3.2.1-2 Shakespeare broadcasts in 1923 - listing
3.2.3 C.A. Lewis Article in 'The Radio Times' 19 October 1923
3.2.4 'Birth' of B.B.C. radio drama 16 February 1923
3.2.5 Val Gielgud's account of 'Shakespeare' 16 February 1923
3.2.9 Howard Rose on stage 16 February 1923
3.2.10 Acton Bond
3.2.11 Arthur Bourchier
3.2.13 Robert Atkins
3.2.14 Basil Gill
3.2.15 Hubert Carter and Basil Gardner
3.2.16-18 Summing up on Gielgud's account
3.2.19 Drakakis and Modernism
3.2.21 British Empire Shakespeare Society stage reading 20 March 1923
3.2.22 Summary on Drakakis's argument and influences on 'Shakespeare series'
3.2.23 British Empire Shakespeare Society, 2LO 23 April 1923
3.2.24 2LO: 'Twelfth Night', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
3.2.26 Studio in Savoy Hill
3.2.27 David Pownall, 'An Epiphanous Use of the Microphone'
3.2.29 Archibald Haddon, broadcast 14 November 1923
I put forward rather a detailed argument here that Gielgud's details of the first Shakespeare production (of 16 February 1923) are not based in fact. I keep with the original B.B.C. record – one scene from 'Julius Caesar' played by two unimportant actors. I look at the influence of the British Empire Shakespeare Society on the broadcast Shakespeares and I argue, contra Drakakis, that Shakespeare text and staging reformers, and early British Modernism were unlikely to have influenced Savoy Hill. Details of actors' performances and careers are also important in my discussion.
3.2.1
There were twenty-four wireless productions of Shakespeare in 1923 across all Stations, including the 'birth' of radio drama (16 February 1923 in 2LO, referred to as 'Shakespeare'). There were five full-length productions (four in London and one in Cardiff, and a possible fifth in Manchester).
3.2.2
The breakdown is as follows:
London 2LO = 11 productions (including four full-length – 'Twelfth Night' 28 May; 'The Merchant of Venice' 15 June; 'Romeo and Juliet' 5 July; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' 25 July)
Birmingham = 4 productions (all excerpts)
Cardiff = 5 productions (one full-length – 'Romeo and Juliet' 4 December)
Manchester = 1 production (full-length? – 'Twelfth Night' 18 July)
Bournemouth = 2 productions (excerpts)
Newcastle = 1 production (excerpts)
Shakespeare was the entrée into radio drama for the following Stations:
Tuesday 17 April 1923 Cardiff 9.45
Scene from Shakespeare (first dramatic production)
Saturday 14 July 1923 Birmingham 7.30 - 8.0
Mr William Macready and Miss Edna Godfrey Turner in a few scenes from Shakespeare (sixth production)
Wednesday 18 July 1923 Manchester 8.15
First Shakespeare Night 'Twelfth Night' (first dramatic production)
Thursday 28 September 1923 Newcastle 7.35-7.50
Act III Scene 5 from 'Romeo and Juliet' (first dramatic production)
Saturday 20 October 1923 Bournemouth 8.0
Excerpts from Shakespeare (first dramatic production)
The exception was Glasgow, which did not stage Shakespeare, but instead, three adventurous productions including 'Rob Roy' (Scott) (3.1.9). Cardiff opened on 13 February 1923, and was an early producer of radio drama. Birmingham had already broadcast five variety items, including Dickens. This Shakespeare is the first broadcast of the duo, William Macready and Edna Godfrey Turner, who were to make many appearances touring the Stations. Later, or already, William Macready was the 'Dramatic producer' at the Birmingham station according to 'The Radio Times' of 21 November 1924 (p 385).
3.2.3
On 26 February 1923 2LO 9.0, M.S.R. Littlewood gave a talk on 'Shakespeare and Broadcasting'. Obviously the choice of Shakespeare brought prestige, it was out of copyright, excerpts could be broadcast of the best scenes, and, certainly in London, casting could be easier from actors experienced in verse speaking. Cecil Lewis was in charge of the 2LO Shakespeares and he gives the name of the producer:
I arranged a season of Shakespeare plays directed by Nigel Playfair
(Lewis, 1974, 68)
In an article in 'The Radio Times', after nine London productions had been aired, and announcing plans for four full-length more, Lewis gave the following arguments:
To true lovers of Shakespeare, listening should appeal, for there is neither acting, scenery, nor any of the numerous interruptions of the theatre to distract from full enjoyment of the wonderful speeches and sentences with which every play of Shakespeare abounds. I far prefer to sit with eyes closed, to hear the words spoken, and imagine the scenery for myself. ... giving several "invisible" performances ...
('The Radio Times' 19 October 1923, p 118, 'Broadcasting Shakespeare')
Some key defence arguments for radio drama are here: the unmediated access to fine performances without the obstacles of the stage and its imperfections, and the sovereignty of the listener, creating scenery in 'mind pictures'. Note that Lewis uses the key word 'invisible', which is the first use I can find of this of relating to radio drama. The foremost was to come in Bernard Shaw's 'G.B.S. Lectures the B.B.C.' ('The Radio Times' 14 November 1925, 357) and his contact with Savoy Hill was through Lewis (Lewis, 1974, 81-3). The plays promised by Lewis in fact did not go to production and the next large-scale Shakespeare on 2LO was 'Hamlet' (15 February 1924 London 7.30-9.15) and nothing till the Shakespearean Night of 18 November 1924, selected passages from 'The Taming of the Shrew', with R.E. Jeffrey as Petruchio. Shakespeare on the wireless in the 1920s has already been discussed in 1.12.
3.2.4
The B.B.C. birth of radio drama: Friday 16 February 1923 2LO 7.15 (mixed), referred to as 'Shakespeare'
B.B.C. Programme Records:
7.15 Harry Tate: Broadcasting; Margaret Jewell (Sop.); W. Walmisley (piano); Shayle Gardner and Hubert Carter: Scene from "Julius Caesar"; Grace Ivell and Vivien Worth (Duets). 9.0 Dr. J.A. Fleming: The Invention of the Valve. 9.0 2G.N.B. [General News Bulletin] 9.50 Progr.
