Louis Elliman (28 February 1903 – 15 November 1965) was an Irish
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
His ...
and theatre manager.
Elliman was born in Dublin, one of 12 children of Jewish parents: Maurice Elliman, who had fled Tsarist persecution in Russia, and his wife, Leah.
Louis was educated at
Synge Street CBS
Synge Street CBS (colloquially Synger) is a boys' non-fee-paying state school, under the auspices of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, located in the Dublin 8 area of Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1864 by Can ...
and
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...
.
Maurice Elliman became involved in cinema by establishing the
Theatre De Luxe
The Theatre De Luxe was a film theatre on Camden Street in Dublin, Ireland from 1912 to 1975.
History
The original cinema was opened by Maurice Elliman, a Jew who escaped the pogroms in Eastern Europe. The first building was designed by Frederic ...
in Camden Street, Dublin, in 1912. After university, Louis started work at a pharmacy but after a few years gave that up to become a film agent in London. In 1931, he married Ettie Robinson, in Dublin’s Adelaide Road synagogue.
In the meantime, Maurice acquired Dublin's
Gaiety Theatre, which was passed on to Louis.
[Roderick Flynn, Patrick Brereton: Historical Dictionary of Irish Cinema. Scarecrow Press, 2007, pg. 99; ]
In the early 1930s, Louis Elliman sold a 50% share in the Gaiety to entrepreneur Patrick Wall, a native of
County Clare
County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,81 ...
. The pair acquired the Metropole and Savoy cinemas, as well as, over time, more than 30 cinemas across Ireland. Acquired by the Rank Organization in 1946, the cinemas remained under Elliman management. Along with Wall, Elliman acquired the
Theatre Royal, Dublin
Over the centuries, there have been five theatres in Dublin called the Theatre Royal.
In the history of the theatre in Great Britain and Ireland, the designation "Theatre Royal", or "Royal Theatre", once meant that a theatre had been granted a ...
in 1936.
With the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Wall and Elliman were forced to keep the two theatres going with native talent only. This led to the emergence of a raft of Irish acts who were to provide the mainstay of the Royal's output for the remainder of its existence. These included such Irish household names as
Jimmy O'Dea
James Augustine O'Dea (26 April 1899 – 7 January 1965) was an Irish actor and comedian.
Life
Jimmy O'Dea was born at 11 Lower Bridge Street, Dublin, to James O'Dea, an ironmonger, and Martha O'Gorman, who kept a small toy shop. He was one ...
,
Harry O'Donovan
Harry O'Donovan (c. 1896 – 3 November 1973) was an Irish comedy scriptwriter, stage manager and actor.
Life
He was born in Dublin, Ireland and was apprenticed to a painter. In his spare time, he took part in amateur dramatics, finally joinin ...
,
Maureen Potter
Maria Philomena Potter (3 January 1925 – 7 April 2004), known as Maureen Potter, was an Irish singer, actress, comedienne and performer.
Early life
Potter was born in Dublin and educated at St. Mary's school in Fairview. She had a long caree ...
,
Danny Cummins,
Noel Purcell,
Micheál MacLiammoir,
Cecil Sheridan
Cecil Sheridan (21 December 1910 – 4 January 1980) was an Irish comedian and actor who performed in variety shows and pantomimes in Ireland and Great Britain during a versatile career spanning over forty years.
Early life
Born at 31 Pearse Squ ...
,
Jack Cruise
Jack Cruise (15 August 1915 – 4 May 1979) was a famous Irish comedian and actor, who performed in and wrote many shows in the Royal and Olympia theatres in Dublin.
Early life
Born in Phibsboro, Dublin to Michael Cruise (b. Colchester, Essex ...
,
Paddy Crosbie
Paddy Crosbie (1 October 1913 – 2 September 1982) was the Irish creator of the radio and television programmes '' The School Around The Corner'' and ''Back To School''.Sunday Independent, 5 September 1982
Youth
Crosbie was born in Dublin, Ir ...
, and
Patricia Cahill. In July 1951,
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...
appeared for a series of sold out performances at the Royal and was received with tremendous ovations. The legendary singer sang from her dressing room window to hundreds of people who were unable to get tickets and critics dubbed her "America's Colleen" Popular
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
American entertainer
Carmel Quinn
Carmel Quinn (31 July 1925 – 6 March 2021) was an Irish-American entertainer who appeared on Broadway, television and radio after immigrating to the United States in 1954.
Biography
Quinn was born in July 1925 and educated in Dublin. Her fath ...
also made her singing debut in the Theatre Royal during the early 1950s.
[
After a spell acquiring cinemas around the country, which were taken over by the Rank Organization, Louis went into film production. In 1957 he opened ]Ardmore Studios
Ardmore Studios, in Bray, County Wicklow, is Irelands's only four wall studio.
It opened in 1958 under the management of Emmet Dalton and Louis Elliman. Since then, it has evolved through many managements and owners. It has been the base for ...
. With managing director Emmet Dalton
James Emmet Dalton MC (4 March 1898 – 4 March 1978) was an Irish soldier and film producer. He served in the British Army in the First World War, reaching the rank of captain. However, on his return to Ireland he became one of the senior fig ...
he travelled to the USA to promote the studios and to acquire foreign investment. The studios accordingly landed its first major foreign booking with 1959's ''Shake Hands with the Devil'', starring Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
winner James Cagney. A year later, progress was consolidated when Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
appeared in Tay Garnett
William Taylor "Tay" Garnett (June 13, 1894 – October 3, 1977) was an American film director and writer.
Biography Early life
Born in Los Angeles, Garnett attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as a naval aviator in Wo ...
's ''" A Terrible Beauty"''. In 1961, Ardmore Studios hosted the controversial ''" The Mark"'', directed by Guy Green, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
at the Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
and earned its star, Stuart Whitman
Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...
, an Oscar nomination. Other films produced at this time include Don Chaffey
Donald Chaffey (5 August 1917 – 13 November 1990) was a British film director, writer, producer, and art director.
Chaffey's film career began as an art director in 1947, and his directorial debut was in 1953. He remained active in the indu ...
's ''The Webster Boys'' and ''"Johnny Nobody
''Johnny Nobody'' is a 1961 British drama film made by Viceroy Films Limited, with John R. Sloan as producer, and Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli as executive producers. It was directed by the British film and stage actor Nigel Patrick, w ...
"'' with Cyril Cusack
Cyril James Cusack (26 November 1910 – 7 October 1993) was an Irish stage and screen actor with a career that spanned more than 70 years. During his lifetime, he was considered one of Ireland’s finest thespians, and was renowned for his in ...
. Hammer Films also utilised the studios as a base for their production, ''The Viking Queen''. The studios went into receivership in 1963 but re-opened later.
Under pressure from rising overheads and the increasing popularity of the cinema and the introduction of television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, the Theatre Royal closed its doors on 30 June 1962.[
By this time Louis was dogged by bad health and died on November 15, 1965, aged 62.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliman, Louis
1903 births
1965 deaths
Businesspeople from Dublin (city)
Impresarios
People educated at Synge Street CBS
Irish Jews
Burials at Dolphins Barn Jewish Cemetery
Irish theatre managers and producers
Irish film producers