Clifford Grey
Encyclopedia
Clifford Grey was an English songwriter, actor, librettist and Olympic medalist. His birth name was Percival Davis, and he was also known as Clifford Gray, Tippi Gray, Tippi Grey, Tippy Gray and Tippy Grey.
As a writer, Grey contributed prolifically to West End
and Broadway
shows, as librettist and lyricist for composers including Ivor Novello
, Jerome Kern
, Howard Talbot
, Ivan Caryll
and George Gershwin
. Among his best-remembered songs are two from early in his career, in 1916: "If You Were The Only Girl In The World" and "Another Little Drink Wouldn’t Do Us Any Harm". His later hits include "Spread a Little Happiness".
Unbeknown to his family and professional colleagues, Grey competed as a bobsleigher, under a different name, in two Winter Olympics, in 1928 and 1932, winning gold medals.
, England, the son of George Davis, a whip manufacturer, and his wife Emma, née Lowe. He was educated at the King Edward VI school
. On leaving school in 1903 he had a variety of office jobs, in none of which he had any success. He became a pierrot
with a local concert party
, and adopted the stage name Clifford Grey. By the time he married in 1912, he had largely given up performing in favour of writing lyrics for West End
shows. His wife was Dorothy Maud Mary Gould (1890 or 1891–1940), a fellow member of the concert party. They had two daughters; Grey also adopted Gould's daughter. Their marriage lasted until Dorothy's death.
In 1916 Grey collaborated with the American composer Nat Ayer
on The Bing Boys Are Here
, a long-running revue that opened in London in April, and contained two of Grey’s early successes, "If You Were The Only Girl In The World" and "Another Little Drink Wouldn"t Do Us Any Harm". He collaborated with Ayer on Pell-Mell, The Bing Girls Are There, The Other Bing Boys, The Bing Brothers On Broadway, and Yes, Uncle!
and with Herman Finck
in Hullo, America!, Ivor Novello
and Jerome Kern
in Theodore & Co
, Howard Talbot
and Novello in Who’s Hooper?, and Ivan Caryll
in Kissing Time
. On the last show he collaborated with P.G. Wodehouse, who was privately lukewarm about Grey's talent, regarding him as a specialist in adapting other people's work rather than as an original talent.
’s Sally
. Grey remained in the U.S. for most of the decade, with occasional sorties back to London for Phi-Phi
with Henri Christiné
(1922), The Smith Family with Ayer (1922), and The Rainbow with George Gershwin
(1923). For Broadway, he provided a regular stream of lyrics – and some libretti – for musical comedies and revues. His collaborators included Sigmund Romberg
and Melville Gideon
on some of the less-remembered shows, and Vincent Youmans
on Hit The Deck (1927) and Rudolph Friml and Wodehouse on The Three Musketeers (1928). It was in these years that Grey secretly took up top-level bobsleighing (see below).
The introduction of talking pictures attracted Grey to Hollywood. He collaborated with Victor Schertzinger
on the 1929 Maurice Chevalier
and Jeanette MacDonald
film, The Love Parade, and with Oscar Straus
on The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), and contributed to films with a range of stars from Ramon Novarro
to Lawrence Tibbett
to Marion Davies
. He wrote screenplays and lyrics for fourteen Hollywood films between 1929 and 1931. In 1929, he returned temporarily to London, where he collaborated with Vivian Ellis
on Mr Cinders, which had a long run, and featured one of Grey's best-remembered songs, "Spread a Little Happiness".
As "Tippi Gray", Grey competed for the United States in bobsleigh, winning a gold medal in the five-man event at the 1928 Winter Olympics
in St. Moritz
. He then followed up with a gold medal at the following Winter Olympics
in Lake Placid, New York
, this time in the four-man event. He also won a bronze medal in the four-man event at the 1937 FIBT World Championships
in St. Moritz. While winning all these medals for the Americans, Grey retained his British citizenship. Grey's children did not find out about his gold medals until after his 1941 death.
(1932), a spy story, was "extremely popular in its day and virtually created a sub-genre." He wrote more than twenty screenplays for British films, usually for the popular comedians of the day, but also including Mimi (1935), an adaptation of La Bohème
, for Gertrude Lawrence
and Douglas Fairbanks Jr..
Throughout the decade, Grey had shows running in the West End, written in collaboration with previous collaborators and new ones including Oscar Levant
, Johnny Green
and Noel Gay
. When World War II
began, Grey joined the Entertainments National Service Association
(ENSA), which took shows round the country and overseas to provide relief for serving members of the armed forces. In 1941 he was presenting a concert party in Ipswich
, Suffolk
, when the town was heavily bombed. Grey died two days later, aged 54, as a result of a heart attack, brought on by the bombing, and exacerbated by asthma
.
As a writer, Grey contributed prolifically to 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...
and 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...
shows, as librettist and lyricist for composers including 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...
, Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, Howard Talbot
Howard Talbot
Richard Lansdale Munkittrick, better known as Howard Talbot , was an American-born, English-raised conductor and composer of Irish descent...
, Ivan Caryll
Ivan Caryll
Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...
and George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
. Among his best-remembered songs are two from early in his career, in 1916: "If You Were The Only Girl In The World" and "Another Little Drink Wouldn’t Do Us Any Harm". His later hits include "Spread a Little Happiness".
Unbeknown to his family and professional colleagues, Grey competed as a bobsleigher, under a different name, in two Winter Olympics, in 1928 and 1932, winning gold medals.
Early years
Grey was born in BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England, the son of George Davis, a whip manufacturer, and his wife Emma, née Lowe. He was educated at the King Edward VI school
King Edward VI Camp Hill
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys is a grammar school in Kings Heath, Birmingham for ages of 11 to 18 . One of the seven establishments of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI, it is a voluntary aided school, with admission by selective exam...
. On leaving school in 1903 he had a variety of office jobs, in none of which he had any success. He became a pierrot
Pierrot
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...
with a local concert party
Concert party
The term Concert Party may mean:*Concert party , a type of business takeover*Concert Party , a troupe of popular entertainers, usually travelling...
, and adopted the stage name Clifford Grey. By the time he married in 1912, he had largely given up performing in favour of writing lyrics for 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...
shows. His wife was Dorothy Maud Mary Gould (1890 or 1891–1940), a fellow member of the concert party. They had two daughters; Grey also adopted Gould's daughter. Their marriage lasted until Dorothy's death.
In 1916 Grey collaborated with the American composer Nat Ayer
Nat Ayer
Nathaniel Davis Ayer was a British-U.S. composer of popular music, including the hits Oh, You Beautiful Doll and If You Were the Only Girl . He was the father of actor Harold Ayer , who lived in California, and Nat Ayer Jr. Nathaniel Davis Ayer (August 5, 1887 in Boston, Massachusetts -...
on The Bing Boys Are Here
The Bing Boys Are Here
The Bing Boys Are Here, styled "A Picture of London Life, in a Prologue and Six Panels," is the first of a series of revues which played at the Alhambra Theatre, London during the last two years of World War I. The series included The Bing Boys on Broadway and The Bing Boys are There. The music...
, a long-running revue that opened in London in April, and contained two of Grey’s early successes, "If You Were The Only Girl In The World" and "Another Little Drink Wouldn"t Do Us Any Harm". He collaborated with Ayer on Pell-Mell, The Bing Girls Are There, The Other Bing Boys, The Bing Brothers On Broadway, and Yes, Uncle!
Yes, Uncle!
Yes, Uncle! is a musical comedy by Austen Hurgen and George Arthurs, with music by Nat D. Ayer and lyrics by Clifford Grey...
and with Herman Finck
Herman Finck
Herman Finck was a British composer of Dutch extraction.Born Hermann Van Der Vinck in London, he began his studies training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and established a career as the musical director at the Palace Theatre in London , with whose orchestra he made many virtuoso...
in Hullo, America!, 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...
and Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
in Theodore & Co
Theodore & Co
Theodore & Co is an English musical comedy in two acts with a book by H. M. Harwood and George Grossmith, Jr. , with music by Ivor Novello and Jerome Kern and lyrics by Adrian Ross and Clifford Grey. It was produced by Grossmith and Edward Laurillard, opening at the Gaiety Theatre on 19 September...
, Howard Talbot
Howard Talbot
Richard Lansdale Munkittrick, better known as Howard Talbot , was an American-born, English-raised conductor and composer of Irish descent...
and Novello in Who’s Hooper?, and Ivan Caryll
Ivan Caryll
Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...
in Kissing Time
Kissing Time
thumb|right|[[Leslie Henson]] and [[Phyllis Dare]] Kissing Time, an earlier version of which was titled The Girl Behind the Gun, is a musical comedy with music by Ivan Caryll, book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, and additional lyrics by Clifford Grey...
. On the last show he collaborated with P.G. Wodehouse, who was privately lukewarm about Grey's talent, regarding him as a specialist in adapting other people's work rather than as an original talent.
1920s – Broadway and Hollywood
In 1920, Grey was invited to New York by Kern to renew their collaboration, writing Florenz ZiegfeldFlorenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
’s Sally
Sally (musical)
Sally is a musical comedy with music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Clifford Grey and book by Guy Bolton , with additional lyrics by Buddy De Sylva, Anne Caldwell and P. G. Wodehouse. It was originally produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, opening on December 21, 1920 at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway...
