Charles Childerstone (3 July 1872 – 29 May 1947) was an English operatic tenor and actor who after a career on the stage including a period with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1896 to 1903 later had a career on the music halls and in film. His theatrical career spanned four decades and included musical comedy and the legitimate theatre.
Childerstone was born in Enfield, Middlesex, the son of Frederick Childerstone, a locksmith, and Emma née Everett. [1] In 1891 he was working as a clerk in a gun factory in London [2] and studied at the Guildhall School of Music. In 1894 he won third prize in the tenor section at a Stratford East Festival. [3]
On joining the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1896 at the Savoy Theatre Childerstone sang in the chorus for the 1896 revivals of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas The Mikado and Trial by Jury [4] and probably also in the original production of His Majesty (1897). He played Archibald Jones the Income Tax Collector in 252 performances of Old Sarah at the Savoy Theatre in mid-1897 and when it was a companion piece to the revival of The Yeomen of the Guard (August–November 1897) in which production he also sang in the chorus and later played First Yeoman. [5] Also at the Savoy he was in the chorus for The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (December 1897 to March 1898) and a revival of The Gondoliers (March to May 1898), [6] in which he played the non-singing role of Annibale; Old Sarah was also a companion piece to these. [5] [7]
In 1898, still at the Savoy, he was A Lad of the Town in Sullivan's The Beauty Stone [8] and reprised the role of Annibale in The Gondoliers. In September that year he appeared in a revival of The Sorcerer and played the non-singing part of the Associate in Trial by Jury , while December 1898 saw him share the role of the Defendant in Trial with four other tenors. From January to May 1899 Childerstone sang the Chamberlain in The Lucky Star and from June to December 1899 again played the Defendant in Trial by Jury [9] when that work had a further revival with H.M.S. Pinafore , occasionally filling in as Ralph Rackstraw. [5]
He created the minor role of the Physician-in-Chief in Sullivan's last completed opera, The Rose of Persia (1899–1900) at the Savoy Theatre, where he also Henry in Hamilton Clarke's The Outpost , which played there July to November 1900 as a companion piece to a revival of The Pirates of Penzance ; it also played from November to December 1900 as a companion piece to Patience . When The Outpost closed Childerstone returned to the chorus for The Emerald Isle (1901) until he took over from Powis Pinder as Private Perry later in that production. In 1901 he married Mary Muir née McGee (1871–1944). Their son was Clifford Louis Muir Childerstone (1903–1978). [10]
Continuing in the chorus at the Savoy, Childerstone appeared in Ib and Little Christina (November 1901) and Iolanthe (December 1901 to March 1902) and in April 1902 he was a Lord in Merrie England . After in a 14-week tour the company returned with that piece to the Savoy until January 1903. In December 1902 he appeared in a benefit performance of Trial by Jury for William Rignold at the Lyric Theatre. [11] His next named role was as the sailor Will Weatherly in A Princess of Kensington produced by William Greet at the Savoy until May 1903 and then on tour until later that year, when the company disbanded. [5]
After this, Childerstone made a number of further appearances for Greet in Edwardian Musical Comedies including as George Bellamy in The Earl and the Girl at the Adelphi Theatre (1904), and in Little Hans Andersen , The Talk of the Town (1905) and My Darling (1907). [3] In 1908 he joined Walter Passmore in his music hall sketch The Constable and the Pictures, after which he appeared as the Earl of Essex alongside Passmore in a tour of Merrie England for Greet (1908–1909). [12] Childerstone played in The Chocolate Soldier in 1911, and in 1913 went on the music halls in a 'musical interlude' paired with Winifred Hare, following which he was in a number of Concert Parties (The Follies) and revues, including Hello, Everybody, Eyes Front, Fall In and Pleasure Bound. He staged a scena called A Whiff of the Briny (1919) for the Exeter Hippodrome, advertising that Edward German had given permission for the use of the song "Four Jolly Sailormen" from A Princess of Kensington in the show. [3]
For the legitimate theatre he appeared in a 1921 revival of the Jules Eckert Goodman melodrama The Man Who Came Back, following which he played Ardimedon in Phi-Phi for C. B. Cochran and was in The Co-Optimists (1925). He was Count Orpitch in the tour of Katja the Dancer (1926–1927) before returning to revue in What Price the Navy? (1929). [3] He made various other appearances on the London stage and on tour in the provinces well into the 1930s. In 1938 the 77 year-old Childerstone was cast as Gaston in the musical comedy Under Your Hat at the Palace Theatre (1938–1939). [13]
Childerstone's films included Jim in The Cry for Justice (1919), Doctor in Betrayal (1932), Inspector Hart in The Thirteenth Candle (1933), Pilgrim in I'll Stick to You (1933), Mr Shaw in Double Bluff (1933), Judy's Counsel in Perfect Understanding (1933), Solicitor in Little Friend (1934), Brown on Resolution (1935), Murder in the Family (1938) and Take Cover (1938). [14]
By 1931 he and his wife were separated, with his wife living with their son Clifford Childerstone on Grange Road in Ealing, [15] [16] while he was living with the actress Ethel Maud Childerstone (1896–1984) in Hornsey, who appears to have assumed his name. [17] After his wife died in 1944 Childerstone married Ethel Maud in 1945. [3]
Childerstone died in 1947 in Highgate, London. In his will he left £696 4s to his widow Ethel Maud Childerstone. [18]
Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house the Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, and later those by other composer–librettist teams. The great bulk of the non-G&S Savoy Operas either failed to achieve a foothold in the standard repertory, or have faded over the years, leaving the term "Savoy Opera" as practically synonymous with Gilbert and Sullivan. The Savoy operas were seminal influences on the creation of the modern musical.
