Frederick Mouillot

Frederick Mouillot Was born in Suffolk Street, Dublin on 31st May 1864. His family had an aristocratic pedigree, with connections to the de Thierry family who were French aristocrats, some of whom escaped the revolution but 14 of whom were guillotined. Supposition suggests the survivors arrived in England penniless but with a good education and the ability to build new, reasonably prosperous lives. Frederick’s father, Auguste Comte Mouillot, who had married in 1847, in Holborn, central London, became a British citizen in 1879, while he was living in Dublin. He was a hotel owner, but he had died by the time Frederick married Gertrude. According to the 1906 Green Room Book, Frederick prepared for the stage by hard work in touring stock companies. He made his first professional appearance at Princess’s Theatre, Glasgow [reconstructed in the 1970s; now the Citizen’s Theatre] as a utility player. A more specific record is of Frederick in Lady Grey in 1883 at the ‘New Royal Theatre’, Bristol [presumably the Theatre Royal, which had been extensively remodelled in 1881]. Three years later, at only twenty-one years of age, he formed a company with Mr. H. H. Morell and purchased the Theatre Royal, Bournemouth, which had opened in 1882. Frederick continued to act: in 1888 he appeared in Lady Clare at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, for which ‘The Stage’, on 15th June 1888, reported: “Mr. Frederick Mouillot, albeit at times inaudible, owing to a peculiar habit of lowering his voice at the termination of a sentence, gave a careful reading of the character of John Middleton, and in the second act especially may be credited with a really capable piece of playing in his scene with Lady Clare”. On 24th August the play toured to the Theatre Royal, Belfast [now demolished] where “Mr. F. Mouillot as John Middleton gives a masterly interpretation in keeping with the character.” Just a year earlier, Frederick had been involved in what is still the worst recorded theatre fire in English history: the terrible conflagration that destroyed the Theatre Royal, Exeter, on the night of Monday 5th September 1887, with a loss of nearly two hundred lives. Indeed, it was he who spoke the final lines before the tragedy unfolded. This occurred during the first touring performance of George R. Sims’ popular drama Romany Rye. Mr. Jarrett, a survivor who had occupied a stalls seat, reported that “Between the second and fourth acts I left the theatre. Soon after I returned I saw the drop-scene fall almost on Mr. Mouillot’s head as he was speaking his lines. He finished what he had to say after the curtain had passed his face, and remarked to a friend “What a strange thing; I never saw that occur before.” At the same moment the curtain came forward with a great puff, and seemed to graze my forehead. I saw at the sides sparks and flames, and heard a crackling. Realising at once the terrible nature of the incident, I rushed for the door and was over the stairs in a moment. When I reached the passage on a level with the dress-circle I saw there was a frightful rush for the front exit, and I turned into a passage on the right, which I knew led to the special escape-doors in New North Road. I fell in going over the stairs, and reached the street exhausted. Just as I reached the big doors they were thrown back, but by whom I cannot say. The scene in the doorways and on the outside balconies, which were crowded with men and women, mostly women, piteously calling for rescue and with the flames near enough to burn and scorch them, was simply heart-rending.” Frederick’s later career During the 1890s, around the time Frederick married Gertrude, the Morell and Mouillot business was dramatically expanding. By 27th July 1897, when they opened the Queen’s Opera House at Crouch End, north London [later the Crouch End Hippodrome; destroyed by bombing during World War II] with the popular ‘Japanese operetta’ The Geisha, they owned another 17 theatres, including the Grand Theatre, Swansea. On 13th December 1897 the Theatre Royal, Dublin, designed by the famous theatre architect Frank Matcham, was opened by Mr. Morell and “the actor-manager Mr. Frederick Mouillot with the assistance of a group of Dublin businessmen”. Also in 1897 an original musical The Little Duchess, of which Frederick was part author, opened and, the following year, the partners toured the musical comedy The Transit of Venus. Also in 1898 the Coronet Theatre, Notting Hill Gate, west London [now a cinema], was opened, with a production of The Geisha. In 1900 Morell & Mouillot took over The Grand Pavilion, Boscombe, with Frederick being described in the local press as “An impresario, who brought in star performers such as Sarah Bernhardt and Sir Henry Irving and updated the theatre to seat two thousand.” (The partners disposed of this theatre in 1908. The building survives, as a nightclub.) By 1904, they were managing Terry’s Theatre on the Strand, central London [demolished in 1923] and by 1908 they owned and managed the Hippodrome Theatre, Colchester [now a nightclub]. Part of their success was attributed to them touring the same acts around their many theatres. The performers were offered a smaller wage than they would have earned for appearing at just one theatre, but they had guaranteed work for months at a time. By 1906 Frederick was reported, in the Green Room Book, to be the proprietor or managing director of numerous theatres and music halls including the Theatre Royal, Dublin [demolished]; Grand Opera House, Belfast; Theatre Royal, Belfast [demolished]; Opera House, Cork [destroyed by fire in 1955; present Opera House built in 1963]; Theatre Royal, Jersey [now Jersey Opera House]; Broadway Theatre, New Cross, London SE [demolished]; Theatre Royal, Bournemouth; Hippodrome, Boscombe [now a nightclub]; Grand Theatre, Southampton [demolished]; Hippodrome, Southampton [destroyed by bombing during WWII]; Grand Theatre, Swansea; Hippodrome, Margate [demolished]; Opera House, Tunbridge Wells [public house]; Queens Theatre, Leeds [demolished] and Metropole Theatre, Glasgow [demolished]. Frederick was also involved in businesses in Australia and South America, and also South Africa, where he was one of the original directors of The Electric Theatres, which had at least five cinema/theatres in Cape Town and a cinema in Durban for the black population, and a large number of touring companies. He was part author, with Edward Abbott Parry, playwright, author and senior barrister, of What The Butler Saw and What’s the Matter with London? The former, Parry’s most successful play, was first performed in 1905. Another, The Captain of the School was performed in London and Manchester in 1910 with Parry’s younger daughter, Dorothy, playing the role of the heroine Rhoda McIntyre. Gertrude also appeared in this play. After Frederick died in 1911 Parry had ideas for further plays, but had not the heart to continue with them after the death of his friend and he became a judge at Lambeth County Court. Frederick’s hobbies were listed in the Green Room Book as “theatres, music halls and taking long voyages” (not too surprising, given his far-flung business interests!). His address was given as 1 and 2 King Street, Covent Garden (his offices) and his clubs were said to be the Green Room (London), Vernon (Belfast) and Ormonde (Dublin).