The B.B.C. Year-Book 1930, 188:
16 February 1923: First Dramatic Transmission. Quarrel Scene, "Julius Caesar" (Shakespeare).
From Gielgud, 1957, 17, re 'Shakespeare' 16 February 1923:
'Julius Caesar' - the 'tent scene' with Robert Atkins as Cassius and Basil Gill as Brutus
'King Henry VIII' - Arthur Bourchier as the King and Acton-Bond as Wolsey 'Much Ado About Nothing'
(Repeated by Briggs, 1961, 280 and Drakakis, 1981, 2)
[Actors: Robert Atkins, Basil Gill, Arthur Bourchier, Acton Bond]
Source: B.B.C. Programme Records p 13
Monday 23 April 1923 6.0
6.0 British Empire Shakespeare Society: Trial Scene from "The Merchant of Venice" – Arthur Bourchier (Shylock), and other scenes with Lyn Harding, Basil Gill, Athene Seyler, Nigel Playfair, etc.
Source: 'The Times'
Monday 23 April 1923 2LO 6.0
British Empire Shakespeare Society (broadcast)
[8 scenes]
Trial scene from 'The Merchant of Venice' with Arthur Bourchier as Shylock and supported by members of the Old Vic company.
Letter scene from 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' with Florence Saunders and Athene Seyler.
Fall of Wolsey from 'Henry VIII' with Acton Bond as Wolsey.
Tent scene from 'Julius Caesar' with Basil Gill and [D.] Lyn Harding
Hamlet's soliloquy (listed in 'The Times' as by Miss Eva M. Donne)
Casket scene from 'The Merchant of Venice' with Cathleen Nesbitt and Gerald Lawrence
Prison scene from 'Much Ado About Nothing' with Henry Caine and Fred Groves
Speech from 'As You Like It' with Nigel Playfair
[Actors: Arthur Bourchier, Acton Bond, Basil Gill, [D.] Lyn Harding, Gerald Lawrence, Henry Caine, Fred Groves, Nigel Playfair, Florence Saunders, Athena Seyler, Eva M. Donne, Cathleen Nesbitt, members of the Old Vic company = 12 plus]
3.2.5
Val Gielgud's account of this primal scene of radio drama history is this:
As with so many historic occasions, there is some conflict of opinion as to when the first radio-dramatic transmission in Great Britain actually took place. The archives of the B.B.C. give the date as February 16, 1923. On the other hand, Howard Rose, who should know, as he was a member of the cast, has told me of a broadcast on September 2, 1922. The confusion may have arisen because Mr Rose's recollections include that of " the quaint back room at Marconi House," while it is possible that the official B.B.C. date refers to the first dramatic broadcast from a studio at Savoy Hill. In any case, there seems to be agreement that the dramatist was Shakespeare, and that scenes were chosen from Julius Caesar - the famous 'tent' scene, with Robert Atkins as Cassius and Basil Gill as Brutus - from King Henry VIII - with Arthur Bourchier as the King and Acton-Bond as Wolsey - and from Much Ado about Nothing.
(Gielgud, 1957, 17)
This statement could not be in a more prominent position. It heads up Gielgud's history of radio drama, at the beginning of 'Chapter One. How It All Began', and it has been repeated by Briggs, though without citing the source (Briggs, 1961, 280) and Drakakis, 1981, 2 (of which more shortly in 3.2.10 and 3.2.19). There are three main statements of fact here by Gielgud: that the 'archives of the B.B.C. give the date as February 16, 1923', that 'there seems to be agreement' that three scenes from Shakespeare were broadcast with four named actors, and that the production was in Savoy Hill.
3.2.6
I will argue that on the evidence of the 'B.B.C. archives', only one of these details holds true. (I have not been able to find any other evidence in the 'B.B.C. archives' than what I present here and I doubt if Gielgud had any other printed source.) The date of 16 February 1923 is there in the B.B.C. Programme Records and The B.B.C. Year-Book 1930 – crucially these predate Gielgud and must, on my searches, be the archival material referred to by Gielgud. But as can be seen from the listing in the B.B.C. Programme Records above, only one scene is cited and the actors are Shayle Gardner and Hubert Carter. Another early citing of this version is in an interview with Gielgud, 'Putting Over Radio Drama', in 1931:
How many of us thought when the old British Broadcasting Company broadcast the quarrel scene from "Julius Caesar" some eight years ago that from that small beginning would evolve an entirely new art - radio drama?
(Modern Wireless, March 1931, 256-7)
Judging by other references in the article, the unnamed journalist had consulted The B.B.C. Year-Book 1930 for research.
Further, production on 16 February 1923 must have been in 'the quaint back room at Marconi House' because the official move into the new studio at Savoy Hill did not take place till 1 May 1923.
3.2.7
I will argue in favour of the spare details in B.B.C. Programme Records and The B.B.C. Year-Book 1930 that the first radio drama broadcast was on 16 February 1923, and that it was a single scene from 'Julius Caesar' with actors Shayle Gardner and Hubert Carter. I will suggest that Gielgud is mistaken, both on the programme content and casting. I consider that he has back-dated a more elaborate and prestigious broadcast of Shakespearean scenes, shortly afterwards, and the first radio tribute on the Bard's birthday, that of 23 April 1923 (3.2.23). In this broadcast, the second Shakespearean broadcast from 2LO and the third nationally, there were eight scenes given by the British Empire Shakespeare Society (BESS). Three of the scenes match those cited by Gielgud for the first 16 February broadcast (Gielgud names 'Julius Caesar', 'King Henry VIII' and 'Much Ado About Nothing'), and the 23 April broadcast starred three of the actors cited by Gielgud (Basil Gill, Arthur Bourchier and Acton-Bond – known also as Acton Bond). Robert Atkins is also named by Gielgud as in the 'birth' 'Shakespeare'. But Atkins was not in the 23 April broadcast, he was not connected with BESS, and he has one B.B.C. Shakespearean broadcast to his credit, in 1927. (I will quickly survey the acting credits of the actors involved, below.)
