We are so obsessed with our contemporary celebrities that it
is easy to forget Britain’s towering star from 1914 to 1951, Ivor Novello. His
career was blessed with uninterrupted success, both as a composer and actor.
With matinée idol good looks. Ivor easily outshone our present musical
phenomenon Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yet Ivor is sadly forgotten and his music is
derided as hopelessly dated. This piece celebrates his extraordinary talent and
rich legacy.
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| Ivor Novello |
Ivor Novello
(1893-1951) was born, in Cardiff, David Ivor Davies, the son of a municipal
rent collector and a well-known singing teacher Clara Novello Davies. Though
proudly Welsh, Ivor won a choral scholarship to Magdalen Choir School, Oxford;
his talent burgeoned and he aspired to write music. He changed his name to Ivor
Novello and after a family move to London in 1913 he bought a flat above the
Strand Theatre in London’s Aldwych and there he lived for the rest of his life.
When only 21, he wrote the WW1 smash hit Keep
the Home Fires Burning and Ivor never looked back.
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| Ivor smoulders |
Ivor’s good looks were undeniable and, making silent movies from 1919 onwards, he was in the tradition of Rudolf Valentino, much admired by
ladies of a certain age and the repository of many a bubbling female fantasy.
These ladies would have been disappointed with the reality as Ivor was entirely
homosexual and had already met the love of his life in 1916, actor Bobby
Andrews, with whom he had an enduring if hardly a monogamous relationship until
his death in 1951.
Ivor had a wide circle of friends including Eddie Marsh,
Churchill’s private secretary, and the poet Siegfried Sassoon, with whom he had
a brief affair. Bobby Andrews had introduced Ivor to Noel Coward, 6 years his
junior, and Coward had admired and envied Ivor’s ease and self-confidence. They
were friendly rivals thereafter. Ivor wrote a stream of plays, songs and skits
for revues, starring in many of his plays himself. A highly successful song was
And her Mother came too (1921) uncharacteristically satirical for Ivor.
Ivor was a glamorous presence on the silent screen but he
was by no means a great actor. Nonetheless he topped the British popularity
charts several times in the 1920s. He excelled in The Rat (1925), whose screenplay he wrote, as French jewel thief Pierre
Boucheron alternating between very high and very low society and notably took
the lead in Alfred Hitchcock’s first film The
Lodger (1927)
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| Ivor as The Rat |
In 1927 wealthy Ivor bought a country house near Maidenhead
called Redroofs where he was a generous host to many showbiz friends and where
he threw unbuttoned weekend parties for his gay circle. At a time when there
were criminal sanctions against homosexual conduct, Ivor was nonchalant about
his preferences and thankfully was never legally pursued.
Ivor briefly went to Hollywood but did not prosper. He tried
his hand as a script writer (there were already plenty song-writers there) and
his only claim to fame is that he wrote dialogue for Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Johnny Weissmuller’s debut, including
the immortal line Me Tarzan, You Jane!
Ivor really found his niche in 1930s London when he wrote
and starred in a succession of musicals, famously Glamorous Night (1935), Careless
Rapture (1936) and The Dancing Years
(1939). All had long West End runs and were huge box-office hits. The songs included
classics like My Dearest Dear, I can give
you the Starlight and Waltz of my
Heart.
Novello’s musicals were even a little anachronistic when
first staged. They took the form of Ruritanian operettas in the tradition of
Lehar and Chabrier and Ivor would prance around the stage in tight trousers,
boots and velvet finery. The plots were the usual twaddle, court intrigues,
coronations, revolutions, all presented with lavish sets and large choruses.
The music was lush and heavy on romantic violins. Ivor would not sing himself
but leave that to the younger opera singers. His shows were delightful escapism
in the depressing 1930s and the public flocked to see them.
Ivor acted but wrote fewer pieces during WW2 and got into
serious trouble when convicted of the misuse of petrol coupons (he was still
running his Rolls). Unlucky to come up before a queer-bashing judge, Ivor was
sent to 8 weeks imprisonment and served a miserable 4 weeks in Wormwood Scrubs
prison which greatly demoralised him. His public forgave him immediately and he
returned to West End success with his Perchance
to Dream in early 1945. This show included his lovely song We’ll gather Lilacs, looking forward to
returning soldiers and reunited families.
We'll
gather lilacs in the spring again
And walk together down an English
lane
Until our hearts have learnt to
sing again
When you come home once more.
Ivor’s final musical was King’s Rhapsody (1949) which starred
Ivor with established favourites like Zena Dare, Vanessa Lee and Olive Gilbert.
It ran for 840 performances. The plot was on the usual Ruritanian lines but
there were great numbers like Fly Home
Little Heart and Someday my Heart
will Awake. My mother and probably thousands of other mothers (or
grandmothers) of my readers made the pilgrimage to see the show and their hero
Ivor.
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| Ivor Novello in his 50s |
After playing his role one
evening in 1951, Ivor had an unexpected heart attack and died two days later.
He was only 58; his funeral at Golders Green Crematorium was besieged by 7,000
grieving fans, almost all women. Ivor was nothing if not a theatrical “Luvvie”
and a wit later reported a telegram from above: Everything here too divine for words Stop God a complete and utter Darling Stop Come along up Stop Love Ivor!
Ivor clearly added to the gaiety
of the nation and does not deserve to be forgotten and I hope one day some
bright spark will revive his music, as happened for Abba, by copying Mama Mia! and fitting the music to a new
story. Ivor’s fine Rose of England
might even make a decent post-Brexit English National Anthem!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r43gLTzzMpI We’ll gather Lilacs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X_8ZY13D5I Someday
my Heart will awake
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MYnUzB0TMg Love is
my Reason for Living
SMD
20.07.16
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald
2016
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