C.V. Becker

(b. 08/02/1881 - d. 21/03/1933). Professionally, Clarence (Clarrie) Vivian Becker was an attorney and a founding partner of Wertheim Becker, a Johannesburg law firm that still exists today. But he was clearly a man of many talents. A C.V. Becker is credited as playing one of two Cape Town detectives in The Vulture’s Prey (1922), the film directed by Dick Cruikshanks and William Bowden. Ralph Trewhela refers to C.V. Becker as being responsible for some of the earliest sound recordings in South Africa (1908), describing him as an attorney who specialised in “humorous monologues”. In fact, his name also comes up on the website of the Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music at the University of London. In addition he was involved in amateur theatre, producing the play The Geisha for the Johannesburg Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society in 1925, while in 1928-1929 he was one of the three Vice Presidents of the Johannesburg Repertory Players. For them he also was Shylock in scenes from The Merchant of Venice (1930). Finally, Becker wrote the book “With the Springboks in England, 1906-1907: a press record of the tour”, a publication which is now considered very rare. He was survived by his widow, Hilda May (née Silcock), two sons and one daughter. The actress Gaenor Becker is his granddaughter. (FO)