John Lawson
(1865-1920), Actor-manager and director; music hall entertainerSitter in 1 portrait
published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, 1900s
NPG Ax160432
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Gillian Brown
06 September 2018, 21:24
This is my maternal great-grandfather. He married Cissie Lawson, an actress, and they were subsequently divorced. I have his passport and know that he travelled to Australia and America with the play "Humanity" for which he was famous. I have an original typed copy of the play. John performed the song "Sally in our Alley" and I have a postcard of my great-grandmother in the role. The postcard appears on this web site http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Camberwell.htm together with a programme of the Camberwell Empire with photographs of John, Managing Director, and Cissie, Proprietress. John sued his wife over the ownership of the theatre and won the case.
John gave Garry Marsh, film actor and my maternal grandfather, his start in theatre from which he moved on to films.
Ian Rimington
11 April 2018, 13:19
He was my great-great grandfather.
Born: January 9, 1865 in Hollingwood, Derbyshire. He was an actor-manager and director including three of the earliest silent moves: Humanity; or, Only a Jew (1913), The King of Crime (1914) and The Monkey's Paw (1915) The latter was was the first of several film versions (and spoofs! See Simpson's Tree House of Horror II); it was adapted from the story by W W Jacobs and originally performed as a play with Lawson in lead role in the West End. He owned a number of theatres including the Camberwell Empire and Revue Theatre Kingston. He died on November 25, 1920 in Charing Cross Hospital, London
Nick Hood
10 January 2019, 18:03
He was my grandfather. My father (Roy Hood) was by a brief relationship in about 1902 with Marion Rose Hood, a member of the cast of his hit music hall sketch, Humanity. I have an audio cassette and also a digital copy of a recording from 1897 of a six minute extract from Humanity, which was originally made on a wax cylinder. It includes John Lawson singing the hit song from the show "Only a Jew".