Frank Smithson

Frank Smithson (11 February 1861 – 15 January 1949) was an Irish-born American actor, and theatre and film director. Born in Tralee, Ireland, he built an early reputation as a leading comic actor in Britain before immigrating to the United States in 1896, where he went on to direct approximately 250 productions for the American stage. He also worked as a film director for Edison Studios and Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios.

Smithson's British career began in May 1887, when he toured the provinces as Jinks in Harry Monkhouse's Larks, performing at venues including the Theatre Royal, West Hartlepool, and the Prince of Wales Theatre, Salford. Later that year he took the leading comic role of Dick Kavanagh in William Howell Poole's The Game of Life, appearing at the Grand Theatre, Islington, the Royal Court Theatre, the Prince's Theatre in Manchester, and at provincial theatres in Middlesbrough and Chester. Between 1888 and 1889 he toured with J. B. Mulholland's theatre troupe, starring as Joel Scovendyke in Mulholland's Mizpah and as Ginger Jim in Mulholland's Disowned. During the Christmas season of 1889 he appeared with Mulholland's company at the Grand Theatre, Nottingham, in Goddard Wyatt's pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat, portraying the drag role of Airie Annie.

In 1890 Smithson performed several distinct roles across London and the provinces: Pendleton in Robert Williams Buchanan's Sweet Nancy at the Lyric Theatre, London; Tom Honeywood in George Robert Sims's Master and Man at the Theatre Royal, Wolverhampton; and the title roles in both Pepper's Diary at the Royalty Theatre, London, and Muldoon's Picnic at the Grand Theatre, Nottingham. The following year he moved into production, staging a new burlesque by Walpole Lewin, Good Old Queen Bess, which premiered at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 3 June 1891, with Smithson himself playing Julius the Jester. He subsequently toured the British provinces, including Scotland, as Cerberus in Edward Rose and A. Coe's burlesque Orpheus and Eurydice. In 1892 he rejoined Mulholland's troupe as Dr. Gondimar Gulf in Arthur H. Gilbert and Charles Renad's The Swiss Express, closing out that year as Captain Blowhard in the Christmas pantomime Sinbad the Sailor at the Alexandra Theatre, Sheffield, a role he continued through March 1893.

During 1893 and 1894 Smithson toured with actor Charles Lauri's company as Schwindlewitz in J. W. Mabson's Le Voyage en Suisse, and portrayed Baron Badenuff in a Christmas pantomime of Little Red Riding Hood at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, from December 1893 through February 1894. He returned to Le Voyage en Suisse for provincial touring from May through July 1894, then appeared at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool, in October 1894 as Colonel Hiram Poster in William Gill's The Little Milliner. He also toured as Michael Muldoon in The New Muldoon's Picnic in November and December of that year before performing in another Christmas pantomime at the City Theatre in Sheffield. In January 1895 he returned to the Alexandra Theatre to both direct and play Baron Badenuff in Little Red Riding Hood, a production that ran through March 1895. Later that year he portrayed the title roles in Dion Boucicault's The Shaughraun and Muldoon's Picnic in Brighton, and played Larry O'Brannigan in Dandy Dick Whittington at the Avenue Theatre, London. That production was retitled The Circus Boy when Smithson toured it through the provinces beginning at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, in August 1895, continuing into early 1896. From February through May 1896 he toured as Matthew Vanderkoopen in La Cigale, an English-language adaptation of Edmond Audran's La Cigale et la Fourmi.

Smithson arrived in the United States in 1896, making his American stage debut on 26 October 1896 at the Brooklyn Music Hall as the magician in Samuel H. Speck's burlesque Kaloma the Hoodoo. Broadway producer Edward E. Rice then engaged him to direct and star in the American premiere of Ivan Caryll and George Dance's Edwardian musical comedy The Girl from Paris. Smithson made his Broadway debut in that production on 8 December 1896 at the Herald Square Theatre, portraying Major Fossdyke, and remained in the role for the run of 248 performances. When the New York engagement closed, he continued as Major Fossdyke on a national tour beginning in September 1897 at the Park Theatre in Dayton, Ohio. The tour visited numerous cities through 1897 and into 1898, with stops at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, O'Brien's Opera House in Birmingham, Alabama, the Chattanooga Opera House, the Grand Opera House in Indianapolis, Coates Opera House in Kansas City, the Lafayette Square Opera House in Washington D.C., the Metropolitan Opera House in Minneapolis, the Lyceum Theater in Rochester, New York, and the Oliver Opera House in South Bend, Indiana, among others. Additional 1898 tour dates included the Grand Theater in Evansville, Indiana, the Montauk Theatre in Brooklyn, the Lyceum Theatre in Elmira, the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco, the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Academy of Music in Baltimore, the Metropolitan Theater in Sacramento, and the Los Angeles Theater.

Immediately following the conclusion of The Girl from Paris tour, Rice hired Smithson again to direct Howard Talbot and Harry Greenbank's Edwardian musical comedy Monte Carlo for Broadway. That production opened at the Herald Square Theatre in March 1898, with Smithson also starring in it as General Boomerang. Over the course of his career Smithson directed approximately 250 productions for the American stage, many of them for Broadway, and worked additionally as a film director for Edison Studios and Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios. He died on 15 January 1949 in New York City. His papers from 1879 to 1919 are held at the New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts.