1837-1910
For a person only involved in only one short silent film, Hawes Craven warrants a larger write up here than it would seem that he would. Craven was a British theatrical scene painter in Victorian London; and not just any scene painter at that--he's been called simply the best; certainly he was the pinnacle of realistic scene painting. He was born Henry Hawes Craven Green on this day in Leeds, England into a theatrical family. His father was importantly involved in the ancient and evolving art of pantomime, and his mother was an actress and published writer. He appeared on stage with his father at the very early age, where his name was shortened to "Hawes Craven." It stuck and stayed with him for the rest of his professional life. It was soon discovered that his real talent lie in drawing, which he displayed advanced ability in from a young age. He was summarily able to attend school in London and go on to an apprenticeship with one of the country's premiere set designers of his time: John Gray. Eventually he would get his first solo work, and he famously worked in the Drury Lane in the earliest portion of his career: both in pantomimes at the royal theater there and on opera sets at Covent Garden. He then went on to set designs for several large stage productions and eventually was awarded for working his way up through the ranks with position of principle scene painter at the Lyceum Theatre. He became a specialist in designing scenes for staging of Shakespeare plays; later on he also worked as a senior scene designer for opera's at the famed Savoy (this is when he worked for the larger than life Richard D'Oyly Carte). He lived through the era of gas lit theaters and with the coming of The Savoy in the 1880's, he then found himself working in a theater lit for the first time by electricity. These new working conditions required changes to set painting and design--a feat that he reportedly handled easily (no small task!). At the Savoy, he was the principle painter for their famous staging of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas (he also painted all of the scenery for the opera Ivanhoe by Arthur Sullivan--a sketch for can be seen below--staged at the Royal English Opera House in 1891). His last work was at Her Majesty's Theater and the Garrick respectively. In 1905 he was also elected president of the Scenic Artists' Association. Craven only live a further five years after this, succumbing to bronchitis 19 days after his 73rd birthday. He is buried at the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries (they are adjacent, and are basically one cemetery at this point--I am not sure which one contains his grave); this is one of the very large resting places in the greater London area that are not part of the seven famous cemeteries known as the "magnificent seven." Below are some examples of his sketches used for set design and at least one painting (all are retrieved from Wiki sites).
As far as film is concerned, as mentioned above, he was only involved the production of one film: King John in 1899. This is the oldest Shakespeare adaptation to have any surviving materials, and may possibly be the very first filmed adaptation of Shakespeare (owed to the the fact that the existence of Macbeth supposedly released in 1898, cannot be proven to have existed at all at this time). The original film was filmed in three parts, with Hawes' work coming in the section labeled as "Act I: Scene 5" or The John-Hubert Temptation. He was the only artist responsible for the set decoration in this section of the original 5 minute film. Today (as of this writing) only one filmed section of the original 3 part production remains extant, accounting for just about a one minute of runtime, unfortunately it is not the part of the film that Hawes worked on. There are however, and thankfully, stills that survive of that portion of the film, one of which can be seen above under the title card for the film.
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| [Source: BillionGraves] |
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| Ivanhoe sketch |
Wikipedia
1564-1616
England's most famous writer William Shakespeare is thought to have been born on this date in Straford-Upon-Avon, England. The son of an alderman and glover John Shakespeare. Though no official records survive as to when his actual birthday was, it is traditionally celebrated on April 23rd. He was baptized for sure on the 26th of April, so the 23rd is as good a guess as any. There are also no records regarding Shakespeare's early education, but it is generally accepted that he attended King's New School in Stratford. After marrying young at the age of 18 and starting a family, he fell completely off the historical map. He surfaces again in 1592, identified as being part of the theatrical community in London. Because of the biographical black hole, so to speak, it is not known when Shakespeare began to write. Though it had to have been some many years before 1592, because, by this time, he was well known enough among theater goers to be attacked in print by another playwright. By 1599, a group from a larger theater company, of which he was a leader of, banded together to build a theater of their own on the River Thames, the now very famous Globe. In 1608 that same company took control of Blackfriars Indoor Theater. By this time, there is every indication that Shakespeare had amassed an impressive about of wealth. He was not, however just a writer and theater manager. He was an actor as well, and he is listed as continuing to act beyond a time when he would needed to, so it is logical to assume that he enjoyed it and possessed a talent for it. What is additionally known, is that throughout his career, he evenly divided his time between London and his home town. Being that you can make a case that he is the most famous playwright in history, it not surprising that he work as source material in film dates back to the 19th century. In 1898 "The Scottish Play" Macbeth became the first Shakespeare play to be filmed (note: the existence of this film is still somewhat in question). It is a short film featuring English actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson as Macbeth. The following year the film King John (1899) was produced by the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, a portion of this film still survives and can be found in the Silent Shakespeare DVD collection. The first film in the 20th century to be produced from his work was Romeo and Juliet, a French production, followed by Le duel d'Hamlet, both in 1900. In 1912, The Life and Death of King Richard III was released, the film is feature length and stars Frederick Warde, it was for it's day, a true epic in every sense of the word, featuring outdoor full blown staged war scenes. It's not that Richard III had not been filmed before, it had (notably in 1911 this version of Richard III, although a short, was impressive for it's time, and again is featured in Silent Shakespeare); but this version was the first true film staging of one of Shakespeare's plays, taking the action completely off the stage itself. Frederick Warde indeed said that as a stage actor, the outdoors action scenes required him to invent a whole new approach to acting; one could make a case that he was film's very first action hero. The film is also famous because for a very long time, it was one the most coveted completely lost films. Every film historian that covered the silent era lamented the lose of the film, some even more than other famously lost films. One of the reasons for it's fame, is precisely that it was a first in film history: it is now the oldest surviving feature length film from the United States, and I use "surviving" because a complete print was found in 1996 in Portland, Oregon. It is now restored and has a soundtrack composed by famed film composer Ennio Morricone. It is such an irony that both this film and the body of the historical Richard III were famously lost and found (something that I wrote about last year for a blogathon). There are literally hundreds of films that have been produced from Shakespeare's work, and many, many of them were in the silent era, so it would be beyond the scope of this humble "Born Today" post to tackle, but follow links below for many more details on the writer and the films. To my knowledge, the first sound film produced from his work came very early on in 1926 with a De Forest Phonofilm in Julius Caesar. There was even a silent film from India based on Shakespeare's work: Khoon-E-Nahak (1928). The first full length sound film of one of his plays also came early on in The Taming Of The Shrew (1929) a Mary Pickford vehicle, featuring the Western Electric Sound System. Close to two dozen projects are currently in the works based on his plays, but the most recently released film is a Turkish adaptation of Romeo and Juliet: Kirik Kapler Bankasi. Shakespeare died in his hometown on the same day that he is thought to have been born April 23rd. He would have just turned 52. The cause of his death is just as mysterious as many missing historical moments from his life. He was buried there two days later, near the alter of Holy Trinity Church there.
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