There are two further pieces of evidence which emerge from the listings in Wearing for the London stage. I think these are conclusive evidence against Gielgud. On 16 February, Arthur Bourchier was in the middle of a run of his famous adaptation of 'Treasure Island' at the Strand, and he was both management and playing Long John Silver. The Friday broadcast was mid evening, in a mixed programme between 7.15 and 9 pm., and B.B.C. Programme Records lists one (or even two) items before the Shakespeare (though with different actors of course). It could be said that this clash need not be absolutely definitive evidence one way or the other. But it is less likely that Bourchier would leave a performance, on a Friday night, in which he was the starring role, and the management, for Marconi House. (The Wearing reference is 22.347 – 23 December 1922 to 7 April 1923, 137 performances, with Saturday matinées.) However, there is a further clash in Gielgud's 'Shakespeare'. Robert Atkins was playing the role of Richard, Son to the Duke of York, in 'Henry VI' at the Old Vic on 16 February. He also directed the play. (The Wearing reference is 23.32 and it is an evening performance, not a matinée. There were nine performances in all.) I find these two pieces of evidence convincing. These two actors – Arthur Bourchier and Robert Atkins - were appearing elsewhere on stage at the time and could not have broadcast on 16 February 1923.
3.2.8
Unfortunately, 'The Times' is not a witness here, for there is an inexplicable gap in its radio listings from the day before, 15 February, up till 22 February 1923. However, I have brought details of the 23 April BESS broadcast from 'The Times' listings into the discussion here for the first time. Curiously, while 'The Radio Times' attests to the primacy of the Peter Eckersley 'Cyrano' broadcast (2.2), I have not found any reference to the first official B.B.C. radio drama broadcast otherwise, in for example, the many short items in the 'Both Sides of the Microphone' column. Although Gielgud pays tribute to Howard Rose's recollections as his main source for the early history of radio drama – and I have thrown doubt on some of the key details (2.1) - Gielgud here makes direct and magisterial appeal to 'B.B.C. archives'.
So as I begin my argument challenging Gielgud, I now put my main conclusion. If Gielgud was wrong on the 16 February broadcast, and a swift investigation by his researcher Kathleen Hutchins (Gielgud, 1957, 10) could have located the contrary information, why did he so begin his Chapter 1? My suggestion is that he thereby added prestige to what he may have seen as a rather humble birth, with a single scene and two obscure actors who gained no further B.B.C. radio credits after this. His putative additions - Basil Gill, Arthur Bourchier and Robert Atkins (all leading actors), and Acton Bond (connected with Howard Rose as I explain below) – became the Wise Men to the birth, and they display their gifts in three excerpts, not one.
3.2.9
Curiously, Howard Rose was on stage that very afternoon, 16 February, for a single matinée BESS dramatic reading, in 'As You Like It' (Shakespeare) (Wearing 23.35) at the Haymarket theatre, with one of the very actors named by Gielgud – Acton Bond. Rose was playing Oliver, and Acton Bond was Jaques and also general director. That may not have left Acton Bond much time for rehearsal immediately before transmission (Marconi House for 7.15-9 pm following Gielgud's account), but only one scene was involved and he had a number of Shakespearean acting credits, though not for 'Henry VIII', at that time.
3.2.10
Acton Bond was a Canadian actor and director who died in 1941 (Wearing, 1984, Vols 1 and 3). He played Friar Laurence for the British Empire Shakespeare Society (BESS) at the Strand Theatre on 19 March 1923, with Arthur Bourchier (his co-actor in the broadcast 'Henry VIII' as per Gielgud), in the one BESS 'star dramatic reading' as it was billed. As mentioned, BESS was to broadcast a selection of scenes, on 23 April 1923, Shakespeare's birthday (Monday 23 April 1923 2LO 6). And on this latter occasion, Acton Bond gave the 'Fall of Wolsey' from 'Henry VIII' (again?) Six of his stage acting and directing credits in 1920-3 (out of nine) were for BESS.
The British Empire Shakespeare Society will be further discussed below (3.2.19), but except for the 'star' event of 19 March 1923, the casting was from actors who were up-and-coming and not distinguished. Acton Bond directed and/or took the leading role in productions from 1920-3 (Timon in 'Timon of Athens', directed an all-female 'Hamlet', Prospero in 'The Tempest', King John in 'King John', Macbeth in a two-hander 'Macbeth', Brutus in 'Julius Caesar'). He is not listed in Parker 1939. His one other radio credit is as Wolsey in 'Henry VIII', in 'Shakespeare's Heroines no 12' (Sunday 18 July 1926 2LO 5.30-6).
Curiously, Drakakis, 1981, 2 describes him as 'Professor Acton Bond of the British Empire Shakespeare Society' and that he 'produced' the 16 February radio broadcast. These are two mistakes which have further confused accounts of this famous broadcast. The function of BESS is misunderstood here. (BESS will be discussed below and see further in 3.2.19.)
3.2.11
Arthur Bourchier (1863-1927), partner in the 'Henry VIII' scene to Acton Bond (in the Gielgud account of 16 February) and Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice' trial scene in the 23 April broadcast, was a famous actor, manager and dramatist (1.11.4), though 'never a great actor' (MacQueen-Pope, 1959, 173). Short describes his Henry VIII as 'excellent' (Short, 1942, 98). He has twenty-four listings for 1920-3 in Wearing, 1984, Vol 1, witnessing to a very busy career. In his autobiography, Donald Wolfit cites Bourchier's performance in 'Tilly of Bloomsbury' as one of the three stars who inspired him to become an actor (Wolfit, 1954, 69).
