Edward Laurillard

Edward Laurillard (20 April 1870 – 7 May 1936) was a cinema and theatre producer in London and New York City during the first third of the 20th century. He is best remembered for promoting the cinema early in the 20th century and for Edwardian musical comedies produced in partnership with George Grossmith, Jr., including Tonight's the Night (1914), Theodore & Co (1916) and Yes, Uncle! (1917).

Born in Rotterdam in The Netherlands, he was educated at Osnabrück and in Paris. Laurillard moved to London, England as a young man. He was married and divorced twice.

In 1894, Laurillard became manager of Terry's Theatre, producing King Kodak, and his first big success was The Gay Parisienne at the Duke of York's Theatre, which introduced the hit song "Sister Mary Jane's Top Note." Other early productions included My Old Dutch and Oh! Susannah, after which he toured the United States. The Savoy Theatre in London, closed in 1903 after the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company discontinued producing its Savoy operas there, was reopened under the management of Laurillard in February 1904 with The Love Birds, by Raymond Rôze and Percy Greenbank, starring George Grossmith, Jr., who would later become Laurillard's producing partner.

During the First World War he became manager of the New Gallery Cinema in Regent Street and built a group of 25 cinemas. He screened Herbert Beerbohm Tree's film of Henry VIII, one of the first films of a big stage production. With Grossmith, he brought the ethnic comedy hit, Potash and Perlmutter by Montague Glass, to London in 1914 for a long run at the Queen's Theatre. He was then the manager of the Comedy Theatre for the production of Peg O' My Heart by John Hartley Manners. Grossmith and Laurillard opened Tonight's the Night, based on the farce Pink Dominoes, at the Shubert Theatre in New York in 1914, the first Gaiety show to be produced in New York before opening in London.

...
Wikipedia