Doris Lytton

Doris Lytton (January 23, 1893 – December 2, 1953) was an English actress on stage and in silent films, and a businesswoman in the 1920s. Later, as Doris Lytton Toye, she wrote a cookbook tailored for post-war shortages, Contemporary Cookery (1947).

Doris Lytton, from a 1910 publication.

Early life

Doris Lytton Partington was born in Manchester.

Career

Doris Lytton performed in plays on the London stage from her girlhood, including The Conqueror (1905), For the Crown (1905), J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1907),[1] Cicely Hamilton's feminist comedy Diana of Dobson's (1908, 1909),[2] Might is Right (1909), Inconstant George (1910),[3] Cosmo Hamilton's The Blindness of Virtue (1913),[4] Never Say Die (1913),[5] J. M. Barrie's Dear Brutus (1917),[6] Husbands for All (1920), Reginald Berkeley's French Leave (1920),[7] The Fulfilling of the Law (1921), A Matter of Fact (1921), Trespasses (1923), The Confession (1925), Harley Granville-Barker's The Madras House (1925-1926), Behold the Bridegroom (1931), King Queen Knave (1932), Suspect (1937). [8][9][10]

Doris Lytton as Effie and Basil Hallam as Archie, in Cosmo Hamilton's The Blindness of Virtue (1913).

Silent films featuring Doris Lytton included The Blue Bird (1910), The Brass Bottle (1914), The Single Man (1919), Mutiny (1925).[11] She was also in the cast of a 1942 BBC Home Service production of The King Comes to His Own, a Biblical drama by Dorothy L. Sayers.[12]

In 1920, Lytton opened a shop called "Cinderella" in the West End of London, offering repairs for "expensive evening dress shoes".[13] A newspaper writer praised her effort as "an example of the new woman who has gone into business for herself and made good."[14]

Lytton was known to sew and embroider backstage, and enjoyed cooking. "I have loved to cook ever since I was a wee thing and had a toy cook stove," she explained to an American reporter while on tour in the United States in 1913.[15] From 1945 to 1947 Doris Lytton Toye wrote a monthly cookery column for Vogue magazine, with illustrations by Denton Welch.[16] It featured advice particular to the rationing conditions in England during and after World War II. For example, it suggested barley or pasta as workable alternatives to rice, which was not available. A cookbook based on her columns, Contemporary Cookery, was published in 1947.[17] The cookbook's additional illustrations were provided by John Minton.[18]

Personal life

Doris Lytton married opera composer and conductor Geoffrey Toye in 1915.[19] They divorced before 1936. She died in London in 1953, aged 60 years, after falling from the window of her fifth floor apartment.[20]

References
  1. Bruce K. Hanson, Peter Pan on Stage and Screen, 1904-2010 (McFarland 2011): 360. ISBN 9780786486199
  2. Cicely Hamilton, Diana of Dobson's (Broadview Press 2003): 73. ISBN 9781770481145
  3. "The Actress Who Sprang into Fame with 'Inconstant George'" The Sketch (October 19, 1910): 46.
  4. Charles W. Collins, "A Drama for Mothers and their Daughters" Green Book (October 1913): 776-785.
  5. Noël Coward, Present Indicative (A&C Black 2012): 41. ISBN 9781408190777
  6. J. M. Barrie, Dear Brutus: A Play in Three Acts (Samuel French 1949): 4.
  7. Reginald Berkeley, French Leave: A Light Comedy in Three Acts (S. French Limited 1922): 3.
  8. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): 255, 257, 395. ISBN 9780810892941
  9. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 25, 44, 403. ISBN 9780810893023
  10. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 149, 584. ISBN 9780810893047
  11. Denis Gifford, ed., British Film Catalogue (Routledge 2016). ISBN 9781317740629
  12. Dorothy L. Sayers, The Man Born to Be King (Wipf & Stock Publishers 2011): 333. ISBN 9781610975490
  13. "Actress Shoe Repairer" The Shoe Repairer and Dealer (October 1, 1920): 32.
  14. "This Cinderella Needs No Magic Wand to Transform Slippers" Ogden Standard-Examiner (August 20, 1920): 5. via Newspapers.comopen access
  15. Mae Tinee, "Doris Doesn't Like Matinee Gigglers" Chicago Sunday Tribune (January 19, 1913): 15. via Newspapers.comopen access
  16. James Methuen-Campbell, Denton Welch: Writer and Artist (Tauris Parke Paperbacks 2004): 157. ISBN 9781860649240
  17. Katherine Knight, Spuds, Spam ad Eating for Victory: Rationing in the Second World War (History Press 2011). ISBN 9780752472942
  18. Daniel J. Murtaugh, ed., Good Night, Beloved Comrade: The Letters of Denton Welch to Eric Oliver (University of Wisconsin Press 2017): 203. ISBN 9780299310103
  19. John Parker, ed., Who's Who in the Theatre (Pittman 1922): 808.
  20. "Doris Lytton, 60, Dies in Plunge" Long Beach Independent (December 4, 1953): 13. via Newspapers.comopen access
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