Bourchier's most successful venture at this time was his Christmas adaptation of 'Treasure Island', in which he played Long John Silver, at the Strand (23 December 1922 to 7 April 1923). This was mentioned above in 3.2.7 as a performance clash with the Marconi House broadcast on 16 February. The 'Treasure Island' of course did not clash with the later 23 April broadcast by BESS (Bourchier as Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice' trial scene). This 'Treasure Island' was revived at the Strand the following year (26 December 1924 – 21 January 1925, 36 performances), again (26 December 1925 – 23 January 1926, 25 performances) and again (27 December 1926 – 22 January 1927, 24 performances). These were all matinée performances and on Tuesday 5 January 1926 (London 8.05-10), 'Arthur Bourchier and his West End company' broadcast a wireless version of 'Treasure Island', his one other radio credit (and an example of an actor's stage and wireless performances not clashing).
3.2.12
There is one other connection with Savoy Hill. Bourchier was also famous for playing 'the immortal Stillbottle, that Emperor of "bum bailiffs" who might have stepped from Dickens, so richly is he drawn' ('The Radio Times' 28 November 1927 p 421) in the original stage version of 'Tilly of Bloomsbury' (Ian Hay) (at the Strand, 6 May to 3 June 1922, and not in the revival, at the Regent, 25-30 June 1927). Not only was 'Tilly' broadcast on 28 November 1927 (Daventry 5GB and S.B. all Stations, 8-9.35 and also Wednesday 30 November 9.35-11), but John Reith played Stillbottle in a Savoy Hill amateur production at the same time, directed by Val Gielgud, then working at 'The Radio Times' (McIntyre, 1993, 168). 'The Radio Times' reference to 'Stillbottle' looks like a coded message to staff and this is another reason why Gielgud may have valued and remembered Bourchier's work. Bourchier had died just before the radio 'Tilly of Bloomsbury'.
3.2.13
Robert Atkins (1886-1972) took over the Old Vic company from 1920 (as outlined in 1.11.3.3) and he was able to teach his actors 'how to speak verse rapidly and clearly without either gabbling the lines or obscuring the rhythm' (MacQueen-Pope, 1959, 129). He was also an 'experienced and sound actor' himself, who 'gloried in the Elizabethan tradition' (130). He was now 'at the height of his power … a seasoned actor with a broad virile power and panache' (Findlater, 1975, 159).
I have already mentioned what I see as the influence of Old Vic productions on the B.B.C. In 1923, there were 23 Shakespeare productions on the London stage, and twelve of these were from the Old Vic seasons. Interestingly, there was no production of 'Julius Caesar' that year. (On my hypothesis, I believe the choice of this play for the 16 February broadcast extract was related to the actor, Shayle Gardner, as I explain below.) Atkins had the greatest artistic reputation as his career continued and by 1926, the Old Vic, under his direction had staged all of Shakespeare's plays at least once (Chothia, 1996, 16).
Robert Atkins's one other radio credit was as Bottom in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (Tuesday 21 June 1927 London 8-9 9.40-10.40, produced by R.E. Jeffrey and Howard Rose). Atkins was not in the 23 April 1923 broadcast and he was playing Sir Toby Belch in the Old Vic 'Twelfth Night' matinee at the time, which he also directed. Robert Atkins became Director of BESS in 1927 (Parker, 1939, 246). In the 1930s, he ran the Regents Park Open Air Theatre. His importance after the 1920s was as a director (Findlater, 1975, 160). Wearing for 1930-9 gives Atkins 87 credits.
3.2.14
Basil Gill (1877-1955) has a mixed range of credits. Here are some relevant points. He played in two scenes from 'Julius Caesar' in the Old Vic Shakespeare Festival of 1915 (Findlater, 1975, 124). In 1920, he played Marcus Brutus in 'Julius Caesar' at the St. James's, alongside Howard Rose (as Trebonius) – and of course, Gielgud lists him as Brutus in his version of the 16 February 1923 broadcast. He played Count Anteoni in 'The Garden of Allah' at Drury Lane (24 June 1920 onwards, 359 performances) and was Ronnay de Maurel in 'The Legion of Honour' (Baroness Orczy) at the Aldwych (24 August 1921 to 10 September 1921). His biggest role was to come, as Rafi in the spectacular 'Hassan: and how he came to make the Golden Journey to Samarkand' (James Elroy Flecker with music by Delius) at His Majesty's (20 September 1923 to 24 May 1924). He played in the 'Julius Caesar' scene in the 23 April 1923 broadcast, but other than that, he has no other wireless credits. Wearing for 1930-9 gives Gill 15 credits.
3.2.15
I now come to the two actors cited in the B.B.C. Programme Records for that 16 February 1923 broadcast. Shayle Gardner (1890-1945) was born in New Zealand, and had toured with Henry Ainley as Brutus in 'Julius Caesar' in 1920 (Parker, 1939, 658), and in 1922-4 'appeared on the cinema stage' (ib.). His one acting credit in Wearing in 1923 is as Solinus in 'The Comedy of Errors' (3 June 1923, Strand, under the management of Arthur Bourchier and with Robert Atkins as producer). Wearing for 1930-9 gives Gardner four credits, and two of these are for about twenty performances each. The others are for a single performance.
Hubert Carter (died 1934) has only one credit in Wearing up to this, in 'Cairo', a 'mosaic in music and mime' (His Majesty's, 15 October 1921 to 3 June 1922, 267 performances), as Kataf. But Shayle Gardner had played Sultan Al Malik-Al-Nasir in this too. So Gardner and Carter were connected as actors, and Gardner had the experience of touring in 'Julius Caesar' with the famous Henry Ainley (1879-1945). Wearing for 1930-9 gives Carter two credits (First Murderer in 'Richard III', English Soldier in 'Saint Joan').
3.2.16
So here is my summing up. Shayle Gardner and Hubert Carter broadcast a scene from 'Julius Caesar' on 16 February 1923, from Marconi House. They had been chosen, probably by Cecil Lewis (following his role as prime mover in this, according to Gielgud (17-18) and his own statement that he was responsible for the 'Shakespeare series'), because Gardner had toured with Henry Ainley in the play, and the pair had worked together through a long run in 1921-2. Gielgud made a small slip in locating the broadcast in Savoy Hill and not in Marconi House and the 'converted room, eighteen feet square'.
