19 July, 2008

Anthony Hulme


Joseph Harold Anthony "Joe" Hulme was an English footballer and cricketer.

Born in Stafford, Hulme usually played as a right-winger. Hulme started his career at then non-league York City in 1923, before moving to Blackburn Rovers in February 1924. He spent two years at Ewood Park and made 74 league appearances, scoring six goals. He moved to Arsenal in 1926, becoming one of Herbert Chapman's first major signings; known for his pace and ball control, Hulme spent twelve years at Arsenal and became part of the great Arsenal side of the 1930s.

Hulme made his Arsenal debut on February 6, 1926 away to Leeds United, and remained a regular for the rest of that season. That led him to be picked for the Football League XI that season, and the following season, 1926–27, he made his full England debut, against Scotland at Hampden Park on April 2, 1927. In all he would win nine caps for England, between 1927 and 1933. That same season he also played in his first FA Cup final, against Cardiff City, which Arsenal lost 1–0 after an error by goalkeeper Dan Lewis.

Hulme remained first choice on the right-wing at Arsenal up until the 1932–33 season, combining with Cliff Bastin to form a pair of highly-paced wingers supported passes from an attacking central midfielder, in the shape of Alex James. Hulme and Bastin were both prolific scorers for Arsenal, with Hulme hitting 18 goals in 1931–32 and 20 the season after that. In the meantime Hulme and Arsenal had started winning trophies, taking the FA Cup in 1929–30, and followed it up with a pair of First Division titles in 1930–31 and 1932–33.

Injuries robbed Hulme of another title-winning medal, as he only made eight appearances in Arsenal's 1933–34 title-winning season. He returned to the Arsenal side the following season, 1934–35, and won his third league winners' medal with 16 appearances, although by now injury and losses of form meant he was not an automatic first choice, sharing duties with Pat Beasley and Alf Kirchen. In 1935–36 Hulme played 28 times in league and cup won his final honour with Arsenal, a second FA Cup medal after Arsenal beat Sheffield United 1–0 in the final, making him the only player to have played in all of Arsenal's first four cup finals.

Hulme spent his final two seasons at Arsenal (1936–37 and 1937–38) as a bit-part player, making just ten appearances in one-and-a-half years. His final appearance came against Liverpool on December 18, 1937. In all he scored 125 goals in 374 appearances for the Gunners, making him the club's eighth-top scorer of all time. Hulme left Arsenal for Huddersfield in January 1938, where he saw out the rest of his career, picking up an FA Cup runners-up medal in the 1937–38 season before retiring from football at the end of that season.

An all-round sportsman, Hulme was also a keen cricketer, and played 225 times for Middlesex between 1929 and 1939 as a middle-order batsman and medium bowler.
After World War II, which he spent working as a policeman, Hulme became manager of Arsenal's fiercest rivals, Tottenham Hotspur from 1945 to 1949. He achieved little actual success at the time, but he did lay the foundations for their championship-winning side of 1950–51. After that, Hulme left football altogether, to become a successful journalist. He died at the age of 87, in 1991

Ronald Colman


Ronald Colman was an English Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor.

Born in Richmond, Surrey, England, he was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he discovered his enjoyment in acting. He intended to attend Cambridge University to study engineering, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia put an end to this for financial reasons.

He became a well-known amateur actor, and was a member of the West Middlesex Dramatic Society in 1908-9. He made his first appearance on the professional stage in 1914.

After working as a clerk at the British Steamship Company in the City of London, he joined the London Scottish Regiment in 1909 and was among the first of the Territorial Army to fight in World War I. During the war, he served with fellow actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall and Basil Rathbone. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel in his leg at the Battle of Messines on October 31, 1914, which caused him to acquire a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout the rest of his acting career. He was invalided from the service in 1916.

He had sufficiently recovered to appear at the London Coliseum on June 19, 1916, as Rahmat Sheikh in The Maharani of Arakan, with Lena Ashwell; at the Playhouse in September that year as Stephen Weatherbee in Charles Goddard & Paul Dickey's play The Misleading Lady; at the Court Theatre in March 1917 he played Webber in Partnership and at that theatre the following year appeared in Eugene Brieux's play, adapted from the French, Damaged Goods; at the Ambassador Theatre in February 1918 he played George Lubin in The Little Brother, and during 1918 toured as David Goldsmith in The Bubble.

In 1920 Colman went to America and toured with Robert Warwick in The Dauntless Three, and subsequently toured with Fay Bainter in East is West; at the Booth Theatre, New York, in January 1921 he played the Temple Priest in William Archer's play The Green Goddess, with George Arliss; at the 39th Street Theatre in August 1921 he appeared as Charles in The Nightcap; and in September 1922 he made a great success as Alain Sergyll at the Empire Theatre, New York in the hit play La Tendresse.

Ronald Colman had first appeared in films in England in 1917 and 1919 under Cecil Hepworth, and subsequently with the old Broadwest Film Company in The Snow of the Desert. While appearing on stage in New York in La Tendress, Director Henry King saw him, and engaged him as the leading man in the 1923 film, The White Sister, opposite Lillian Gish, and was an immediate success. Thereafter Colman virtually abandoned the stage for film. He became a very popular silent film star in both romantic and adventure films, and successfully made the transition to "talkies" because of his elegant and sonorous speaking voice. His dark hair and eyes and his athletic and riding ability led reviewers to describe him as a "Valentino type".

His first major talkie success was in 1930, when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two roles — Condemned and Bulldog Drummond. He thereafter appeared in a number of notable films including Raffles, The Masquerader, Clive of India, A Tale of Two Cities in 1935, Under Two Flags, The Prisoner of Zenda and Lost Horizon in 1937, If I Were King in 1938, and The Talk of the Town in 1941. He won the Best Actor Oscar in 1948 for A Double Life.

Beginning in 1945, Colman made many guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program on radio, alongside his second wife, stage and screen actress Benita Hume. Their comedy work as Benny's next-door neighbors led to their own radio comedy The Halls of Ivy from 1950 to 1952, and then on television from 1954 to 1955.

Ronald Colman died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from a lung infection in Santa Barbara, California and was interred in the Santa Barbara Cemetery.