5280 x 3180 px | 44,7 x 26,9 cm | 17,6 x 10,6 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
11 ottobre 2022
Ubicazione:
291 Mare Street, London, England, UK, E8 1EJ
Altre informazioni:
Sir Oswald Stoll (20 January 1866 – 9 January 1942) was an Australian-born British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre company. He also owned Cricklewood Studios and film production company Stoll Pictures, which was one of the leading British studios of the Silent era. In 1912, he founded the Royal Variety Performance (originally Royal Command Performance) a now-annual charity show which benefits the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund Born in Melbourne, Australia as Oswald Gray, he moved to England with his mother, Adelaide McConnell Gray after the death of his father James Oswald Gray. When his mother remarried, he took his stepfather's last name, Stoll. At a young age, Stoll left school to help his mother, Adelaide, manage first the Parthenon music hall in Liverpool, and later a regional theatre company. The company was a success, and Stoll began to buy or build city theatres. The theatre business made Stoll a wealthy man, and in 1898 he merged his business with that of competitor Edward Moss, to form Moss Empires. By 1905, almost every large town in Great Britain had an "Empire" or a "Coliseum" theatre, managed by Stoll. He continued to honour the roots of his business by installing his mother in each new box office, so she could take the first ticket sale His film company Stoll Picture Productions was founded in April 1918, and acquired a one-stage studio in Surbiton which the company retained until 1923. A former aeroplane factory in Cricklewood was purchased in 1920 and converted to film use as Cricklewood Studios. Particularly associated with director Maurice Elvey, Stoll's company maintained a connection with the film industry until 1938 when the Cricklewood studio was closed Stoll worked with the theatre architect Frank Matcham on several theatres, including The Hackney Empire
