Albert Eric Maschwitz OBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(10 June 1901 – October 1969), known as
Eric Maschwitz and sometimes credited as
Holt Marvell, was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
entertainer, writer, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.
Life and work
Born in
EdgbastonEdgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
,
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, the descendant of Jewish
SilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n immigrants, Maschwitz was educated at Arden House preparatory school, Henley in Arden,
Repton SchoolRepton School, founded in 1557, is a co-educational English independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the British public school tradition, located in the village of Repton, in Derbyshire, in the Midlands area of England...
and
Gonville and Caius College, CambridgeGonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
.
As a lyricist, Maschwitz wrote the
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
s of several successful films in the 1930s and 1940s, but is perhaps best remembered for his lyrics to 1940s popular songs such as "
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is a romantic British popular song written in 1939 with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by Manning Sherwin.-Setting:...
" (music by
Manning SherwinManning Sherwin was an American composer. Born in Philadelphia, Sherwin attended Columbia University before embarking upon a long career in musical theatre and films....
and
Jack StracheyJack Strachey , was an English composer and songwriterBorn John Francis Strachey in London, England on 25 September 1894 he began writing songs in the 1920s for the theatre and the music hall, scoring his first success with songs he had written for Frith Shephard's long running musical revue Lady...
) and "
These Foolish Things"These Foolish Things " is a standard with words by Eric Maschwitz and music by Jack Strachey. Harry Link, an American, sometimes appears as a co-writer, but his input was probably limited to changes to suit the U.S. market. It is one of a group of 'Mayfair Songs', like "A Nightingale Sang in...
" (music by
Jack StracheyJack Strachey , was an English composer and songwriterBorn John Francis Strachey in London, England on 25 September 1894 he began writing songs in the 1920s for the theatre and the music hall, scoring his first success with songs he had written for Frith Shephard's long running musical revue Lady...
). Maschwitz was romantically linked to the Chinese-American actress
Anna May WongAnna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
while working in Hollywood, and the lyrics of "These Foolish Things" are evocative of his longing for her after they parted and he returned to England.
Maschwitz started his stage acting career in the early 1920s, playing Vittoria in the first successful modern production of Webster's
The White DevilThe White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the...
(Marlowe Society, Cambridge ADC Theatre, 1920). He joined the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1926. His first
radioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
show was
In Town TonightIn Town Tonight was a BBC radio programme broadcast on Saturday evening from 1933 to 1960 . It was an early example of the chat show, originally presented by Eric Maschwitz.Its theme music was the Knightsbridge March by Eric Coates...
. While at the BBC he wrote a radio operetta
Good Night Vienna with the popular song
Goodnight Vienna. In 1932 it was adapted as a
film starring Anna NeagleGoodnight, Vienna is a 1932 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Jack Buchanan and Anna Neagle and Gina Malo. Two lovers in Vienna are separated by the First World War, but are later reunited....
.
Under contract to MGM in Hollywood from 1937, he co-wrote the adaptation of
Goodbye, Mr. ChipsGoodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
, made by
MGM-BritishMGM-British was a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer initially established at Denham Film Studios in 1936. The films produced there were A Yank at Oxford , The Citadel , Goodbye, Mr...
, for which he shared an
Academy AwardThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
nomination).
From August 1939, he was a postal censor in Liverpool. From November 1939, he served with the
Secret Intelligence ServiceThe Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
(SIS)/MI-6 D Section (sabotage). In 1940, he briefly worked to establish a resistance organization in
BeverleyBeverley is a market town, civil parish and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, located between the River Hull and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley...
, Yorkshire, and for Army Welfare in London before being assigned to the
Special Operations ExecutiveThe Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
(SOE). In 1940 he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps. He was then sent to New York City to work for the
British Security CoordinationBritish Security Coordination was a covert organization set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service in May 1940 upon the authorization of Winston Churchill.-Operation:...
(BSC). In 1942, he returned to London, briefly supervising radio programmess for the troops. He then transferred to the
Political Warfare ExecutiveDuring World War II, the Political Warfare Executive was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries....
(PWE). He ended the war as chief broadcasting officer with the 21st Army Group, leaving the army as a Lieutenant-Colonel.
In 1958, near the start of the BBC/
ITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
ratingsAudience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
wars, he rejoined the BBC as Head of Television Light Entertainment. About the job he said, "I don't think the BBC is a cultural organisation. We've got to please the people. The job of a man putting on a show is to get an audience." Maschwitz left to join the rival ITV in 1963.
During the course of his varied entertainment career, Maschwitz also adapted French comedies such as
Thirteen For Dinner; wrote the book and lyrics for numerous musicals, amongst them
BalalaikaBalalaika is a musical play in three acts with book and lyrics by Eric Maschwitz, music by George Posford and Bernard Grun. It opened in London at the Adelphi Theatre on 22 December 1936, starring Muriel Angelus, Roger Treville, Clifford Mollison and Betty Warren, and ran for 569 performances.A...
,
Summer Song, which used the music of
DvorakAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
,
Happy Holiday (based on
Arnold RidleyMajor William Arnold Ridley, OBE was an English playwright and actor, first notable as the author of the play The Ghost Train and later in life for portraying the elderly Private Charles Godfrey in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army .-Early life:Ridley was born in Walcot, Bath, England where...
's play
The Ghost Train), and
Zip Goes a MillionZip Goes a Million is a musical with a book and lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by George Posford, based on the 1902 novel Brewster's Millions. It premiered in London in 1951, starring George Formby, and ran for 544 performances.-Synopsis:Act I...
, which was written specially for George Formby; and he was the creator of the radio series
Café Collette. He also edited the
Radio TimesRadio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
, and even turned his hand to the detective novel:
Death at Broadcasting House, co-written with
Val GielgudVal Henry Gielgud was an English actor, writer, director and broadcaster. He was a pioneer of radio drama for the BBC, and also directed the first ever drama to be produced in the newer medium of television....
and published in 1931, revolves around a radio play disrupted by the murder of one of the cast.
Maschwitz was married twice: first to
Hermione GingoldHermione Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, an image enhanced by her sharp nose and chin, as well as her deepening voice, a result of vocal nodes which her mother reportedly encouraged her not to remove. She starred on stage, on radio, in films, on...
, who was granted a divorce in 1945, and then immediately to Phyllis Gordon, who remained his wife until his death.
His autobiography,
No Chip On My Shoulder, was published by Herbert Jenkins in 1957.
He was created an Officer of the
Order of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(OBE) in 1936.
External links