Leigh Lovel and Octavia Kenmore
Nearly all of Sykes' acting career in Great Britain was with the touring company of this theatrical team that since 1904 claimed to be husband and wife. Leigh Lovel founded the company in 1894 and it was active through 1918. Octavia Kenmore joined in 1903. They specialized in the plays of Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian playwright idolized by James Joyce. Shortly after the First World War ended, Lovel and Kenmore emigrated to the United States where they continued their stage careers. At first, they established a repertory company in New York City, but it was unsuccessful. The couple continued their stage careers individually and occasionally appeared on stage together. Lovel obtained minor fame as a radio actor: He portrayed Doctor Watson in the NBC weekly series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Leigh Lovel
Leigh Lovel was born December 10, 1865 as Alfred Thomas Cutbill in Lewisham, Kent (incorporated into London in 1899). His father, a Cambridge University graduate, was a barrister and landowner. In January 1879, he was orphaned when his mother, Ellen Sarah, died; his father, Alfred, having died two years earlier. In 1881, 16-year-old Alfred and his 14-year-old brother Charles were boarding students in Professor Lee's School, Dartmouth Row, Lewisham. Sometime after leaving school the two brothers took up farming in Biddenden Parish, Kent. Note that Alfred came into his inheritance in 1886 when he attained age 21; his brother two years later. In 1888, the combined estates of both parents were valued at £25,000, equivalent to £3.6 million in 2021 ($4.9 million). Had the inheritance been invested in UK government securities, it would have provided each brother £345 per annum (UK consol yield of 2.75%).
In 1888, Alfred Cutbill married Lilian Alice Bates, daughter of an estate caretaker. The couple lived at "Minks Hill" which was the Cutbill brothers' farm. There, middle class Alfred and Charles employed a cook, maid, and groom. The Cutbill's first child, Alfred Walter, was born in 1891. After Alfred's birth, the Cutbill brothers left Minks Hill for a nearby farm known as "River Hall." That property had 228 acres of pasture land, 48 acres arable land, and 15 acres suitable only for hops. After moving to River Hall, Alfred and Charles joined the Biddenden Conservative Party and the Biddenden chapter of the Cottage Gardeners Society. In 1893, the Cutbills' second and last child, Nellie Adela, was born.
n/ London City Press, December 16, 1865; London Evening Standard, March 17, 1856; UK Probate Register - 1878, 1879; Globe, June 27,1888; Household Returns, Census of England & Wales - 1881, 1891; Will of Alfred Cutbill dated January 1, 1878; Will of Ellen Sarah Cutbill, January 1, 1879; Kentish Express, November 12, 1887; Bank of England Inflation Calculator; Bank of England, Economic Data, Sussex Agricultural Express - September 12, 1891, June 7, 1892; Household Returns, Censuses of England & Wales - 1881, 1891, 1901.
While at River Hall Farm, Arthur and Lilian Cutbill took up amateur theater. In December 1891, they appeared in My Turn Next, a one-act farce by Thomas J. Williams. It was performed in a school auditorium and Alfred had the role of Tim Bolus; Lilian played Cicely.
n/ Sussex Agricultural Express, December 19, 1891.
The Cutbills appeared on stage occasionally through 1895. During that period, Alfred used the stage names Robert Leigh and Robert Leigh-Lovel before settling on Leigh Lovel. In 1894, Lovel formed a touring company which he advertised as "The Best Company visiting the small towns." The company performed in small theaters in the south of England. At the turn of the century, Alfred Cutbill was acting, managing a touring theater troupe, and working the family farm.
n/ Horsham Express, January 3, 1893, The Era, November 2, 1894, July 27, 1895; The Stage, August 16, 1894; Household Return, Census of England & Wales, 1901.
Leigh Lovel, c. 1925
For the 1899 concert of the Biddenden Gardeners Society, which took place after the Boer War began, Cutbill recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Absent-Minded Beggar," a work referenced several times by Joyce in Ulysses. During his recitation, a collection was made for the widows and orphans of soldiers.
n/ Sussex Agricultural Express, November 25, 1899.