3.2.17
And so Gielgud added prestige to radio drama by awarding it a grander Nativity than the B.B.C. record buried in the archive, and with actors of the status of Robert Atkins of the Old Vic (subsequently the man who 'did more for Shakespeare in the theatre … than anybody of his generation had done (Trewin, 1964, 87)), Basil Gill (remembered at this period for 'Hassan', Short, 1942, 213), and Arthur Bourchier (a long career as actor-manager from the 1890s and with his wife, Violet Vanburgh, Short, 1942, 97-8), and the lesser Acton Bond (possibly through the 'recollection' of Howard Rose). Gielgud inserted into radio drama history the most famous exponent of 'Henry VIII' – Arthur Bourchier, though on my research, he never broadcast in that role.
Gielgud's 'Shakespeare scenes' clash with Bourchier's stage appearance in the run of 'Treasure Island' at the Strand Theatre and with Robert Atkins as actor-director in 'Henry VI' at the Old Vic. I find these clashes quite convincing evidence against Gielgud. Bourchier, Gill and Bond all broadcast in Shakespearean roles on 23 April 1923, and Atkins in 1927, but I claim that they did not broadcast earlier – on 16 February 1923. Gielgud's 'three scenes from Shakespeare' on 16 February unite generations of Shakespearean acting, for Robert Atkins was the first star graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (established 1904) (Short, 1942, 117).
3.2.18
Gielgud was careful to say of the scenes and the casting, 'In any case, there seems to be agreement that …' and this is a step back from 'The archives of the B.B.C. give the date as February 16th, 1923'. Perhaps he is again relying on Howard Rose's 'memory … of the recollected history of the first years at Savoy Hill' (9), which I critiqued in 2.1.
I return to the intriguing information I dug out that on 16 February 1923, Howard Rose and Acton Bond had performed in a BESS matinée performance at the Haymarket in 'As You Like It'. On my hypothesis, Acton Bond never departed for Marconi House that evening, though he did so a month later, to play Wolsey in 'Henry VIII' (23 April 1923). He may have had the contract for the B.B.C. by 16 February, if plans had been made for the B.B.C. to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday for the first time. (I suggest an alternative below - that it could have been the 'star dramatic reading' of 20 March by BESS that won them the booking.) Acton Bond was the general director for BESS at the time, and in fact, when he ceased work with BESS, Howard Rose was the next director-actor (Wearing 24.364, 'Henry IV Part 1 31 October 1924).
A total of twelve actors had to be signed up for the 23 April, along with 'members of the Old Vic Company'. If so, Acton Bond was the second or even the first(?) contact between Howard Rose and the B.B.C. (Rose had claimed to be in the cast for the experimental broadcast on 2 September 1922 – 2.1.2.) Howard Rose's 'memory' may have paid Bond the compliment of placing him in the 16 February 'three scenes from Shakespeare'.
3.2.19
Drakakis, 1981b, 2-3 places the first broadcast of Shakespeare in a larger context (following Gielgud):
… it is tempting to speculate that the first drama broadcast, of three scenes from three separate Shakespeare plays, on 16 February 1923, and produced by Professor Acton Bond of the British Empire Shakespeare Society, was allied to the contemporary debate about the priorities of Shakespearean performance. It is also worth remembering that experiments with literary form, as evidenced in James Joyce's Ulysses and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, both published in 1922, reinforce the view that the development of radio drama requires to be seen in the larger context of experimentation in all the arts during this period.
As mentioned in 3.2.10, Drakakis made a curious mistake in turning Acton Bond into a 'Professor' – I have not found information that he was any other than an actor. Drakakis 1981 also says that he 'produced' (directed) the B.B.C. 16 February 'Shakespeare'. I would not go that far because of the seniority of the other actors as stated by Gielgud.
3.2.20
Drakakis's main line of argument is valuable in a general way. We are to place the new wireless Shakespeares in the context of experimental trends in Shakespearean production, particularly those influenced by William Poel's attempt to recreate Renaissance staging from the 1880s, the greater emphasis on the voice, the move away from elaborate staging and for example, Barry Jackson's modern-dress 'Hamlet' of 1925. But I argue contra Drakakis below in 3.2.22.
Wearing credits BESS with eighteen productions in 1920-9, all matinée dramatic readings. The plays up to this point in 1923 show a range - 'Timon of Athens' (cast of 11), an all-female 'Hamlet' (cast of 13), 'The Tempest' (cast of 10), 'King John' (cast of 17), a two-hander 'Macbeth', 'Julius Caesar' (cast of 19), and 'As You Like It' (cast of 19). None of the cast members were leading actors and these matinée readings may have been an opportunity for actors to be seen (or heard rather) in the prestige Haymarket or the Strand theatres, without having to learn the role. However, Norman Marshall does not include BESS in his discussion of groups such as the Stage Society who got together a production through the twenties.
… numerous societies never seemed to have much difficulty in getting together a cast. Many actors already playing in West End runs spent most of their spare time from October to May rehearsing for one Sunday night production after another.
(Marshall, 1947, 72)
BESS was obviously a much more modest enterprise.
3.2.21
Then came the 'star dramatic reading' of 20 March 1923 on the stage of the Strand Theatre of 'Romeo and Juliet' (Wearing 23.62), and a distinguished cast of twenty-three including:
Mercutio – Arthur Bourchier
Tybalt - Lewis Casson
Romeo – Basil Rathbone
Nurse - Ethel Harper
Friar Laurence - Acton Bond
Juliet – Sybil Thorndike
Stage Directions - Dorothy Freshwater
General direction - Acton Bond
(This was a rather elderly Mercutio – Bourchier was 60 – and Rathbone was 31 to Thorndike's 41.) Fortunately, 'The Times' review (20 March 1923 p 10) gives a flavour of the reading:
We are presented with Shakespeare "as he is wrote".
We are given the traditional text and traditional arrangement of scenes; there is no scenery and there are no costumes. The artist sit round in the circle in their everyday clothes, the scenes and the stage directions are indicated by a lady who is described on the programme a "stage directions", and the action is carried through from beginning to end without a pause. It is an idea from which the works only of the greatest dramatists could emerge with any measure of success, and it inevitably brings a little confusion, because there is so small a dividing line between "reading" a part and "acting" it that occasional incongruities are bound to arise.
