cast, including Ingrid Bergman
, Wendy Hiller
, Flora Robson
and Diana Rigg
.
Hulbert died in 1978; Courtneidge died two years later, shortly after her 87th birthday, at a nursing home in Putney
, survived by her only child, a daughter. Courtneidge was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium
.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an English actress and comedienne. The daughter of the producer Robert Courtneidge
Robert Courtneidge
Robert Courtneidge was a British theatrical manager-producer and playwright. He is best remembered as the co-author of the light opera Tom Jones and the producer of The Arcadians...
, she was appearing in his productions in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, by the age of 16, and was quickly promoted from minor to major roles in his Edwardian musical comedies.
After the outbreak of the First World War, her father had a series of failures and temporarily withdrew from production. No other producers offered the young Courtneidge leading roles in musical comedies, and she turned instead to the music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
, learning her craft as a comedienne. In 1916 she married the actor and dancer Jack Hulbert
Jack Hulbert
John Norman "Jack" Hulbert was a British actor, specialising primarily in comedy productions.-Biography:Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, he was the elder and more successful brother of Claude. He was educated at Cambridge and appeared in many shows and revues, mainly with the Cambridge Footlights. He...
, with whom she formed a professional as well as a private partnership that lasted until his death 62 years later. They acted together on stage and screen, initially in a series of revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s, with Hulbert frequently producing as well as performing.
Courtneidge appeared in 11 British films in the 1930s, and one in Hollywood, finding this work to be very lucrative. She and Hulbert also recorded for Columbia and HMV, returning to the stage in the late 1930s. During the Second World War, Courtneidge entertained the armed forces and raised funds for the troops. She then had a long run in Under the Counter, a comedy in which she received glowing notices. Notable among her other successes was Courtneidge's performance in Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
's musical Gay's the Word
Gay's the Word
Gay's the Word is a musical with book and music by Ivor Novello and lyrics by Alan Melville. The musical is a backstage comedy that parodies Novello's own swashbuckling Ruritanian romance plots. The story centres around Gay Daventry, a bankrupt operetta producer and stage star who opens attempts...
in 1951–52. During the rest of the decade, she focused on revues and straight plays.
After the mid-1960s, Courtneidge concentrated on the non-musical theatre, appearing in the West End and on tour in a range of plays, both serious and comic. While appearing in her last West End run in 1971, she celebrated 70 years on the stage. Afterwards, she continued to work for a further five years before retiring.
Early years
Courtneidge, the elder daughter and second of three children, was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, while her father was touring Australia with the J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
company. The family returned to England in 1894. Courtneidge was a member of a theatrical family. Her parents were the Scottish producer and actor Robert Courtneidge
Robert Courtneidge
Robert Courtneidge was a British theatrical manager-producer and playwright. He is best remembered as the co-author of the light opera Tom Jones and the producer of The Arcadians...
and his wife, Rosaline May née Adams (stage name Rosie Nott). Rosaline was the daughter of the opera singer Cicely Nott and the sister of three other actresses including Ada Blanche, a well-known pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
star. In 1901, at the age of eight, Courtneidge made her stage debut as the fairy Peaseblossom in her father's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester
Prince's Theatre, Manchester
The Prince's Theatre in Oxford Street, Manchester, England, was built at a cost of £20,000 in 1864. Under the artistic and managerial leadership of Charles Calvert, "Manchester's most celebrated actor-manager", it soon became a great popular success...
.
Courtneidge was educated in England and, for two teenage years, in Switzerland. On returning from the latter, aged 15, she embarked on an acting career, with the approval and encouragement of her parents. Robert Courtneidge cast her in small ingénue
Ingenue
Ingenue may refer to:*Ingenue , a stock character in literature, film and theatre*Ingénue , the second solo album by k.d. lang...
roles in his productions. Her London West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
debut was at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
in the comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
Tom Jones
Tom Jones (opera)
Tom Jones is a comic opera in three acts by Edward German founded upon Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, with a libretto by Robert Courtneidge and Alexander M. Thompson and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor....
(1907), which had a libretto co-written by her father. Her first starring role was Eileen Cavanagh in the long-running Edwardian musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
The Arcadians
The Arcadians (musical)
The Arcadians is an Edwardian musical comedy styled a "Fantastic Musical Play" in three acts by Mark Ambient and Alexander M. Thompson, with lyrics by Arthur Wimperis and music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot...
