All posts filed under: BIOGRAPHY

Hollywood in 1930

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Basil Rathbone was making films in Hollywood in 1930 (This Mad World, The Bishop Murder Case, The Flirting Widow, Sin Takes a Holiday, …). What was Hollywood like back then? Below is an aerial photo of Hollywood that appeared in the June 1930 issue of Talking Screen magazine. The street running from the top, through the center to the bottom of the picture, is Hollywood Boulevard. Vine Street runs across the picture from side to side in the foreground. If you look along the Boulevard you will notice a high tower on the right side of the street. This is the corner of Highland and Hollywood Boulevard. Beyond this tower you will notice a long, black-looking, flat building. This is the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where all those well-known premieres happen. Across the street from this, two high buildings can be seen. The nearer one is the El Capitan Theatre, and the farther one is the Roosevelt Hotel. Next to the tower on the corner of Highland and Hollywood Boulevard are the Embassy Club and …

John Miltern: In Memorium

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Eighty-seven years ago today (January 15, 1937) Basil Rathbone’s dear friend and “foster father” was killed after being struck by an automobile while he was crossing a busy street. Jack Miltern had been living in an apartment above Basil and Ouida’s garage. His daily routine involved helping Basil Rathbone walk his six dogs in Griffith Park, which lay on the other side of Los Feliz Boulevard, across from Rathbone’s home at 5254 Los Feliz Boulevard. On the day he died, Basil and Jack crossed the boulevard to the park safely, and the dogs had a good run in the open brush that covered the hill. As they headed back in the late afternoon, Jack was leading Leo, Bunty and Cullum on their leashes. Basil was leading Moritza, Happy and Judy. Miltern reached the street a few paces ahead of Rathbone. As Jack stepped off the curb, Basil noticed the headlights of an approaching car. “Wait! Don’t go now!” he shouted, but Jack, being slightly deaf, didn’t hear him. Rathbone watched in horror as a speeding …

The Stratford-upon-Avon Players’ Tour of North America, 1913-1914

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Following the 1913 Summer Festival at Stratford-on-Avon, Frank Benson, the actor-manager of the Benson Shakespeare Company (and Basil Rathbone’s cousin), led a company of 50 members, including Rathbone, on a tour of North America. The tour was organized by the governors of the Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Benson’s company traveled under the name “The Stratford-upon-Avon Players.” Fourteen different plays of Shakespeare were taken. Because Rathbone was still honing his skills as an actor, he did not play the leading roles. Also in the company was a young actress named Marion Foreman. Basil had only just met Marion in August, so the tour was an opportunity to get to know her well. They married a year later, on October 3, 1914. The North American tour included the following plays: The Merchant of Venice (Basil played Lorenzo; Marion played Jessica) Romeo and Juliet (Basil played Paris) King Richard II (Basil played Aumerle; Marion played Lady-in-Waiting) As You Like It (Basil played Silvius; Marion played Phoebe) Henry IV, Pt. 2 (Basil played the Earl of Westmoreland) Twelfth …

Favorites of the Famous

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This is a short post, but hopefully you will enjoy it. I wanted to share an interview that Basil Rathbone did on the weekly radio program Favorites of the Famous, broadcast in May 1952. Host Wayne Howell, a disc jockey in Dallas, Texas, interviewed celebrities about music, including their favorites. During breaks in the interview, the station would play a portion of the celebrity’s favorite piece of music. The favorite pieces of music that Rathbone named (and from which excerpts were played in the original program) are: Rathbone said he was also a fan of the music of Brahms, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven. When asked about musicians in his family, Rathbone said that his daughter Cynthia played the piano, and his mother had played the violin, but he regretted that he had never learned to play an instrument. Yes, that means he was faking it when he appeared as Sherlock Holmes and played the violin. In addition to discussing music, Basil Rathbone told the audience about his recent Broadway play Jane, which opened at the Coronet …

A Farewell to Basil Rathbone

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On this anniversary of Basil Rathbone’s death (July 21, 1967), I’m sharing an article that was first printed in Issue #12 (1968) of the horror fan magazine Castle of Frankenstein. Written by Calvin T. Beck, the article is a tribute to our favorite actor. Here is “A Farewell to Basil Rathbone”: Of all dramatic artists in the firmament, Basil Rathbone was one of the most beloved and respected. While I have special deep affection for all creative people in the film world, I must confess there are just those very few—perhaps no more than there are fingers on a hand—whom I have grown to love the most. To respect a star, to be thrilled and left charged as if by some kind of energy by his presence and personality is not only rare—it is the height of a living experience! Few have been the artists capable of evoking such feeling; but the great and beloved Basil Rathbone was one of them. This sense of loss has never been so badly felt since the passing of …