In late 1901, Alfred and Charles sold their livestock (233 sheep, 5 dairy cows, and 7 yearlings) and gave up River Hall. Alfred and Lilian divorced or separated, and by mid-1902, Alfred was living in a semi-attached house in Lewisham, London. It was then that he made theater his full-time vocation as Leigh Lovel. Leigh's brother Charles took up poultry farming in Smarden, the civil parish on Biddenden's northeastern boundary.
n/ Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser, October 10, 1901; Household Return, Census of England & Wales, 1901. The Kent (Biddenden) voter roll for 1902 shows Alfred and Charles at River Hall; however, a September 18, 1902 advertisement in The Era states that Mr. Leigh Lovel of 15 St. German's Road, Forest Hill, S.E., was available for engagements. The London (Forest Hill Ward) voter roll for 1904 shows Alfred Cutbill at 15 St. German's Road.
From 1900 through 1903, Lovel appeared in A Pair of Spectacles by Sydney Grundy, In the Soup by Ralph Lumley, and Under the Red Robe by Edward Rose. A Pair of Spectacles and In the Soup were presented by Lovel's company. In 1902, Lovel placed a "Professional Cards" advertisement in The Era to promote his acting career. In it, he gives a fanciful autobiography, a transcript of which is available from this website. Click here to view that pdf file in a pop-up window.
n/ Various UK newspapers from 1900 through 1903, including the trade papers The Era and The Stage; Professional Cards,The Stage, April 17, 1902.
In early 1903, Olivia Kenmore joined Lovel's company and the two developed a personal relationship. On January 21, 1904 Lovel and Kenmore sailed from London on the SS Minnehaha and eleven days later arrived in New York City. They did not return to England until early November of that year. It's likely that Lovel was engaged by New York's Century Theatre Co. whose artistic director was the prolific American playwright, Sydney Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld's original, adapted, and English-translated works played regularly on Broadway from 1874 through 1902.
n/ The Stage, March 12, 1903; Immigration Records, Ellis Island, New York, February 1, 1905; Classified Advertisements (Professional Cards), The Stage - February 11, 1904, October 20, 1904, November 10, 1904; New York Clipper, January 9, 1904.
By 1903, Rosenfeld had become appalled by the low-brow nature of New York theater and sought to remedy that situation. He planned a repertory company that would perform sophisticated, modern plays by authors such as Ibsen, Sudermann, Hauptmann, Maeterlinck, and Bernard Shaw. Rosenfeld named the acting troupe "The Century Players" and the first plays to be performed would be Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing followed by Ibsen's Rosmersholm then Sudermann's Battle of the Butterflies. The Century Players' debut performance was to take place in February 1904 but opening night wasn't until March 19, 1904. Overall, the critics were disappointed by Much Ado About Nothing and their reviews were unfavorable. Rosmersholm appeared ten days later and after three performances, Rosenfeld shut down the company. Apparently, Century Theatre Co. was insolvent and couldn't meet its payroll.
n/ Broadway Weekly, March 10, 1904; The National Magazine (April 1904); The Theatre Magazine (April 1904, May 1904); The Sun (New York), April 1, 1904.
Much Ado About Nothing, Century Players, New York, 1904
The Theatre Magazine (April 1904).
Neither Lovel nor Kenmore appeared in the only two plays performed by The Century Players. Also, they are not listed among the troupe's members in an advertisement in the March 10th issue of Broadway Weekly. It's possible that the English duo used new stage names for this high-risk, artistic venture. Of the company's 21 female players, Marjorie Smith and Laura Alonzo have no published notices, as is the case for Frederick Defoe of the 20 male players. It's more likely; however, that Lovel was engaged by Rosenfeld as a business manager, production assistant, or some other off-stage personage. That Lovel and Kenmore had a relationship with Rosenfeld's company is evidenced by their theatrical offerings after returning to England. Lovel and Kenmore frequently performed Ibsen's plays, for which they became known, and also performed Sudermann's Magda (the Sykes translation) and Shaw's Candida and Captain Brassbound's Conversion. More telling, is that in February 1905, Lovell dubbed his acting company "The Century Players" and announced it would perform "High-class Comedies, Plays, and Pastorals by the Best Authors."
n/ The Stage - February 2, 1905, March 16, 1905.
