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1. Obituaries James Welch The Times (12 April, 1917 - p.9) MR. JAMES WELCH. The death has occurred of Mr. James Welch, the actor, who achieved such a great success in When Knights were Bold. He had been ill for some weeks and had not been able to appear on the stage for some time past.
The son of a chartered accountant of Liverpool, Mr. Welch began with amateur acting in his native town, and used to relate with glee that the first “line” he spoke on any stage was “This ’ere pie is a pie as is a pie, is this ’ere pie.” He came to London towards the end of the eighteen-eighties, about the same time as his brother-in-law, Mr. Richard Le Gallienne; and while the young poet found occupation as secretary to Wilson Barrett, the young actor became a member of his company. By the early ’nineties Mr. Welch had made a reputation as one of the most brilliant young players on the London stage, whether in comedy or in pathetic characters. He was one of those who took part in the earliest performances of Mr. Bernard Shaw’s plays, appearing as Lickcheese in Widowers’ Houses, on its first production in 1892, and as Petkoff in Arms and the Man at the Avenue in 1894. He was among the early Ibsenites also, taking the part of Hovstad in the first London production of An Enemy of the People in 1893. For the most part comedy claimed him, because he was extraordinarily funny; but one or two performances about that period showed him equally skilled in pathetic parts. A well-read man, he had more friends in those days (the days of “The Yellow Book”) among poets and novelists than among players; and his home in Gray’s Inn was a favourite resort with many of the “coming” men and women of the time. Later, he devoted himself almost entirely to farce, and the closing years of his life, much broken by the failing of health that had never been robust and needed particular care, were chiefly occupied with performances here, there, and everywhere of When Knights were Bold or The New Clown. If the promise of his early maturity was not fulfilled, he will be gratefully remembered as one of the greatest laughter-makers of his time. ___ Daily Express (Thursday, 12 April, 1917 - p.3) DEATH OF JAMES WELCH.
_____ ACTOR OF INIMITABLE PATHOS AND HUMOUR.
_____ Mr. James Welch, the actor, died on Tuesday night at Ringwood, New Forest, after a lingering illness. His age was fifty-two, and he had been thirty years on the stage. He will be deeply regretted, both for his fine personal qualities and for his great talents as a comedian.
He had the most compelling of all stage gifts, the ability to command “the laughter that is akin to tears.” In that respect he could worthily be compared with the late John L. Toole. “Jimmy” Welch’s pathos was just as convincing as his laughter—and that was invariably uproarious. Nobody who saw him in “When Knights were Bold,” the mock-historical farce in which he acted more than a thousand times, is ever likely to forget the inimitable humour of his Sir Guy de Vere.
That play was his greatest popular success, but Mr. Welch’s art was by no means confined to the domain of bustling farce. In his early days he acted many varied parts in Wilson Barrett’s dramas and tragedies, and later he made an enviable reputation in Ibsen plays and the comedies of Bernard Shaw.
Thousands of playgoers will remember Mr. Welch for his comical cold in “When Knights were Bold.” It arose from a real cold. The audience roared at his wheezing and sneezing. They thought it was part of the play. ___ Daily Express (Thursday, 12 April, 1917 - p.1) BOYS LOSE A GOOD FRIEND.
_____ ACTOR WHO BROKE UP HIS LIBRARY FOR THEM.
_____ By ORION. The boys have lost a good friend in Mr. “Jimmy” Welch, whose death is reported elsewhere. So has the Cheery Fund. He was always helping it in one way or another. His later contributions were anonymous. He told me why.
Regular Cheery Funders will recall without effort how “Jimmy” Welch, at less than a week’s notice, got together a splendid company of artists for our fair at the Langham Hotel, and helped to make a great financial success of it. He took his turn, as auctioneer, and also bought so openhandedly that he left the fair without a penny in his pocket. He dwelt so long at the Langham that he had to dash off to do his turn at Croydon, where he arrived with only a minute to spare.
Frequently afterwards he used to pop into this office on a Sunday afternoon and cheer me up with his bright chatter. He never came empty-handed. He broke up his library for the boys, and most of his books went through my hands. Some must have cost him a pang to part with. Many of them were autographed by the authors. One, I remember, was a gift from Mr. Hall Caine to “Jimmy” Welch. Beneath the author’s signature was the printed dedication; below that was, “From James Welch to the Boys.” That volume, with many others, went to the Iron Duke. Mr. Welch said that “nothing was too good for the boys,” and that the hundreds of letters of thanks he had received through the Cheery Fund more than repaid him for the little he had been able to do.
