Pacie Ripple

Pacie Ripple, born Arthur Boole on 20 April 1864 in Ecclesfield, Yorkshire, was an English operatic tenor whose career spanned Gilbert and Sullivan opera, American musical theatre, and Broadway productions from 1907 to 1934. The son of Maria née England and Robert Boole, an iron works labourer who later became a foreman gasfitter, he was working as an engine pattern maker in Ecclesfield by 1881. In later life he made a number of false claims about his origins and training, including assertions that he had studied at the Guildhall School of Music, worked for the director of the Leeds Festival, and made his operatic debut in Italy as the Duke in Rigoletto.

Ripple's professional stage career began within the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, where he served in the chorus and as an understudy before taking his first named role on 10 June 1889 in Wigan, playing Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard. His second named role came in February 1890, when he was brought from Britain to bolster the struggling D'Oyly Carte production at Palmer's Theatre in New York, appearing as Francesco in The Gondoliers. When that production closed in April 1890, he remained in the United States and, performing under the name Arthur Pacie, began working for American playwright and theatrical manager Charles H. Hoyt. Between 1891 and 1897 he made frequent appearances for Hoyt in New York and on tour, creating the role of Norman Blood in A Trip to Chinatown, as well as playing Howland Hooper in A Milk White Flag and Carroll Sweet in A Stranger in New York.

Following a tour of Australia and New Zealand, Ripple returned to England in 1900 under the stage name Pacie Ripple. On 20 November 1902 he appeared as Athos in a matinée performance of Original Musketeers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and also performed in oratorio and concerts during this period. He rejoined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on tour as principal tenor from March 1903 through December 1906, taking on a wide range of leading roles: Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, the Duke of Dunstable in Patience, Tolloller in Iolanthe, Cyril in Princess Ida, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Marco in The Gondoliers. In 1906 he and his wife Ada Ripple toured South Africa with D'Oyly Carte. Ripple then appeared in the company's first London repertory season, playing Fairfax in Yeomen at the Savoy Theatre in December 1906 and Marco in The Gondoliers in January 1907, before returning to touring in February 1907.

After departing the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in June 1907, Ripple relocated permanently to the United States and concentrated on musical comedies and plays. His Broadway career began that same year with The Girls of Holland, in which he starred as Alvarez y Toledo. Subsequent Broadway appearances included Herr von Trautenbach in Baron Trenck (1912), Valiant Dunnybrig in The Farmer's Wife (1924–1925), Mr. John Weston in The Complex (1925), Abe Pintree in Three Doors (1925), Robert Stanton in Mae West's play Sex (1926–1927), Bye Bye Bonnie (1927), Inspector Ratchett in The Wrecker (1928), and Monsieur Beaunoir in The New Moon (1928–1929), the last of which became a long-running hit. He continued with roles including Monsieur D'Ayen in The Little Father of the Wilderness (1930), Jung in Overture (1930–1931), Fauntley in The Good Companions at the Forrest Theatre (1931), Besson in The Barrister (1932), and Terry in Under Glass (1933). He also appeared in The Barrier. His final Broadway credit came in 1934, when he created the role of Bishop Dodson in Anything Goes at the Alvin Theatre.

On 20 April 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri, Ripple married American-born actress Alice Estelle McComb Ripple, born in 1890. By marrying a British subject she apparently lost her United States nationality, and in 1931 she applied for naturalised American citizenship. On that application she listed her husband's birthplace as Dublin, Ireland, in 1877, a fiction Ripple had included on various official documents including census returns. He also falsely claimed in interviews to have been a principal tenor at the Savoy Theatre for seven years and to have served as W. S. Gilbert's assistant stage manager. From 1932 until his death, Ripple travelled annually from New York to Philadelphia to serve as stage director for the Savoy Company, the oldest organisation in America performing the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. He died in New York City in April 1941 at the age of 76.