Thomas Foden Flint

Thomas Foden Flint, a former Pilgrim Player, became the Rep’s first Stage Manager, a role he voluntarily relinquished after 5 months to make way for someone with more experience. He continued in the role of Assistant Stage Manager until he joined the Army in 1914.

When Dennis appeared in “The Three Musketeers” at Drury Lane in London in 1930 he acknowledged his debt to Thomas Foden Flint:

Yes, I must thank Birmingham for most of my knowledge about fencing. It was Mr. Foden Flint, the stage manager of the Repertory Theatre who taught me, and it was he who used to give me sixpence every time I got past his guard. I, of course, was then a call boy, but we found time in the mornings to do some serious fencing.

It is noted in Bache Matthews book that Thomas “was the only member of the company who persevered with his foils, to become later … runner up in the amateur championship”.

The image above, from my father’s scrapbook, shows Dennis as D’Artagnan (in the centre of the sketch) over the legend “In a Clash By Himself”.  Also, the panel in the bottom right has the following exchange:

Bill - “Mr King don’t ‘alf know how to make love to Miss Brune on the stage!”

Our Call-Boy - “Well, who wouldn’t? If a thing’s worth wooing it’s worth wooing well!”

The Geatest Success

The early 1930s were a momentous time for the Pratt family in the UK. Not only was the film The Vagabond King released, it was also when Dennis came to Drury Lane in London to star in The Three Musketeers.

Considering the film first, its impact on Dennis's family when it arrived in Birmingham (at the Futurist and Scala cinemas with 5 daily showings) cannot be underestimated. Dennis would have kept everyone at home informed of his progress since arriving in the States in the early 1920s but the film would have been the first real public evidence, in his home town, of his rise to fame.

This cutting of the ad for the screening of The Vagabond King in Birmingham shows how well the film was received in the UK: "CONTINUED FOR A SECOND WEEK AS THE GREATEST SUCCESS IN THE HOMES OF SUCCESSES", "Direct from a Sensational Six Months' Success at the CARLTON THEATRE, LONDON". The wait while it made it to the provinces from London must have been unbearable!

It was not only Dennis's family who became aware of him as a star. A cousin of mine tells me that his mother was treated like royalty in the local shops after his name became known in Birmingham.

Apart from it being of personal interest to the Pratt family, The Vagabond King was also in the vanguard of film-making as an early Technicolor talkie. The first all-colour talking feature film (according to Wikipedia) came out in 1929 with The Vagabond King following in 1930.

[Evidently the film has been restored to its full colour at the UCLA Film and Television Archive (see Supporting Reference Material) but it is only available for limited screening. UCLA's own website notes that the restored film has had public airings at the 4th Festival of Preservation, 1991, and the 10th Festival of Preservation, August 5, 2000.]