Yesterday afternoon, for example, during the reading of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Strand Theatre, Miss Sybil Thorndike as Juliet and Mr. Basil Rathbone as Romeo read their parts with eloquence and feeling, while Mr. Arthur Bourchier, in the middle of an excellent reading of the part of Mercutio, was apt to stray over the bounds of reading into the domains of acting. Thus we had him reading defiance at Tybalt in the famous duel scene, and then suddenly acting the duel with his book of the words in one hand and nothing at all in the other ...
3.2.22
I conjecture that it was this 'star dramatic reading' of 20 March 1923 which impelled the B.B.C. and Cecil Lewis to book BESS for Shakespeare's birthday celebration in a month's time (the broadcast eight scenes and twelve plus actors). Here was a ready-made organisation and the nearest to wireless drama that the stage had to offer – no scenery, swift or little rehearsal, the unusual technique of a reading as a public performance and the technique of getting this over to listening audiences. BESS showed that it could be done.
On my hypothesis, this was the first time (23 April 1923 2LO 6.0) that an illustrious cast of Shakespearean actors was brought to the microphone. BESS provided an organisation and a pool of actors, and the means of drawing in the others needed who had not taken part in BESS previously.
Drakakis's argument, as quoted in 3.2.19, suggests the first broadcasting of Shakespeare was 'allied to the contemporary debate about the priorities of Shakespearean performance'. He cites, as I mentioned above, examples of 'experiments in literary form', James Joyce and T.S. Eliot (and so the early Modernism of 1922), and stage designers and directors going back to William Poel of the 1880s who rejected the clutter of scenery and wished to go back to the voice (Drakakis, 1981, 2).
Valuable as this larger picture is, I take a more pragmatic view. I just do not find these views relevant to the B.B.C. personnel of 1923. The nearest statement we have is that quoted above in 3.2.3, from Cecil Lewis, in his article in 'The Radio Times' of 19 October 1923. That is to be put together with his Broadcasting from Within (Lewis 1924), as discussed in 3.1.9. I analysed his key points there – justifying the freedom from stage distractions and the primacy of the listener, sitting 'with eyes closed'. Some fifty years later, in his autobiography, Lewis explained how they hard they worked to fill up the programmes and how he arranged George Bernard Shaw to broadcast:
… I knew little of his work when I started B.B.C. programme planning at Savoy Hill.
(Lewis, 1974, 81)
Lewis had come from a contract in China to take up the post for the B.B.C. And I do not find evidence that Nigel Playfair, the producer of the 'Shakespeare series', had Modernist tendencies (Playfair 1930). Archibald Haddon is another contemporary voice and more evidence for my view. He was Dramatic Critic of the B.B.C., cited the Shakespeare broadcasts in his own wireless talks of 1923, and is discussed below in 3.2.29. His talks are unique, being the responses of the first radio critic. I have also mentioned the Old Vic Shakespeare seasons as the most important contemporary exponents on the stage and I think these provide evidence of aspects of the style that could have been so valuable to Savoy Hill. The Old Vic Shakespeares started when director Ben Greet arrived in 1914 and left in 1918. He cut the texts heavily:
[He tried] to make the plays act as closely and rapidly as possible … [he had] no time for fancy theories, far-fetched analogies, scholarly discussions or gimmickery.
(Findlater, 1975, 128)
And even more indicatively:
He stripped his stages because he couldn't afford to do otherwise … His actors were expected to do one thing and one thing only – to reach their listeners, to make contact and hold it. Sometimes they did it by fair means and sometimes by foul, but they did it; and they did it with and through the lines alone. Nobody was supposed to intervene between the author and the audience.
Webster, 1969, 39
So that is my case. The B.B.C. 1923 Shakespeares do not appear to have been part of the British post-WW1 Modernist movement. The direct influences were Nigel Playfair, Cecil Lewis, the Old Vic and the British Empire Shakespeare Society, a rather modest grouping. Let me take up the particular point of the first 'Shakespeare' of 16 February and Drakakis's suggestion of Modernist and William Poel influences. Robert Atkins could have been that link with the pre-WW1 Shakespeare productions by William Poel and Granville-Barker. Gielgud has Atkins in the first 16 February 'Shakespeare'. But I have argued, I think on convincing grounds, that he did not broadcast till 1927. Atkins has been a red herring.
Interesting as Drakakis's point is in terms of the general cultural milieu, I think that it over-aestheticizes the 16 February 'Shakespeare', and the 'Shakespeare series' produced by Nigel Playfair under Cecil Lewis. Above all, BESS suddenly provided the techniques, the precedent and the means.
3.2.23
So the third national broadcast of Shakespeare and the second for 2LO was as follows:
Source: B.B.C. Programme Records p 13
Monday 23 April 1923 6.0
6.0 British Empire Shakespeare Society: Trial Scene from "The Merchant of Venice" – Arthur Bourchier (Shylock), and other scenes with Lyn Harding, Basil Gill, Athene Seyler, Nigel Playfair, etc.
Source: 'The Times'
Monday 23 April 1923 2LO 6.0
British Empire Shakespeare Society (broadcast)
[8 scenes]
Trial scene from 'The Merchant of Venice' with Arthur Bourchier as Shylock and supported by members of the Old Vic company.
Letter scene from 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' with Florence Saunders and Athene Seyler.
Fall of Wolsey from 'Henry VIII' with Acton Bond as Wolsey.
