Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career.
Born in Essex, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He made early stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, after which he had his first major theatre success starring in Kissing Time when the musical transferred to the West End from Broadway. In 1921, he joined a concert party, The Co-Optimists, and his career began to flourish. At first, he was employed chiefly as a singer, but his skills as an actor and reciter of comic monologues were soon recognised. Characters from his monologues such as Sam Small, invented by Holloway, and Albert Ramsbottom, created for him by Marriott Edgar, were absorbed into popular British culture, and Holloway developed a following for the recordings of his many monologues. By the 1930s, he was in demand to star in variety, pantomime and musical comedy, including several revues.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Holloway made short propaganda films on behalf of the British Film Institute and Pathé News and took character parts in a series of films including Major Barbara, The Way Ahead, This Happy Breed and The Way to the Stars. In the decade after the war, he appeared in the film Brief Encounter and made a series of films for Ealing Studios, including Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titfield Thunderbolt.
In 1956 he was cast as the irresponsible and irrepressible Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, a role that he played on Broadway, the West End and in the film version in 1964. The role brought him international fame, and his performances earned him nominations for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In his later years, Holloway appeared in television series in the UK and the US, toured in revues, appeared in stage plays in Britain, Canada, Australia and the US, and continued to make films into his eighties. Holloway was married twice and had five children, including the actor Julian Holloway.
Biography
Family background and early life Holloway was born in Manor Park, Essex (now in the London Borough of Newham), on 1 October 1890. He was the younger child and only son of George Augustus Holloway, a lawyer's clerk, and Florence May (), a housekeeper and dressmaker.Midwinter, Eric. "Holloway, Stanley Augustus (1890–1982)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 21 April 2011 He was named after Henry Morton Stanley, the journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and for his search for David Livingstone. There were theatrical connections in the Holloway family going back to Charles Bernard, an actor and theatre manager, who was the brother of Holloway's maternal grandmother.Holloway and Richards, pp. 74–75
Holloway's paternal grandfather was Augustus Holloway,Principal Probate Registry, Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice of England, p. 418 brought up in Poole, Dorset."Poole St James", 1841 census, accessed 23 April 2011 Augustus became a wealthy shopkeeper, with a brush-making business. He married Amelia Catherine Knight in September 1856,General Register Office, England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, vol. 5a, p. 501 and they had three children, Maria, Charles and George.Census returns for England and Wales (1861), ancestry.co.uk, accessed 9 July 2012 In the early 1880s the family moved to Poplar, London. When Augustus died, George Holloway (Stanley's father) moved to nearby Manor Park and became a clerk for a city lawyer, Robert Bell.Holloway and Richards, p. 42 George married Bell's daughter Florence in 1884, and they had two children, Millie (1887–1949) and Stanley.Census returns of England and Wales (1901), ancestry.co.uk, accessed 9 July 2012 George left Florence in 1905 and was never seen or heard from again by his family.Holloway and Richards, p. 68
During his early teenage years, Holloway attended the Worshipful School of Carpenters in nearby StratfordHolloway and Richards, pp. 42–43The Worshipful School of Carpenters courtesy of Newham Council, accessed 6 December 2011 and joined a local choir, which he later called his "big moment". He left school at the age of 14 and worked as a junior clerk in a boot polish factory, where he earned ten shillings a week.Holloway and Richards, p. 46Ten shillings (10/-) is 50 pence in British decimal currency He began performing part-time as Master Stanley Holloway – The Wonderful Boy Soprano from 1904, singing sentimental songs such as "The Lost Chord".Morley, p. 124 A year later, he became a clerk at Billingsgate Fish Market, where he remained for two years before commencing training as an infantry soldier in the London Rifle Brigade in 1907.Holloway and Richards, p. 58
Career
Early career and First World War
Holloway's stage career began in 1910, when he travelled to Walton-on-the-Naze to audition for The White Coons Show, a concert party variety show arranged and produced by Will C. Pepper, father of Harry S. Pepper, with whom Holloway later starred in The Co-Optimists.Holloway and Richards, p. 49 This seaside show lasted six weeks.Holloway and Richards, p. 50 From 1912 to 1914, Holloway appeared in the summer seasons at the West Cliff Gardens Theatre, Clacton-on-Sea, where he was billed as a romantic baritone.Graham, pp. 150–246
In 1913 Holloway was recruited by the comedian Leslie Henson to feature as a support in Henson's more prestigious concert party called Nicely, Thanks. In later life, Holloway often spoke of his admiration for Henson, citing him as a great influence on his career. The two became firm friends and often consulted each other before taking jobs. In his 1967 autobiography, Holloway dedicated a whole chapter to Henson,Holloway and Richards, p. 289 whom he described as "the greatest friend, inspiration and mentor a performer could have had". Later in 1913, Holloway decided to train as an operatic baritone, and so he went to Italy to take singing lessons from Ferdinando Guarino in Milan. However, a yearning to start a career in light entertainment and a contract to re-appear in Bert Graham and Will Bentley's concert party at the West Cliff Theatre caused him to return home after six months.Holloway and Richards, pp. 54–55
In the early months of 1914, Holloway made his first visit to the United States and then went to Buenos Aires and Valparaíso with the concert party The Grotesques.The National Archives of the UK, Board of Trade, Commercial and Statistical Department and successors, Inwards Passenger Lists, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 9 July 2012 At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he decided to return to England, but his departure was delayed for six weeks due to his contract with the troupe.Holloway and Richards, pp. 56–57 At the age of 25, Holloway enlisted in the Connaught Rangers in which he was commissioned as a subaltern in December 1915 because of his previous training in the London Rifle Brigade. In 1916 he was stationed in Cork and fought against the rebels in the Easter Rising.Holloway and Richards, pp. 58–59 Later that year, he was sent to France,Holloway and Richards, p. 59 where he fought in the trenches alongside Michael O'Leary, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantryHolloway and Richards, p. 60 in February 1915. Holloway and O'Leary stayed in touch after the war and remained close friends.
