THE FILMS

RADIO

DISC RECORDINGS

THE KINGSTON- UPON-HULL CONNECTION
The Tivoli Theatre/Skeltons Tivoli House Cafe

OMRALAS 

Kitty McShane

Queens Theatre, South Shields

Argyle Theatre, Birkenhead

'Old Mother Riley' was filmed at the old Stoll Studios, taking six weeks to shoot, at a cost of £2,000.The opening scene featured the already familiar 'Matchseller' sketch.

For this, and subsequent films, the daughter's name was changed from Bridget to Kitty. In this film, OMR accidentally calls his daughter Bridget by mistake.By the time it was spotted it was too late to too change it, so it remained in the film. I will leave it to you to spot where in the film the blooper occurs.

Front of House photograph for Old Mother Riley's Legacy. (1942)

Stoll Studios - A brief history

A major British theatrical impresario, Sir Oswald Stoll (b. Melbourne, Australia, 1866; d. London, 1942), knighted in 1919, took over the London Coliseum in 1904 and quickly gained a controlling interest in theatres throughout Britain.

In April 1918, he founded the Stoll film company as both a distributor and producer (its first film was Comradeship, 1919, directed by Maurice Elvey), and the company was to remain a major player in British cinema through the 1930s.

The Stoll company's silent output included more than two dozen directed by Elvey from 1919 to 1924, among them such titles as The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921), starring Eille Norwood, and The Passionate Friends (1922), starring Milton Rosmer.

In 1920, it acquired a converted aeroplane factory at Cricklewood as its studio, ownership of which Stoll retained until 1938.

In the '30s, the studio, which had been slow to adopt sound, was mainly used by independent producers and mainly for short films, but late in the decade it was used by Butcher's to make Old Mother Riley (d. Oswald Mitchell, 1937) and John Baxter made several films there from the mid '30s.

Stoll himself, a cold and formal individual, was, however, an enthusiastic supporter of the British film industry, if never a creative producer in the American mould.

[Anthony Slide, Encyclopedia of British Film]

Front of House photograph for Old Mother Riley's Legacy. (1942)

Front of House photograph for The Original Old Mother Riley. (1937)

Butcher Films - A brief history

Butcher's Film Service. W. Butcher and Sons, were nineteenth-century chemists and magic lantern manufacturers. They then moved into camera production, before getting into film distribution in the Edwardian era. In association with many other companies, they produced and distributed a wide range of stuff - from early silent comedies to literary adaptations, crime dramas with John Bentley as Paul Temple and "The Toff", variety shows like International Circus Review, music hall vehicles for Frank Randle, George Formby, Norman Evens, Elsie and Doris Waters, Billy Cotton, and Wilson, Kepple and Betty.

There were also the cheaply made programme filler thrillers of the '50s and '60s. Often derided for their shoddiness, they nevertheless helped a good many talents get a foothold both in front of and behind the camera, in particular straight acting roles for the unlikely Frank Muir, Peter Glaze and Jackie Collins.

Production companies distributed by Butcher's included Stoll, Nettlefold, Mancunian, British and Dominions , Progress, Empire Film Manufacturing.
[Courtesy of Mark Silvester's Silvo Screen website]