Ada Reeve: Difference between revisions

| birthname birth_name = Adelaide Mary Reeves

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|3|3|df=y}}

| birth_place = [[London, England]], [[UK]]

| death_date = {{deathDeath date and age|1966|10|5|1874|3|3|df=y}}

| death_place = [[London, England]], [[UK]]

| spouse = Wilfred Cotton (1902-?) 2 daughters<br>Bert Gilbert (1894-1900){{plainlist|

'''Ada Reeve''' (born '''Adelaide Mary Reeves''', 3 March 1874 -– 5 October 1966) was an [[England|English]] actress of both stage and film. Reeve began to perform in [[pantomime]] and [[music hall]] as a child. She gained fame in [[Edwardian musical comedies]] in the 1890s.

ReeveAdelaide Mary Reeves was born in [[London, England]],on under3 theMarch name '''Adelaide Mary Reeve'''1874. Her father was Samuel Isaacs, an actor who changed his name to Charles Reeves, and her mother was Harriet Reeves (née Seaman), a dancer. She was of Jewish descent.<ref>[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12632-reeve-ada "Ada Reeve"], ''The Jewish Encyclopedia''</ref><ref>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16559.html Jewish Virtual Library]</ref> She made her first appearance on the stage at the age of four in the [[pantomime]] ''Red Riding Hood'' on [[Boxing Day]] 1878 at the Mile End [[Pavilion Theatre, in London's [[Whitechapel]] and continued to play in pantomimes. As a young child, she toured for several years with the Frederick Wright Dramatic Company, performing with the young [[Huntley Wright]] and his family. Her first role with them was "Little Willie" in ''East Lynne''.<ref name=Girls>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/10166223nla.news-article10166223 "Girls and the Stage",], ''The Argus'' (Melbourne, Australia), 11 July 1908, p. 5. Reeve said she was six years old when she joined Wright's company, while other sources say she was ten.</ref><ref name=Lipton>Lipton, Martina. [http://www.its-behind-you.com/adareeve.html "Ada Reeve: A 'True Artist' of Pantomime"], It'sBehindYou.com-Ada Reeve 19 March 2008</ref> A series of pantomime and dramatic roles followed, many at the Pavilion. The touring company the family worked for went bankrupt in 1888 and the large family was reduced to singing on the beach to keep the family fed.<ref>West London Observer, 5 June 1908</ref> When she was 14 years old, Reeve's father's health failed, and she was left to support her family, so she began working as a [[music hall]] performer, finding immediate success.<ref name=Girls/> As a child, she performed under the name "Little Ada Reeves", but she shortened her surname to Reeve by 1886.{{fact|date=September 2022}}

[[ImageFile:Clergymandaugher.jpg|left|230px]]

"She Was a Clergyman’sClergyman's Daughter" (sheet music shown atsee rightillustration) was a seemingly innocent, but actually risqué music hall song about a clergyman's daughter who was not as naive or charitable as she would have you imagine. Reeve performed the song in a demure costume of a flounced dress and bonnet, letting the audience in on the racy [[innuendo]]s of the song through knowing winks and gestures. She continued to perform in pantomimes, being promoted to [[principal boy]] in 1891 in ''The Old Bogie of the Sea'' at the Britannia Theatre and playing the title role in ''Aladdin'' at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, [[Birmingham]], in 1892, where she sang her hit song "What Do I Care?" In 1893, she played Bo-Peep in ''Bo-Peep and Bonnie Boy Blue'' at the same theatre.<ref name=Lipton/>

Reeve married actor Bert Gilbert (Joseph Gilbert Hazlewood) in 1894, and returned to starring in provincial pantomimes and touring as Haidee in ''Don Juan''. She soon became famousknown for her role in one of [[George Edwardes]]' earliest [[Edwardian musical comedy|musical comedies]] at the [[Gaiety Theatre, London|Gaiety Theatre]], starring as Bessie Brent, the title role in ''[[The Shop Girl]]'' (1894) opposite [[Seymour Hicks]]. She was pregnant, however, and had to be replaced in the role by Hicks' wife, [[Ellaline Terriss]]. She returned in ''All Abroad'' at the [[Criterion Theatre]] (1895), and as the title character in the hit ''[[The Girl fromGay ParisParisienne]]'' (1896) at the [[Duke of York's Theatre]] (1896). She and her husband then toured [[Australia]] in 1897 with [[J. C. Williamson]] in 1897–98. She starred as Robin Hood and later Maid Marion in Williamson's hit pantomime ''[[Babes in the Wood]]'', drawing popular and critical praise.<ref name=Lipton/> However, the marriage with Gilbert had turned sour, with Reeve claiming extreme cruelty and petitioning for divorce while still in Australia. On the return sea journey to EnglandBritain, Reeve was forced to appeal to the captain of the ship for protection from him.<ref>[http://www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchivePressText2003/20030809.html Information from the Footlight Notes website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812083052/http://www.gabrielleray.150m.com/ArchivePressText2003/20030809.html |date=12 August 2007 }}</ref> Once in England, the couple separated, and the divorce was finalizedfinalised in 1900. Ada settled in London with her two daughters, Bessie Adelaide Hazlewood (b. 28 March 1895 in Wolverhampton) and Lillian Mary "GoodyGoodie" Hazlewood (b. Jan 1897 in London).{{fact|date=September 2022}}

