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Guy Bolton

Guy Reginald Bolton (23 November 1884 – 4 September 1979) was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G. Wodehouse and Fred Thompson, with whom he wrote 21 and 14 shows respectively, and the American playwright George Middleton, with whom he wrote ten shows. Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., Ian Hay and Weston and Lee. In the US, he worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Kalmar and Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Bolton is best known for his early work on the Princess Theatre musicals during the First World War with Wodehouse and the composer Jerome Kern. These shows moved the American musical away from the traditions of European operetta to small scale, intimate productions with what the Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music calls "smart and witty integrated books and lyrics, considered to be a watershed in the evolution of the American musical." Among his 50 plays and musicals, most of which were considered "frothy confections", additional hits included Primrose (1924), the Gershwins' Lady, Be Good (1925) and especially Cole Porter's Anything Goes (1934).

Bolton also wrote stage adaptations of novels by Henry James and Somerset Maugham, and wrote three novels on his own and a fourth in collaboration with Bernard Newman. He worked on screenplays for such films as Ambassador Bill (1931) and Easter Parade (1948), and published four novels, Flowers for the Living (with Bernard Newman, 1958), The Olympians (1961), The Enchantress (1964) and Gracious Living (1966). With Wodehouse, he wrote a joint memoir of their Broadway years, entitled Bring on the Girls! (1953).

Birth and Death Data: Born November 23, 1884 (Hertfordshire), Died September 5, 1979 (London)

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1917 - 1918

Roles Represented in DAHR: lyricist

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Victor C-19309 12-in. 2/23/1917 Gems from Have a heart Victor Light Opera Company Vocal chorus and soloists, with orchestra lyricist  
Victor C-20400 12-in. 7/19/1917 Gems from Oh boy! Victor Light Opera Company Vocal chorus and soloists, with orchestra lyricist  
Victor C-21401 12-in. 1/2/1918 Gems from Leave it to Jane Victor Light Opera Company Vocal chorus and soloists, with orchestra lyricist  
Victor C-21603 12-in. 3/13/1918 Gems from Oh lady! Lady! Victor Light Opera Company Vocal chorus and soloists, with orchestra lyricist  
Columbia 47417 10-in. 3/13/1917 'Till the clouds roll by James Harrod ; Anna Wheaton Female-male vocal duet, with orchestra lyricist  
Edison 6041 10-in. Feb. 1918 When the ships come home Helen Clark Soprano vocal solo, with orchestra lyricist  
Edison 6417 10-in. between 10/10/1918 and 10/23/1918 Some day waiting will end Leola Lucey Soprano vocal solo, with orchestra lyricist  

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Bolton, Guy," accessed April 19, 2024, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/104307.

Bolton, Guy. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved April 19, 2024, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/104307.

"Bolton, Guy." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 19 April 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/104307

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