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Roy Horniman
Photographic portrait of Roy Horniman (about 1922).
Photographic portrait of Roy Horniman (about 1922).
BornRobert Horniman
(1868-07-31)31 July 1868
Southsea
Died11 October 1930(1930-10-11) (aged 62)
Pen name'Layton Foster', Roy Horniman
Occupationactor, writer

Roy Horniman (born Robert Horniman, 31 July 1868–11 October 1930) was a prolific British playwright and novelist.

... best known for his novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, which inspired several adaptations, in particular the musical comedy A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.[1]

Biography

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Early years

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Robert Horniman was born in about 1868 at Southsea, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, the eldest son of William Horniman and Sarah Esther (née Foster).[2][A] His father was an English naval officer and paymaster-in-chief of the British Royal Navy. Robert was educated at Bruges in Belgium and at Southsea Grammar School.[3][4]

When he was aged thirteen, Horniman wrote a novel which was confiscated by his mother.[5]

Playwright and novelist

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After he left school Horniman briefly worked in an office, but in 1887 he embarked on an acting career calling himself 'Roy' Horniman.[5][4] He played a number of roles in various West End theatres.[5][6]

Horniman was a cast member in the following stage productions: Echo at the Trafalgar Square Theatre (April 1893), The Super at the Criterion Theatre (May 1894), Romeo and Juliet at the Prince of Wales' Theatre (May 1896), Uncle Thatcher at the Court Theatre (June and July 1896), The Littlest Girl at the Court Theatre (July 1896) and Number One Round the Corner at the Court Theatre (October to December 1896).[7]

Horniman was a cast member of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Lyceum Theatre in late 1897 and late 1898 and the original London production of the musical comedy Florodora at the Lyric Theatre from late 1899 to March 1901.[8]

He rented and managed the Criterion Theatre.[6]

Horniman also wrote The Sin of Atlantis in 1900 and Lord Cammarleigh’s Secret: A Fairy Story of To-Day in 1907.[9]

Horniman published many successful novels and contributed fiction to popular magazines. He also wrote and produced successful plays.[6] He was the joint-proprietor of The Ladies' Review for some years.[5] He wrote many plays as well as adaptations of his own and others' novels.

Horniman was described as "a wealthy bachelor and admirer of Oscar Wilde".[10]

Horniman's first play called Judy was produced at the Prince of Wales' Theatre in May 1899.[11]

Photograph of Roy Horniman, from The Illustrated London News, 8 August 1908.

In January 1903 a three-act play called John Lester, Parson was produced in matinee performances at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End. The play was written by 'Knight Rider' and 'Layton Foster', pseudonyms of Archibald Keen and Roy Horniman.[12][13] The production of Lady Flirt, Horniman's adaptation of the French language Madame Flirt by Paul Gavault and Georges Berr, opened in May 1904 at the Haymarket Theatre in London.[14]

  • His Escape (Horniman), 1906.[15]

A four-act play written by Horniman, The Education of Elizabeth, was produced in October 1907 in the Apollo Theatre.[16] Thumbs Down (following Education of Elizabeth).[17]

During 1908 two of Horniman's original plays and one adaptation were produced in London, prompting one writer in The Tatler to describe Horniman as a "talented dramatist" and compare "the prodigality of his talents" to those of Somerset Maugham.[18] The Walk, a duologue by Horniman, was produced at the Apollo Theatre in January 1908.[19][15]

  • Idols (from W. J. Locke's novel), Garrick Theatre in September 1908.

Horniman's play Idols was an adaptation of W. J. Locke's novel (1911?) of the same name.[4] Horniman's theatrical comedies and novels were described as "faithful and unpretentious little pictures of social life, springing from from such ingredients as the eccentric will or other romantic and sentimental changes of fortune".[4]

Horniman's Bellamy the Magnificent, a five-act play described as a "social extravaganza" (and based on his 1904 novel of the same name), was produced at the New Theatre in October 1908.[20][11]

  • Billy's Fortune (Horniman), Criterion Theatre in 1913.
  • The Blue Mouse (adapted from the German), 1914.

Horniman was devoted to various causes, including anti-vivisection.[3] Horniman was a vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist and crusader against censorship. He was closely associated with several charities, especially in the field of animal welfare.[10]

In 1907 Horniman was described as "a vegetarian, a nature curist, a Theosophist [and] a public singer".[5] Horniman served as chairman of Our Dumb Friends League and the Committee for the Suppression of Cruelty to Performing Animals.[6] Our Dumb Friends League was founded in May 1897 to care for working horses on the streets of London.[21]

A play written by Horniman called Billy's Fortune opened at the Criterion Theatre in January 1913.[22] One reviewer wrote: "While there is nothing startlingly original in the plot, it is cleverly treated, and the play forms a capital entertainment".[23]

Horniman was the founder and part-owner of 'Broadlands' at Medstead in Hampshire, the first 'nature-cure' establishment in England.[6][5][24]

