Moss Empires was a company formed in Edinburgh in 1899, from the merger of the theatre companies owned by Sir Edward Moss, Richard Thornton and Sir Oswald Stoll. This created the largest chain of variety theatres and music halls in the United Kingdom. The business was successful, with major variety theatres in almost every city in the UK and Ireland, and was advertised as the largest group in the world.
The group had grown to over 50 theatres when Stoll withdrew his in 1910 to run them as a separate business.
The first Royal Command Variety Performance was planned for Sir Edward Moss's Edinburgh Empire in the Coronation year 1911 but it burned down and instead was held at the London Palace Theatre in 1912, owned then by Sir Alfred Butt, a competitor of Moss, who later joined its alliance; with many subsequent performances being given at the London Palladium.
In 1932, impresario and producer George Black oversaw the merging of GTC (General Theatre Corporation) with Moss Empires variety circuit. Black became in charge of the new company Moss Empires Group and controlled a chain of 53 theatres all over the UK. In 1938, Black became the joint managing director of Moss Empires making him one of London's most powerful producers before his death in 1945.
In 1945 Val Parnell became managing director of Moss Empires until 1958. [1]
Prince Littler became chairman in 1947 and after some 30 years the Moss and Stoll companies reunited.
The company ended its promotion of music halls during the 1960s, due to increasing competition from other entertainment media.
In 1964, Stoll Moss was acquired by Lew Grade; it later became part of his Associated Communications Corporation. [2] ACC was acquired by Robert Holmes à Court in 1982. [3]
The company continues as Really Useful Theatres, formed from the sale of the Stoll Moss theatres by Janet Holmes à Court to RUG Theatres, during January 2000. [4] They continue to manage six theatres, the London Palladium, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the Gillian Lynne Theatre, the Adelphi, His Majesty's and the Cambridge Theatre.
The London Palladium is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in Soho. The theatre was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1910. The auditorium holds 2,286 people. Hundreds of stars have played there, many with televised performances. Between 1955 and 1969 Sunday Night at the London Palladium was staged at the venue, produced for the ITV network. The show included a performance by the Beatles on 13 October 1963; one newspaper's headlines in the following days coined the term "Beatlemania" to describe the hysterical interest in the band.
The Royal Variety Performance is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity. It is attended by senior members of the British royal family. The evening's performance is presented as a live variety show, usually from a theatre in London and consists of family entertainment that includes comedy, music, dance, magic and other speciality acts.
The Really Useful Group Ltd. (RUG) is an international company set up in 1977 by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It is involved in theatre, film, television, video and concert productions, merchandising, magazine publishing, records and music publishing. The name is inspired by a phrase from the children's book series The Railway Series in which Thomas the Tank Engine and the other locomotives are referred to as "Really Useful Engines".
Francis Matcham was an English architect who specialised in the design of theatres and music halls. He worked extensively in London, predominantly under Moss Empires for whom he designed the Hippodrome in 1900, Hackney Empire (1901), Coliseum (1903), Shepherd's Bush Empire (1903) and Palladium (1910). His last major commission before retirement was the Victoria Palace Theatre (1911) for the variety magnate Alfred Butt. During his 40-year career, Matcham was responsible for the design and construction of over 90 theatres and the redesign and refurbishment of a further 80 throughout the United Kingdom.
Sir Oswald Stoll was an Australian-born British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre company. He also owned Cricklewood Studios and film production company Stoll Pictures, which was one of the leading British studios of the silent era. In 1912, he founded the Royal Variety Performance a now-annual charity show which benefits the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund.
Sir Horace Edward Moss was a British theatre impresario and the founder chairman and joint managing director of the Moss Empires Ltd theatre combine which he created in 1899, and floated on the Stock Exchange, after first joining forces with Richard Thornton of Newcastle and later with Oswald Stoll then operating in Wales. From its start and during the 20th century Moss Empires remained the largest group of variety theatres in Britain, with over 50 venues at its height, and was regarded as the largest in the world. It was he who, in 1904, introduced a "four shows a day" system at some of his theatres; he was also the first to allow advance booking of seats in a music hall.
Empire Theatre or Empire Theater may refer to:
Valentine Charles Parnell was a British television managing director and presenter, actor and theatrical impresario. A former staple of stage production, his career in television started with the launch of the ITV network in 1955.
The Edinburgh Festival Theatre is a performing arts venue located on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is used primarily for performances of opera and ballet, large-scale musical events, and touring groups. After its most recent renovation in 1994, it seats 1,915. It is one of the major venues of the annual summer Edinburgh International Festival and is the Edinburgh venue for the Scottish Opera and the Scottish Ballet.
Thomas Barrasford (1859–1910) was a 19th-century British entrepreneur and entertainment impresario, who operated and built a number of theatres across Britain, mainly under the Barrasford Halls brand.
The Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow opened on 19 December 1910 at the corner of Waterloo Street and Wellington Street, Glasgow under the direction of Sir Alfred Butt and was acknowledged as one of the best equipped theatres in Britain, planned to accommodate 2,800 people.
Sir Abraham Walter de Frece was a British theatre impresario, and later Conservative Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1920 to 1931. His wife was the celebrated male impersonator Vesta Tilley.
George Black was a British theatrical impresario who controlled many entertainment venues during the 1930s and 1940s and was a pioneer of the motion picture business.
Henry Moncrieff Tennent, was a British theatrical producer, impresario and songwriter. From 1929 to 1933, he mentored Binkie Beaumont, having previously worked with him in Cardiff. When Tennent, already the general manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and a senior executive with Moss Empires, persuaded the boards of Moss Empires and of Howard & Wyndham to co-operate, in order the better to produce theatre drama, it was Tennent and Beaumont who became the chief executives of a new shared company H. M. Tennent Ltd. The largest and controlling shareholders were the Cruikshank family of Howard & Wyndham founded in Glasgow in 1895 and headquartered in Edinburgh.
Howard & Wyndham Ltd was a theatre owning, production and management company named after John B. Howard and Frederick W. P. Wyndham, founded in Glasgow in 1895, and which became the largest of its type in Britain. The company continued well into the 20th century. Its theatres were eventually sold in the 1960s, and the shareholding came under American control.
Sir Alfred Butt, 1st Baronet was a British theatre impresario, Conservative politician and racehorse owner and breeder. During a fourteen-year tenure as manager of London's Palace Theatre, beginning in 1904, Butt built a theatre empire, expanding firstly with the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow in 1910, followed by the London Victoria Palace a year later, to rival that of Edward Moss and others. He became managing director of several London West End theatres beginning in 1914, including the Adelphi Theatre, the Empire Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as theatres outside London. He continued as a theatre impresario until 1931.
Shaun Glenville was an Irish actor who specialised in pantomime performances; he would play the dame while his wife Dorothy Ward would play the principal boy. The music hall historian Christopher Pulling called him one of the 'grand comedians of the music-halls'. He had a successful 62-year career and played in over 40 pantomimes.
Florence Mary Naylor is a British-American retired variety entertainer, known for her work as a West End leading lady, radio and television celebrity, singer, pianist, and accordionist. She starred in the opening production number for the 1946 Royal Variety Performance, and was a child star in the Youth Takes A Bow troupe that toured England, Wales and Scotland during the first two years of World War II with Ernie Wise and Eric Morecambe.
Isaac Louis Benjamin was a British entertainment business executive and theatre impresario. Among other leading positions between the 1960s and 1980s, he chaired Pye Records, was a managing director at ATV and at the London Palladium, and organised the Royal Variety Performances.
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