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Sir Abraham Walter de Frece (7 October 1870 – 7 January 1935) 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.
Abraham Walter de Frece was one of four sons of Henry (Harry) de Frece, of the Gaiety Music Hall in Camden Street, Liverpool, who was a prosperous agent in the Roscoe Arcade, a prominent theatrical manager, and a pioneering actors' agent from a large theatrical family. Henry de Frece had his sons educated well in order to keep them out of theatre, with Walter attending the Liverpool Institute and a school in Belgium. [1]
However, by the time Walter returned home, his elder brother Jack was managing the Alhambra Wooden Theatre in Manchester Street, Liverpool, and Isaac managed the old Theatre Royal in Clayton Square, Liverpool. Walter's younger brother, Lauri de Frece, later became a celebrated comedian. [1]
By 1889, Walter was apprenticed with a notable Merseyside architect, when his father's Gaiety Theatre engaged the 25-year-old Tilly Ball as principal boy in pantomime that Christmas. Known professionally as Vesta Tilley (the 'Matchless' little Tilly), as the daughter of the former chairman of the St. George's Hall in Nottingham, Harry Ball, she had been on the stage since the age of four. By 1889 she was well known on the tour circuit as a male impersonator. [1]
Walter fell for Tilly, and against romantic competition that included Sir Oswald Stoll, managed to take Tilly to a dance and secure a kiss. This inspired Walter to resign his apprenticeship, and leaving home secured himself a job in the office of Warner's Theatrical Agency. Walter married Tilley at Brixton Register Office on 16 August 1890. [2]
Noting the decline in popularity of melodrama, and the increase in music hall revenues, de Frece secured the lease on the Metropole Theatre at Camberwell. Leaving Warner's, he turned it into the Camberwell Empire, a modern music hall. After this success, he began building a tour circuit by buying out the leases of other theatres which had fallen on hard times, including: the Grand Theatre, Margate; the Grand Theatre, Colchester; the Prince of Wales, Southampton; and a theatre at Boscombe managed by his brother-in-law, Harry Ball, junior. All were refurbished and renamed "Hippodromes," with music hall productions run by his company "The South of England Hippodromes, Ltd.," where his wife Tilley was a regular performer. [1] He later added new Hippodromes in both Portsmouth and Southend. [1]
After taking over the lease of the Empire Palace, Wolverhampton (later renamed the Hippodrome), in 1906 he joined the board of directors at the Manchester Palace. He then opened the New Tivoli Theatre of Varieties in Lime Street, Liverpool, in December 1906, but being so close to the Empire Palace of Moss and Stoll, the New Tivoli never made a profit. [1]
After this setback, in 1908 he bought the old Metropole in Birkenhead, renamed The New Birkenhead Hippodrome, with an opening night that was topped by his wife. He then built his northern chain at a far quicker pace, acquiring the Bolton Hippodrome and then building the new Oldham Palace, which couldn't be named Hippodrome as there already was one in the town. [1]
After the death of fellow impresario Thomas Barrasford in 1910, de Frece acquired most of his Barrasford Halls, having formed the holding company "Variety Theatres Controlling Company Ltd" in partnership with Alfred Butt. By 1914 this also controlled 18 theatres across both Southcoast Hippodromes Ltd and Barrasford Halls Ltd but during World War I, audience taste changed again, and with the advent of moving pictures, many theatres were being converted either in part or whole to new format cinemas. Resultantly, at the end of hostilities and after his knighthood in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours List, de Frece resigned all of his positions, allowing Charles Gulliver to succeed him as managing director of the Variety Theatres Controlling Company. [1]
After his decision to concentrate on a career in politics, Vesta Tilley made her last performance in 1920 at the Coliseum Theatre, London, at the age of 56. For the rest of her life she lived as Lady de Frece, and from the mid-1920s the couple made their home on the French Riviera, to assist with her declining health. [1]
Sir Walter was first elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne at a by-election in 1920, after the constituency's Conservative MP Sir Albert Stanley was elevated to the peerage.
Sir Walter was re-elected at the 1922 general election and at the 1923 general election, when his majority was cut to only 239 votes. At the 1924 general election he did not stand again in Ashton-under-Lyne, but moved to the more promising Blackpool constituency, where he was returned with a majority of over 7,000 votes. He held the seat with a similar majority in 1929.
He represented Blackpool between the two wars; it was claimed by John Cryer, the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, during a House of Commons debate, that Sir Walter only visited the United Kingdom twice a year, once for the Budget speech and again for Ascot and that he had managed to convince his electorate that he was representing their interests by signing a stack of House of Commons notepaper every time he returned. His secretary, claimed Mr Cryer, would then write responses to each letter from his constituents on the signed notepaper, making it appear to voters that they had received a personal response. It was suggested that although he was once a national MP for Blackpool, he actually never went near the place: "in fact he couldn't find it on a map". [3] However, based on entries in Hansard, Sir Walter did make a number of contributions to debates in the House of Commons, initially representing his constituents in Ashton-under-Lyne (from 1920 to 1924), and latterly those in Blackpool from (1924 to 1931).
In light of the poor health of his wife, he retired from the House of Commons at the 1931 general election, and went to live in the home they had in Monaco. Walter died before his wife, at the age of 64. He is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery, where his wife, who died in 1952 at the age of 88, was later laid to rest beside him. A black granite memorial marks the spot.
The Pavilion Theatre is a theatre in Glasgow located on Renfield Street.
Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece was an English music hall performer. She adopted the stage name Vesta Tilley and became one of the best-known male impersonators of her era. Her career lasted from 1869 until 1920. Starting in provincial theatres with her father as manager, she performed her first season in London in 1874. She typically performed as a dandy or fop, also playing other roles. She found additional success as a principal boy in pantomime.
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.
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.
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Cornelius William James Homan was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne from 1924 to 1928.
The 1920 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election was a by-election held on 31 January 1920 for the British House of Commons constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne.
The 1931 Ashton-Under-Lyne by-election was held on 30 April. It was triggered by the death of the town's Labour MP, Albert Bellamy, and resulted in a victory for the Conservative candidate, Col John Broadbent.
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Sir Walter Gibbons, KBE was an English theatre proprietor who owned a number of music halls at the beginning of the twentieth century. Along with Oswald Stoll, he led the employers' side in the Music Hall Strike of 1907, which was settled broadly in favour of the artists, musicians and stage hands who were demanding better wages and conditions.
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.
Lauri de Frece was an English actor and singer who appeared in musical theatre and in films of the silent era. He was the younger brother of Walter de Frece and the husband of Fay Compton.
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Richard L. Warner (1856–1914), known as Dick Warner, was a London theatrical agent during the fin de siecle. He was the founder of Warners International Actors and Musical Agency and in 1888 he launched the Music Hall Benevolent Fund, which provided a financial safety net for music hall entertainers, their widows and children. During actors' strikes early in the 20th century, Warner was trusted as a negotiator by actors, and he was the only agent invited as a go-between by the Proprietors of Entertainments Association.
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Johnnie Cullen and Arthur Carthy, known as Cullen and Carthy, were a British comedy double act who achieved popularity on the British and Irish music hall, circus and variety stages over a career spanning a period of four decades, beginning in the latter part of the Victorian age to the post-war years of the 1920's. Their partnership lasted from 1890 until Cullen's death.
William Henry Broadhead was an English theatre builder and owner who was prominent in developing music halls and later cinemas in the north west of England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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