The war years

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In the first years of World War I Horniman was treasurer of the Blue Cross Fund. He was the chairman of Our Dumb Friends League and the Committee for the Suppression of Cruelty to Performing Animals.[6][25][26] In 1915 Horniman visited a Blue Cross hospital in France treating injured horses, reporting that the majority of cases were "deep and painful saddle cuts", with sabre and bullet wounds in the minority.[27] Horniman was chairman of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Tobacco Fund, a body which organised to send tobacco to British armed forces.[4][6] In the early years of the war Horniman was "prompted by a distaste for profiteering" by private railway companies to write, with Rowland Allanson-Winn, How to Make the Railways Pay for the War, a book that ran to three editions.[10] Roy Horniman served in the Artists Rifles during the First World War.

Horniman was one of the pioneers of the Gattie Transport Scheme and a director of the New Transport Co. Ltd.[6]

Horniman was described by a contemporary as "a well-to-do bachelor who knew what did and what did not suit him, marriage being in the latter category, the social round in the former".[3]

The Mystery of John Wake, a drama in three acts written by Horniman and Lechmere Worrall, was produced in April 1916 at the Gaiety Theatre in Hastings, on England's south coast.[28]

  • Three Weeks (adapted from Elinor Glyn's novel), Strand Theatre in July 1917.[11]

Stage and screen

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In the post-war years Horniman wrote and adapted for both the stage and screen.

The film A Non-conformist Parson (also known as Heart and Soul), based on Horniman's 1907 novel of the same name, was produced in March 1919 by the British Lion Film Corporation. The film starred George Keene, Constance Worth and Evan Thomas. It was directed by A. V. Bramble, with a screenplay written by Horniman and Eliot Stannard.[29] In 1920 Horniman wrote the screenplay of Jennie, a film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Selznick Pictures.[30]

Horniman co-wrote the screenplay of The Education of Elizabeth with Elmer Harris, a film based on Horniman's 1907 play of the same name. The film starred Billie Burke and was directed by Edward Dillon; it was produced by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and released in the United States in January 1921.[31]

In August 1921 the play The Edge O'Beyond, adapted by Horniman and Ruby Miller from a novel by Gertrude Page, opened at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End.[32]

Horniman's play Love in Pawn was produced in March 1923 at the Kingsway Theatre in London. The play was described as a "picture of life in a Jewish home".[33] In April 1923 it was reported that the producer of the play, Lewis Sloden, had returned to the United States, "disheartened at the apparent lack of public interest in the play". Sloden gave the use of the theatre to the players and management rent-free so the performances could continue on a co-operative basis.[34] Love in Pawn was renamed The Money Lender for its production at the Ambassador Theatre in New York from August 1928.[35][36]

Horniman was credited as one of the writers of A Gentleman of Paris, a Paramount Pictures film directed by Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast and released in October 1927. The film was loosely based on Horniman's novel Bellamy the Magificent.[37]

Death

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Roy Horniman died on 11 October 1930 at his home at 17 Stanley Crescent in Notting Hill in west London, aged 62.[4]

Legacy

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The director and screenwriter Robert Hamer discovered Horniman's Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal and "with remarkably few alterations" used it as the basis of the screenplay of the highly-regarded 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, directed by Hamer and produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios.[38]

Amongst his notable works were Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal (1907), which was republished by Faber Finds in 2008 and again by Cavalier Classics in 2014, and by Dean Street Press in 2020.

the novel also inspired the 2013 Broadway musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder.

Publications

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  • Roy Horniman & C. E. Morland (1894), 'A Fatal Affinity' (short story), published in The Ludgate Illustrated Magazine, July 1894.[38]
  • Roy Horniman (1900), The Sin of Atlantis, London: John Macqueen.
  • Roy Horniman (1903), The Living Buddha, London: T. Fisher Unwin.[39]
  • Roy Horniman (1903), That Fast Miss Blount, London: T. Fisher Unwin.
  • Roy Horniman (1904), Bellamy the Magnificent, London: Chatto & Windus.
  • Roy Horniman (1907), A Nonconformist Parson, London: Sisley's Ltd.[40]
  • Roy Horniman (1907), Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, London: Chatto & Windus.
  • Roy Horniman (1907), Lord Cammarleigh's Secret: A Fairy Story of To-Day, London: Chatto & Windus.
  • Roy Horniman (1909), Nightshade, London: Sisley's Ltd.[41]
  • Roy Horniman (1909), Romance of Beauty, London: Eveleigh Nash.
  • Roy Horniman (1911), Captivity, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.[42]
  • Roy Horniman (1913), Jenny, London: Hurst & Blackett.[43]
  • Roy Horniman (1916), How to Make the Railways Pay for the War: Or, The Transport Problem Solved, London: George Routledge & Sons.
  • Roy Horniman (1928), The Viper, London: S. Paul & Co. Ltd.[39]

