Helen Carte Boulter (born Susan Helen Couper Black; 12 May 1852 – 5 May 1913), also known as Helen Lenoir, was a Scottish businesswoman known for her diplomatic skills and grasp of detail. Beginning as his secretary, and later marrying, impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, she is best remembered for her stewardship of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century. Born in Wigtown, Scotland, she attended the University of London from 1871–1874 and pursued brief teaching and acting careers. In 1877 she obtained employment with Richard D'Oyly Carte and became his assistant and, later, business manager. She helped to produce the

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

and other Savoy Operas, beginning with '' The Sorcerer'' in 1877 and helped Carte with all his business interests. One of her principal assignments was to superintend arrangements for American productions and tours of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. She married Richard in 1888. During the 1890s, with her husband's health declining, Helen assumed increasing responsibility for the businesses, taking full control upon his death in 1901. She remarried in 1902 and continued to own the opera company and run most of the Carte business interests until her death. Although the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's operations decreased after Richard's death, Helen staged successful repertory seasons in London from 1906 to 1909, establishing that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas could continue to be revived profitably; the company continued to operate continuously until 1982. By the time of her death in 1913, the opera company had become a repertory touring company. Helen engaged

J. M. Gordon John McRobbie Gordon, ''né'' John McRobbie (12 October 1857 – 22 February 1944) was a Scottish singer, actor, stage manager and director, known as an influential stage director of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company after the death of W. S. Gil ...

to preserve the company's unique style. In her will, she left the Savoy Theatre, the hotel business and the opera company to her stepson, Rupert D'Oyly Carte.

Life and career

Early years

Susan Helen Couper Black was born in Wigtown, Scotland, the second of four children of George Couper Black (1819–1863), procurator fiscal and banker, and his second wife, Ellen, ''née'' Barham (1822–1902). One of her brothers, John McConnell Black, became a well-known botanist. Her grandfather, Robert Couper, M.D., was a Scottish physician and poet, and a great uncle was Sir George Couper an army officer for whom the Couper Baronetcy was created. Desprez, Frank. "The Late Mrs. D'Oyly Carte", '' The Era'', 10 May 1913, p. 19 From 1871–1874, registered as Helen Susan Black, she attended the University of London and was a gifted student, passing the examinations for Special Certificates in mathematics and in logic and moral philosophy (the university did not award degrees to women until 1878).Stedman, Jane W
"Carte, Helen (1852–1913)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004, ; accessed 12 September 2008 She also spoke several languages. After her studies, she supported herself by coaching students for examinations. She contemplated an acting career and took lessons in elocution, dancing and singing. Her first engagement was a two-month spell as a chorister and small part player in the pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Dublin in the 1876 Christmas season.Seeley, p. 22 She adopted the stage name Helen Lenoir, which, she later explained, had been the surname of her French ancestors until they anglicised it to Black on settling in Scotland in the 18th century. In February 1877 she travelled to London to audition for Richard D'Oyly Carte, who was setting up a provincial tour of a French farce adapted under the title ''The Great Divorce Case''. He engaged her for a small role, which she played in Liverpool and other cities, before leaving the tour after a few weeks and obtaining work in Carte's entertainment agency offices in London. She was soon assisting Richard D'Oyly Carte with the production of

's '' The Sorcerer''.

The woman behind the man

From the time that she became a secretary in Richard's agency in June 1877, Helen was intensely involved in his business affairs and had a grasp of detail and organisational and diplomacy skills that surpassed even Carte's.

Frank Desprez Frank Desprez (9 February 1853 – 25 November 1916) was an English playwright, essayist, and poet. He wrote more than twenty pieces for the theatre, as well as numerous shorter works, including his famous poem, ''Lasca''. Life and career D ...

, the editor of '' The Era'', wrote, "Her character exactly compensated for the deficiencies in his." She eventually became the business manager of the company and was later responsible for the Savoy Hotel, into which she introduced the new hydraulic passenger lifts. One of Helen's early tasks was to produce the British copyright performance of '' The Pirates of Penzance'' in Paignton. She made seventeen visits to America to promote Carte's interests, superintending arrangements for American productions and tours of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and American lecture tours of artistes managed by Carte, as well as supervising many of Carte's British touring companies. She also assisted in arranging American lecture tours for

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, Matthew Arnold and others. Helen, more than anyone else, was able to smooth out the differences between W. S. Gilbert and

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

, in the 1880s, to ensure that the two produced more operas together. She also tactfully and sympathetically dealt with the personal and professional problems of the actors in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company casts. Desprez wrote in her obituary, "She never took advantage of anybody; but I never heard of her letting anybody take advantage of her." In 1886, Carte raised Helen's salary to £1,000 a year plus a 10% commission on the net profits of all business at his theatres. According to historian Jane Stedman, "When she demurred, he wrote, 'You know very well, and so do all those who know anything about my affairs, that I could not have done the business at all, at any rate on nothing like the same scale, without you'". Carte's first wife had died in 1885, and Helen married Richard on 12 April 1888 in the Savoy Chapel, with Sullivan acting as Carte's best man. The couple's London home included the first private elevator.