Holloway spent much of his time in the later part of the war organising shows to boost army morale in France.Holloway and Richards, pp. 60 and 76 One such revue, Wear That Ribbon, was performed in honour of O'Leary winning the VC. He, Henson and his newly established Star Attractions concert party, entertained the British troops in Wimereux.Holloway and Richards, p. 19 The party included such performers as Jack Buchanan, Eric Blore, Binnie Hale, and Phyllis Dare, as well as the performers who would later form The Co-Optimists.Holloway and Richards, p. 20 Upon his return from France, Holloway was stationed in Hartlepool,Holloway and Richards, p. 76 and immediately after the war ended he starred in The Disorderly Room with Leslie Henson, which Eric Blore had written while serving in the South Wales Borderers. The production toured theatres on England's coast, including Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton-on-Sea.
Inter-war years
After relinquishing his army commission in May 1919, Holloway returned to London and resumed his singing and acting career, finding success in two West End musicals at the Winter Garden Theatre. Later that month, he created the role of Captain Wentworth in Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse's Kissing Time,Findon, B. H., "Kissing Time", The Play Pictorial, May 1919, p. 82; "Theatres", The Times, 3 July 1920, p. 14 followed in 1920 by the role of René in A Night Out."A Night Out", The Play Pictorial, September 1920, p. 71 Following its provincial success, The Disorderly Room was given a West End production at the Victoria Palace Theatre in late 1919, in which Holloway starred alongside Henson and Tom Walls.Holloway and Richards, p. 61 Holloway made his film debut in a 1921 silent comedy called The Rotters."Holloway, Stanley Augustus (1890–1982)", Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Oxford University Press, 2006, online edition, accessed 5 December 2011
From June 1921, Holloway had considerable success in The Co-Optimists, a concert party formed with performers whom he had met during the war in France, which The Times called "an all-star 'pierrot' entertainment in the West-end.""The Theatres", The Times, 20 June 1921, p. 9 It opened at the small Royalty TheatreHolloway and Richards, p. 28 and soon transferred to the much larger Palace Theatre, where the initial version of the show ran for over a year, giving more than 500 performances."The Palace Itself Again – Co-Optimists' Cheery Burlesque", The Times, 23 August 1921, p. 6Holloway and Richards, p. 29 The entertainment was completely rewritten at regular intervals to keep it fresh, and the final edition, beginning in November 1926, was the 13th version."The Co-Optimists", The Times, 30 November 1926, p. 12 The Co-Optimists closed in 1927 at His Majesty's Theatre after 1,568 performances over eight years. In 1929, a feature film version was made, with Holloway rejoining his former co-stars."The Film World", The Times, 18 December 1929, p. 12
In 1923 Holloway established himself as a BBC Radio performer. The early BBC broadcasts brought variety and classical artists together, and Holloway could be heard in the same programme as the cellist John Barbirolli or the Band of the Scots Guards."Programmes for the Week-End", The Times, 16 January 1926, p. 4 He developed his solo act throughout the 1920s while continuing his involvement with the musical theatre and The Co-Optimists. In 1924 he made his first gramophone discs, recording for His Master's Voice two songs from The Co-Optimists: "London Town" and "Memory Street".His Master's Voice records 1724 and 1725 (1924) After The Co-Optimists disbanded in 1927, Holloway played at the London Hippodrome in Vincent Youmans's musical comedy Hit the Deck as Bill Smith, a performance judged by The Times to be "invested with many shrewd touches of humanity"."Hit the Deck", The Times, 4 November 1927, p. 7 In The Manchester Guardian, Ivor Brown praised him for a singing style "which coaxes the ear rather than clubbing the head."Brown, Ivor. "Hit the Deck", The Manchester Guardian, 4 November 1927, p. 15