Henry Moncrieff Tennent (18 February 1879 – 10 June 1941), was a British
theatrical producer,
impresario and
songwriter. From 1929 to 1933, he mentored
Binkie Beaumont, having previously worked with him in Cardiff. When Tennent, already the general manager at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and a senior executive with
Moss Empires, persuaded the boards of
Moss Empires and of
Howard & Wyndham Howard & Wyndham Ltd was a theatre owning, production and management company named after John B. Howard and Frederick W. P. Wyndham, founded in Glasgow in 1895, and which became the largest of its type in Britain. The company continued well into the ...
to co-operate, in order the better to produce theatre drama, it was Tennent and Beaumont who became the chief executives of a new shared company H. M. Tennent Ltd. The largest and controlling shareholders were the Cruikshank family of
Howard & Wyndham Howard & Wyndham Ltd was a theatre owning, production and management company named after John B. Howard and Frederick W. P. Wyndham, founded in Glasgow in 1895, and which became the largest of its type in Britain. The company continued well into the ...
founded in Glasgow in 1895 and headquartered in Edinburgh.
Their first production at the
Queen's Theatre in 1936 was a failure, but later that year they formalised their partnership as the production company 'H. M. Tennent Ltd', with offices on the top floor of the Globe Theatre (now the
Gielgud), and went on to great success. On Tennent's death of a
heart attack in 1941, Beaumont found he was unmentioned in Tennent's will, but nevertheless took over as managing director of the company.
References
External links
National Portrait Gallery*
*Th
Collection of H.M. Tennent correspondence relating to the 1954 parliamentary debateis held by the
Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre and Performance Department.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennent, H. M.
1879 births
1941 deaths
British songwriters
British theatre managers and producers
Impresarios