One day he came into my room in his curious hesitating way. He was very “down” in the mouth. “My name must never again be mentioned in your column,” he said. He read to me portions of a letter he had received from another actor, in which he was accused of “giving to the Cheery Fund for the sake of advertisement.” I knew that to be untrue, because I had some trouble to get him to allow me to publish his name.
From that day, however, his name never appeared in our Honour List. His money did, though. And because he was a stanch believer in, and a good friend to, Jack and Tommy, may the earth rest lightly on him. ___ Daily Express (26 October, 1927 - p.8) |
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A Great Comedian. Hesper Le Gallienne, who came from America, partly with the intention of tending the grave of her uncle, James Welch, the great comedian, writes me that everything is now settled. There was nothing to mark the grave. The patient niece searched for it for hours.
“There will be a little memorial service at Burley on November 6, Uncle Jim’s birthday,” she says. “My father, a couple of old friends, and myself have had a new cross put up. If possible, father will cross from Paris to be present. If any of his old friends care to send flowers they can be addressed to ‘The Vicar, Burley, Hants.’ and should any of them wish to be present the station is Ringwood, and the service at Burley at three.
“They do not know that, at his burial in the snow years ago, there were only three present, and one small bunch of flowers.”
“Father,” of course, is Richard Le Gallienne, the poet, who lives in New York, and whose daughter, Eva Le Gallienne, won, ten days ago, the £1,000 prize for the best work done by a woman in America that year. Her “work” was the Civic Theatre, Fourteenth-street, a brave and successful effort at repertory. ___ Daily Express (9 November, 1927 - p.9) James Welch’s Grave. There has been a family argument over James Welch’s grave.
Hesper le Gallienne, the niece of the famous comedian’s first wife, told me that “as there was nothing to mark the grave” there was to be a memorial service at Burley last Sunday, her father—Richard le Gallienne, the poet—two old friends and herself having arranged to have a new cross put up.
Later, Miss le Gallienne wrote me that Mrs. Ward, who was Mr. Welch’s second wife, objected to the erection of the new memorial.
“My solicitor wrote Alan Welch, nephew and next of kin of James Welch,” she says, “and it appeared that his sanction was all that was needed. It appears otherwise. If the law prevents Uncle’s friends erecting a new memorial, we will have a brass plate put in the church.” Comedian’s Widow Replies “The true facts are these,” writes Mrs. Ward, who has since remarried, and who used to act with her first husband under the name of Audrey Ford. “My husband, the late James Welch, had been living apart from me for some time before his death in 1917. I saw him during his last illness, and his brother and I assured ourselves that he received proper attention.
“His death came suddenly while he was in charge of a doctor in the New Forest. Mr. John Welch and myself supervised the arrangements for the funeral, which was carried out in all suitable order by the Vicar of Burley, and a memorial cross, designed by Albert Toft, R.A., and executed by Messrs. W. Aumonier, was placed over the grave on my instructions.
“I do not know why Mr. Welch’s niece should have found it necessary to search for hours in the minute cemetery of the church at Burley, for I presume the vicar or other parochial authorities could have easily pointed out the spot where Mr. Welch lies buried.” _____ Bromley Challenor The Times (18 December, 1935 - p.10) DEATH OF MR. BROMLEY CHALLENOR SIR GUY DE VERE, OF “WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD” Mr. Bromley Challenor, the actor, died at the Fortune Theatre, yesterday, at the age of 51, while rehearsing in When Knights Were Bold, the play which made him famous. He stepped from the stage after the first act and collapsed.
Mrs. Challenor, who acts under the name of Miss Marjorie Bellairs, had taken her call for the second act, and she was on the stage when her husband was dying. After a doctor had been called, she was told of her husband’s death.
It was stated yesterday that the play would go on, as that would have been Mr. Challenor’s wish.
James Bromley Challenor, who was born at Macclesfield on September 3, 1884, was educated privately at Hanley, Oxford, and Liverpool. After studying for the medical profession he tried journalism, but his taste was for the theatre, and he made his first appearance on the stage in 1906 at Coatbridge in The Hand of Justice. In 1915 he purchased the rights of When Knights Were Bold, and, as the inimitable Sir Guy De Vere, he soon became known throughout the country, where he went on tour. In 1917 he began the first of a long series of Christmas revivals of the play at the Kingsway Theatre. As long ago as 1920 he stated that he had worn his suit of armour over 2,000 times.