Upon their return to England, Lovel and Kenmore quickly resumed work. In mid-December 1904, in Hastings, Lovel's company presented the Duke of Killiecrankie by Captain Robert Marshall. Ulysses contains an allusion to that successful playwright, an author of light comedies.
n/ Hastings and St. Leonards Observer, December 17, 1904; "Capt. Marshall's dark horse Sir Hugo," U (Gabler) 16:1242-44, Peter Fishback, "Captain Marshall's Horse," James Joyce Online Notes 17 (October 1921).
Lovel and his Century Players toured throughout Great Britain (with three visits to Ireland: Belfast twice and Dublin once) until near the end of the First World War. Kenmore had the leading female role in nearly all productions and was the company's star performer.
n/The Duke of Killicrankie in Belfast, The Stage - February 9, 1905, March 1, 1906; Ibsen Week in Dublin, Irish Times, May 12-14, 1908.
Octavia Kenmore
There are no public documents that show conclusively when and where Kenmore was born. Also, we can't be sure of the actress' given name. In his will, Lovel states that she was in fact Octavia Maria Anderson, a name that suggests her parents were Scandinavian immigrants. That would explain her attraction to the works of Ibsen and Strindberg. Also, one shouldn't rule out that as a stage-struck youngster, she had adopted the name of the Shakespearean character who killed herself after having been rejected by Hamlet. Kenmore was never consistent about her year of birth, claiming it to be anywhere from 1876 to 1888. Her first press notices, dated 1888, indicate she may have been born as early as 1868. As for place of birth, on two occasions she declared to US immigration inspectors that she was born in Northumberland. That was the most specific Kenmore ever was in disclosing her place of birth.
Early in her career, Octavia Kenmore claimed to have studied under the well-known English actress Mary J. Snowdon (Mrs. Chippendale) but she made that statement a year after Snowdon's death. She also claimed an engagement with Osmond Tearle's well known company but there are no press notices to confirm that assertion. Tearle was a famous Shakespearean who played the provinces in the UK and also appeared often in New York. The teenaged James Joyce saw him at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. In Ulysses, Joyce uses Tearle as an examplar of the Shakepearean actor. Though it's doubtful that Kenmore's early work was with Mrs. Chippendale or Tearle, she was; however, employed by the noted actor F. R. Benson for the 1888 tour of his "Shakespearean and Old English Comedy Company."
Kenmore's London debut was in a benefit performance by the "Busy Bees" amateur theatrical company. She portrayed 17-year-old Princess Zeolide in W.S. Gilbert's The Palace of Truth, July 12, 1888 at the Novelty Theatre. Kenmore's performance received mixed reviews. One critic said the part presented her with "more difficulties than she is yet able to overcome" and that Kenmore had "much to learn." Another stated she should "have gained more experience before attempting the difficult role of the Princess." He did note; however, that she had "a pleasing voice, intelligent and pretty features, and a good presence." As Kenmore was probably aged 18 to 20 at the time of her debut, she was likely born between 1868 and 1870.
n/ The Era, July 21, 1888; DNB (1912 Suppl.), s.v. "Tearle, George Osmonde;" J.F. Byrne, The Silent Years (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1953); "Osmond Tearle (†1901), exponent of Shakespeare." U (Gabler) 17:794; The Stage, December 23, 1887; Reading Mercury, September 1, 1917; Theatre Advertiser, August 1, 1888.
Octavia Kenmore c. 1910?
Kenmore's next stage appearance was in January 1890 in W.H. Hallat's presentation of Is Life Worth Living in which she had a very minor role. The next month, Hallat gave her a more important part in that play and Kenmore received her first favorable press notice. "As the unhappy Isabel, Miss Octavia Kenmore plays with a deep pathos that appeals strongly to the feelings of the audience." From then until she joined Lovel in late 1902, she was employed regularly by various touring companies.
n/ The Era, January 11, 1890; The Stage, February 21, 1890. Her performances in The Price of Peace were the last not in Lovel's company. Nuneaton Observer, September 5, 1902.