Notes

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A.^ Horniman's mother Sarah Esther (née Foster) was born in about 1841 on the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea. She married the Royal Navy officer William Horniman in about 1859 at Pireaus in Greece.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Rank Outsider". Portsmouth Grammar School Magazine: 21–23.
  2. ^ a b Family records, Ancestry.com.
  3. ^ a b c Papers of Roy Horniman, Archives Hub website, Jisc; accessed 22 November 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f 'Mr. Roy Horniman' (obituary), The Times (London), 13 October 1930, page 14.
  5. ^ a b c d e f The Many-sided Mr. Horniman, The Book News Monthly, Vol. 26 Issue 3, November 1907, page 215.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h 'Roy Horniman', Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 174; accessed 22 November 2024.
  7. ^ J. P. Wearing (1976), The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Plays and Players, Vol. I: 1890-1896, Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press Inc., pages 187, 302, 399, 565, 571, 589, 608.
  8. ^ J. P. Wearing (1976), The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Plays and Players, Vol. II: 1897-1899, Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press Inc., pages 687, 770, 838.
  9. ^ "Review of Lord Cammarleigh's Secret by Roy Horniman". The Athenaeum (4175): 546–547. 2 November 1907.
  10. ^ a b c Israel Rank by Roy Horniman (1907) (in) Martin Edwards (2017), The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, Scottsdale, Arizona: Poisoned Pen Press, pages 20-21.
  11. ^ a b c John Parker (compiler & editor) (1925), Horniman, Roy, Who's Who in the Theatre: A Biographical Record of the Contemporary Stage (5th edition), Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, Inc., page 466.
  12. ^ Fred Kerr (1930), Recollections of a Defective Memory, London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., pages 137-138.
  13. ^ Lyric, The Era Almanack and Annual 1903], page 54.
  14. ^ Cyril Maude (1927), [https://archive.org/details/behindsceneswith0000hims/page/158/mode/2up Behind the Scenes With Cyril Maude, London: John Murray, pages 141-142.
  15. ^ a b Mark Meredith (editor) (1921), Horniman, Roy, The Literary Year-Book for the Year 1921, London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd., page 199.
  16. ^ Literary, Dramatic, and Musical Notes, The Author, 1 November 1907, page 42.
  17. ^ Literary, Dramatic, and Musical Notes, The Author, 2 December 1907, pages 71-72.
  18. ^ 'Gossip from the Green World', The Tatler, 13 January 1909, page 46.
  19. ^ New Plays and Important Revivals, The Era Annual 1909, page 99.
  20. ^ 'The Playhouses', The Illustrated London News, 10 October 1908, page 490.
  21. ^ "About Blue Cross". Blue Cross. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  22. ^ 'The Playhouses', The Illustrated London News, 25 January 1913, page 110.
  23. ^ "Billy's Fortune", The Playgoer and Society Illustrated, Vol. VII No. 41, January 1913, pages 133-134.
  24. ^ 'Broadlands Nature Cure', The Times (London), 3 September 1914, page 13.
  25. ^ "Our Dumb Friends' League", The Times (London), 22 August 1914, page 1.
  26. ^ Remembering the animals of the First World War, Blue Cross website; accessed 23 November 2024.
  27. ^ 'The Uncomplaining', Our Dumb Animals (Boston), July 1915, Vol. 48 No. 2, page 17.
  28. ^ Lionel Carson (editor) (1917), "The Stage" Year Book, London: "The Stage" Offices, page 136.
  29. ^ A Non-conformist Parson, IMDb website; accessed 23 November 2024.
  30. ^ Jennie, IMDb website; accessed 23 November 2024.
  31. ^ The Education of Elizabeth, IMDb website; accessed 23 November 2024.
  32. ^ 'The Playhouses', The Illustrated London News, 20 August 1921, page 264.
  33. ^ Mr. Roy Horniman's Play, The Abolutionist, 1 May 1923, page 74.
  34. ^ Dramatic Notes and News, The Jewish Chronicle, 27 April 1923, page 29.
  35. ^ Ambassador: The Money Lender, The Billboard, 8 September 1928, page 6.
  36. ^ American Jews as "Gangsters", The Jewish Chronicle, 14 September 1928, page 33.
  37. ^ A Gentleman of Paris, IMDb website; accessed 23 November 2024.
  38. ^ a b Jack Adrian (editor) (1998), Twelve Mystery Stories, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, pages 116-141, 228-229.
  39. ^ a b Horniman, Roy, The National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints (1973), Vol. 255, London: Mansell Publishing Ltd., pages 198-199.
  40. ^ Sisley's Half-Crown Novels, The Athenæum, 4 May 1907, page 524.
  41. ^ The four stories..., The Bookman, April 1909, page 40.
  42. ^ Methuen & Co. Ltd., The Spectator, 19 August 1911, page 296.
  43. ^ Some Forthcoming Books, The Athenæum, 28 June 1913, page 699.
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