, which she took over from Phyllis Dare
Phyllis Dare
Phyllis Dare born Phyllis Constance Haddie Dones was an English singer and actress who was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre in the first half of the 20th century....
in 1910. In the piece that followed, The Mousmé (1911), which also featured a book co-written by her father, she was cast in one of the two leading female roles alongside Florence Smithson.
At this stage in Courtneidge's career, there was some feeling in theatrical circles that her elevation to star status was largely due to her being Robert Courtneidge's daughter. Reviewing The Mousmé, The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
wrote that the co-authors had "failed to supply any adequate dramatic raison d'être for the prominent character of Miyo, a fair-haired Japanese damsel, embodied by Miss Cicely Courtneidge with much sprightliness but far too much effort, facial and otherwise, of coy significance." The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
liked her better and praised her "pretty impudence and roguery".
Courtneidge continued to star in her father's productions. In September 1913, she played the part of Lady Betty Biddulph in the musical comedy The Pearl Girl. The cast included Ada Blanche; this was the third successive production in which aunt and niece had appeared together. Also in the cast, in the role of Robert Jaffray, was the 21-year-old Jack Hulbert
Jack Hulbert
John Norman "Jack" Hulbert was a British actor, specialising primarily in comedy productions.-Biography:Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, he was the elder and more successful brother of Claude. He was educated at Cambridge and appeared in many shows and revues, mainly with the Cambridge Footlights. He...
, making his professional debut after success as an amateur while a Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
undergraduate. In June 1914, Courtneidge and Hulbert starred together in The Cinema Star, an adaptation by Hulbert and Harry Graham
Harry Graham (poet)
Jocelyn Henry Clive 'Harry' Graham was an English writer. He was a successful journalist and later, after distinguished military service, a leading lyricist for operettas and musical comedies, but he is now best remembered as a writer of humorous verse in the tradition of grotesquerie and black...
of Die Kino-Königin, a 1913 German comic opera by Jean Gilbert
Jean Gilbert
Jean Gilbert was a German operetta composer and conductor. His real name was Max Winterfeld. He adopted the name of Jean Gilbert for the production of his first operetta in 1901.Gilbert was born in Hamburg...
. The piece was a hit for Courtneidge and her father, playing to full houses at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
until Britain and Germany went to war in August 1914; anti-German sentiment brought the run to an abrupt halt.
In 1914, Courtneidge and Hulbert became engaged to be married, but their plans were delayed by Robert Courtneidge's insistence that they should wait for two years before marrying. They complied with this injunction and did not marry until February 1916. Soon after the outbreak of war, Hulbert joined the army. Courtneidge continued to appear in her father's productions in the West End and on tour. These were revivals of The Arcadians and The Pearl Girl and three unsuccessful new shows, The Light Blues, My Lady Frayle and Oh, Caesar! (all 1916). The failures put her father temporarily out of business, and as no other producer invited her to star in musical comedy, she turned instead to music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
Variety show
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
s. The Times later wrote that this was the first step in a new career as a comedienne "specializing in cameo character sketches". After an early variety engagement in Manchester, the critic of The Manchester Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
wrote of her "pleasant voice and much charm of manner" in sketches and songs: "one may express a preference for Miss Courtneidge as the hospital sister, presented with all the bright graciousness which properly belongs to the character, over her more elaborate representation of the Flying Corps 'knut'."
Courtneidge later recalled of her first years on the halls, "When I started, my name was in such small print you could hardly read it. Music hall is the toughest thing in the world. ... I often used to get the bird, and I've had pennies thrown at me many a time." Nevertheless, she mastered the genre, according to her biographer Derek Pepys-Whiteley:
Courtneidge and Hulbert partnership
Having discovered that she seemed more suited to comedy than romantic leads, Courtneidge continued to perform in variety and made her debut in pantomimePantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
in 1918. She and Hulbert planned to work together in "light-hearted humour and burlesque, in revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
and musical comedy". Their first revue was Ring Up, by Eric Blore
Eric Blore
Eric Blore was an English comic actor. Blore was born in Finchley , England.Aged eighteeen, he worked as an insurance agent for two years. He gained theatre experience while touring Australia. Originally enlisting into the Artists Rifles he was commissioned in the South Wales Borderers in World...
and Ivy St. Helier
Ivy St. Helier
Ivy St. Helier was a British stage actress, composer and lyricist.On the stage, St. Helier played Manon la Crevette in the original production of Noel Coward's operetta Bitter Sweet , a role she reprised in the 1933 film version...
