A Very Merry Christmas to You and Yours!
In honor of the Christmas season, I'm presenting this Christmas-y two-page Film Fun comic from 1954 featuring Arthur Lucan, aka Old Mother Riley. Be sure to check out Martyn Peter Wilkinson's Old Mother Riley tribute site. It's chock full of info about Britain's most popular pre-Dame Edna drag act, but is disappointingly short on details regarding Lucan's nightmarish marriage to stage "daughter" and manager Kitty McShane. I highly recommend Frank Dello Stritto and Andi Brooks' Vampire Over London: Bela Lugosi In Britain for a recounting of the filming of Lucan's last feature, Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952), that'll make your hair stand on end. Lucan collapsed and died in the wings just before making his entrance in Old Mother Riley in Paris at the Tivoli Theatre, Hull, in 1954.
click the thumbnails
Labels: Arthur Lucan, Bela Lugosi, cinema, Film Fun, Kitty McShane, Old Mother Riley, stage
posted by Aaron Neathery at 9:29 PM
1 Comments:
Merry Christmas, Martyn! You're certainly doing the world of comedy history a service with your site, with or without the private info. However, it's my firm belief that, especially in regard to performers, it's impossible to obtain a full understanding of the public without knowledge of the private. With Arthur Lucan, I believe that applies doubly so.
As for the fate of the films, a great many of them are available on Ebay. I can't vouch for the quality of the prints, though. Does the BBC really own these?
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