Austen Hurgon Collection

This collection contains a selection of production materials, souvenirs booklets, scripts, scores, lyrics, maps, notes, articles, drafts and other objects relating to The Three Little Maids, The Norse Girl, Thelma of Norway, A Northern Maid (various working titles) and other musical plays devised or co-devised by Austen Hurgon between 1902-1935.

Austen Hurgon (real name Richard Cornelius Horgan) 1867-1941, was an actor, stage producer, director and librettist active in the theatre between 1905 and 1922. In 1907, he produced the successful musical Miss Hook of Holland, co-writing the music and lyrics with Paul Rubens, with whom Hurgon also collaborated with on a number of other musical plays with varied degrees of success. Hurgon worked in conjunction with Frank Curzon from 1905 to 1909 at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Richmond, Surrey, and subsequently went to the London Hippodrome where he directed Hullo, Ragtime! and its sequels for Albert de Courville. Hurgon went on to also write What Ho! Ragtime at the Chiswick Empire. In 1910, he directed two musicals on Broadway, New York. Hurgon continued to produce and direct musicals and operettas in England, though none were as successful as his earlier productions. He retired from musical theatre after His Girl in 1922.

This collection is arranged as follows:

• THM/275/1 - Austen Hurgon's production files and research files
• THM/275/2 - Various Song Lyrics and Scores

This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Blythe House Archive and Library Study Room by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/ .

Access to some of the material may be restricted. These are noted in the catalogue where relevant.

Mrs Isabella Hurgon, 1995

Information on copying and commercial reproduction may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/ .

This collection was appraised in line with the collections management policy.

Gift from the daughter-in-law of Austen Hurgon, Mrs Isabella Hurgon of Hampstead, in 1995.

No further accruals are expected.