, at the Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
in 1921; they received good notices, but the material was weak, and the show was not a great success. Courtneidge returned to variety, appearing at the London Coliseum in 1922.
In 1923, Courtneidge and Hulbert appeared in The Little Revue, produced by Hulbert. The Times wrote of the show, "there is no reason why it should not have a dozen successors, all as good." There were, in fact, five successors, described by Pepys-Whiteley as "a series of uninterrupted successes throughout eight years, in which both partners had star parts." These shows played in the West End and on tour in the UK, and in 1925 the Hulberts made their Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in their current revue, By-the-Way. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
found the show "beguiling". The fourth in the series, Clowns in Clover, contained one of Courtneidge's most celebrated sketches, "Double Damask", by Dion Titheradge, in which her character, Mrs. Spooner
Spoonerism
A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
, and two shop assistants become entangled in tongue-twisters. When Courtneidge's 1932 recording of the sketch was reissued in 1972, The Gramophone said, "it is an enduring classic comedy sketch as funny now as it was then".
In 1931 Courtneidge and Hulbert suffered a serious setback when they discovered that their financial manager had been speculating with their money, suffering heavy losses and putting their business into liquidation. Hulbert accepted responsibility for all the business's debts and undertook to repay every creditor. To achieve this, he and Courtneidge temporarily went their separate professional ways, reasoning that they could earn more as individual stars than as a double act. A boom in the film industry enabled both to earn large sums; Courtneidge appeared in 11 British films and one Hollywood film in the 1930s. She was amused to find that in eight weeks in a film studio she could earn more than she could in a year in the theatre. She and Hulbert managed to work together on several films, including The Ghost Train
The Ghost Train (1931 film)
The Ghost Train is a 1931 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge and Ann Todd. It is based on the play The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley.-Cast:* Jack Hulbert - Teddy Deakin...
(1931) and Jack's the Boy
Jack's the Boy
Jack's the Boy is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Francis Lister and Peter Gawthorne. A policeman attempts to track down a gang responsible for a smash and grab raid, thereby proving his worth to his disaproving father...
(1932).
During this period, Courtneidge and Hulbert made gramophone records for Columbia
Columbia Graphophone Company
The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s...
and HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
. Both made solo recordings, and Courtneidge recorded songs and sketches with other artists, including Leo Sheffield
Leo Sheffield
Leo Sheffield was an English singer and actor best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
, and Ivor McLaren and Lawrence Green, with whom she recorded "Double Damask" in 1932. With Hulbert, she recorded such numbers as "Why has a cow got four legs". Courtneidge's solo discs include another of her most celebrated sketches, "Laughing Gas" (1931).
Courtneidge did not return to the theatre until October 1937, playing the dual roles of Mabel and her daughter Sally in the musical Hide and Seek, co-starring with Bobby Howes
Bobby Howes
Bobby Howes, born as Charles Robert William Howes on 4 August 1895 in Battersea, England. His parents were Robert William Howes and Rose Marie Butler.- Biography :...
, produced by Hulbert. "We are very much amused," said The Times. Courtneidge and Hulbert were finally reunited as a stage act in Under Your Hat, a spy story co-written by Hulbert, with music and lyrics by Vivian Ellis
Vivian Ellis
Vivian Ellis was an English musical comedy composer best known for the song "Spread a Little Happiness" and the theme "Coronation Scot".-Life and work:...
. According to Pepys-Whiteley, this was their favourite of all of their joint productions. It ran at the Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
until April 1940 and was then filmed for the cinema.
1940s and 50s
During the Second World War, Courtneidge devoted much time to entertaining the armed forces. In 1941, she presented a nightly three-hour show, raising funds, and then formed a small company which she took to Gibraltar, Malta, north Africa, and Italy, performing for the services and hospitals. She also toured in Hulbert Follies (1941), and Full Swing (1942), which she and Hulbert then brought to the Palace Theatre. Together with other prominent performers including Robert DonatRobert Donat
Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...
and Florence Desmond
Florence Desmond
Florence Desmond was the stage name of Florence Dawson, an English actress, comedienne and impersonator....
, Courtneidge led professional opposition to a wartime proposal to allow theatres to open on Sundays. Instead, they proposed that only charity shows for the troops should be permitted on a Sunday. The Hulberts appeared together in another musical, Something in the Air in 1943. The show received only moderate praise, although the performances of the two stars received good notices.