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

, a client of Carte's agency and friend of the Cartes, made an etching of Helen in 1887 or 1888, "Miss Lenoir", and later helped to decorate the Cartes' home. Although some sources refer to Mrs. Carte as "Helen D'Oyly Carte", this is incorrect, as D'Oyly was a given name, not a surname. Her married name was Helen Carte. Throughout the 1890s, Richard's health was declining, and Helen assumed more and more of the responsibilities for the opera company and other family businesses. In his 1922 memoir,

Henry Lytton Sir Henry Lytton (born Henry Alfred Jones; 3 January 1865 – 15 August 1936) was an English actor and singer who was the leading exponent of the starring comic patter-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas from 1909 to 1934. He also sta ...

said of Carte: In 1894, Carte engaged his son Rupert D'Oyly Carte as an assistant. Rupert's older brother, Lucas (1872–1907), a barrister, was not involved in the family businesses and died of tuberculosis at the age of 34. With no new Gilbert and Sullivan shows written after 1896, the Savoy Theatre put on a number of other shows for comparatively short runs, including several of Sullivan's less successful operas. Young Rupert assisted Helen and Gilbert with the first revival of '' The Yeomen of the Guard'' at the Savoy in May 1897. In 1899, the theatre finally had a new success in Sullivan and Basil Hood's '' The Rose of Persia'', which ran for 213 performances.

After Carte's death

Richard died in 1901 leaving the theatre, opera company and hotel business to Helen, who assumed full control of the family businesses. She leased the Savoy Theatre to William Greet in 1901. She oversaw his management of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's revival at the Savoy of ''

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...

'', and several new comic operas including '' The Emerald Isle'' (1901; Sullivan and Edward German, with a libretto by Hood), '' Merrie England'' (1902) and ''

A Princess of Kensington ''A Princess of Kensington'' is an English comic opera in two acts by Edward German to a libretto by Basil Hood, produced by William Greet. The first performance was at the Savoy Theatre, London, on 22 January 1903 and ran for 115 performances. ...

'' (1903; both by German and Hood). The last of these ran for four months in early 1903 and then toured. When ''A Princess'' closed at the Savoy, Greet terminated his lease, and Helen leased the theatre to other managements until 8 December 1906. She had married

Stanley Boulter Stanley Carr Boulter (29 May 1852 – 5 January 1917) was a British lawyer and businessman, who established The Law Debenture Corporation. In 1902, he married Helen Carte, widow of Richard D'Oyly Carte, and he assisted in the financing of the Sa ...

, a barrister, in 1902, but she continued to use the surname Carte in her business dealings. Boulter assisted her in the Savoy businesses. She was a founder member of the Society of West End Theatre Managers, along with Frank Curzon, George Edwardes,

Arthur Bourchier Arthur Bourchier (22 June 186314 September 1927) was an English actor and Actor-manager, theatre manager. He married and later divorced the actress Violet Vanbrugh. Bourchier was noted for roles both in classical drama, particularly William S ...

and sixteen others. Her stepson Rupert took over his late father's role as Chairman of the Savoy Hotel in 1903, which Helen continued to own. The years between 1901 and 1906 saw a decline in the fortunes of the opera company. The number of D'Oyly Carte repertory companies touring the provinces gradually declined until there was only one left, visiting often small centres of population. After the company visited South Africa in 1905, more than half a year elapsed with no professional productions of G&S in the British Isles. During this period, Helen and Rupert focused their attention on the hotel side of the family interests, which were very profitable. In late 1906 Helen re-acquired the performing rights to the Gilbert and Sullivan operas from Gilbert (she already had those of Sullivan) and staged a repertory season at the Savoy Theatre, reviving the opera company and leasing the Savoy to herself. She persuaded the recently knighted Gilbert, now 71, to stage direct the productions in repertory, and once again she had to exercise the greatest tact, as Gilbert sometimes had difficulty accepting that he was no longer an equal partner and was taking no financial risk. He was displeased that he had not been consulted about the casting of the productions. The season, and the following one, were tremendous successes, revitalising the company. Contemporary accounts describe Carte taking three curtain calls with Gilbert on the opening night of the 1906 revival of ''The Yeomen of the Guard''. DOCplanter

After the repertory seasons in 1906–07 and 1908–09 the company did not perform in London again until 1919, only touring throughout Britain during that time. Carte wrote in 1911 that her health made it impossible for her to produce any more revivals at the Savoy. In March 1909

Charles H. Workman Charles Herbert Workman (5 May 1872 – 1 May 1923) was a singer and actor best known as a successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He was variously credited as Charles H. Workman, C. Herbert Work ...

took over the management of the Savoy Theatre from the now frail Carte. She continued to manage the rest of the family businesses with the assistance of Rupert. In 1911 she engaged

, who had been a member of the company under Gilbert's direction, as stage manager. In 1912 King George V conferred on Carte the Order of the League of Mercy, in recognition of her charitable generosity. After another illness, lasting several months, she died of a cerebral haemorrhage complicated by acute bronchitis on 5 May 1913, a week before her 61st birthday. A private funeral was held at Golders Green crematorium. In her will, she left the Savoy Theatre, the opera company and the hotel business to Rupert, bequests of £5,000 to each of her two brothers and smaller bequests to a number of friends and colleagues. She left the considerable residuary estate to her husband. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to operate continuously until 1982.

Portrayals in film and television

Carte has been portrayed in the films '' The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan'' (1953) by Eileen Herlie and in '' Topsy-Turvy'' (1999) by Wendy Nottingham. She was portrayed by Mary McKenzie in the British 1961 3-part TV series, ''Gilbert & Sullivan: The Immortal Jesters''."Gilbert and Sullivan The Immortal Jesters"
BBC Genome, accessed 22 January 2018

Notes

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carte, Helen 1852 births 1913 deaths Alumni of the University of London British hoteliers Opera managers People from Wigtown People associated with Gilbert and Sullivan Scottish theatre managers and producers 19th-century Scottish businesspeople