Come on Steve – a jockey as a British Silent Film Star!
Stephen Donaghue on the front cover of Picturegoer
In late 1925, C.M. Woolf persuaded Michael Balcon to produce a series of six two-reel racing pictures starring Stephen Donoghue, the most celebrated champion jockey of his day. Walter West, who had made his name at Broadwest in the early 1920s creating numerous racing dramas was engaged as director.
Stephen Donoghue, Carlyle Blackwell and Frank Bullock winning the studio stakes – during filming of Riding For a King (1926) at the Islington studio
Despite being an unlikely British silent film star, Donoghue took to the medium of film like a duck to water and was not in the least bit camera conscious or awkward. Asked how he liked making his film debut he said ‘Great… everything’s so new and absorbingly interesting and I’m, enjoying every minute of it. I almost feel I should like to give up everything else and make screen acting my profession – although of course, I don’t know very much about it yet. I just do what Mr West tells me and hope for the best.’ He claimed he wasn’t too nervous before the camera because he had been interviewed and photographed so many times before.
Frank Bullock (Australian jockey champion- seen left) visited the Islington studio one day to see how his colleague Stephen Donoghue (far right) was enjoying his film experience. With Carlyle Blackwell and June.
The first film to be produced was Riding for a King, which featured Donaghue and Carlyle Blackwell, Miles Mander and the pretty actress June Tripp (simply called June). Filmed by Bert Cann, one of America’s foremost cameramen, the story was about a jockey hero whose unhappy fate was to love Lady Betty Raleigh (June). Blackwell and Mander were already well established silent film stars but June was a relative newcomer. June said that she had been engaged for the picture without any sort of test and wanted to feel ‘that I’m justifying the choice.’
Stephen Donoghue and June in a scene from Riding For a King (1926) filmed at the Islington studio
The picture’s chief purpose was ‘providing a full-length study of Donoghue’s personality in private life and on the racecourse’ and he was seen as a slight, youthful looking, charming little man, with an evident sense of humour. No-one would ever suspect that he had a grown-up son, also a jockey.
Needless to say, the race climax was the best part of the film. Another five pictures were filmed in the first few months of 1926 and released thereafter: Dark Horses, A Knight of the Saddle (with Carlyle Blackwell and Madge Stuart), Beating the Book (with Carlyle Blackwell and Violet Hopson), The Stolen Favourite and The Golden Spurs (with Irene Russell).
London’s Hollywood: The Gainsborough Studio in the Silent Years
Published 15th July 2014
A detailed look at the British Silent Film industry with this first ever evaluation of the history, output and achievement of the most iconic film studio in England during the silent era.
Available in the following formats:
Hardback, £27, ISBN 9781909230132
Paperback, £14.99, ISBN 9781909230101
Amazon Kindle ebook, £8.99, ISBN 9781909230125
Apple ebook, £8.99, ISBN 9781909230118 (Through Apple / iTunes – search for title on iTunes bookstore)