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Owen Hall (10 April 1853 – 9 April 1907) was the principal pen name of the Irish-born theatre writer, racing correspondent, theatre critic and solicitor, James Davis, when writing for the stage. After his successive careers in law and journalism, Hall wrote the librettos for a series of extraordinarily successful musical comedies in the 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s, including A Gaiety Girl, An Artist's Model, The Geisha, A Greek Slave and Florodora. Despite his achievements, Hall was constantly in financial distress because of his gambling and extravagant lifestyle; his pseudonym was a pun on "owing all".
In the 1870s, Hall (still known as James Davis) married Esther Josephine ( née Da Costa Andrade, 1854–1946) James Davis marriage to Esther Josephine Da Costa Andrade, quarterly marriage index Q4 1876 in Marylebone, West London, Vol. 1a, p. 1162, via Ancestry.com, accessed 30 November 2017 and had three children, Isabelle Davis (1877–1935), Hyman Davis (1878–1950) and Dorothy Davis (1880–1963). Family listing: 1881 England Census, Marylebone, Portland Place, p. 79; Birth registration for Isabelle Davis, 1877 Q4, Marylebone, Vol. 1a, p. 532; Jewish Cemetery Rockwood, New South Wales grave entry: Isabelle Benjamin, died 22 December 1935; Birth registration for Hyman Andrade Davis, 1878 Q4, Vol. 2b, p. 67; National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966: Hyman Andrade Davis, died 6 January 1950 at Westminster; Birth registration for Dorothy Davis, 1880 Q1, Marylebone, Vol. 1a, p. 570 Ancestry.com, accessed 29 November 2017; and National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966: Dorothy Josephine De Warzee D'Hermalle, died 29 September 1963 in Nice, France Isabel married Gerald Benjamin, the son of mayor Benjamin Benjamin of Melbourne, in 1912. "News and Views", The Hebrew Standard, 29 November 1912, p. 9: Wedding on 5 December 1912 of Gerald Septimus Benjamin of Melbourne to Isabelle Davis. Hyman married Helen Davis (so she didn't change surname) in 1914. Hyman Davis marriage to Helen Elizabeth Davis, 1914 Q2, Marylebone, Vol. 1a, p. 1401 Dorothy married a Belgian diplomat, Baron Marie-Georges-Gérard-Léon le Maire de Warzée d'Hermalle (1877–1931), and wrote of her travels in Persia, Peeps into Persia (1913), under the name of Dorothy de Warzée.De Warzée, Dorothy. Peeps into Persia, (1913), Archive.org, accessed 27 February 2014
The change of career from critic to librettist came after he expressed a harsh view of a George Edwardes production, In Town (1892); the producer challenged Hall to do better. The result was the hit of the West End theatre season, A Gaiety Girl (1893), with music by Sidney Jones and lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Hall's satirical book included lines that jabbed in the style of an upmarket gossip columnist. "Owen Hall". British Musical Theatre, accessed 26 July 2011His sister Eliza was engaged for part of her career as such a columnist. See Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc. The Merry Wives of Westminster, Macmillan (1946), p. 56 The smart society back-chat was very popular with audiences, and A Gaiety Girl has a claim to being the first true musical comedy. Hall's next libretto was for An Artist's Model (1895), another success for the same writing team. He repeated the snappy dialogue style of the previous work, but joined it with a romantic plot, which Hall added at the last minute after Edwardes hired the star Marie Tempest, for whom Hall quickly wrote a new role. The result established the formula for two further extraordinary successes by Hall and his collaborators at Daly's Theatre.
The first of these was The Geisha (1896), which became the biggest international hit in musical theatre history, playing for 760 performances in its original London run and enjoying numerous international productions. Histories of Tourism: Representation, Identity and Conflict (ed. John K. Walton; 2005), p. 105, Multilingual Matters Limited. The next collaboration for Hall, Jones and Greenbank was another popular work for Daly's, A Greek Slave (1898).
