Frank Clewlow
Encyclopedia
Frank Dawson Clewlow was an English actor-director who in 1936 became Federal Controller of Productions for the Australian Broadcasting Commission
.
He was born in Stone, Staffordshire, England
, to Joseph Clewlow (born 1858 Stafford, Staffordshire) and his wife Mary Jane Dawson (born 1857 in Luton, Bedfordshire
) whom he married on 29 December 1884 at St Mary, Luton. Frank had two younger siblings Hilda Dorothy Clewlow (born 1891 in Stone) and Harry Dawson Clewlow (born 1898 in Stone) He went to Alleyne's Grammar School then studied maths, physics, chemistry, zoology and botany at the University of Birmingham
, but became involved with the Pilgrim Players and, under the influence of Barry Jackson and John Drinkwater, never completed the course. He borrowed £4 and ran away from home as he couldn't take his University exams due to working on the play there. He joined a repertory company in Ilkeston, Derbyshire
.
He worked for two years as leading actor and stage manager under the name "Stafford Dawson" in 1909 for Annie Horniman
at the Manchester Gaiety Theatre, Manchester
. , then toured with Allan Wilkie
(father of Douglas Wilkie
) to the Far East
in 1911.
On his return, he was appointed by (later Sir) Barry Jackson as actor-producer with his newly-formed Birmingham Repertory Company
(1913 - 1918) where he appeared in
He played with Ian McLaren's company as Touchstone and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, In November 1921 he met Herbert Pochin and Walter Martin in a cafe to discuss setting up the Leicester Drama Society. The inaugural meeting took place on 25 January 1922 at Council Room at the Chamber of Commerce where he was appointed Honorary Secretary. Following this on 11 April 1922 a public meeting was held at the Association Hall in Leicester where Frank persuaded Lena Ashwell
to form a Leicester
branch of the British Drama Society and directed it for three years.. Of the three founding members Frank Clewlow was the only one with acting experience. Whilst there he produced
He worked as producer for Scottish National Theatre Society (1922-1947) at The Athenaeum Theatre in Glasgow
and the Museum Hall in Bridge of Allan
for two years where he directed
, and as stage manager for Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company.
He was brought out to Australia in 1926 by Wilkie, as actor and stage director. He married Minnie Suckling, an actress with the same troupe (having previously married Gertrude Mary T Littlewood between April and June 1910 in St John Baptist, Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire, England).
He played Henry VIII, Mercutio and Lafeu at the Theatre Royal, Hobart and Henry VIII at the Otago Theatre, Dunedin
, New Zealand
.
It was during this time he met a young actor Catherine Duncan with whom he was to have a professional association several years later.
He was appointed director of the Melbourne Repertory Theatre Society, succeeding Gregan McMahon
in 1928., amongst other plays directed The Touch of Silk (by Australian playwright Betty Roland
) in November of that year. Angel Symon, who had also toured with Wilkie and assembled an important collection of stage ephemera now held at the University of Adelaide
, was his secretary. The Repertory Theatre disbanded around 1930 after encountering financial difficulties.
Clearly a man of huge enthusiasms, newspaper cuttings of this time show him appearing in public almost every week, whether conducting poetry recitals, lectures on German theatre , on poetry, judging at eisteddfods and elocution competitions, even opening an art exhibition in 1930. He contributed an article The Future of the Theatre for July 1931 Stream leftist literary journal that included an article by Nettie Palmer.
He was responsible for the stage debut of Coral Browne
in the George Bernard Shaw
play You Never Can Tell at the Garrick Theatre in 1930.
Around 1930 he organised a series of "great plays" for 3LO, a new member station of the Australian Broadcasting Commission
, which led to his appointment in 1931 as Director of Drama for that station. He assembled a strong group of radio actors to perform several great plays every week. A similar group was assembled by his counterpart in Sydney, Laurence Halbert, and the two stations exchanged programs by landline and transcription disc.
In 1938 he was moved to Sydney to become National Director of Productions for the ABC by (later Sir) Charles Moses
, who was developing the Commission into a more centralised network. It is difficult now to appreciate what a powerful position this was, but in the decades before television radio drama was the chief form of entertainment for most Australians and the major radio networks provided the chief source of employment for many hundreds of actors (and a springboard to a movie career for many such as Peter Finch
) and the drama heads of radio stations and production houses such as Grace Gibson and Hector Crawford could make or break an actor and the success or otherwise of a production could make or break a program.
But rivals and opponents such as Leslie Rees and Lawrence H Cecil were developing influence within the organization. His insistence on "high standards" could easily be interpreted as reactionary, and his acid tongue made enemies of people who disagreed with him. In 1950 he was excised from his position and (quite unwillingly) transferred to Hobart
to produce plays there.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
.
