Mr. A regales us with a rare set of postcards published in conjunction with the play DISRAELI from 1911. This production became the first major hit of his career. In our video, Mr. A then resumes the character of Benjamin Disraeli to quote the lines.
Happy Birthday George Arliss – A 157th Year Anniversary 1868-2025
For this year’s observance, we are doing things a bit differently than in the past. We are literally presenting a George Arliss performance that nobody has ever seen. At least, nobody living today. I am referring to Mr. A’s appearance as Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
He played it thanks to the wife of his producer, Winthrop Ames. It seems they had a wedding anniversary coming up and Mr. Ames asked Mrs. Ames to choose between one of two gifts. The first was a string of valuable pearls. The second was a theater production of The Merchant of Venice. Mrs. Ames chose the play and to nobody’s surprise Mr. Ames selected George Arliss to portray Shylock.
The play toured the United States throughout 1928 and apparently into 1929. This would prove to be Mr. A’s final appearance on the stage. When he toured with Merchant in Los Angeles, he was approached by Jack Warner and Darryl Zanuck of the Warner Bros. motion picture studio to star in their new fangled talking pictures. The idea was to film some of his hit plays. Alas, while Mr. A would go on to film a number of his popular plays, The Merchant of Venice was not among them.
Aside from several splendid photographs, there is no recording, visual or audio, of George Arliss as Shylock. But thanks to the advent of AI (Artificial Intelligence) we can now see and hear Mr. A in full costume and makeup reciting Shylock’s famous Act III soliloquy. I’d call this a very special Treat for this year’s April 10th Birthday Observance.
ARLISS ARCHIVES 