David Ivor Davies (January 15, 1893 – March 6, 1951), better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the early 20th century.

Life

Llwyn-yr-Eos, Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff

He was born at Llwyn-yr-Eos (Grove of Nightingales), Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, Wales, to the well-known singer and teacher, Clara Novello Davies, and David Davies, a tax collector. A blue plaque commemorating his birth can be seen on the side of the house. He attended Magdalen College School, Oxford for some time.

He first became well known as a result of the song, Keep the Home Fires Burning, which he composed during World War I. His 1917 show, Theodore & Co was a wartime hit. After the war, he began a film career, and also appeared on stage in the West End, in musical shows of his own devising; the best known of these was The Dancing Years (1939). Novello starred in two early films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Lodger (1927) and Downhill (1927). He later went to Hollywood and appeared in numerous successful films, but the stage remained his first love and the medium for his major successes. For many years, he lived at Littlewick Green in East Berkshire.

Novello wrote his musical shows in the style of operetta, and was one of the last major composers in this form. He generally composed his music to the librettos of Christopher Hassall.

Novello was homosexual, well known for some of his more glamorous gay affairs. For 35 years, he was the lover of the British actor Bobbie Andrews,^[1] and he had an affair with the British poet and writer Siegfried Sassoon.^[2]

During World War II, Novello was sentenced to eight weeks in prison (he served four) for misuse of petrol coupons, a serious offence in wartime Britain. Serving a sentence alongside him was Frankie Fraser. This downfall from Novello's luxurious lifestyle completely broke his spirit, and he was never the same man after his release.^{[citation needed]} However, he continued to appear on stage and write shows until the day before his sudden death from a coronary thrombosis on March 6 1951, aged 58. In 1933, he coaxed the actress Zena Dare out of semi-retirement, and thereafter until his death, he often performed with, and wrote parts for her in his works.

The Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting, are awarded each year by the record industry to songwriters and arrangers as well as the performing artistes.

Novello was portrayed in Robert Altman's fictional film Gosford Park (2001) by Jeremy Northam and several of his songs were used for the film's soundtrack. However, Novello's homosexuality was subtly played in the film.

His memory continues to be promoted by The Ivor Novello Appreciation Bureau, who hold annual events around Britain, including an annual pilgrimage to Redroofs in Littlewick Green in June.

In 2005 The Strand Theatre in London, above which Novello lived for many years, was renamed the Novello Theatre.

Principal shows

• Theodore & Co (1917)
• Glamorous Night (1935)
• Careless Rapture (1936)
• Crest of the Wave (1937)
• The Dancing Years (1939)
• Arc de Triomphe (operetta) (1943)
• Perchance to Dream (1945)
• King's Rhapsody (1949)
• Gay's the Word (1951) (lyrics by Alan Melville (writer)

Outstanding Songs

• "Keep the Home Fires Burning" - John McCormack (1917 recording .mp3}
• "Fold Your Wings"
• "Shine Through my Dreams"
• "Rose of England"
• "I Can Give you the Starlight"
• "My Dearest Dear"
• "When I Curtsied to the King"
• "We'll Gather Lilacs"
• "Someday my Heart will Awake"
• "Yesterday"
• "Waltz of my Heart"
• "My Life Belongs To You"

Filmography

• The Call of the Blood (L'Appel du Sang) - 1919
• Miarka: The Daughter of the Bear (Miarka, Fille de L'Ourse) - 1920
• Carnival - 1922
• The Bohemian Girl - 1922
• The Man Without Desire - 1923
• The White Rose - 1923
• Bonnie Prince Charlie - 1923
• The Rat - 1925
• The Triumph of the Rat - 1926
• The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog - (1927)
• Downhill - 1927
• The Vortex - 1928
• The Constant Nymph - 1928
• The Gallant Hussar - 1928
• The South Sea Bubble - 1928
• The Return of the Rat - 1928
• Symphony in Two Flats - 1930
• Once a Lady - 1931
• The Phantom Fiend - 1932
• I Lived With You - 1933
• Sleeping Car - 1933
• Autumn Crocus - 1934

References

1. ^ Mann, William (2002-04-02). Just say Novello: Ivor Novello the matinee idol Jeremy Northam plays in Gosford Park, was a real star—and gay to boot. The Advocate. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
2. ^ Wilson, Jean Moorcroft (September 2002). Siegfried Sassoon: The Making of a War Poet 1886-1918. Duckworth. ISBN 0 7156 2894 1. 

External links

• Ivor Novello at the Internet Movie Database
• Information about Novello shows

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