George Black (20 April 1890 – 4 March 1945) was a British theatrical impresario who controlled many entertainment venues during the 1930s and 1940s and was a pioneer of the motion picture business.
Contents
Biography
Early years
Black was born on 20 April 1890, at 3 Court, 7 Sutton Street, in Small Heath, Birmingham. He left school at the age of eleven to work for his father who had previously been a travelling showman and now worked in the film industry. Aged twelve, he was looking after his father's Flea Circus. Black served throughout the Great War as a private in the Northumberland Fusiliers and rose to the rank of Lance-Corporal. After the war, Black helped his father establish the first permanent motion-picture theatres in the UK. Black was a grafter and learnt about the entertainment business from his father. One of Black's initial jobs in his father's cinema was to show films on a Paul's Theatrograph, which was the name of the first commercially produced 35mm film projector. Within a few years, Black had become proprietor of a circuit of theatres and music halls on the North East coast of Britain.
Managing Director of the London Palladium
In 1928, Black moved to London and took over the management of GTC (General Theatre Corporation), which ran a chain of theatres, cinemas and dance halls. He also took over the management of the London Palladium, which was the flagship of the corporation. The Hippodrome, London in Leicester Square, Brighton Hippodrome and Blackpool Opera House were also under his control. When Black arrived as managing director of the London Palladium he'd previously owned a string of thirteen cinema theatres, which he'd sold for £300,000. Although the Palladium had recently fallen on hard times due to falling ticket sales (the theatre had lain dark during autumn of that year), Black's vision was to revive the Palladium as the number one variety theatre in the UK. On 3 September 1928, he re-opened the theatre with a superb variety bill that included Gracie Fields, Dick Henderson, Billy Bennett and Ivor Novello and a full supporting cast. Ticket sales skyrocketed and Argyll Street outside the Palladium's entrance became congested with a mass of unlucky patrons who'd been turned away at the box office. By headlining top-notch homegrown stars on the bill, Black secured continuous success through the remainder of the '20s and throughout the '30s. In defence of his entertainment policy Black was quoted as saying, 'Variety is an integral part of English life, the finest expression of the English character and as necessary to our social life as food and drink.' From October 1928 until 1931, Black allowed live broadcasts over the radio to be transmitted from the London Palladium, which proved extremely popular with radio audiences. Black even looked abroad for acts, bringing many of the top American stars to the UK to perform at the Palladium including Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, Adelaide Hall, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Vic Oliver and Ethel Waters. In 1937, Black brought Josephine Baker over to the UK direct from the Folies-Bergere in Paris to headline a British tour on the Moss Empires circuit, which culminated on 27 June 1938 with her appearance at the London Palladium, her first engagement there. Film stars were also booked onto the bill including the juvenile actor Jackie Coogan (who'd appeared alongside Charlie Chaplin in the hit film The Kid). Coogan proved so popular he was held over for an extra week.
In 1928, Black took over the presentation of the Royal Variety Performance. That year it was staged on 1 March at the London Coliseum in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary. After a gap of one year, on 22 May 1930, Black presented the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium, again in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary. The show was broadcast live by BBC Radio. Black went on to present and compere at the Royal Variety Performance each year (excluding 1936) thereafter up to 1938 after which the performance was halted for the duration of the Second World War.
Managing Director of Moss Empires
Black oversaw the merging of GTC with Moss Empires variety circuit in 1932. He was then in charge of the new company Moss Empires Group and was in control of a chain of 53 theatres all over the UK. In 1938, he became the joint managing director of Moss Empires. As manager of the London Palladium and controlling boss of Moss Empires, Black became one of London's most powerful producers. When the chairman Colonel J. J. Gillespie of Moss Empires died in January 1942, Mr. R. H. Gillespie became chairman and George Black was promoted to sole managing director.
Family
George Black Sr. was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1857. By 1861 the family had moved to live in nearby Sunderland. Black Sr. worked for many years at the Comedy Theatre in Manchester (later named the Gaiety Theatre) and at Theatre Royal, Birmingham. In time, he bought a huge waxworks exhibition, which he toured the UK with.
In May 1906, Black Sr. opened the Monkwearmouth Picture Hall in Bonnersfield, Sunderland, in a building that had formerly been St Stephen's Presbyterian Chapel. The building had ceased to be a church since 1903. It was in this building he would store and sometimes exhibit his waxworks exhibition when it wasn't on tour. Black Sr. along with his three sons (Gerorge, Alfred and Edward) ran the cinema as the British Animated Picture Company and claimed it was the first permanent cinema north of Birmingham. There is evidence to suggest that moving pictures were put on as early as 1904, as an added attraction to the waxworks. The paying customers sat in the old chapel pews in front of a white sheet, which was used as the screen and was tied to the lectern. Black Sr. employed his three sons to work at the cinema: his son George operated the hand-cranked kinematograph, Alfred ran the box-office and Edward wrote the prologues for the silent films. The first film shown was a newsreel called The Launching of the Mauretania, (which was released on 20 September 1906). As early as 1907, Black Sr. anticipated the Cinematograph Act 1909, (which came into operation on 1 January 1910), and separated the projector from the audience. They also ran 'twice nightly' shows. The Black family made a considerable amount of money when in 1914 Black Sr. purchased the local areas screening rights to show the film Tillie's Punctured Romance starring Charlie Chaplin, Marie Dressler and Mabel Normand.
In 1909, Black Sr. opened the New Picture Palace in Gateshead. He also became sole proprietor of the Palace Theatre, West Hartlepool, the Blyth Theatre Royal and the Borough Theatre in North Shields and the lessee of the Picture Hall, West Hartlepool and the Tivoli, Laygate Circus in South Shields. Black Sr. was known amongst the community to be a charitable man and distributed food and shoes among the poor children of Sunderland.
After George Black Sr.'s death in 1910, the Black brothers controlled a chain of twelve cinemas. In 1916, their original cinema (the Monkwearmouth Picture Hall in Bonnersfield, Sunderland) was renamed the Bridge Cinema. George Black claimed that he and his father experimented with the idea of 'talkies' before 'talkies' arrived:
Credits
Crazy Gang shows
Crazy Week – London Palladium – opened 30 November 1931
Crazy Week (second edition) – London Palladium – opened 21 December 1931
We Go Crazy – London Palladium – opened 6 June 1932
Loose Nuts – London Palladium – opened 1932
Gingerella – London Palladium – opened during the summer of 1932
The Third Crazy Month – London Palladium – opened November 1932
The Fourth Crazy Month – London Palladium – opened 6 March 1933
New Edition of the 5th Crazy Month – London Palladium – opened 9 October 1933
March Hares – London Palladium
Crazy Show (sixth edition) – London Palladium – opened 21 May 1934
Crazy Show (seventh edition) – London Palladium – opened 22 October 1934
Life Begins at Oxford Circus – (first edition) – London Palladium – January 1935
Life Begins at Oxford Circus (second edition) – London Palladium – opened 20 May 1935
Round About Regent Street – London Palladium – opened 26 August 1935
All Alight at Oxford Circus – London Palladium – opened 11 March 1936
Other Palladium shows
Peter Pan – Christmas pantomime produced annually from 1930 -1939
London Symphony (1938) – with costumes designed by Erté
Gangway (1942) – a musical revue (ran from 17 December 1941 to 24 October 1942)
Best Bib and Tucker (1942) – a musical revue
This Is The Army (1943) – an Irving Berlin show with flu G.I. cast
Happy and Glorious (1944) – a musical fanfare
London shows
The Fleet's Lit Up (1938) – Hippodrome, London
George Black's Intimate Rag: Black Velvet (1939) – Hippodrome, London
Black Velvet (1938/39) (starring Roma Beaumont) – Hippodrome, London
Haw Haw! – George Black's Laughter Show (1939–1940) – Holborn Empire (formerly known as Weston's Music Hall, London
Apple Sauce (1940) – opened at the Holborn Empire on 27 August 1940. After the theatre was bombed the show transferred to the London Palladium and ran from 5 March 1941 to 29 November 1941
Get a Load of This (1941) – Hippodrome, London The production transferred to London's Prince of Wales Theatre in November 1942
The Lisbon Story (1943) – Hippodrome, London
Strike a New Note (1943) – Prince of Wales Theatre, London
Jenny Jones (1944) – Hippodrome, London
Strike it Again (1945) – Prince of Wales Theatre, London
Other shows
Simple Simon (1934) – Christmas Pantomime at Glasgow Empire Theatre
Josser's Detective Agency (1935) – A musical revue starring Ernest Lotinga (regional tour)
Jack and the Beanstalk (1935) – Christmas Pantomime at the Palace Theatre, Manchester
Mother Goose (1935) – Christmas Pantomime at the Liverpool Empire Theatre
Cinderella (1935) – Christmas Pantomime at The Empire Theatre, Newcastle
Red Riding Hood (1935) – Christmas Pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Leeds
Mother Goose (1935) – Christmas Pantomime at The Prince's Theatre, Manchester
Twinkle (1936) – A holiday summer show
Will C. Pepper's' White Coons (1936) – A Concert Party show
Radio Pie (1936) – Radio Show
Cinderella (1936) – Christmas Pantomime at Edinburgh's Empire Theatre
Holiday Fare (1937) – Variety show at Boscombe Hippodrome, Bournemouth
The Gang Show (1938) – The cast included 150 Boy Scouts from Newcastle and district at the Empire Theatre, Newcastle
All The Best (1938) – Blackpool Opera House
The Silent Melody (1938) – A Musical Play starring Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon
Filmography
Just My Luck (1933) – assistant director
The Penny Pool (1937) – Director
Calling All Crooks (1938) – Director