Tent scene from 'Julius Caesar' with Basil Gill and [D.] Lyn Harding
Hamlet's soliloquy (listed in 'The Times' as by Miss Eva M. Donne)
Casket scene from 'The Merchant of Venice' with Cathleen Nesbitt and Gerald Lawrence
Prison scene from 'Much Ado About Nothing' with Henry Caine and Fred Groves
Speech from 'As You Like It' with Nigel Playfair
[Actors: Arthur Bourchier, Acton Bond, Basil Gill, [D.] Lyn Harding, Gerald Lawrence, Henry Caine, Fred Groves, Nigel Playfair, Florence Saunders, Athena Seyler, Eva M. Donne, Cathleen Nesbitt, members of the Old Vic company]
These eight scenes involved twelve (and more) actors. Except for the trial scene from 'The Merchant of Venice', where Arthur Bourchier was 'supported by members of the Old Vic company', the rest are monologues or duologues. Did all this take place in the small Marconi studio? Could the broadcast have been already from the first studio in Savoy Hill? The restricted space of the Marconi studio was described later by Val Gielgud (1957) 19 – relying partly on Lewis 1924 - as:
… a converted room, eighteen feet square, draped about with a perfect spider's web of thin black cables, attached to microphones with quasi-telephone mouthpieces. The greater part of the rest of the necessary gear was crowded out into the adjoining corridor, and the actors shared the room with a grand piano that filled the whole of one corner.
'The Radio Times' described the beginning of work on Savoy Hill:
Late in 1922, the B.B.C. started work in one room and an ante-room in a Kingsway building while sumptuous premises at 2, Savoy-hill, consisting of part of two whole floors, were in course of preparation.
(1 February 1929 p 250)
(See 1.2 for Marconi House.) It is tempting to consider that the new space of the Savoy Hill studio enabled the Bard's Birthday eight scenes. This 23 April had a new significance when the London Shakespeare League, founded by Ben Greet, began to lobby London theatre managers to stage a Shakespeare play every year on this anniversary (Findlater, 1975, 124).
3.2.24
There were then four full-length Shakespeare productions in the single Savoy Hill studio - 'Twelfth Night' (28 May 1923), 'The Merchant of Venice' (15 June 1923), 'Romeo and Juliet' (5 July 1923) and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (25 July 1923). Here are the details:
Third London Shakespeare production and first full-length
Monday 28 May 1923 2LO 7.30-9.45
'Twelfth Night' (Shakespeare)
(source 'The Times')
Orsino - Gerald Lawrence
Sir Andrew Aguecheek - Nigel Playfair
Sir Toby Belch - Henry Caine
Malvolio - Herbert Waring
Clown - George Hayes
Captain - Arthur Burrows
Viola and Sebastian - Cathleen Nesbitt
Olivia - Enid Ross
Maria - Mabel Tait
music by Purcell will be played during the entr'actes
listed in 'The Times' p 10 Broadcasting Performance of 'Twelfth Night'
[B.B.C. Programme Records] p 17
7.30 "Twelfth Night" – Gerald Lawrence, Nigel Playfair (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Henry Caine (Sir Toby Belch), Herbert Waring, George Hayes, Cathleen Nesbitt (Viola), Enid Rose (Olivia), Mabel Tait, Norman Notley; Wireless Quintet
Sixth London Shakespeare production and second full-length
Friday 15 June 1923 2LO 8.0
[B.B.C. Programme Records] p 19
'The Merchant of Venice' (Shakespeare)
Gerald Lawrence (Shylock), Ben Webster (Antonio), George Relph, George Hayes, Stafford Hilliard, Robert Harris, Laurence Hanray, George Howe, L. Winter, P. Thomas, Cathleen Nesbitt (Portia), Norman Notley, Wireless Quartet
Seventh London Shakespeare production and third full-length
Thursday 5 July 1923 London 8.0-10.0
(source 'The Times')
'Romeo and Juliet'
Prince of Verona - Arthur C. Burrows
Old Montague - Rex Palmer
Paris - Basil Howes
Capulet and Peter - Stafford Hilliard
Mercutio - Lawrence Hanray
Benvolio - George Howe
Tybalt - Robert Harris
Friar Laurence - Ben Webster
Romeo - Ernest Milton
Juliet - Cathleen Nesbitt
Nurse - Dame May Whitty
Lady Capulet - Helen Rous
Prologue - Cecil A. Lewis
Music 'Romeo and Juliet' (Ed. German)
by the London Wireless Orchestra, under the direction of L. Stanton Jeffries
also [B.B.C. Programme Records] p 22 lists Kenneth Kent
Eighth London Shakespeare production and fourth full-length
Wednesday 25 July 1923 London 8-10
(source 'The Times')
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (Shakespeare)
Lysander - Kenneth Kent
Demetrius - Stanley Warmington
Quince - Edmund Breon
Sly - Arthur C. Burrows
Bottom - Nigel Playfair
Flute - Ivan Berlyn
Snout - Rex F. Palmer
Starveling - Stafford Hilliard
Hermia - Sonia Seaton
Helena - Elizabeth Pollock
Oberon - Ernest Milton
Titania - Cathleen Nesbitt
Puck - George Howe
Fairies - Leslie Winter
Prologue - Cecil A. Lewis
(music by Mendelssohn conductor Mr Dan Godfrey)
[B.B.C. Programme Records] 24
arr. Cathleen Nesbitt
3.2.25
The casting was a mix. There were well-established actors – Nigel Playfair (who had given a speech from 'As You Like It' in the 23 April broadcast), Ernest Milton, Cathleen Nesbitt, Edmond Breon, Henry Caine, Dame May Whitty, George Howe, George Hayes. And there were some others who have no listing in Wearing, such as Enid Ross who played the role of Olivia in 'Twelfth Night', Sonia Seaton and Norman Notley. Arthur C. Burrows, Director of Programmes in the B.B.C. and 'Uncle Arthur', played in all three, and Cecil Lewis played Prologue in 'Romeo and Juliet' and the 'Dream'.
The other name to note here is the well-known actor Ernest Milton playing Romeo and then Oberon. He was American-born, made his Old Vic debut in 1918 aged twenty-eight and was later acclaimed as the greatest Hamlet of his time, and 'romantic' on stage (Findlater, 1975, 159).
Later, in 1929, he was to star as Rupert Cadell, in Patrick Hamilton's 'Rope' at the Ambassador's - the twenty-nine year old character who reveals the murder; and in a review of his Mercutio ('Romeo and Juliet') at the Old Vic in 1928, he was described as ' admirably fiery and ironical, but not always clearly audible' ('The Times' 15 February 1928 p 12).