He was born in Stone, Staffordshire, England
Stone, Staffordshire
Stone is an old market town in Staffordshire, England, situated about seven miles north of Stafford, and around seven miles south of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is the second town, after Stafford itself, in the Borough of Stafford, and has long been of importance from the point of view of...
, to Joseph Clewlow (born 1858 Stafford, Staffordshire) and his wife Mary Jane Dawson (born 1857 in Luton, Bedfordshire
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
) whom he married on 29 December 1884 at St Mary, Luton. Frank had two younger siblings Hilda Dorothy Clewlow (born 1891 in Stone) and Harry Dawson Clewlow (born 1898 in Stone) He went to Alleyne's Grammar School then studied maths, physics, chemistry, zoology and botany at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
, but became involved with the Pilgrim Players and, under the influence of Barry Jackson and John Drinkwater, never completed the course. He borrowed £4 and ran away from home as he couldn't take his University exams due to working on the play there. He joined a repertory company in Ilkeston, Derbyshire
Ilkeston
Ilkeston is a town within the Borough of Erewash, in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the River Erewash, from which the local borough takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550...
.
He worked for two years as leading actor and stage manager under the name "Stafford Dawson" in 1909 for Annie Horniman
Annie Horniman
Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH was an English theatre patron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including...
at the Manchester Gaiety Theatre, Manchester
Gaiety Theatre, Manchester
The Gaiety Theatre, Manchester was a theatre in Manchester, England. It was opened in 1884 and demolished in 1959. It replaced a previous Gaiety Theatre on the site which had been destroyed by fire....
. , then toured with Allan Wilkie
Allan Wilkie
Allan Wilkie was an English Shakespearean actor of Scottish descent noted for his career in Australia.Born in Toxteth Park, Lancashire, he was educated at Liverpool High School and went to work in a merchant's office but became infatuated with the theatre after experiencing a performance by Osmond...
(father of Douglas Wilkie
Douglas Wilkie
Douglas Wilkie was a respected columnist for The Sun News-Pictorial . The son of travelling Shakespearean actors Allan Wilkie and Frediswyde Hunter-Watts, he began his newspaper career as a copy boy with the Hobart Mercury. This period was followed by Sir Keith Murdoch appointing him as Geelong...
) to the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
in 1911.
On his return, he was appointed by (later Sir) Barry Jackson as actor-producer with his newly-formed Birmingham Repertory Company
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a theatre and theatre company based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England...
(1913 - 1918) where he appeared in
- Henry IV Part 1 11 October 1913
- Cap and Bells 25 October 1913
- The Critic 1 November 1913
- Christmas Nativity Plays 20 December 1913
- The Critic 26 December 1913
- As you like it 7 January 1914
- Christmas Party 10 January 1914
- Candida 24 February 1914
- She stoops to conquer 18 March 1914
- Mock Doctor 28 March 1914
- Twelfth Night 20 April 1914
- As you like it 23 April 1914
- Rebellion 2 May 1914
- Cap and Bells 23 May 1914
- The Critic 30 May 1914
- His Excellency the Govenor 13 June 1914
- Eldest Son 29 August 1914
- End of the World 12 September 1914
- Cupid and the Styx 19 September 1914
- David Ballard 19 October 1914
- New Ways to Pay Old Debts 24 October 1914
- The Wild Duck 21 November 1914
- The Second Mrs Banks 24 November 1914
- Cupid and the Styx 28 November 1914
- Strife 5 December 1914
- She stoops to conquer 26 December 1914
- Silver Box 13 February 1915
- Tempest 17 April 1915
- Return of the Prodigal 15 May 1915
- Liars 22 May 1915
- The Rivals 4 September 1915
- Keepers of the Garden 9 September 1915
- Candida 23 October 1915
- His Majesty's Pleasure 30 October 1915
- Faithful 4 December 1915
- Twelfth Night 11 March 1916
- Alchemist 8 April 1916
- Twelfth Night 22 April 1916
- The Tempest 22 April 1916
- Merry Wives of Windsor 24 April 1916
- Macbeth 29 April 1916
- The Merchant of Venice 3 May 1916
- As You Like It 15 May 1916
- David Ballard 17 May 1916
- Merry Wives of Windsor 21 June 1916
- Good Natured Man 16 September 1916
- Cupid and the Styx 30 September 1916
- Sweeps of '98 7 October 1916
- God of Quiet 7 October 1916
- Silver Box 14 October 1916
- Misfortune of Being Clever 21 October 1916
- First Distiller 26 October 1916
- Farmers Wife 11 November 1916
- Puss in Boots 26 December 1916
- Critic 20 January 1917
- Tragedy of Nan 24 February 1917
- Cupid and the Styx 3 March 1917
- While Rome Burns 10 March 1917
- Education of Mr Surrage 19 March 1917
- Merry Wives of Windsor 7 April 1917
- Augustus in Search of a Wife 14 April 1917
- Twelfth Night 23 April 1917
- Two Gentlemen of Verona 28 April 1917
- Change 8 September 1917
- Over a Wall 20 October 1917
- Cophetua 27 October 1917
- Tragedy of Nan 3 November 1917
- Trelawny of the Wells 10 November 1917
- Corsican Brothers 24 November 1917
- Just to Get Married 23 February 1918
- St George and the Dragon 30 March 1918
- Measure for Measure 23 April 1918
- Twelfth Night 2 May 1918
- Silver Box 18 May 1918
- Cupid and the Styx 25 May 1918
- Taming of the Shrew 15 June 1918
He played with Ian McLaren's company as Touchstone and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, In November 1921 he met Herbert Pochin and Walter Martin in a cafe to discuss setting up the Leicester Drama Society. The inaugural meeting took place on 25 January 1922 at Council Room at the Chamber of Commerce where he was appointed Honorary Secretary. Following this on 11 April 1922 a public meeting was held at the Association Hall in Leicester where Frank persuaded Lena Ashwell
Lena Ashwell
Lena Ashwell, OBE was a British actress and manager, known as the first to organize large-scale entertainment for troops at the front, which she did during World War I....