From early-1903 through mid-1918, Octavia Kenmore was the leading lady of Lovel's touring company. She became well-known in Great Britain for her portrayal of Henrik Ibsen's characters, particularly Nora Helmar (A Doll's House), Helen Alving (Ghosts), Heda Tesman (Hedda Gabler), Rebecca West (Rosmersholm) and Hilde Wangel (The Master Builder).
Charles Edward Montague, the Manchester Guardian's highly respected theater critic, considered her the "finest Hilde he had ever seen in an English production of The Master Builder" and a true actress of Ibsen.
Occasionally, Kenmore acted outside of Lovel's company. For example, for the Adelphi Play Society she performed the eponymous role in August Strindberg's Miss Julie, in April 1912 at London's Little Theatre. It was that play's British premiere. The critic Henry W. Massingham said of her performance: "Miss Kenmore as Julie had small command of the opening scene of vulgar fascination; but as she approached the girl's nervous breakdown she played with more and more intensity, though, in the artist's [Strindberg's] cruel deliberation of method, each moment of the play gave her fresh difficulties to encounter."
Kenmore's last UK stage appearance was in mid-1918 when she and Lovel toured with Ibsen's The Master Builder. That tour included performances at London's Court Theatre.
Click on the image to the right and the full postcard will open from this website in a popup window.
Octavia Kenmore Postcard
c. 1915?
n/ C.E. Montague, Dramatic Values (New York: Doubleday, 1925), 173; Michael Meyer, Henrik Ibsen Plays: One (London: Bloomsbury, 1980), 242; The Nation, May 4, 1912; The Sketch, June 5, 1918. Publicity postcard photograph by Claude Harris, London.
An Englishman (and Englishwoman) in New York
In March 1919, Leigh Lovel and Octavia Kenmore left the UK for New York. They took up residence in Greenwich Village in a small building where lived the painter Donald Carlisle Greason, then aged 22. (Click on the link for an aerial photo in a popup window.) Two buildings away from them lived the stage director, actor, and playwright Philip Moeler and an actress, Isabel Ashley.
Lovel established a repertory company to perform primarily Ibsen's work, but also plays by George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and prominent Continental playwrights. During the 1919/1920 New York theatrical season, Lovel and Kenmore appeared Off-Broadway in the new company's productions. They performed in Ibsen's Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler, When We Dead Awaken, and The Master Builder plus Andreyev's To The Stars, Shaw's Candida, and Gogol's The Inspector-General. The couple generally received poor reviews, though the critics had high regard for the productions and the company's other players. One critic said that Kenmore "may once have shone as Hedda; she can hope to do so no longer" and that Lovel "accentuates the pathos of theatrical careers prolonged beyond their proper periods."
The Lovel company's first season was presented at the 300-seat Neighborhood Theater in New York's Lower East Side. That theater was established in 1915 by the wealthy Irene and Alice Lewisohn sisters as an affiliate of Lillian Wald's charitable Henry Street Settlement. By 1920, it had gained a reputation as a showcase for avant-garde and experimental works. (For a photograph of the theater building, c. 1920, click here. The image, from the website of the New York Public Library, will appear in a popup window.) In 1925, the Playhouse's own company presented the English-language world premiere of Exiles, James Joyce's only play. It had a 41-performance run from February 19 through March 22. Stark Young, New York Times theater critic, called it "one of the events of the theatrical year" though he found they play disappointing and labeled it "a doubtful experiment."
n/ The Era, March 19, 1919; Household Return, United States Census, 1920; New York Tribune, July 27, 1919; The Nation, October 11, 1919; The Modernist (November 1919); The Stage, January 22, 1920; Neighborhood Playhouse, Catalog of the New York Public Library Acrchives & Manuscripts; Playbill archives at www.playbill.com/vault; New York Times, February 20, 1925.
