STAGE TITLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1058, 23 August 1930, Page 24

STAGE TITLES

Sir Henry Lytton the First “Employed” Actor The opinion has been expressed that Sir Henry Lytton, the veteran Gilbert and Sullivan player, is the first “employed” actor to receive a title. Many managers and actor-managers have been so honoured, and dramatists and composers have been well represented in the lists. Titles were unusual, even for actor-managers, until Henry Irving received one; but ill later years there were Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir Charles Wyndham, Sir Charles Hawtrey, Sir John Martin Harvey and Sir Gerald du Maurier. An early honour in the musical field was that of Sir Michael Costa. Sir Arthur Sullivan was knighted some years before his collaborator became Sir William Gilbert. Music in various phases has been represented in the lists of honours by Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Henry Wood, Sir Hamilton Harty and others. Ellen Terry was not an “actressmanageress,” but she became Dame Ellen, Dame Madge Kendal has been in management with her husband for some years. Among drama tic authors who have received titles are Sir Arthur Pinero and Sir James Barrie. A number of holders of hereditary titles have become actors, sometimes under stage names. Years ago the Earl of Yarmouth made amateur appearances in Melbourne. As James Erskine the Earl of Rosslyn appeared for long seasons as a professional in good companies in Britain and America. Sir William Don, a baronet, was a popular player in early Australian days. Lady Diana Manners and Lady Constance Stuart Richardson were names that became known in theatres of our own day. Lady Monckton, the mother of Lionel Monckton, composer of “A Country Girl,” was a competent actress in London productions. She was the wife of an officer of the City of London. Actresses have been marrying into the peerage for the last two centuries. About 1724 Anatasia Robinson became Countess of Peterborough. Lavinia Fenton was married to the Duke of Bolton in 1752, Elizabeth Farren to the Earl of Derby in 1797, Louisa Brunton to the Earl of Craven in 1808, Mary Bolton to Lord Tliurlow in 1813, Susannah Paton to Lord William Pitt Lennox in 1824, and Harriet Mellon (the widow of the banker Coutts) to the Duke of St. Albans in 1827. Later marriages from the stage were those of Maria Foote to the Earl of Harrington, Katherine Stephens to the Earl of Essex, Belle Bilton to Viscount Dunlo (afterward Earl of Clancarty), Constance Gilchrist to the Earl of Orkney, and Rosie Boote to tile Marquis ol’ Headfort. That takes the list to the beginning of the present century. In later years there have been other peeresses from the stage; and at various times a number of barony’s and knights have married actresses.