At the end of the war, Courtneidge had a long run in Under the Counter, a comedy produced by Hulbert. Its theme was the black market in luxury goods and the heroine's shamelessness in manipulating it to her advantage. This struck a chord with British audiences after the privations of the war, and the play ran for two years. When Hulbert took the production to Broadway, the premise of the piece meant nothing to New York audiences, and it ran for only three weeks. Hulbert and Courtneidge then took the play to Australia, where it fared better. The Australian Quarterly
Australian Quarterly
Australian Quarterly is an independent political science journal, published in Australia six times a year and dealing with a wide range of economic, political and social issues...
wrote:
On their return to England, the Hulberts presented a new musical, Her Excellency (1949), which did moderately well. In 1950, Courtneidge was cast in one of her greatest successes, Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
's musical Gay's the Word. Ivor Brown
Ivor Brown
Ivor John Carnegie Brown was a British journalist and man of letters.-Biography:Born in Penang, Malaya, Brown was the younger of two sons of Dr. William Carnegie Brown, a specialist in tropical diseases, and his wife Jean Carnegie. At an early age he was sent to Britain, where he attended Suffolk...
wrote in The Observer, "Miss Courtneidge is so indefatigably and abundantly herself that it is her show or nobody's." After a pre-London tryout, the show opened in the West End in February 1951 and ran until May 1952. In 1951 she was appointed CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
.
In the 1950s, Courtneidge's career turned from musicals to straight theatre and revue. In London and on tour she played in the revue Over the Moon (1953), and the plays The Joy of Living (1955), Star Maker (1956), The Bride and the Batchelor (1956), and Fool's Paradise (1959).
Later years
In the early 1960s, Courtneidge appeared in a succession of plays in London and the provinces, including The Bride Comes Back, and also in pantomime and a re-creation of old music hall (Fielding's Music Hall, 1964). In 1962, she gave what she considered her finest film performance, in a role wholly unlike her usual parts; in The L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped Room
The L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama film, directed by Bryan Forbes, which tells the story of a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a London boarding house, befriending a young man in the building...
she played an elderly lesbian, living in a drab London flat with her cat, recalling her career as an actress and forlornly trying to keep in touch with former friends. The Times described her performance as a triumph. In 1962 and 1963, she and Hulbert starred alongside Vic Oliver
Vic Oliver
Vic Oliver was an actor and radio comedian.He was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Viktor von Samek and came to England via America....
, in the BBC radio sitcom Discord in Three Flats (1962).
In 1964, Courtneidge accepted the role of Madame Arcati in the London production of High Spirits
High Spirits
High Spirits may refer to:* High Spirits , a Broadway production based on the Noel Coward play Blithe Spirit* High Spirits , a comedy starring Peter O'Toole* High Spirits , a book by Robertson Davies...
, a musical adaptation of Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (play)
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
. This was an unhappy episode in her career. Coward himself co-directed, and the two clashed constantly in rehearsal. The notices for the piece were dreadful, and those for Courtneidge's performance scarcely better: The Guardian wrote of "a woeful excess of underplay", and The Observer commented, "The sight of Cicely Courtneidge hamming it until she drops in purple harem knickers with diamanté cycle clips isn't honestly hilarious enough to carry the evening."
The last London production in which the Hulberts appeared together was a well-reviewed revival of Dear Octopus
Dear Octopus (play)
Dear Octopus is 1938 play by the British writer Dodie Smith. It was first staged at the Queen's Theatre with John Geilgud and was a major success.-Adaptation:...
at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
in 1967 with Richard Todd
Richard Todd
Richard Todd OBE was an Irish-born British stage and film actor and soldier.-Early life:Richard Todd was born as Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Andrew William Palethorpe Todd, was an Irish physician and an international Irish rugby player who gained three caps for...
, Joyce Carey
Joyce Carey
Joyce Carey, OBE was a British actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward. Her stage career lasted from 1916 until 1984, and she was performing on television in her nineties. Though never a star, she was a familiar face both on stage and screen...
and Ursula Howells
Ursula Howells
Ursula Howells was an English actress whose elegant presence kept her much in demand for roles in film and television....
. Courtneidge, in the part originally made famous by Marie Tempest
Marie Tempest
Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
, won uniformly excellent notices. In 1969, Courtneidge turned to television, playing a working-class role as "Mum" in the first series of the LWT
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
comedy On the Buses
On The Buses
On the Buses was a British situation comedy created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney which was broadcast in the UK from 1969 to 1973. The writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife were for the BBC, but the Corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential...
