Owen Hall

Owen Hall (10 April 1853 – 9 April 1907) was the principal pen name of the Irish-born theatre writer, racing correspondent, theatre critic and solicitor, James "Jimmy" Davis, when writing for the stage. After his successive careers in law and journalism, Hall wrote the librettos for a series of extraordinarily successful musical comedies in the 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s, including A Gaiety Girl, An Artist's Model, The Geisha, A Greek Slave and Florodora. Despite his achievements, Hall was constantly in financial distress because of his gambling and extravagant lifestyle; his pseudonym was a pun on "owing all".

Born in a Jewish household, Hall was the eldest son of an English dentist who practised in Dublin and later became a portrait photographer in London, Hyman Davis (1824–1875), and his wife Isabella (1824–1900), whose maiden name was also Davis. The Davis family returned to London in the 1850s, and James graduated from University College, London, as a Bachelor of Laws in 1869. Among his eight siblings were Julia, a successful novelist under the name "Frank Danby", who married businessman Arthur Frankau and was the mother of author Gilbert Frankau and comedian Ronald Frankau and grandmother of novelist Pamela Frankau and actress Rosemary Frankau; Eliza, who was the journalist "Mrs. Aria" and long-time lover of actor Henry Irving; Harrie (1864–1920), who became a journalist in the US; and Florence ("Florette") who authored a novel and married Marcus E. Collins, brother of Arthur Collins, the manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

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