Bromley Challenor appeared in many light plays at the Kingsway Theatre, the Scala, the Adelphi, and the Criterion, as well as on several tours. He played the Hon. Bertie Stuart in Society Ltd. at the Court Theatre in 1923, Tom Squire in The Audacious Mr. Squire, and Amos Bloodgood in Are You a Mason? During 1928 he toured in the popular success The Punch Bowl, and more recently in Gentlemen Prefer Crooks. He was also part author with Mr. Wilfrid Stephens of The Yellow Cockade, which ran at the Scala in 1920. Mr. Challenor embarked on several managerial ventures, and from time to time suffered heavy losses owing to temporary theatrical slumps. In 1930 he lost over £1,000 in connexion with the conversion of a parish hall in Kensington into a “Playgoers Theatre.”
He married Emily Reid Woodward, professionally known on the stage, as stated above, as Marjorie Bellairs. ___ The Scotsman (18 December, 1935 - p.12) MR BROMLEY CHALLENOR Well-Known Actor’s Death in London Theatre MR BROMLEY CHALLENOR, the well-known actor, collapsed and died at the Fortune Theatre, London, yesterday, shortly before the first rehearsal of the Christmas revival of “When Knights Were Bold,” his favourite play, in which he had appeared hundreds of times.
He arrived at the stage door at noon, and spoke jovially to the electrician, whom he had known for many years. He suddenly staggered, and said that he felt cold, then he collapsed. Stage-hands and actors rushed to his aid, and he was carried to a room. A doctor was summoned, but Mr Challenor died in a few minutes. Death was due to a heart seizure. Mr Challenor was 51.
Originally intended for the medical profession Mr Challenor, after a brief spell in journalism, made his first appearance on the stage in 1906 at the Theatre Royal, Coatbridge, in “The Hand of Justice.”
In 1915 he purchased the rights of “When Knights Were Bold,” and, as the inimitable Sir Guy de Vere, he soon became known throughout the country.
He was born at Macclesfield and was educated privately at Hanley, Oxford, and Liverpool. He married Emily Reid, professionally known as Marjorie Bellairs. _____ [Although James Welch and Bromley Challenor were the two actors most identified with the role of Sir Guy de Vere, the rave review for Max Pallenberg in the Berlin production of When Knights Were Bold sparked my curiosity.] The Times (27 June, 1934 - p.11) HERR MAX PALLENBERG COMEDIAN IN FARCE AND OPERETTA Herr Max Pallenberg, whose death in an aeroplane accident near Karlsbad is reported on another page, was an actor long famous on the German stage.
He was one of that large company of persons distinguished in the theatre who received their theatrical training in the stimulating atmosphere of Vienna at the turn of the century; came to Germany and combined to bring international renown to the Berlin stage in the years immediately before and after the War; and have now disappeared from Germany as completely as last year’s snows, usually because they or their wives had Jewish blood. Among them are Herr Max Reinhardt, Fräulein Elizabeth Bergner, and Pallenberg’s wife, the revue and operetta actress Fritzi Massary.
Pallenberg was born in Vienna in 1877. He came by way of a small touring company to the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna, and subsequently to Berlin and Reinhardt, who at that time was developing ideas which, whatever may be thought of them now, then invigorated and stimulated theatrical methods in many countries. Pallenberg in his time had played many parts, and all with distinction. Older playgoers remember with affection his rendering of such characters as Argan in the Malade Imaginaire, but to the general public he was above all an inimitable comedian in farce and operetta. With his fellow-players he was sometimes less popular than with the public, and that was due to a habit of unbridled improvization which, though dutiful audiences often laughed uproariously, did not do justice to himself, harmed the play, and sometimes led an exasperated partner to ask audibly, “Shall we go on with the play now?” _____ 2. The Court Case The Times (21 July, 1917 - p.4) HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
CHANCERY DIVISION. “WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD”:
PERFORMING RIGHTS. JAY v. WELCH.
