CAT AND THE FIDDLE

Original 10 1/8 inch x 8 inch Portrait of ERIC MARSHALL in the 1932 C.B. Cochran Musical Comedy play THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE, with music ad lyrics by Otto A. Harbach & Jerome Kern at the Palace Theatre, London.

Portrait by Eric Gray with his stamp on the reverse and facsimile signature within the photo lower right corner.

Gray entered films as assistant cinema manager in 1919. His first film still assignment was with Herbert Wilcox in 1926. After this he worked for First National of America in France and England, and Welsh-Pearson films in 1927. He covered Shooting Stars and Cottage on Dartmoor for Anthony Asquith.

He had his own portrait studio from 1931-1940 at 17 Rupert Street in central London and was in the Royal Observer Corps from 1939-1945. He returned to production in 1941 working on One of Our Aircraft Is Missing and A Matter of Life and Death for Michael Powell. He joined P.F.F. in charge of still photographic research for Independent Frame Experiments. He toured the U.S. and Mexico to investigate still photographic equp=ipment and colour processes for the J. Arthur Rank Organisation and was in charge of still photographic developments for D. and P. Studios.

The story is about a composer and an opera singer, and the title comes from the second line of the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” (“the cat and the fiddle”). The show features the songs “She Didn’t Say Yes” and “The Night Was Made for Love.

The portrait is in very good condition with minor surface marks.