Ada Reeve

actress of both stage and film.

Early career

Born in London, England, to a family of actors, she made her first appearance on the stage at the age of four in the pantomime "Red Riding Hood" on Boxing Day 1878 at the Pavilion Theatre in London's Whitechapel. A series of pantomime and dramatic roles followed, many at the Pavilion, before she began working as a music hall performer as a teenager. "She Was a Clergyman’s Daughter" (sheet music shown at right) was a seemingly innocent, but actually risqué music hall song about a clergyman's daughter who was not as naive or charitable as she would have you imagine. Reeve performed the song in a demure costume of a flounced dress and bonnet, letting the audience in on the racy innuendos of the song through knowing winks and gestures.

Reeve married actor Bert Gilbert (Joseph Gilbert Hazlewood) in 1894, and returned to acting, first touring as Haidee in "Don Juan". She soon became famous in one of George Edwardes' earliest musical comedies at the Gaiety Theatre, starring as Bessie Brent, the title role in "The Shop Girl" (1894) opposite Seymour Hicks. She was pregnant, however, and had to be replaced in the role by Hicks' wife, Ellaline Terriss. She returned in "All Abroad" at the Criterion Theatre (1895), and as the title character in the hit "The Girl from Paris" (1896) at the Duke of York's Theatre. She and her husband then toured Australia. However, the marriage with Gilbert had turned sour, with Reeve claiming extreme cruelty and petitioning for divorce while still in Australia. On the return sea journey to England, Reeve was forced to appeal to the captain of the ship for protection from him. [ [http://www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchivePressText2003/20030809.html Information from the Footlight Notes website] ] Once in England, the couple separated, and the divorce was finalized in 1900. Ada settled in London with her two daughters, Bessie Adelaide Hazlewood (b. March 28, 1895 in Wolverhampton) and Lillian Mary "Goody" Hazlewood (b. Jan 1897 in London).

In 1898, Reeve played the role of "Madame Celeste" in "Milord, Sir Smith", followed by the role of Cleopatra in "The Great Caesar" in 1899. Later that year, she created the role of Lady Holyrood in the hit musical comedy "Florodora" at the Lyric Theatre. In 1900-01, she again toured Australia, returning to tour in "Florodora". Reeve joined the cast of the hit musical "San Toy", in 1901, playing Dudley and later taking over the title role from Marie Tempest. The music was written down for Reeve's lower voice [ [http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/fraser.charlton/edmuscom/page28/page33/santoysyn.html Information from the Edwardian Musical Comedy website] ] . Late in the year, she succeeded Evie Greene in the title role of "Kitty Grey", followed by Ada Branscombe in "The Three Little Maids", in 1902. [ [http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-frames.html?http&&&www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/reeve/reeve-a2.html Information from the Stage Beauty website] ]

Later years

Reeve remarried in 1902 to Wilfred Cotton, a manager and actor who was the uncle of Lily Elsie. Under her husband's management, in 1903, she played Miss Ventnor in "The Medal and the Maid". Next, in 1904, she co-produced with her husband, and played the title role in, the play "Winnie Brooke, Widow" In 1905, she played the title role in "The Adventures of Moll" on tour and then appeared in Birmingham as Aladdin in the Christmas pantomime. In 1906, Reeve toured South Africa with her husband, becoming very popular. Back in England, she appeared at the Tivoli and Empire theatres and on tour and, in 1908, played Rhodanthe in the musical "Butterflies". In 1909, they toured South Africa again and then toured "Butterflies" in Britain. She played the title role in the Birmingham Christmas 1909 pantomime of "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Over the following years, Reeve played in variety in England and enjoyed extensive foreign tours, including South Africa and the U. S. in 1911, South Africa in 1913, Australia in 1914, Australia and South Africa in 1918, South Africa in 1920, Australia from 1922 to 1924, and in 1926 and 1929, the last time playing in vaudeville. She was absent from England from 1929 to 1935. Both of her daughters, Bessie and Goody, had in the meantime settled in Australia, where both married and had children, Goody becoming a well known radio personality. Bessie died of an illness in 1954. Upon Ada's return to England, she appeared in cabarets, revues and variety. Her next dramatic role was in 1940 in the musical "Black Velvet".

After a few more years on stage, in 1944 Reeve began appearing in films as Mrs. Barley in "They Came to a City". She appeared in a total of nine movies and continued her stage work in the 1940s and 1950s. At the age of 80, she retired from the stage but made two more films, the last of which was at the age of 83 in "A Passionate Stranger" in 1957.

Ada Reeve died in 1966 at the age of 92.

Filmography

*1919 - Comradeship [Betty Mortimore]
*1944 - They Came to a City [Mrs. Barley]
*1947 - When the Bough Breaks [2nd Landlady]
*1947 - Meet Me at Dawn [Concierge]
*1949 - Dear Mr. Prohack [Mrs. Griggs]
*1950 - Night and the City [Molly]
*1952 - I Believe in You [Mrs. Crockett]
*1953 - Time Bomb [Old Lady]
*1956 - Eyewitness [Mrs. Hudson]
*1957 - A Passionate Stranger [Old Woman]

References

* [http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=1631&back=%2Fguided_tours%2Fmusicals_tour%2Ffirst_musicals%2Fmusical_comedy.php%3F Information from the PeoplePlay website]
* [http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-frames.html?http&&&www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/reeve/reeve-a2.html Ada Reeve (1876-1966)]

External links

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