(Before MR. JUSTICE ASTBURY.) The question who was entitled to the performing rights in When Knights were Bold on the death of Mr. James Welch in April last came before the Court to-day. On July 3 Miss Harriet Jay, who wrote the play some time before 1901, and who is also the author of “The Life of Robert Buchanan,” issued a writ against Mrs. Amy Hannah Welch, the widow and administratrix of the estate of her husband, Mr. James Welch, asking the Court to declare that an agreement in writing dated September 9, 1905, between the plaintiff and Mr. James Welch as to the performing rights of a play therein called Good Old Times, but now called When Knights were Bold, was an agreement personal to Mr. James Welch, and that it ceased to be operative on his death. The plaintiff also asked for an injunction restraining the widow, as administratrix, from producing or performing or licensing the performance of the play or any adaptation or translation thereof.
Under the agreement of September 9, 1905, Harriet Jay granted to Mr. James Welch the sole right to perform the play in any place or country whatever, and also the sole right to license the performance of any adaptation or translation of it, and Mr. James Welch was to be at liberty to make any reasonable alteration in the play for the production and performance of it. Miss Harriet Jay was to receive for every performance in any West-end London theatre three guineas, and one pound ten shillings for each performance in any provincial town and London suburban theatre specified in a schedule to the agreement, and £1 for every performance in any other provincial town in Great Britain.
Miss Jay had made up her mind from the first that the success of the play depended to a great extent on the production of it with Mr. James Welch in the leading part, and she withheld the production of it for nearly four years so that he might appear in it.
The play was first produced in September, 1906, under the agreement, with Mr. Welch in the leading part, and it proved to be very successful. So favourable to Mr. Welch were the terms arranged by the agreement that his profit from the play, apart from his salary as actor, amounted to £20,000.
In these circumstances Miss Jay contended that the contract in 1905 was with Mr. James Welch personally, and that he was the only person able to carry out the terms of that contract, which, therefore, could not be extended beyond his lifetime.
To-day the plaintiff, Miss Jay, asked the Court to grant an injunction to restrain the defendant, as administratrix of the estate of Mr. James Welch, until the trial of the action, from producing or performing or licensing the play or any adaptation or translation thereof. Until his last illness the leading part in the play was always performed by Mr. Welch himself, except in cases in which he could not perform personally, but in every case (whether he took the leading part or not) the company was selected and rehearsed by him personally. Since the time when the state of his health precluded Mr. Welch from acting in the play his part had been taken by a Mr. Challenor under arrangement which, as between Mr. Welch and Miss Jay, was verbal. By that agreement Mr. Welch was entitled to receive 5 per cent. of the gross takings, and Miss Jay was entitled to receive in turn from Mr. Welch, instead of any fees payable under the agreement made in 1905, 40 per cent. of the 5 per cent. to be received by him.
It had been agreed that this motion by the plaintiff for an injunction should be treated as the trial of the action, but in the result it was arranged that the motion should stand over for a week, and that during that time the arrangement with Mr. Challenor should continue.
Mr. Coldridge, K.C., and Mr. J. K. Young appeared for the plaintiff; and Mr. Jenkins, K.C., and Mr. Horace Freeman for the defendant.
Solicitors.—Messrs. Martyn and Martyn for the plaintiff; Messrs. Lithgow and Pepper for the defendant. ___ The Times (20 October, 1917 - p.2) “WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD.”
JAY v. WELCH.
(Before MR. JUSTICE NEVILLE.) In this action, Miss Jay, the writer of the play When Knights were Bold, sought to restrain the defendant, Mrs. Welch, who was the administratrix of Mr. James Welch, the actor, from producing or granting licences to produce the play. The plaintiff had granted a licence to J. A. Welch to produce the play and the question raised in the action was whether that licence was personal to the actor or whether it passed on his death as part of his estate to the defendant.
Mr. WARD COLDRIDGE, K.C., (Mr. J. K. Young with him), who appeared for the plaintiff, said that the parties had now come to terms under which the licence granted to the actor was to be cancelled; the plaintiff was to remain the sole proprietor of the play and would make certain money payments to the defendant, and all further proceedings in the action would be stayed.
Mr. JENKINS, K.C. and Mr. HORACE FREEMAN, who appeared for the defendant, concurred.
Solicitors.—Messrs. Martyn and Martyn; Messrs. Lithgow and Pepper. _____ 3. Die goldene Ritterzeit - the book For some reason When Knights Were Bold was never published. However, the German translation by Siegfried V. Lutz, Die goldene Ritterzeit, was published in Berlin in 1910. I came across this picture of the book with the accompanying description in German which says (I hope, since I had to use an online translator) that it belonged to Angelo Neumannn (1838-1910), opera singer and theatre impresario. |
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