. Grey remained in the U.S. for most of the decade, with occasional sorties back to London for Phi-Phi
Phi-Phi
Phi-Phi is an opérette légère in three acts with music by Henri Christiné and a French libretto by Albert Willemetz and Fabien Solar. The piece was one which founded the new style of French comédie musicale, the first to really use the latest rhythms of jazz along with a plot which emphasised...
with Henri Christiné
Henri Christiné
Henri Marius Christiné was a French composer of Swiss birth.The son of a French Savoyard watchmaker, Christiné was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He began by teaching at the lycée in Geneva, while pursuing his interest in music and playing organ in a local church...
(1922), The Smith Family with Ayer (1922), and The Rainbow with George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
(1923). For Broadway, he provided a regular stream of lyrics – and some libretti – for musical comedies and revues. His collaborators included Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
and Melville Gideon
Melville Gideon
Melville Gideon was an American composer, lyricist and performer of ragtime music, composing many themes for hit Broadway musicals including The Co-Optimists. He was also a director, producer and performer....
on some of the less-remembered shows, and Vincent Youmans
Vincent Youmans
Vincent Youmans was an American popular composer and Broadway producer.- Life :Vincent Millie Youmans was born in New York City on September 27, 1898 and grew-up on Central Park West on the site where the Mayflower Hotel once stood. His father, a prosperous hat manufacturer, moved the family to...
on Hit The Deck (1927) and Rudolph Friml and Wodehouse on The Three Musketeers (1928). It was in these years that Grey secretly took up top-level bobsleighing (see below).
The introduction of talking pictures attracted Grey to Hollywood. He collaborated with Victor Schertzinger
Victor Schertzinger
Victor L. Schertzinger was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include Paramount on Parade , Something to Sing About with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures Road to Singapore and Road to Zanzibar...
on the 1929 Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
and Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
film, The Love Parade, and with Oscar Straus
Oscar Straus
Oscar Straus may refer to:*Oscar Straus , Viennese composer of operettas*Oscar Straus , United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor from 1906 to 1909...
on The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), and contributed to films with a range of stars from Ramon Novarro
Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro was a Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino...
to Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was a great American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera company more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950...
to Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
. He wrote screenplays and lyrics for fourteen Hollywood films between 1929 and 1931. In 1929, he returned temporarily to London, where he collaborated with 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:...
on Mr Cinders, which had a long run, and featured one of Grey's best-remembered songs, "Spread a Little Happiness".
Bobsleigher
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography writes, of this aspect of Grey's life that during his New York years:As "Tippi Gray", Grey competed for the United States in bobsleigh, winning a gold medal in the five-man event at the 1928 Winter Olympics
1928 Winter Olympics
The 1928 Winter Olympics, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated February 11–19, 1928 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The 1928 Games were the first true Winter Olympics held on its own as they were not in conjunction with a Summer Olympics...
in St. Moritz
St. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
. He then followed up with a gold medal at the following Winter Olympics
1932 Winter Olympics
The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 15. It would be the first winter olympics held in the United...
in Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....
, this time in the four-man event. He also won a bronze medal in the four-man event at the 1937 FIBT World Championships
FIBT World Championships 1937
The FIBT World Championships 1937 took place in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and in St. Moritz, Switzerland . St. Moritz hosted the four-man event previously in 1931 and 1935.-Two man bobsleigh:-Four man bobsleigh:...
in St. Moritz. While winning all these medals for the Americans, Grey retained his British citizenship. Grey's children did not find out about his gold medals until after his 1941 death.
West End and last years
Returning to England permanently in 1932, Grey concentrated thereafter on the West End stage and British films. His screenplay for Rome ExpressRome Express
Rome Express is a British film directed by Walter Forde and written by Sidney Gilliat and Clifford Grey. -Cast:*Esther Ralston - Asta Marvelle*Conrad Veidt - Zurta*Harold Huth - George Grant*Frank Vosper - M...
(1932), a spy story, was "extremely popular in its day and virtually created a sub-genre." He wrote more than twenty screenplays for British films, usually for the popular comedians of the day, but also including Mimi (1935), an adaptation of La Bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, for Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
and Douglas Fairbanks Jr..
Throughout the decade, Grey had shows running in the West End, written in collaboration with previous collaborators and new ones including Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
, Johnny Green
Johnny Green
Johnny Green was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, and conductor. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, "Body and Soul"...
and Noel Gay
Noel Gay
Noel Gay was born Reginald Moxon Armitage. He also used the name Stanley Hill professionally. He was a successful British composer of popular music of the 1930s and 1940s whose output comprised 45 songs as well as the music for 28 films and 26 London shows...
. When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began, Grey joined the Entertainments National Service Association
Entertainments National Service Association
The Entertainments National Service Association or ENSA was an organisation set up in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes...
(ENSA), which took shows round the country and overseas to provide relief for serving members of the armed forces. In 1941 he was presenting a concert party in Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, when the town was heavily bombed. Grey died two days later, aged 54, as a result of a heart attack, brought on by the bombing, and exacerbated by asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
.