I was delighted when I came across this book, which gives the whole story of the Laughton family's life in Scarborough and the hotels they owned.
The Laughton Family with brothers Frank, Charles and Tom
The Laughtons were well known hoteliers in the area with Robert and Eliza Laughton running the Victoria Hotel and then the Pavilion Hotel. Robert had been born in Derbyshire, the son of a farmer, turned wine merchant and hotelier Charles Laughton. Charles was born in Oxfordshire, but moved to Derbyshire where he ran a very large successful farm. The move to Scarborough in around 1881, to run the Valley Bridge Hotel was equally successful and his endeavours set the family up for some generations in the hotel trade in Scarborough. His wife Eliza was the daughter of a hotel keeper, but he had become bankrupt. This experience stayed with Eliza and spurred her on to be the main driving force in the family hotel endeavours, she adopted at least a 50% share in the management of the hotels they ran.
The Pavilion Hotel Scarborough
In 1935 their oldest sons Robert Thomas (Tom) and Charles bought the Royal Hotel for Tom to run. The brothers immediately embarked on a programme of refurbishment and enlargement and the hotel opened to the public again in 1936. Through this the family still ran the Pavilion hotel in the town, even after Robert snr’s death in 1924. Robert’s widow continued to run the hotel alongside her youngest son Frank until her death in 1954.
In many newspaper articles about the hotel at this time, it is Tom’s brother Charles who is mentioned most, even though he isn’t running the hotel at the time. The reason for this is that Charles Laughton was famous as a brilliant actor in Hollywood. Charles Laughton had starred in many well-known films of the era including Mutiny on the Bounty where he played Captain Bligh, The Hunchback of Notre Dame where he played the title role and The Private Life of Henry VIII for which he won the Academy Award for best actor. Charles didn’t travel back to Scarborough very much, but when he did it was big news in the town and he always visited the Royal. Charles travelled to America in 1931, where he made his stage debut in New York. This led to film offers and he moved to Los Angeles where he worked with Boris Karloff on the film The Old Dark House. He went on to play alongside some of Hollywood’s most well-known names including Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable and Norma Shearer amongst many others. He married his wife, fellow actor Elsa Lanchester in 1929 and they were married until his death from bowel cancer in 1962.
During his childhood in Scarborough, Charles had been influenced by the range of entertainments available at the time. In the book Pavilions by the Sea by Tom Laughton, Tom remembers them watching the Pierrots and Fol de Rols on their outings around the town. The Pierrot character came from the Italian medieval comedies in a similar way to the Punch and Judy shows had. They would be distinctive in their white costumes with black pom poms. In Scarborough there were two main Pierrot shows. The first was Will Catlin’s (real name William Fox) Favourite Pierrots who appeared from 1894 and later, George Royle’s “Imps”. Both would perform their varied shows on makeshift stages on the seafront. George Royle was invited to move his show to the Floral Hall. At this point George decided that the Pierrot costumes were not in keeping with the venue and he adopted a new costume of eccentric Edwardian dress of bonnets and crinolines for the ladies and tailcoats and top hat for the men. He also adopted a new name of “Fol de Rols”. The Fol de Rols were very popular, but the advent of the First World War meant the shows had to be suspended. George joined the army and then after the war went into partnership with Rex Newman and the Fol de Rols performed in other seaside resorts apart from Scarborough (Hastings, Eastbourne and Torquay). They continued to perform until the 1970s and were the stage on which some of our most well-known entertainers cut their performing teeth. Meanwhile Will Catlin took his show to Llandudno in 1915 eventually setting up a string of Pierrot troupes performing all around the country, he died there in 1953 having continued performing until the end. The magic of these shows never left Charles and eventually he was allowed to pass the control of the Pavilion on to Tom when he took up his place at RADA and moved to London.
Tom like his father, was very successful as an hotelier. He was also successful in other walks of life. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Tom enlisted in the army, he joined the catering corps at the rank of major despite having no experience of cooking. The Royal was taken over by a convent school evacuated from Hull, during the second world war which was just as well for Tom because he was busy with his military career. Tom’s hospitality experience was invaluable during his army career and also later on in 1941, when the government set up the National Service Hostels Corporation and he was recruited as managing director. These hostels were to house those who were doing war work away from home, filling in for the many men who had been conscripted into the forces. It was a successful endeavour and it earned Tom an OBE in 1944, followed by a CBE in 1946 and finally a knighthood. Tom was brilliant as a busines man.
Charles, despite having a successful acting career, had worked at the Pavilion Hotel for many years. Once his father died, Charles had a greater influence in the direction the hotel was going. Its proximity to the railway station meant that it had been traditionally popular with travelling salesmen, but improvements to the hotel, meant that it had begun to attract a better class of clientele. In order to retain these guests, Charles embarked on an enhanced scheme of entertainments, including lavish Christmas programmes and the employment of lounge and dance bands. The music was to transform the hotel and give it a new celebratory atmosphere. The rooms were decorated with artwork collected with the help of Charles’s friend, artist Bruce Turner. It was Bruce’s influence later which would lead Tom to amass a huge collection of paintings which he decorated the Royal with. Tom learned about wine and fine dining and was to take all this knowledge to the Royal. The result was two hotels in Scarborough that were to rival any of the world’s best.
To read more about the Scarborough Royal have a look at my book "The Secret History of the Seaside Grands". There is a free download of the Scarborough Royal chapter on the Kindle book.
Comments