In the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Lovel and Kenmore always represented themselves publicly as husband and wife, but there is no registration record of a marriage. The State of New York; however, recognized common law marriage until 1933, when it was abolished by statute. As by then the couple had resided in New York for 14 years, under American law they had marital status; under English law they did not. Such was the case of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle who had lived together for 27 years as a legally unsanctioned "married couple" in Trieste, Zurich, and Paris. To avoid legal difficulties, especially concerning inheritance, in 1931 James and Nora took up temporary residence in England and married in a London registration office.
After the repertory company folded, Lovel and Kenmore began a string of separate appearances in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.Lovel acted in the following Broadway productions: The Piper (1920), Zeno (1923), Accused (1925), Pygmalion (1926), The Brothers Karamozov (1927), The King Can do No Wrong (1927), and Hotbed (1928). Kenmore appeared on Broadway in Blood and Sand (1921), Accused (1925), Out of the Sea (1927), and A Hundred Years Old (1929). She was also in the Broadway tryout for The Outsider (1924). Note that after 1919, they performed together only once (Accused 1925). Lovel also directed several Off-Broadway productions.
n/ Playbill archives at www.playbill.com/vault; Daily Worker, April 6, 1927; New York Tribune, November 12, 1922.
The Outsider, Plymouth Theatre, Boston, 1924
Uncredited photograph digitized by the New York Public Library.
Octavia Kenmore standing on the right.
A Hundred Years Old, Lyceum Theatre, New York, 1929
Vandamm, 1929 / Museum of the City of New York, MN131442.
Click on the above photo and the MCNY Octavia Kenmore photo catalog page will open in a popup window.
In the mid-1920s, Lovel began a radio career with appearances on local radio stations in New York, such as WPCH and WMSG. From 1926 through 1930, he acted in radio dramas and did readings and theatrical monologues.
n/ New Britain Herald - May 25, 1926; August 29, 1927; Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 14, 1931.
In 1930, Lovel appeared in his first and only film, Ye Heart Shoppe, a musical novelty short produced by Columbia Pictures. That year, he also became a minor radio star as Dr. Watson in NBC's weekly series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. That series, broadcast each Monday at 10:00 pm Eastern Time, after its initial season, was performed before an audience at NBC's Times Square Theater. The series ran for five seasons, the first four sponsored by the G. Washington Coffee Refining Company, the country's first maker of instant coffee.
n/ International Movie Database, www.imdb.com; Jeffrey Richards, Cinema and Radio in Britain and America, 1920-60 (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 2010); Albert Dickerson, Sherlock Holmes and his Adventures on American Radio (Orlando, FL: BearManor, 2020); Butterick Publishing Company,The Story of a Pantry Shelf (New York: 1925), 212-14.
What's on Air, December 1930.
NBC publicity photo.
Lovel's role in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was a boon to his and Octavia's finances. With he having well-paying, regular employment, the couple moved into a Park Avenue apartment at East 49th Street. (Click on the link for an aerial photo in a popup window.) In 1932, Lovel purchased a small farm near Hordle, Hampshire, two miles from the English Channel coast. The property, known as Holmwood Farm, consisted of a six-bedroom house with all "mod cons," situated on 12 acres of grassland. Lovel may have selected that property on account of its name: Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes indirectly provided the money for its acquisition. Lovel portrayed Dr. Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes through the 1934/1935 broadcast season.
n/ Will of Alfred Cutbill, August 12, 1932. Photograph on right of Lovel as Dr. Watson, Des Moines Register, November 25, 1934.
"The Final Problem" May 19,1932
Lovel enters at 0:45.
The series was sponsored by G. Washington's coffee, the first commerically successful instant coffee in the US. Click on the link for a National Public Radio website page which will open in a new window. Click here for an advertisement which will open in a popup window.
While Leigh Lovel was occupied full-time with the radio series, Octavia Kenmore continued her stage work. She was a member of the Manhattan Repertory Theater Colony, appeared in the Broadway tryout of Papa Juan (1930), and had a supporting role in the Broadway production of the Irish play Is Life Worth Living? (1933).
n/ New Britain Herald, July 8, 1930; National Theatre Program, Washington, DC, 1930; Thomas S. Hischak, Broadway Plays and Musicals (London: McFarland, 2009), s.v. "2602. Is Life Worth Living?" Photograph on right of Lovel as Dr. Watson from the Des Moines Register, November 25, 1934.