, opposite Reg Varney
Reg Varney
Reginald Alfred "Reg" Varney was an English actor, most notable for his role as Stan Butler in 1970s TV sitcom On the Buses.-Early life:...
.
Courtneidge's theatre work in the 1970s included tours of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's The Hollow
The Hollow (play)
The Hollow is a 1951 play by crime writer Agatha Christie. It is based on the 1946 book of the same name.-Background:In her Autobiography, Christie claimed that the success of And Then There Were None set her on the path of being a playwright as well as a writer of books and that only she would...
and Peter Coke's Breath of Spring, both with Hulbert. In 1971, Courtneidge starred in the farce Move Over, Mrs Markham at the Vaudeville Theatre
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...
, playing "a prudish authoress from Norfolk, bemused by all the flying exits, unexpected entrances, and atmosphere of incipient carnality." During this, her last West End run, she celebrated 70 years on stage. In 1972 she was appointed DBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
. In 1976, she and Hulbert toured in a semi-autobiographical revue, Once More With Music.
One of her last appearances was in a royal gala performance at the Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....
in June 1977, celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth realms...
. The performance was called God Save the Queen! and had an all-star cast, including Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
, Wendy Hiller
Wendy Hiller
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an Academy Award-winning English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took...
, Flora Robson
Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...
and Diana Rigg
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
.
Hulbert died in 1978; Courtneidge died two years later, shortly after her 87th birthday, at a nursing home in Putney
Putney
Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
, survived by her only child, a daughter. Courtneidge was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson....
.
Filmography
Items marked with an asterisk (*) featured both Courtneidge and Hulbert.- 1928 British Screen Tatler No.10 (short)*
- 1930 Elstree Calling*
- 1931 The Ghost TrainThe Ghost Train (1931 film)The Ghost Train is a 1931 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge and Ann Todd. It is based on the play The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley.-Cast:* Jack Hulbert - Teddy Deakin...
* - 1932 Jack's the BoyJack's the BoyJack's the Boy is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Francis Lister and Peter Gawthorne. A policeman attempts to track down a gang responsible for a smash and grab raid, thereby proving his worth to his disaproving father...
* - 1932 Happy Ever AfterHappy Ever AfterHappy Ever After is a British sitcom starring Terry Scott and June Whitfield. It aired from 1974 to 1978 and was written by John T. Chapman, Eric Merriman, Christopher Bond, John Kane and Jon Watkins...
* - 1933 Falling for You*
- 1933 Soldiers of the King
- 1933 Aunt Sally
- 1934 Things Are Looking UpThings Are Looking Up"Things Are Looking Up" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It was introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress.-Notable recordings:...
- 1935 Me and MarlboroughMe and MarlboroughMe and Marlborough is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Victor Saville and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Tom Walls, Barry MacKay, Peter Gawthorne, Henry Oscar and Cecil Parker.-Plot summary:...
- 1935 The Perfect Gentleman
- 1936 Everybody DanceEverybody Dance (film)Everybody Dance is a 1936 British musical film directed by Charles Reisner and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Ernest Truex, Percy Parsons and Alma Taylor.-Cast:* Cicely Courtneidge - Katharine 'Lady Kate' Levering* Ernest Truex - Wilbur Spurgeon...
- 1937 Take My TipTake My TipTake My Tip is a 1937 British musical comedy film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Harold Huth and Frank Cellier...
* - 1940 Under Your HatUnder Your HatUnder Your Hat is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Austin Trevor, Leonora Corbett and Cecil Parker. The film is set in pre-Second World War England where a leading film star and his wife attempt to recover a secret carburettor...
* - 1955 Miss Tulip Stays the NightMiss Tulip Stays the NightMiss Tulip Stays the Night is a 1955 British comedy crime film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Diana Dors, Patrick Holt, Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge...
* - 1960 The Spider's WebThe Spider's Web (1960 film)The Spider's Web is a 1960 British mystery film directed by Godfrey Grayson and starring Glynis Johns, John Justin, Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert...
* - 1962 The L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped RoomThe L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama film, directed by Bryan Forbes, which tells the story of a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a London boarding house, befriending a young man in the building...
- 1965 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying MachinesThose Magnificent Men in Their Flying MachinesThose Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes is a 1965 British comedy film starring Stuart Whitman and directed and co-written by Ken Annakin...
- 1966 The Wrong BoxThe Wrong BoxThe Wrong Box is a British comedy film made by Salamander Film Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was produced and directed by Bryan Forbes from a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.The cast includes a...
- 1972 Not Now Darling*