Basil and Ballet

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In the November 27, 1964 issue of Life magazine Basil Rathbone read an article about ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. The article prompted Rathbone to write a letter to the editor, which was published in the December 18 issue. The letter reads: Sirs: You say “not since the now legendary Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova danced together” has there been such a great team as Nureyev and Fonteyn. I am curious about this! Following my demobilization from the British army in 1919-20, I became a devoted follower of the Russian ballet headed by Nijinsky and Karsavina and saw them both many times in everything in which they danced. But before WW1 my father took me to see Anna Pavlova. At this time Pavlova was no longer a member of the Russian ballet but was giving solo performances or duets with Mordkin. Time plays tricks with memories but I find my earliest memories to be the sharpest, particularly when they relate to as great an artist as Nijinsky, who even inspired me to go to ballet school. (And …

A Profile of Basil and Ouida in 1938

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Today I’m sharing an article that I found in the March 21, 1938 edition of The Daily Mirror. SHE’S LOVED A VILLAIN FOR YEARS! by Molly Castle If I want to find the Basil Rathbones home around tea time (and tea at any time is enough of a rarity in Hollywood to be worth going after), I always choose a Monday. Because on Monday there is no racing at Santa Anita. And at the races is just where I would look for Basil and Ouida Rathbone as many days a week as work doesn’t interfere. The Rathbones are quite unusual in Hollywood, where they do say it is the custom to change your wife as often as you change your clothes. When they arrive at a party you will hear the natives exclaim, “Here comes Basil Rathbone with that same wife.” They’ve been married twelve years, and to hear Basil talk you’d think he’d only met her a week ago and was still surprised to find anyone so exceptional. “Ouida could be a success at …

A Year in the Life of Basil Rathbone — 1940

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In 2018 I created a post about the events in Basil Rathbone’s life during 1930. Let’s jump ahead ten years and take a closer look at where Basil was and what he was doing in 1940. Where did he live? What was he doing? What did he earn? In 1940, Basil was living and working in Hollywood. Basil, his wife Ouida, and their daughter Cynthia had moved from their house on 5254 Los Feliz Blvd. to a new house in Bel Air. Due to the addition of baby Cynthia to the family in the spring of 1939, the Rathbones moved to a larger house “with a room and a bath and a kitchenette for the baby and a larger garden to care for” (In and Out of Character, pp. 165-166). The new house was located at 10728 Bellagio Road, high in the wooded hills of Bel Air, 1260 feet above Hollywood. The French chateau type house sat on four acres, surrounded by a fence. One side overlooked the San Fernando Valley, and the other side …

The Rathbone Family History

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Basil Rathbone wrote about starting his acting career in the Shakespearean company led by his cousin, Sir Frank Benson. This post will take a closer look at the Rathbone family. Just how closely were Basil and Sir Frank related? Not close at all, as it turns out. Basil’s great-great-great-grandfather, William Rathbone III, was also Frank’s great-great-grandfather. The Family Tree diagram below shows that William had two children: William and Sarah. He actually had more children, but we are focusing on William and Sarah because Basil Rathbone is descended from William, and Frank Benson is descended from Sarah. William Rathbone III, who lived in Liverpool from 1726 to 1789, built his fortune in merchant shipping. The company traded in a variety of products, including timber, salt, iron bars, linen, leather, tobacco, tallow, wheat, rye, and rice. The Rathbones (William and his son William IV, who joined his father in the family business) never became involved in the lucrative slave trade. In fact, the Rathbones were ardent abolitionists. Both father and son were founding members of the …

Basil’s Photo Album

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Many years ago, someone offered a photo album for sale on the auction site eBay. It was Basil Rathbone’s personal photo album, full of photos that he had taken. I wanted it badly, but the price was too steep for me. All I could do was download the images that accompanied the listing. Unfortunately, the images — snapshots of album pages — are not very large, and the individual photos are unclear. Nevertheless, I am sharing the images with you in this post. Maybe the person who bought the photo album will see this post, take pity on us, and send better images of the album photos! In this first image, we see seven (7) photos. (Click on the thumbnail below to see the largest version I have. The larger photo will open in a new window.) The photo at the top is labeled “Lands Cricket Ground.” “Lands” isn’t clear, but I think that’s what it says. But where is this cricket ground? This photo appears to be three separate snapshots carefully arranged in the …