Hugh Antoine d'Arcy
Encyclopedia
Hugh Antoine d'Arcy was a French
-born poet
and writer and a pioneer executive in the American motion picture industry. He is best known for his 1887 poem, The Face upon the Floor. It is sometimes erroneously called The Face upon the Barroom Floor, a sorrowful tale of a painter who takes to drink after his lover deserts him for the fair-haired lad in one of his portraits.
After study at England's Ipswitch University, d'Arcy was a call boy and juvenile actor at the Theatre Royal in Bristol. In London, he was well known as a character actor. In 1871, d'Arcy came to America, where he became involved with the business management of stage productions and performers, including Mary Anderson, Ada Grey, DeWolf Hopper, Frank Mayo, Robert Mantell and James O'Neill.
Keystone Studios
adapted the poem for a 1914 film of the same name
starring Charlie Chaplin
, and John Ford
used it for his film, The Face on the Bar-Room Floor
(1923). It was put to song by country music
stars Tex Ritter
on his 1959 Blood on the Saddle album and Hank Snow
on his 1968 Tales of the Yukon album
. D'Arcy's byline appeared in a comic book in 1954 when the poem was illustrated by Jack Davis
and Basil Wolverton
for Mad
#10 (April 1954).
D'Arcy married the daughter of Philadelphia film mogul Siegmund Lubin
and went to work as the publicity manager for his Lubin Studios
. The studio used a story he had written for a 1912 film, Madeline's Christmas.
Hugh Antoine d'Arcy died of bronchitis and chronic heart problems in 1925 in New York City
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-born poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and writer and a pioneer executive in the American motion picture industry. He is best known for his 1887 poem, The Face upon the Floor. It is sometimes erroneously called The Face upon the Barroom Floor, a sorrowful tale of a painter who takes to drink after his lover deserts him for the fair-haired lad in one of his portraits.
After study at England's Ipswitch University, d'Arcy was a call boy and juvenile actor at the Theatre Royal in Bristol. In London, he was well known as a character actor. In 1871, d'Arcy came to America, where he became involved with the business management of stage productions and performers, including Mary Anderson, Ada Grey, DeWolf Hopper, Frank Mayo, Robert Mantell and James O'Neill.
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
adapted the poem for a 1914 film of the same name
The Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914 film)
The Face on the Bar Room Floor is a short film written and directed by Charles Chaplin in 1914. Chaplin stars in this film, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy.-Synopsis:...
starring Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, and John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
used it for his film, The Face on the Bar-Room Floor
The Face on the Bar-Room Floor (1923 film)
The Face on the Bar-Room Floor is a 1923 drama film directed by John Ford. The film is considered to be lost. It was adapted from the poem of the same name by Hugh Antoine d'Arcy.-Cast:* Henry B...
(1923). It was put to song by country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
stars Tex Ritter
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...
on his 1959 Blood on the Saddle album and Hank Snow
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...
on his 1968 Tales of the Yukon album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
. D'Arcy's byline appeared in a comic book in 1954 when the poem was illustrated by Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
and Basil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton was an American cartoonist, illustrator, comic book writer-artist and professed "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet", whose many publishers included Marvel Comics and Mad.His unique, humorously grotesque drawings have elicited a...
for Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
#10 (April 1954).
D'Arcy married the daughter of Philadelphia film mogul Siegmund Lubin
Siegmund Lubin
Siegmund Lubin was a Polish-American motion picture pioneer.-Biography:He was born as Siegmund Lubszynski in Breslau, Silesia, Germany on April 20, 1851, to a German Jewish family...
and went to work as the publicity manager for his Lubin Studios
Lubin Studios
The Lubin Manufacturing Company, was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1902 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark.-History:...
. The studio used a story he had written for a 1912 film, Madeline's Christmas.
Hugh Antoine d'Arcy died of bronchitis and chronic heart problems in 1925 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.