- Frederick Lonsdale
Frederick Lonsdale (born St Helier, Jersey,
5 February 1881 ; dLondon ,4 April 1954 ) was an Englishdramatist .Early life
Lionel Frederick Leonard began as a private soldier and worked for the London and South Western Railway. His daughters included his biographer
Frances Donaldson and Angela Worthington, while his grandsons included the actors Edward Fox,James Fox , and the film producer Robert Fox.Life and career
" (1910), which was little more than "King of Cadonia" with the sexes reversed, but it enjoyed a good London run and a long and wide provincial tour and foreign productions.
Lonsdale's next success was five years later, for
George Edwardes , with "Betty" (1915). Following Edwardes's death, he submitted to Edwardes' executor,Robert Evett , a text that Curzon had rejected, "The Maid of the Mountains " (1917; revived in 1920), which became one of the phenomenally successful wartime shows in London, establishing itself as a classic of the British musical stage.Lonsdale continued to write some musicals after the war. He adapted
Booth Tarkington 's "Monsieur Beaucaire" (1919, with music byAndré Messager ) as a highly successful light opera andJean Gilbert 's "Die Frau im Hermelin " (1922, "The Lady of the Rose ") and "Katja, die Tänzerin " (1925), as well asLeo Fall 's "Madame Pompadour" (1923). He also wrote the successful original book to the Parisian tale of "The Street Singer " forPhyllis Dare (1924) and "Lady Mary " (1928).He also began to write straight comedies, and his plays included "
Aren't We All? " (1923), "Spring Cleaning " (1925), "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney " (1925, which ran for 514 performances), "On Approval " (1927) and "Canaries Sometimes Sing " (1929), among others. His last play, "The Way Things Go ", was written in 1949, more than 40 years after his first stage work and five years before his death from a heart attack.References
*Biography: Donaldson, F: "Freddy Lansdale" (Heinemann, London, 1957)
External links
* [http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/british/authors/lonsdale.html Biography of Lonsdale]
* [http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=5689 Internet Broadway Database Entry]
* [http://www.ml2000.org.uk/clients/lonsdale_frederick.htm Profile of Lonsdale including information about his comedies]
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