Louie Pounds
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Louisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds (February 12, 1872 – September 6, 1970) was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She was the youngest of five siblings who appeared with D'Oyly Carte. Her older brother Courtice was a principal tenor with the company in the 1880s and '90s, and her three sisters, Lily, Nancy, and Rosy, also appeared with the company.
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[edit] Life and career
Pounds was born in Brompton.
[edit] Early career and D'Oyly Carte years
Pounds's first professional stage appearance was in the provinces under the management of George Edwardes in 1890. Her London debut was in 1891 at the Opera Comique in Joan of Arc. Over the next several years, she appeared at various London theatres, and in 1895 she toured of America. In 1897, she appeared as Dorothy Travers in the long-running The French Maid. In 1899, while she was performing at The Crystal Palace, Arthur Sullivan approached her about the upcoming season at the Savoy Theatre.
Pounds joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and created the part of "Heart's Desire" in The Rose of Persia in 1899 and also appeared as the title character in the companion piece Pretty Polly (libretto by Basil Hood, music by François Cellier that played with The Rose of Persia and later with the first revival of Patience).
After that, she created the role of Molly O'Grady in The Emerald Isle and Christina in Ib and Little Christina in 1901. She then played the title role in the first revival of Iolanthe (1901–1902). Next at the Savoy were two original works by Hood and Edward German. Pounds played "Jill-all-alone" in Merrie England (1902) and Joy Jellicoe in A Princess of Kensington (1903). Following its run at the Savoy and a provincial tour of A Princess of Kensington, Pounds left the D'Oyly Carte organisation, which vacated the Savoy Theatre at that time.
[edit] Later career
Along with many of her colleagues from A Princess of Kensington, Pounds next appeared at the Adelphi Theatre in The Earl and the Girl (1903). Over the next twenty years she appeared in numerous musicals and plays.
In 1906, Pounds starred (with her brother Courtice) in the hit musical The Belle of Mayfair. A review in The Daily Graphic of December 24, 1906 praised both siblings.[1] Another reviewer wrote, "Miss Louie Pounds has never been seen to better advantage. She looks a typical English girl, and her singing of 'And the weeping willow wept' is quite inimitably artistic".[2] In 1909, she played in London in The Dashing Little Duke (again with her brother).[3]
Pounds then appeared on Broadway in The Dollar Princess in 1909–1910. She also toured in South Africa. Popular theatre stars of the period endorsed products, and Pounds was often photographed for this purpose.[4] Pounds retired in 1923 but reappeared in 1926, touring again until 1929. She played Widow Windeatt in the 1928 Alfred Hitchcock film The Farmer's Wife.
Pounds also wrote an article, "Memories of an Earlier Iolanthe," that appeared in the March 1931 issue of The Gilbert & Sullivan Journal.
Pounds died in Southsea at the age of 98.
[edit] Reference
- Ayre, Leslie (1972). The Gilbert & Sullivan Companion. London: W.H. Allen & Co Ltd. Introduction by Martyn Green.