Lovel, at the start of his radio series' 1935 summer break, as usual, went to his Hampshire property which he bought primarily to keep horses. In June, he felt too unwell to ride and in early July, put Holmwood Farm up for sale. On August 8, 1935 Lovel died of heart disease at Holmwood Farm. Lovel's 1932 will gave his British Railways' securities to his two children, and the rest of his property to Octavia, whom he doesn't identify as his wife. That might not be significant as he refers to his children only by their names and does not explicitly label them his offspring.
n/ Immigration Records, Ellis Island, New York, October 17, 1934; Western Gazette - June 3, 1932, August 8, 1935; Obituary, New York Times, August 15, 1935 (click on the link for a facsimile and it will open in a popup window); Dickerson, Sherlock Holmes on American Radio; Will of Alfred T. Cutbill, August 12, 1932.
After Leigh Lovel's death, Octavia Kenmore, then in her 60s, apparently stopped acting as from 1935 until 1941, she received no theater notices in the American and British press. On her return to the United States in 1935, she told US immigration inspectors her occupation was "housewife." Kenmore moved from New York to Los Angeles and lived in Hollywood Heights. (Click on the link for an aerial photo in a popup window.) She likely returned to New York in 1940 and that year visited Bermuda. On her return to the US she again declared her occupation as housewife. A year later, Kenmore, then a septuagenarian, resumed her career. She was in the broadway tryout for Play with Fire (1941) then the following Broadway productions: Hedda Gabler (1942), The Song of Bernadette (1946), and The Wanhope Building (1947), the last being her final Broadway appearance. The Wanhope Building must have been well-publicized as prior to its opening, The New York Times printed a cartoon of the cast, including a caricature of Octavia Kenmore. Its caption contains "Jack Jordan is the sailor holding forth to the annoyance of Octavia Kenmore."
n/ Immigration Records, Ellis Island, New York - November 14, 1935, May 14, 1940; Los Angeles Directory, 1938; Shubert Theatre Program, New Haven, 1941; Playbill archives at www.playbill.com/vault; New York Times, February 9, 1947.
Kenmore's Return to Broadway, 1942
Octavia Kenmore received an unusual tribute when on September 2, 1951 affiliates of the Mutual Radio Network aired The Black Museum episode "The Length of Sashcord." The Black Museum was a radio crime series whose episodes were purportedly based on actual British cases. The series' title is the popular name for Scotland Yard's museum of physical evidence used for training officers. The Black Museum was produced by the English firm, Towers of London, Ltd., and licensed to English-language broadcasters throughout the world. Orson Welles was the narrator and all episodes were co-written by Ira Marion, an American, and Creswick Jenkinson, an Australian. The acted parts were recorded in Australia, but Welles' narration was recorded in London. "Length of Sash Cord" is set in Brighton among cast and crew of a touring, theatrical troupe. The company's proprietor is Octavia Kenmore, a well-known, middle-aged actress who performs with her company throughout the UK. The radio actors are not credited and presumably, are Australian. Note that Welles, in his narration, fails to use the UK pronunciation for the character St. John Carter (says "Saynt John" instead of "Sin Jin").
n/ Ira Marion was a noted radio scriptwriter who worked in radio since 1930, served as president of the Radio Writers Guild, and for 25 years was a staff writer for the ABC Network. Old Time Radio Researchers Group, The Black Museum, Internet Archive; Obituary, New York Times, August 14, 1970; Thomas Swafford, "The Black Museum: Murder Most English," Radio Recall, Journal of the Metropolitan Washington Old Time Radio Club (February 2010).
"Length of Sash Cord"
Kenmore character introduced at 2:33.
On September 23, 1961, Octavia Kenmore died in New York City, probably aged 91. Her death registration; however, shows her born in 1884. Such year of birth is incompatible with her London stage debut in 1888 when she portrayed a teenager. There was no public announcement of her death, nor any published obituary. At the time of her death, she resided in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood. (Click on the link for an aerial photo in a popup window.)
n/ Death Registrations, New York Department of Health, 1961.
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