Arthur Collins (theatre manager)

He was perhaps best known for his many Christmas pantomimes produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which he managed during the late Victorian and Edwardian era.

[5] Collins began his working life in a Holborn seedsman's shop before beginning an apprenticeship to Henry Emden, who was the scenic artist at Drury Lane Theatre, during the tenure of the impresario and dramatist Augustus Harris.

"[8] Following the death of Augustus Harris in 1896, Collins became managing director of the Drury Lane Theatre, a post he held until 1924.

The agent was somewhat diffident about granting a long lease of the theatre to an inexperienced man of thirty-one, but Arthur overcame his objections and, probably impressed by the results of his management under Harris, he advised the Duke to grant Arthur a forty years' lease, which was subsequently extended to eighty.

"[10] The first Drury Lane production under the proprietorship of Arthur Collins was a play called The White Heather, by Cecil Raleigh and Harry Hamilton,[11] for which Collins invited his sister-in-law's sister, the fashion and society writer Eliza Davis, to assist in designing the costumes.

Collins "superintended the first command performance [at Drury Lane] (in 1911), and signalled his surprise marriage to the beautiful Jette Thom of Los Angeles with the laconic cable from California, 'Bringing home winsome bride'.