Dame Mary Louise Webster,, known professionally as May Whitty and later, for her charity work, Dame May Whitty, was an English stage and film actress. She was one of the first two women entertainers to become a Dame. The British actors union Equity was established in her home. After a successful career she moved over to Hollywood films at the age of 72. She went to live in America, where she won awards for her film roles.
Una O'Connor was an Irish-American actress who worked extensively in theatre before becoming a character actress in film and in television. She often portrayed comical wives, housekeepers and servants.
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London.
The Novelty Theatre was a London theatre. It opened in 1882 in Great Queen Street and was accessed off Little Queen Street until 1905, and from the new Kingsway road from 1905 onwards. It hosted the London premiere of A Doll's House in 1889. The theatre closed in 1941 and was demolished in 1959.
John Peter Wearing is an Anglo-American theatre historian and professor, who has written numerous books and articles about nineteenth and twentieth-century drama and theatre, including The Shakespeare Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography, published in 2007. He has also written and edited well-received books on George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Wing Pinero, extensive reference series on the London theatre from 1890 to 1959, and theatrical biographies, among other subjects. As a professor of English literature, Wearing has specialised in Shakespeare and modern drama.
Daphne R. Courtenay-Hicks, better known as Daphne Courtney, is a South African actress, who performed in B-movie British "quota quickies" of the 1930s and 1940s. She had a supporting role in at least one French film, Le battalion du ciel, directed by Alexander Esway. She also had a stage career, and stage credits include the first British performance of The Man Who Came to Dinner – pre-dating its London debut by three weeks – in which she appeared with her husband the Scottish actor Hugh McDermott.
Samuel Johnson was an actor-manager and Shakespearean actor of the 19th century and a member of Henry Irving's Company at the Lyceum Theatre, for which he played the comedy roles.
Warn That Man! is a 1941 play by the British writer Vernon Sylvaine. A comedy-thriller, its plot concerns an attempt to kidnap wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill from an English country house.
Spring Meeting is a 1938 British comedy play written by M.J. Farrell and John Perry. It was a hit in the West End, running for 310 performances at the Ambassadors Theatre between May 1938 and March 1939. Directed by John Geilgud, The cast included Niall MacGinnis, Edmund Breon, Nicholas Phipps, Joyce Carey, Zena Dare, Betty Chancellor and Margaret Rutherford. Rutherford's performance in particular attracted strong reviews. From December 1938 a Broadway version ran at the Morosco Theatre with a cast including Gladys Cooper and A.E. Matthews, lasting for 98 performances.
Horace Mills was a British singer, actor and dramatist who specialised in playing pantomime dames in the early 20th-century.
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.
On the Spot is a 1930 Chicago-set play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. Wallace was inspired by a visit to the United States and, in particular, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Known as a prolific author, he reportedly dictated the manuscript for the play in just four days. It was his greatest theatrical success.
The Calendar is a 1929 play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is a crime thriller set in the world of horse racing world, the sport being among Wallace's interests. The protagonist is a financially-struggling racehorse owner with a shady reputation. It premiered at the Palace Theatre in Manchester before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End.
M'Lady is a 1921 play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is a drama about a woman who tries to raise her daughter in high society, only for her husband to return from Broadmoor where he has been serving a sentence for killing a police officer. It was panned by theatre critics.
Double Dan is a 1927 comedy crime play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is inspired by the 1924 novel Double Dan by Wallace. The plot concerns high finance and a criminal who is a master of disguise.
The Terror is a 1927 mystery thriller play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is based on Wallace's 1926 novel The Black Abbot.
There's Always Juliet is a 1931 comedy play by the British writer John Van Druten about an American architect who falls in love with an Englishwoman.
Old Acquaintance is a 1940 play by the British writer John Van Druten.
Betty Jardine (1903–1945) was a British stage and film actress.
Ducks and Drakes is a 1941 comedy play by the Irish writer Molly Keane. The plot revolves around the wives of three brothers, all living on a farm while their husband are away due to the war.