Still in 1898, Reeve played the role of "Madame Celeste" in ''Milord, Sir Smith'', followed by the role of Cleopatra in ''The Great Caesar'' in 1899. Later that year, she created the role of Lady Holyrood in the hit musical comedy ''[[Florodora]]'' at the [[Lyric Theatre (London)|Lyric Theatre]]. She reprised her role as principal boy in ''Aladdin'' at the [[Princes's Theatre, Bristol|Prince's Theatre]], [[Bristol]], over Christmas 1899–1900. In 1900-011900–01, she again toured Australia, returning to Britain to tour in ''Florodora''. Reeve joined the cast of the hit musical ''[[San Toy]]'', in 1901, playing Dudley and later taking over the title role from [[Marie Tempest]]. The music was writtentranscribed down for Reeve's lower voice.<ref>[http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/fraser.charlton/edmuscom/page28/page33/santoysyn.html Information from the Edwardian Musical Comedy website]</ref> Late in the year, she succeeded [[Evie Greene]] in the title role of "Kitty Grey", followed by Ada Branscombe in ''[[Three Little Maids]]'', in 1902.<ref>[http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-frames.html?http&&&www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/reeve/reeve-a2.html Information from the Stage Beauty website]</ref> In between these engagements, she continued to play in pantomime, which she enjoyed very much, often as Aladdin.<ref name=Lipton/>

Reeve remarried in 1902 to Wilfred Cotton, a manager and actor who was the uncle of [[Lily Elsie]]. That year, she leased the Eden Theatre, Brighton, on behalf of her new husband. However, she caught typhoid fever on a trip to Germany and consequently was too ill to perform that Christmas. Under her husband's management, in 1903, she played Miss Ventnor in ''The Medal and the Maid''. Next, in 1904, she co-produced with her husband, and played the title role in, the play ''Winnie Brooke, Widow''. In 1905, she played the title role in ''The Adventures of Moll'' on tour and appeared in Birmingham again as Aladdin in the Christmas pantomime. In 1906, Reeve toured [[South Africa]] with her husband, becoming very popular. Back in England, she appeared at the Tivoli and Empire theatres and on tour and, in 1908, played Rhodanthe in the musical ''Butterflies'' at the [[Apollo Theatre]], which she produced.<ref name=Girls/> In 1909, they toured South Africa again and then toured ''Butterflies'' in Britain. She played the title role in the 'Christmas 1908 and 1909 pantomimes of ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', with [[George Robey]] as her stage mother.<ref name=Lipton/>

Over the following years, Reeve played in [[Variety show|variety]] in England and enjoyed extensive and lucrative foreign tours, including South Africa and the U.S. in 1911, South Africa in 1913, Australia in 1914, Australia and South Africa in 1917–1918 (including a return engagement at the Tivoli in Melbourne in ''You're in Love''), South Africa in 1920, Australia and New Zealand from 1922 to 1924 (again often in ''Aladdin'' with the Williamson company), and in 1926 and 1929, the last time playing in [[vaudeville]]. She was absent from England from 1929 to 1935. In BothAustralia in 1932, she starred in short films produced by [[Efftee Studios]], including two in the "Efftee Entertainers" series of films of variety acts from the local stage. The most notable of her Efftee films is "In the Future" (1932), a twelve-minute play that Reeve co-directed with [[F. W. Thring]].<ref>Long, Chris. "The Efftee Legacy". ''Cinema Papers'' [Australia] 41 (December 1982): 521–523, 582–583.</ref> The film's central premise is a reversal of traditional gender roles, in which Reeve plays a domineering wife who smokes a cigar and departs for her club while her husband sits at home embroidering. Both of Reeve's daughters, Bessie and Goody, had in the meantime settled in Australia, where both married and had children, Goody becoming a well known radio personality. Bessie died of an illness in 1954. Upon Ada's return to England, she appeared in cabarets, [[revue]]s and variety. Her next dramatic role was in 1940 in the musical ''Black Velvet''.

After a few more years on stage, in 1944 Reeve began appearing in films as Mrs. Barley in ''They Came to a City''. She appeared in a total of nine movies and continued her stage work in the 1940s and 1950s. At the age of 80, she retired from the stage but made two more films, the last of which was at the age of 83 in ''AThe Passionate Stranger'' in 1957.

*1957 -|1944|| ''[[TheThey PassionateCame Strangerto a City]]'' [Old|| Woman]Mrs. Batley ||

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050108022022/http://www.peopleplayuk.org.uk/collections/object.php?object_id=1631&back=%2Fguided_tours%2Fmusicals_tour%2Ffirst_musicals%2Fmusical_comedy.php%3F Information from the PeoplePlay website]

* [http://www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/th-frames.html?http&&&www.dgillan.screaming.net/stage/reeve/reeve-a2.html Ada Reeve (1876-19661876–1966)]

* {{imdbIMDb name|id=0716100|name=Ada Reeve}}

*[http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_contrib_id=238798 Ada Reeve's Australian theatre credits] in [[AusstageAusStage]]

[[Category:EnglishActresses actorsfrom London]]

[[Category:EnglishJewish femaleEnglish singersactresses]]