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Ivor Novello
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During the inter-war years, actor-manager, dramatist, singer and composer Ivor Novello was one of the most popular artists on the London stage. Born David Ivor Davies into a musical family in Llwyn-Yr-Eos, near Cardiff, Ivor was the son of musical parents. His mother, known as Madame Clara Novello Davies, was a celebrated singing teacher and choral conductor, who led her Welsh Ladies’ Choir on a tour as far as Chicago only six months after her son’s birth. Like his contemporary and fellow playwright, Noël Coward, Ivor Novello was a little prodigy, having written his first play at the age of seven.
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From All Movie Guide: Before coming to film in the early '20s, Welsh actor Ivor Novello was a British matinée idol on-stage. In addition to working in British film, he ... appeared in American and European productions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
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Ivor Novello was educated privately in Cardiff and Gloucester. With a fine soprano voice he won a scholarship to Magdalen Choir School, Oxford, where he was a chorister. While at school he began to write songs under the name Ivor Novello. In his early teens he composed Spring of the Year which was his first song to be published and it was sung at the Royal Albert Hall with Ivor Novello as accompanist. This received little attention but in 1910 his song The Little Damozel achieved considerable success. He came to be known as 'the Welsh Prodigy'.
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Ivor Novello could do it all: compose bestselling tunes, write and star in hit West End plays and smoulder in internationally popular films. He ... had the looks of Rupert Everett. During his lifetime his fame eclipsed that of all other living greats of British theatre: for a period of almost 37 years his versatile talent and astonishing glamour kept him in the public eye. When he died, enormous crowds turned out to glimpse his coffin; the rest of the nation listened to his funeral service on the radio. Yet, little more than half a century later, Novello's work has largely been forgotten, and his reputation obscured by that of his younger (and longer-lived) friend and rival Noel Coward. Paul Webb's biography attempts to revive the Novello legend and to give some sense of the man's importance in shaping the British theatrical landscape of today.
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Ivor Novello’s musical education began when as a young boy he won a choral scholarship to Magdalen College, University of Oxford. He later studied organ and theory. He achieved early success as a songwriter, publishing his first song at the age of 17, and in 1914 composed “Till the Boys Come Home” (commonly known by its first line, “Keep the home fires burning”), a huge hit during World War I. During the war he entertained the troops in France, and then became a pilot. He composed many songs and pieces of music for comedies and revues, his songs often in an arch manner similar to that of Noel Coward, his friend and rival.
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The actor Ivor Novello was born as David Ivor Davies in Cardiff. Because his mother was a singer he came into contact with the musical side of life at an early age.
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Ivor Novello