Between the devil and the deep blue sea, there is an alternative--the fascinating Raymond Hitchcock

 

Between the devil and the deep blue sea, there is an alternative -- it is mad, sad, glad, bad, fascinating, charming Raymond Hitchcock (more familiarly known to his friends as "Hitch-y"), with a hundred shattered reputations, but beloved and admired for his imitable cleverness and amazing personality by multitudes of people -- all those, in fact, who have ever sat under the spell of his mellifluous voice. -- Birmingham Age-Herald, February 5, 1915. 

Moving on to the dashing gentlemen of the theatre, we have Raymond Hitchcock, a quite popular performer and matinee idol of his day. Apart from his stage success, he is one of the few theatrical actors of the late Victorian era who appeared in silent films that fortunately still exist today.  

A native New Yorker, Raymond was born on a farm on October 22, 1865, in Auburn, New York. He attended Georgetown University and pursued acting, beginning as a chorus boy in Keith and Albee's circuit, The Mikado (1884).  On April 6, 1900, The Mikado opened on Broadway, and this time Hitchcock's role had advanced out of the chorus. From then on, he remained active on Broadway until he died in 1929. Hitchcock also performed at West End's Prince of Whales Theatre in Mr. Manhattan (1916) with Peggy Kurton. Outside of his stage work, he has a list of film credits and numerous gramophone recordings. One picture in particular received rave reviews, My Valet (1915) with Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand. 

The pinnacle of Hitchcock's career came with his Hitchy-Koo revues, which he not only starred in but also produced. The successful series of musical revues premiered on Broadway each year from June 1917 through 1920, counting a 1922 tour. One review read:

"There are more laughs in the show than any well-regulated show should have. They start before the curtain goes up and they stop only when it descends for the last time. And then, after it is all over, you wonder why you laughed, because the funniest of the comedy is of slapstick variety and the funniest of the comedians is are the ones who do strange falls, and get covered with soot and flour and do other stunts that are supposed to be done only in burlesque or small-time vaudeville. Nevertheless, it is screamingly funny and last night's audience laughed until it almost cried. Mr. Hitchcock is undoubtedly one of the best comics on the stage. Not content with being in his own show, he teams up with Leon Errol, another laugh-getter of first rank." -- N.Y. Journal of Commerce, June 7, 1918. 

From 1905 until his death in 1929, he was married to actress Flora Zabelle. The couple had no children. Hitchcock passed away suddenly from heart disease on November 24, 1929, at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Flora by his side.  

Raymond Hitchcock and Irene Bordoni as they appeared in the newspaper in "Hitchy-Koo," ca. 1917. 

 

"My life has been full of halations from the first moment I stepped out on the stage because I have been able to make people laugh and forget." He later articulated, "My greatest happiness in life is just to bask in the clear sunshine of God's own blessed land every day at my farmhouse out of Great Neck, where I am just an old farmer -- a boy again -- with nothing but sunshine and happiness about me. That's one of the halations of life. You know what a halation is, don't you? It's something that gets in the way of photographers; it's the sun on a bald spot; a brilliance that takes dignity from your nose, if you don't powder it."