to form a Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
branch of the British Drama Society and directed it for three years.. Of the three founding members Frank Clewlow was the only one with acting experience. Whilst there he produced
- The Silver Box 12 June 1922
- The Cobblers Shop 1922
- The Fantasticks 1922
- Othello 1923 (and played the part of the Moor)
- Strife 1923
- The Cassils Engagement 1923
- An Enemy of the People 1923
- The Merry Wives of Windsor 1924
He worked as producer for Scottish National Theatre Society (1922-1947) at The Athenaeum Theatre in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and the Museum Hall in Bridge of Allan
Bridge of Allan
Bridge of Allan is a town in Stirling council area in Scotland, just north of the city of Stirling. It was formerly administered by Stirlingshire and Central Regional Council....
for two years where he directed
- Thomas the Rhymer 2 December 1924
- The Two Shepherds 2 December 1924
- The Lifting 1 February 1925
- The Guinea's Stamp 13 February 1925
- Mary Stuart 24 March 1925
- The Dark Lady 25 March 1925
- James the First of Scotland 11 May 1925
- The Inn of Adventure 13 October 1925
- Punch Counts Ten 22 December 1925
- Souterness 19 January 1926
- The House of the Queen 19 January 1926
- Gregarach 23 March 1926
- The Fantasticks 23 March 1926
, and as stage manager for Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company.
He was brought out to Australia in 1926 by Wilkie, as actor and stage director. He married Minnie Suckling, an actress with the same troupe (having previously married Gertrude Mary T Littlewood between April and June 1910 in St John Baptist, Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire, England).
He played Henry VIII, Mercutio and Lafeu at the Theatre Royal, Hobart and Henry VIII at the Otago Theatre, Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
It was during this time he met a young actor Catherine Duncan with whom he was to have a professional association several years later.
He was appointed director of the Melbourne Repertory Theatre Society, succeeding Gregan McMahon
Gregan McMahon
Gregan McMahon, CBE was an Australian actor and theatrical producer.McMahon was born in Sydney, elder son of John Terence McMahon, a clerk, and his wife Elizabeth, née Gregan. Both parents were emigrants from Ireland. McMahon was educated at Sydney Grammar School and St Ignatius' College, Riverview...
in 1928., amongst other plays directed The Touch of Silk (by Australian playwright Betty Roland
Betty Roland
Betty Roland was an Australian writer of plays, screenplays, novels, children's books and comics.-Early years:Betty Roland was born Mary Isobel Maclean at Kaniva, Victoria, the daughter of Roland and Matilda Maclean...
) in November of that year. Angel Symon, who had also toured with Wilkie and assembled an important collection of stage ephemera now held at the University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, was his secretary. The Repertory Theatre disbanded around 1930 after encountering financial difficulties.
Clearly a man of huge enthusiasms, newspaper cuttings of this time show him appearing in public almost every week, whether conducting poetry recitals, lectures on German theatre , on poetry, judging at eisteddfods and elocution competitions, even opening an art exhibition in 1930. He contributed an article The Future of the Theatre for July 1931 Stream leftist literary journal that included an article by Nettie Palmer.
He was responsible for the stage debut of Coral Browne
Coral Browne
Coral Browne was an Australian-American stage and screen actress.-Career:Coral Edith Brown was the only daughter of a restaurant-owner. She and her two brothers were raised in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, where she studied at the National Gallery Art School...
in the George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
play You Never Can Tell at the Garrick Theatre in 1930.
