Ivor Novello

As his character, "The Rat".

He also guested at Gosford Park!

He wasn't so nicely depicted in 2022's excellent movie "Benediction."

Omg Ivor Novello was gay???!!!

[quote] he was openly gay

No, not openly.

In his circle, certainly yes.

I have never heard of this guy. Like you have never heard of Karl Valentin.

I've never heard of either person R7. Nobody has.

[quote] I have never heard of this guy.

Only five of us have heard of this limp, mewling fop.

And only one us remember more than one of his banal songs.

Yes, apparently openly gay in the British acting world.

His partner of 35 years was an actor named Robert Andrews, who was commonly called Bobby. However, some media in reporting on Novello would say that Bobbie Andrews was his partner, thereby implying that he was partnered with a female thanks to a feminized spelling of the name.

R9 is the proud Philistine who is high on the "MAGA-Equivalent" scale.

Look him up, cunt.

[quote] However, some media in reporting on Novello would say that Bobbie Andrews was his partner, thereby implying that he was partnered with a female thanks to a feminized spelling of the name.

Yes, those dummies said the same about Sonnie.

Sonnie Hale has major gay face

He fancied chubs.

[quote] Winnie

Do you use the nom-de-plume 'Clemence Dane'?

R7, have you ever heard of the Ivor Novello Award?

^ No, we are Americans. End of story.

I had no idea he was so attractive.

R17 enough said!

I knew that face at R10 reminded me of someone, none other than killer twink Richard Loeb of Leopold & Loeb notoriety!

This ancient movie is tortuous to watch because the plot is very silly and because he insisted he could only be photographed in profile.

But the second of his two leading ladies is the delightful Isabel Jeans (whom some gullible queens here on Datalounge insist was having lesbian relations with Vivien Leigh).

[quote] Besides, unlike most top male Hollywood stars of the 1930s, e.g., Clark Gable, James Cagney, Ronald Colman – and including urbane types like Charles Boyer, Warren William, and William Powell – Novello lacked a strong masculine presence.

Well, I never!

Have any of you heard of a failure of a film he made - The Dodger?

What do you mean, R23? Artistic failure or Box-office failure?

I know it was the fashion back in those days but that stage name "Novello" is a bit exotic and silly for lumpy, coal-mining Welsh people .

Just like "Zena Dare" and "Zeta-Jones".

Silly.

I think his actual real last name was "Davies".

Yes, his genuine name was David Davies.

And his first boyfriend was Billy Hughes who went off to live in LaLa Land.

"Ivor" was his middle name. "Novello" he took from his mother, Welsh singer, Clara Novello Davies.

Composer.

And his mother purloined the name from someone else who took it from someone else and that person was a genuine Italian.

All rather pathetic.

So many of his musicals were set in the mythical Mittel-europan nation of 'Ruritania'.

Ruritania is mythical? Tell that to the Ruritanians.

[quote] Ruritanian

"David Davies" pretended to be a Frenchman named Pierre Boucheron in that romance at R21.

[quote] What do you mean, R23? Artistic failure or Box-office failure?

From Gosford Park, R24:

Constance: Tell me, how much longer are you going to go on making films?

Ivor Novello: I suppose that rather depends on how much longer the public want to see me in them.

Constance: It must be hard to know when it's time to throw in the towel... What a pity about that last one of yours... what was it called? "The Dodger"?

Ivor Novello: The Lodger.

Constance: Oh. It must be so disappointing when something just *flops* like that.

Why doesn't anyone name their babies Ivor any more??

Too close to Igor, R34.

R34, The Queen's cousin, Ivar Mountbatten, is openly gay.

Jeremy Northam playing him is one of my favorite film performances. Northam has a beautiful voice, too.

[quote] the delightful Isabel Jeans (whom some gullible queens here on Datalounge insist was having lesbian relations with Vivien Leigh).

Isabel Jeans was a sensation back in '44.

Everyone in the audience was rigged up in wartime clothes anxious about the Blitz while Isabel was on stage resplendent as the wicked Mrs Erlynne wearing a fabulous gown by Beaton.

Wow I didn’t know there are so many elder gay Brits on DL.

The Lodger is in public domain now.

FYI it was common practice for stage actors of Ivor’s era to wear strategically padded tights in costume roles like the one in OP’s link.. Boris Karloff referred to his as “me fats.”

Isabel Jeans famously played Aunt Alicia, who schools Gigi in the Art of the Courtesan in GIGI.

I think it was Noel Coward who when asked what it was like to fuck Ivor Novello replied: "Musical."

[quote] Noel Coward … Ivor Novello

Noel was five times better as a songwriter.

The rhyming lyrics in this song are almost childlike in their simplicity.

His tunes are facile.

R45 = Noel Coward

Ivor Novello dating history Relationships Ivor Novello was in relationships with Etienne Girardot, Glen Byam Shaw, Robert Andrews, Siegfried Sassoon, Edward Marsh (polymath), Bruce Mantell, Laurence Olivier and Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson.

About Welsh Composer Ivor Novello was born David Ivor Davies on 15th January, 1893 in Cardiff, Wales, UK and passed away on 6th Mar 1951 London, England aged 58. He is most remembered for Keep the Home Fires Burning", Theodore & Co; The Lodger and Downhill, both movies in 1927.

His "I Can Give You the Starlight" is lovely.

[quote] He is most remembered for …

Exciting salivating queens a century after his birth to make up stories about an undocumented alleged liaison between a passable song-writing Welshman and a young dynamo whose destiny was to galvanise British theatre and set a million hearts aflame.

I think he looks a little light in the loafers, if you catch my meaning.

[quote][R7], have you ever heard of the Ivor Novello Award?

Is it anything like the Sarah Siddons Award?

[quote] Ivor Novello

This is the kind of sweet, sentimental song that he was aiming for.

But of course, he couldn't write because he had such a small voice.

Novello was sentenced to 4 weeks in jail during the Second World War for improperly claiming petrol rations using tickets given to him by an adoring female fan who stole them from her employer.

Pretty, but frivolous.

[quote] Novello was sentenced to 4 weeks in jail

They were scary times. London was getting bombed and Trevor Howard was booted out of the army for being sensitive.

He went to bed with Winston Churchill who described the experience as musical!

[quote] I think it was Noel Coward who when asked what it was like to fuck Ivor Novello replied: "Musical."

[quote] He went to bed with Winston Churchill who described the experience as musical!

So did Noel fuck Ivor and Winston just went to bed with him?

[quote] So did Noel fuck…

None of you foolish queens can't get your undocumented, alleged, third-hand, fanciful, tittle-tattling, scuttlebutting, gossip straight.

Well, this is confusing, because I've always read it was Harold McMillan who described his night with Ivor as "musical".

I'm sure it was Emeric Pressburger.

I understand that Churchill shared this with Coward.

Perhaps it was said by more than one person. I still don't understand what it means.

Novello tried to write sentimental melodic songs like this.

But he wasn't sufficiently talented to do them well.

Lulu has an Ivor Novello nomination.

R63 I'm guessing her name is as bogus as his.

In OP's photo, he's flamboyantly prancing before our very eyes!

OP's photo = extremely unflattering

R1's photo = extremely flattering, stage make-up.

Amy Winehouse was nominated for 5 Ivor Novello Awards and won 3 for writing Stronger Than Me, Rehab and Love Is a Losing Game.

[quote] Amy Winehouse was nominated for 5 Ivor Novello Awards

I'm sure Ivor would NOT have approved.

I was vaguely aware of who he was didnt know he was this cute though

R69 Looking at ancient photo is no guarantee of cuteness.

Ivor was quite limp.