Hall declared bankruptcy first at the age of 29, during his early career as a solicitor, having run up debts of more than £27,000. He was back in bankruptcy court six years later, in 1888. Even after his theatrical success and high salary from Edwardes, he was bankrupt again in 1898. His constant financial trouble stemmed from his gambling and extravagant entertaining of his friends. The pseudonym "Owen Hall" was an ironic nod ("owin' all") towards his extensive debts, as was another of his pseudonyms, "Payne Nunn" ("payin' none"). His sister Eliza recalled: "As a lawyer he gave advice freely to his friends; as a racehorse owner he indulged his prodigal proclivities in the world of hangers-on; during his editorial and play-writing epochs he was lavish in his hospitality ... and he voiced his belief that he 'had enjoyed every experience except death and solvency'."Aria, pp. 19–20 She wrote that, during his bankruptcy proceedings, Hall quipped irreverently: "Now I know that my Receivership liveth".Aria, p. 20 His nephew Gilbert recalled that Hall said: "You can trust me with anything except a pretty girl or a sovereign."
Hall wrote several more works in the new century, including two more musicals for Davis: The Silver Slipper (1901) with Stuart, and the unsuccessful The Medal and the Maid (1903) with Jones. For Edwardes, he wrote "perhaps the most delightful of all his libretti" and his last big success, The Girl from Kays (1902), and later The Little Cherub (1906). A 1904 piece was Sergeant Brue, written with Liza Lehmann.
He died in Harrogate, one day short of his 54th birthday, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, north London, "Funeral of Mr 'Owen Hall'", The Morning Post, 15 April 1907, p. 5, accessed 29 November 2017, via British Newspaper Archive
Early career
After practising from 1874 to 1886 as a solicitor, Hall gave up the law in favour of journalism, starting a newspaper called Pan, which "went to popularity and thence through an inexperienced direction to death",Aria, pp. 15–16 after which he "owned and edited in turn The Bat 1885–87, The Cuckoo and The Phoenix after, whilst writing industriously and for The Sporting Times many paragraphs on ... racing, and dramatic criticisms, under the signature 'Stalled Ox'."Aria, p. 17 He also wrote for Truth, The World, The Illustrated London News and the Ladies' Pictorial. "Death of Owen Hall", The Montreal Gazette, 13 April 1907, p. 4, accessed 18 January 2013 He was assistant editor of Galignani's Messenger from 1888 to 1890. Hall and his sisters had been friendly with Oscar Wilde and his brother William, but Hall later became a harsh critic of Wilde.Danby, Frank (Julia Frankau). The Sphinx's Lawyer, Heinemann (1906), Dedication "To My Brother 'Owen Hall'"; and Stetz, Margaret D. "'To Defend the Undefendable': Oscar Wilde and the Davis Family" , The Oscholars Special Issue: "Oscar Wilde, Jews and the Fin-du-Siecle", Summer 2010, accessed 12 January 2013 Hall was, for a time, interested in politics and ran (unsuccessfully) against the Liberal statesman Charles Russell for the Parliamentary seat of Dundalk in the 1880 election.Frankau, p. 112
Florodora and later years
Hall wrote the musical Florodora (1899) for producer Tom Davis, which was set to music by Leslie Stuart, and the piece became another record-setting international hit, running for 455 performances in London, and then 552 performances in New York, followed by other international productions and revivals.Kenig, Marc. "Reviving a Legend of Musical Theatre", The Patter Post, Lyric Theatre, San Jose, California, May 2009, pp. 6–10
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Categories: British Theatre Critics, Alumni Of University College London, Writers From London, 1853 Births, 1907 Deaths, Burials At Highgate Cemetery, Jewish English Writers, English Male Dramatists And Playwrights, Jewish Dramatists And Playwrights, 19th-century English Dramatists And Playwrights, 19th-century English Male Writers, English Satirists
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