Around 1930 he organised a series of "great plays" for 3LO, a new member station of the Australian Broadcasting Commission
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, which led to his appointment in 1931 as Director of Drama for that station. He assembled a strong group of radio actors to perform several great plays every week. A similar group was assembled by his counterpart in Sydney, Laurence Halbert, and the two stations exchanged programs by landline and transcription disc.
In 1938 he was moved to Sydney to become National Director of Productions for the ABC by (later Sir) Charles Moses
Charles Moses
Sir Charles Moses CBE headed the Australian Broadcasting Commission from 1935 until 1965....
, who was developing the Commission into a more centralised network. It is difficult now to appreciate what a powerful position this was, but in the decades before television radio drama was the chief form of entertainment for most Australians and the major radio networks provided the chief source of employment for many hundreds of actors (and a springboard to a movie career for many such as Peter Finch
Peter Finch
Peter Finch was a British-born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as "crazed" television anchorman Howard Beale in the film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a...
) and the drama heads of radio stations and production houses such as Grace Gibson and Hector Crawford could make or break an actor and the success or otherwise of a production could make or break a program.
- As guest adjudicator for a MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
elocutionElocutionElocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone.-History:In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper...
competition in 1934, he was impressed with Ida Elizabeth OsbourneIda Elizabeth OsbourneIda Elizabeth Osbourne was an actor and broadcaster born in Brighton, Victoria, the only daughter of Mr and Mrs W. L. Osbourne and educated at Firbank Grammar School.-Career:...
and found parts for her in radio productions. So when he was authorised by ABC head Charles MosesCharles MosesSir Charles Moses CBE headed the Australian Broadcasting Commission from 1935 until 1965....
to create a national children's radio program, he called on her to develop it. This became the highly influential Children's Session and Argonauts ClubArgonauts ClubThe Argonauts Club was an Australian children's radio program, first broadcast in 1933 on ABC Radio in Melbourne. Its format was devised by Nina Murdoch who had run the station's Children's Hour on 3LO and stayed on when that station was taken over by the Australian Broadcasting Commission...
.
- He commissioned Edmund BarclayEdmund BarclayEdmund Barclay was an English-Australian writer best known for his work in radio drama. Radio historian Richard Lane called him "Australian radio's first great writer and, many would say, Australian radio's greatest playwright ever." He also wrote stage plays and film scripts including The Silence...
to write the series As Ye Sow which ran for most of 1937.
- In 1939 he cast the (then) unknown Nigel Lovell in a radio adaptation of The Wild Ass's Skin by Balzac, then as Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
.
- Later that same year he placed Peter FinchPeter FinchPeter Finch was a British-born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as "crazed" television anchorman Howard Beale in the film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a...
on contract.
- He produced one of the most famous Australian radio plays, The Fire on the SnowThe Fire on the SnowThe Fire on the Snow is a verse play by Douglas Stewart about the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica by Robert Falcon Scott. It premiered on ABC radio on 6 June 1941 to great acclaim.....
by Douglas Stewart, first performed by the ABC on 6 June 1941 with Ida Elizabeth OsbourneIda Elizabeth OsbourneIda Elizabeth Osbourne was an actor and broadcaster born in Brighton, Victoria, the only daughter of Mr and Mrs W. L. Osbourne and educated at Firbank Grammar School.-Career:...
as Narrator.
- In 1943 he commissioned Gwen MeredithGwen MeredithGwenyth Valmai Meredith OBE was an Australian author, playwright, and radio writer. She is best known as the writer of the long-running radio serial, Blue Hills.-Life:...
to write a radio serial to be a feature of the Country Hour, with the remit of providing agricultural information along with entertainment, expressly to consult with the NSW Agricultural Department and the ABC Rural Department. That program The Lawsons ran from 1944 to 1949 then morphed into the historic Blue HillsBlue Hills (radio serial).Blue Hills, written by Gwen Meredith, was an Australian radio serial about the lives of families in a typical Australian country town called Tanimbla. "Blue Hills" itself was the residence of the town’s doctor....
which ran until 1976.
- He appointed Catherine Duncan to write for radio after judging her entry The Sword Sung in a Sydney New Theatre competition.
But rivals and opponents such as Leslie Rees and Lawrence H Cecil were developing influence within the organization. His insistence on "high standards" could easily be interpreted as reactionary, and his acid tongue made enemies of people who disagreed with him. In 1950 he was excised from his position and (quite unwillingly) transferred to Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
to produce plays there.
Recognition
- He appeared in the Who's Who of Australia for 1936 and 1947.
- A portrait of Clewlow painted by Jack Carington Smith was an exhibited entry for the 1955 Archibald PrizeArchibald PrizeThe Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
.