Thomas Ricketts — The Personal Side of the Pictures (1914) 🇺🇸

Thomas Ricketts, veteran dramatic producer with the American Film Company, shares the fame of “Flying A” dramas with Sydney Ayres. Mr. Ayres recently has relieved Mr. Ricketts of about half the output, directing the plays in which Vivian Rich and William Garwood appear, while Mr. Ricketts stars in his productions Winifred Greenwood and Ed Coxen [Edward Coxen].

Mr. Ricketts is an Englishman, a native of Kent. He comes of a long line of actors, musicians and artists. On his mother’s side, Joshua, Arthur and John Pennialis were famous painters in their day. William Ricketts, one of his near ancestors, and his family were members of the old Drury Lane Theatre in London. They also were prominent actors at Saddler’s Wells Playhouse, where they were associated with Mrs. Siddons and the Phelps.

Still more numerous were the eminent musicians in his connection. His father, Robert Ricketts, was one of the foremost singers of his generation and a strong believer in popular culture. Under the patronage of Lord Palmerston and Sir Charles Angersteen, and with the endorsement of the leading musical critics of his country, he founded oratorio and choral societies in nearly all the counties of England.

It was Robert Ricketts who thus really made possible the opportunities for musical education among the poorer people as well as among the comfortable middle class, which so impress to-day students of English culture. A traveller in England finds in nearly every town a choral club, a social centre for the young people of the community, where they are drawn together by the love of music so prevalent in England. Traditional melodies and ancient folk songs are cherished in these circles, as well as the best in opera and oratorio. And if anybody doubts the charm of old English ballads, or the worthwhileness of societies which keep the ancient airs from dying out, let him not fail to hear the three Fuller sisters on their next American tour. When he has heard these delightful young English girls sing The Raggletaggle Gypsies, and A Lawyer’s Wooing, he will appreciate the efforts of Robert Ricketts, and understand better why Thomas Ricketts also should have wished to devote his talents to some form of public entertainment.

He was very young when, with an older brother, he entered the stock company of the Theatre Royal of Greenwich. This led to a succession of engagements all over Great Britain. Before he was twenty-two he determined to try his fortunes in America. Arriving in New York, he presented himself upon the Rialto in the late seventies, where immediately he captured a part. Until seven years ago, without intermission, he was everything a man could be in connection with the stage. As actor, stage director, author and producer, he was closely associated with the best known managers, including Charles Frohman, the Shuberts, Klaw and Erlanger [Lee Shubert | Sam S. Shubert | Jacob J. Shubert | Marc Klaw | Abraham Lincoln Erlanger], the management of the New York Casino, and of the Garrick and Daly’s theatres. During this time he “made” many famous Broadway productions.

When Mr. Ricketts first tried his hand at pictures, it was merely as an experiment, and for the amusement of the thing. But his initial attempt met with such success that, after a few more efforts, he quit the stage for the silent drama. Mr. Ricketts’ taste in pictures is eminently refined and artistic. He is convinced of the immense educational value of the photoplay, and its widespread moral influence. His aim is to present the best available subjects, treated in the best possible way. The quality of American releases ranks high in the motion picture art, and nearly every film which comes out of the “Flying A” studios bears the stamp of the veteran producer’s approval. He is one of the dominant personalities behind the acknowledgedly superior American brand, of photoplays.

For the last two years, Mr. Ricketts has devoted himself almost exclusively to two and three reel features. Some of his notable plays are The Ghost of the Hacienda, The Trail of the Lost Chord, In the Firelight, The Making of a Woman, Her Fighting Chance, and A Soul Astray.

The Trail of the Lost Chord was a drama which brought fame to company and producer all over this country and abroad. It was a singularly beautiful dramatization of the famous baritone solo, and the scenes were taken among the old missions of California.

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This snapshot of Mr. Ricketts shows him “cleaning up” after a hard day’s work on the “Flying A” Ranch

Collection: Reel Life Magazine, October 1914

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