Charles B. Cochran

Apart from revue, his major theatrical successes included The Miracle in 1911, noted for its spectacular staging, The Better 'Ole (1917), This Year of Grace (1928), Bitter Sweet (1929), Cavalcade (1931) and Bless the Bride (1947).

As a theatrical producer he was responsible for West End and some Broadway productions of shows by Noël Coward, Cole Porter, Vivian Ellis and Rogers and Hart as well as a wide range of plays by writers including Henrik Ibsen, James Barrie, Sean O'Casey, A. P. Herbert and Eugene O'Neill.

[4] With Beardsley, Cochran saw a West End production of As You Like It in July 1890 given by Augustin Daly's visiting Broadway company, led by John Drew and Ada Rehan.

Seeing a production of Cyrano de Bergerac in Paris, with Benoît-Constant Coquelin in the title role,[10] he was convinced that Mansfield should play the part in New York.

Gradually he gained success in management, representing Mistinguett, Ethel Levey, Harry Houdini, Odette Dulac and the wrestler George Hackenschmidt, the last of whom he matched at Olympia in 1904 against Ahmed Madrali, the "Terrible Turk".

The original idea came from Cochran, who suggested to Reinhardt that he should stage a mystery play set in the Middle Ages, and that Olympia should be converted to look like a cathedral for the purpose.

[19] Ellis comments that subsequently "the eulogies Cochran received from the Northcliffe press were offset by his more critical reception by other popular newspapers".

[3][22] The outbreak of war brought what The Times described as "something like a theatrical 'boom' as the prevailing mood, of troops and public alike, called for gaiety, lightness, and colour to offset the grim business in hand".

[11] Cochran turned to the genre of revue, hitherto little seen in Britain,[n 2] and had a conspicuous box-office success in October 1914 with what the biographer James Ross Moore calls a "bare-bones" production, Odds and Ends.

[25] The revue dispensed with spectacular décor and a large cast in favour of a more intimate style with modest staging – one critic commented that Cochran had spared no economy in mounting the show.

[11] At the Pavilion in 1918 he produced the revue As You Were, composed by Herman Darewski and Edouard Mathe, with words by Arthur Wimperis, and starring Delysia, which ran for a year.

[3] The revues included London, Paris and New York (1920), with music by Herman Darewski; Fun of the Fayre (1921); The League of Notions (1921); Mayfair and Montmartre (1922); and Dover Street to Dixie (1923), featuring the American singer Florence Mills.

Hoping to recoup his losses Cochran put on a season of American plays in 1923, including Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie and The Hairy Ape, which did not repeat in the West End the success they had enjoyed in the US, and a spectacular rodeo at Wembley failed to attract the crowds.

[33] Quickly discharged from bankruptcy, "penniless but ebullient" in Ellis's phrase, Cochran wrote his first book of memoirs, The Secrets of a Showman (1925).

With the proceeds and financial backing from supporters, he began his association with Noël Coward with the revue On with the Dance (1925) at the London Pavilion (the first show to feature "Mr Cochran's Young Ladies").

[40] Young members of the British royal family took an interest in the show, especially Edward, the Prince of Wales, which contributed greatly to its popularity.

[44] In between the Coward shows Cochran presented a Pirandello season, Sean O'Casey's The Silver Tassie (1929), the Lunts in Sil-Vara's play Caprice (1929), Cole Porter's revue Wake up and Dream (1929) which also went to Broadway, and Rodgers and Hart's Ever Green (1930), with Jessie Matthews.

[3][45] In 1930 Cochran produced Coward's comedy of manners Private Lives, which at the author's insistence played for a limited three-month season.

[4][n 5] A bust of Cochran was placed in the foyer of the Adelphi Theatre and a memorial panel to him was unveiled in St Paul's, Covent Garden (known as "the actors' church") in 1953.