Sir Henry Lytton was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the starring comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1909 to 1934. He also starred in musical comedies. His career with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company spanned 50 years, and he is the only performer ever knighted for achievements in Gilbert and Sullivan roles.
Rosina Brandram was an English opera singer and actress primarily known for creating many of the contralto roles in the Savoy operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Charles Herbert Workman was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was variously credited as Charles H. Workman, C. Herbert Workman and C. H. Workman.
Walter Henry Passmore was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Charles Courtice Pounds, better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.
Robert Scott Fishe was an English operatic baritone and actor best remembered for creating roles in the 1890s with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Hugh Enes Blackmore was a British opera and concert singer and actor. Known as the "Iron-Throated Tenor", he is best remembered for his performances of tenor roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. His career with D'Oyly Carte spanned almost 30 years, ending with a season as the company's stage manager. He was later a teacher of operatic singing and acting.
Wallace Brownlow was an opera singer and actor of the Victorian era best known for baritone roles in the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, first with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the UK and on tour, and later with J. C. Williamson in Australia. He also appeared in other stage roles in London, New York, and elsewhere, and made some silent films in America.
Pauline Rita, born Margaret Glenister, was an English soprano and actress. During her early career, she was best known for her performances in operettas and comic operas at the Opera Comique and was associated with impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte. Later she married flautist John Radcliff, and the two performed together for many years.
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire. Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868.
Jessie Kate Rose was an English opera singer and actress primarily known for her performances as principal mezzo-soprano in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. From 1896 to 1899 she originated several mostly smaller roles in Savoy operas and then continued to play a variety of smaller and larger roles in repertory with the company. She was its principal mezzo-soprano from 1904 to 1909.
Charles Roby Walenn was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with touring companies of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1887 to 1909 and later, off and on through the 1920s, with J. C. Williamson in Australia. Later in his career, he became known for London engagements in the title role of Rev. Spalding in The Private Secretary, which he first played at the Savoy Theatre in 1917, where he had never performed in the Savoy operas.
Rudolph Lewis was a bass-baritone known for creating several small roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas including Go-To in The Mikado (1885) and Old Adam Goodheart in Ruddigore (1887).
Frederick Strafford Moss was a British tenor and actor. He appeared in the Savoy operas of Gilbert and Sullivan from 1897 to 1913, mainly in touring companies of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, following which he had a career in musical theatre on the West End stage until 1931.
Henry de Grey Warter, better known under the stage name Richard Barker, was a British actor, stage manager and stage director. He stage managed many of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas and other productions of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and directed some of them, and in the 1890s directed musicals in New York as well as London.
Agnes Fraser Elder Fraser-Smith was a Scottish actress and soprano, known as Agnes Fraser, who appeared in the later Savoy Operas and in Edwardian musical comedy. She married the Gilbert and Sullivan performer Walter Passmore, with whom she frequently appeared on stage.
Powis Pinder was an operatic baritone who created a number of minor roles in the Savoy Operas and played a range of more important parts in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and other works during a two decade long stage career. His later years were spent managing concert parties on the Isle of Wight where he later served as a volunteer fireman on the outbreak of World War II.
Marcellus Raymond Morand was an English actor and operatic baritone who, after a career in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, appeared in Edwardian musical comedy, among other theatrical genres, and in early silent film.
Reginald Crompton was a British solicitor, stage actor and silent film screenwriter. A bass-baritone, he created several minor roles in the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.