OTTLEY CRANSTON
Born James Hudson 1866 , father William G. Hudson, North Parade, Otley
(William Hudson was remembered by my great grandfather & great aunt Kate as having a very good tenor voice).
‘Jimmy Hudson’s boyhood ambition was to be a soldier, but his musical bent was revealed when he started singing in church choirs as a boy soprano’.
Cranston joined the JW Turner Opera company some time after 1888. The Turner Company played Yeadon for 2 nights in 1890 - January 17th, Maritana & January 18th, Lily of Killarney. Seat prices 1/- and 2/-. (Advert in the ‘Wharfedale’ - no mention of Cranston or Hudson in the listed principals)
1891 ............. first appearance of Louise Collier with the Turner company : ‘Bohemian Girl’ in Manchester, as Arline. Ottley ‘sang the barytone role’.
Married Louisa A Collier on Feb 1st 1892 in Birmingham
1893 (July - Sept) ......... daughter (Gladys) born in Otley (1901 census info.)
Oct 2nd & 3rd 1900: listed in the program for ‘Bride of Lammermoor’ & ‘Faust’ with the Turner Company in Edinburgh. His brother, Fred, is also in the cast list for ‘Faust’. I have no further references to Fred (born 1871) except that he outlived his brother and settled in Brighton at some point.
1901 census - living in Marylebone. Gladys at school in Solihull.
MAY have sung with Carl Rosa company - this slot is the more likely time
MAY have sung in Australia (? with Turner?)
1904 ........... Came to the USA - Ottley joins the HW Savage Opera Company to take the part of Guernemantz in ‘Parsifal’.
Ottley is mentioned in my Great Aunt Annie’s journal of her visit to the USA, 1904-8
Oct 25th 1904:
........... Went to Boston Tremont Theatre to hear Wagner’s Festival Play ‘Parsifal’. The music & the scenery were very beautiful but we were disappointed not to hear our fellow townsman Ottley Cranston, who happened to be off that evening .........
Oct 27th 1904:
............ Went to Boston to a Musical Recital of Mr Gilberte’s works at that gentleman’s home . The songs were sung by Miss Charlotte Guyer George, one of the flower maidens in the opera ‘Parsifal’. All the Flower Maidens were present. We were introduced to Miss George who told us that Ottley Cranston had been playing the night we attended the Theatre, so we felt satisfied.
(Evidently, Annie had not bought a programme. Thanks to the internet, I have, & this indicates that :
............ Mr Henry W. Savage offers the first performance in English on any stage of Richard Wagner’s Sacred Festival Play ‘Parsifal’. This corroborates the claim made in several Kansas newspaper reports that Cranston originated the role of Gurnemantz in English.)
Dec 1st 1904:
.............. our fellow townsman Ottley Cranston came out from Boston to spend the afternoon with us, & between music & recollections of old Otley, we had a most delightful time
Nov 10th 1905:
.............. Saw & heard Mr Ottley Cranston in the Valkyrie
March 26th 1906 ......... Ottley appeared in Die Valkure as Wotan in Kansas City
15th October 1906 ............ US premiere of ‘Butterfly’ by the Savage Company. NEITHER Cranston listed as a principal. The production toured until at least April 1907.
Nov 19th 1906 ...........Ottley appearing in Music Hall at the Empire theatre, Leicester Square (part owner, George Edwardes)
1907/1908 ................... touring the US with Savage again. It is likely that Louie & Gladys joined him at some point in this tour. If Louie was singing for Savage, she was not in a named principal role. Ottley is mentioned in a cast list for ‘Madame Butterfly’ in Philadelphia in May 1909, at which time the company had changed hands & was about to be sold again, so it is reasonable to conclude that he sang for Savage in the 1908-1909 season. Louie sang Cio-Cio San as an alternate principal to Adelaide Norwood during the same season. She said in an interview in 1909 that the ‘Butterfly’ tour was her first American appearance.
Cranston settled in Kansas City in 1910, where he taught music along with his wife. They are both mentioned on the faculty roster of the Kansas City Conservatoire, where they are listed as voice coaches (not head of the Music Dept. as claimed in a 1929 interview with Louie).
Picture from the Kansas Citian, April 1915, as part of an article promoting the business benefits to Kansas City provided by the Music Conservatiore.
In 1917 they left the Conservatoire ‘amicably’ & set up their own singing school.
They presented opera productions in KC, & Ottley was director of music at the Community church for 30 years.
He was a member of KC rotary club.
Their daughter Gladys became a professional singer & toured with the Carl Rosa company in the UK in the 1920’s.
Louie died in 1945, Ottley in 1946.
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Some debatable points
Louise ‘was a native Londoner, spending her childhood, as she says “almost within a stone’s throw of the British Museum”’ (KC Star,April 14th 1929)
Two possible entries in the 1881 census MIGHT fit her:
Born 1874 Berry Place, Islington ( no sisters in 1881) or 1872 Glossop, Derbyshire
(4 sisters in 1881. Her father was a pub landlord). 1872 would make her age 73 at death, as reported in the Kansas newspapers.
Berry Place could be ‘a stone’s throw from the British Museum’, which is where Louise claimed to have been brought up (1929 interview). She is described as ‘ a Londoner’ in the same interview. However, her 1945 obituary, presumably supplied by Ottley, describes her as ‘born in Glossop’. She had a married sister in Manchester.
She was living in Derbyshire in 1881 and 1891.
Her 1901 census entry lists her as Louisa A. Hudson, place of birth Glossop, age 29
Louise Collier ‘was a favorite in the opera productions of George Edwardes’. (Obituary - KC Star June 23rd 1945)
George Edwardes was a major Theatre entrepreneur, who owned the Gaiety Theatre (VERY light opera - the Gaiety girls were chosen for their looks, & there was often a backstage chorus to reinforce their singing). He also had a share in the Empire, Leicester Square, which was one of the two major London Music Halls, & where Ottley sang at least once.The Empire’s cast lists over the years include a number of Colliers, all of them dancers or ‘living pictures’. Whether Louie was related to any of these, or ever worked for Edwardes, I do not yet know.
Louise ‘created the role of Cho-Cho-San’ in Madame Butterfly in the United States
and later toured the country in the same role. (Obituary - KC Star June 23rd 1945)
We have already noted that Savage’s first tour with ‘Butterfly’ was in 1906/7, & that Ottley was appearing in London in November 1906.
An article in ‘Opera Quarterly’ (winter 2003) by Jim McPherson gives abundant detail of Savage’s activities, as well as cast lists for the touring productions. Ottley is mentioned several times, Louie not at all. However, she DID appear as Chio-Chio-San in the company’s 1908/9 tour.
One result of my researches is a healthy skepticism about what newspapers print – particularly turn of the century American newspapers.
I have several examples where the Cranstons’ claims are false or exagerrated, but this one probably takes the prize:
In fairness to the Cranstons, other performers indulged in similar practices, & promoters’ publicity was equally suspect.