3.2.26
By now the boycott against the B.B.C. was taking effect (27 April 1923 by the Entertainment Industry Joint Broadcasting Committee). Indeed it may have been the Shakespeare's birthday broadcast that further impelled this. So it is interesting to note which actors defied the boycott. Cathleen Nesbitt gave 'considerable help' to Cecil Lewis (Gielgud, 1957, 19 – again relying, presumably, on Lewis, 1924, 62).
All Savoy Hill wireless production took place in the one and only studio (as outlined in 1.4). It is worth quoting again from 'The Radio Times' of 5 February 1926 (p 292), 'Programmes from Five Studios. Behind the scenes at London Station' by A.G.D. West:
… one studio only had been built to cope with all the programmes. .. Rehearsals and auditions had to be conducted as best they could be in this studio and in other small rooms.
.. this first studio was very heavily draped. Six air-spaced layers of fire-proof sacking covered the walls and ceiling and a thick carpet was spread about the floor. The result was according to expectations. All who entered that studio were impressed with the dead effect it had on the voice or on music. To the artist not used to broadcasting, this naturally was a great strain, and to an orchestra and its conductor the result was entirely artificial, in that they could not, as it were, properly hear themselves playing. They were unable to gauge and modify the effect of their performance.
Briggs (1961) 212 gives some further detail after the completion of more studios - there were five by the end of 1925, and then nine in all:
Number Three on the third floor was pleasantly decorated in blue and gold. Its dimensions were 38 feet by 18 feet, and it was very heavily draped. On the walls and the ceilings were wooden fences holding six layers of fabric spaced about an inch apart to damp reverberation. For the same reason there was a thick, heavy carpet on the floor. Not unnaturally artists complained that they had to force their tone. Apart from acoustic deficiencies, the studio had other limitations. The drapery collected an enormous amount of dust, and there was extremely bad ventilation. Exhaust fans were fitted on the roof, but since they made a humming sound they could not be used during transmissions.
3.2.27
To recognise the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first full-length Savoy Hill Shakespeare, 'Twelfth Night', David Pownall's 'An Epiphanous Use of the Microphone' was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the 15th May 1998. It was an artful and acutely observed recreation of the pre-production, and then the transmission in 1923, with Reith as a domineering producer.
A full appreciation of the play cannot be given here, unfortunately. It was inspiring to historians of radio drama and it serves to open up the creative imaginations of listeners and readers of Pownall's text to emergent wireless drama. An historian of radio drama cannot achieve the same. Pownall's great creative powers – he is among the greatest, if not the greatest of our living radio dramatists - revealed the world of 1923 Savoy Hill: an exasperated Cathleen Nesbitt cutting back the text on the diktat of Reith and pacifying the cast, and yet bringing off the production, and actors desperately adapting to the microphone and the crude instructions of Reith, and gossiping together.
Through this, creative artists, especially also the blundering Reith, discovered, despaired of, and then confronted the techniques of acting on radio for the first time. Pownall showed us, so as to speak, the first discoveries. A running problem through the play had been how to deal with the most famous visual moment of the Shakespeare text, Malvolio's ridiculous costume that he assumes, the cross-gartering on his legs:
REITH: Answer me this – when you come to Act Three, Scene Four will you, as an actor, be wearing cross-garters?
MALVOLIO: Well … I'm not in costume, am I? I'm standing here with a script in my hand. (Pause.) I see what you mean.
REITH: With your inner eye – you see what I mean, you mean?
(Pownall, 1998, 58)
Pownall brought a complex double plot together, for he twinned Savoy Hill with Shakespeare's original staging in 1602 in the Middle Temple. The 1923 section culminated in the transmission. A particularly delightful moment had Reith himself performing himself, as Spot, the storm he demanded at the beginning of the play:
STUDIO MANAGER: (Talk back.) We're about to start. Just a little closer to the microphone, please, sir. When you tread away, tread softly.
REITH: How does a storm tread softly?
(Muted laughter.)
STUDIO MANAGER: (Talk back.) Sssh. Going ahead in five seconds. Mr Lewis 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 –
ANNOUNCER: Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare.
(REITH blows into the microphone and creates his storm.)
(ib.)
3.2.28
The remainder of 1923 saw little drama production in the 2LO Savoy Hill studio, presumably because of the boycott. There were two shorter Shakespeare programmes and they must have been mixed with music, probably a substantial amount, and including Shakespearean songs:
Thursday 18 Oct 1923 7.30-9.30 p.m. from 2LO
Shakespeare Evening Excerpts from 'Macbeth' arranged by Miss Cathleen Nesbitt
Thursday 8 Nov 1923 7.30 p.m. from 2LO
London Shakespeare Evening: Scenes from 'Twelfth Night', 'As You Like It' and 'Hamlet', relayed to Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle
Gielgud (1957) 19-20 rather overstates:
Norman V. Norman and Beatrice Wilson brought 'Macbeth' to the microphone in October.
3.2.29
Archibald Haddon, who had the title of Dramatic Critic to the British Broadcasting Company, made one of his now regular broadcasts on 14 November 1923. (He has already been discussed in 3.1.17, in relation to 'Five Birds in a Cage'.) Haddon celebrated the Shakespeare series as 'the most successful entertainments' but did not say more about them than that, because his talk mainly assured all that broadcasting drama would encourage listeners to go into theatres:
Wireless performances of Shakespeare's works have been among the most successful entertainments transmitted from the London station, and the effect of those transmissions must surely have been to inculcate in the listener a desire to see as well as to hear the greatest masterpieces the English theatre has produced in the place that gave birth to them, and in their only natural environment – the theatre itself.
(Haddon, 1924, 106-7)
So all of this was very much under the threat of the boycott and the B.B.C. was making one of its many defences now through its Dramatic Critic. The remainder of his 'The Radioplay' talk, about the birth of the 'radioplay', has been discussed in 1.7.
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