Charles Lapworth

Charles Lapworth (13 June 1878 – 26 October 1951) was a British-born socialist activist, journalist and film promoter.

In the years prior to World War I Lapworth was an activist in the cause of syndicalist socialism, supporting industrial unionism and the international solidarity of the labour movement. He was the editor of The Daily Herald from late 1912 to December 1913, during which the newspaper developed a radical voice supporting unionism, the suffragette movement and the class struggle. After a dispute regarding his editorial style he left the Herald and worked as an editor for the Daily Mail during the early months of the war. By early 1916 he had settled in Los Angeles with his family, where he edited the arts and culture magazine The Graphic.

From 1918 he became involved with the motion picture industry, working initially as a publicist for Charlie Chaplin. In 1920 he returned to England where he worked as the director of promotion and publicity for Goldwyn Pictures. He later served on the boards of Gainsborough Pictures and Whitehall Films in Britain. By 1930 Lapworth had returned to the Los Angeles area where he undertook various roles connected with the film and entertainment industry.

Biography

Early years

Charles Lapworth was born on 13 June 1878 at Portobello in Willenhall, Staffordshire, the son of Isaac Lapworth and Mary Ann (née Parker). His father was a coal miner.

Lapworth received his early training as a journalist working for the Yorkshire Press newspaper.

Socialism

Lapworth travelled to the United States and accompanied Eugene V. Debs on his 'Red Special' railroad campaign in the lead-up to the 1908 presidential election. Debs was running for president as the candidate for the Socialist Party of America and Lapworth took on the role as a publicist for the campaign, as well as promoting the Industrial Workers of the World and speaking about socialism in Britain.

After he returned to Britain, Charles Lapworth and Else Minna Louise Fritz were married on 20 January 1909 at Pontefract in Yorkshire. The couple had two children, a son named Norman (born in 1913) and a daughter named Nikita (born in 1921).

By about 1911 Lapworth and his wife were living in Italy, investigating the socialist movement there; in his own words: "Mrs. Lapworth and I were leading the lives of tramps in Italy". Lapworth reported for London's Daily Mail newspaper, covering the Italo-Turkish War in the Ottoman province of Tripolitania Vilayet (northern modern Libya), fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from September 1911 to October 1912. During the conflict Lapworth, in collaboration with Helen Zimmern, wrote Tripoli and the Young Italy, published in about August 1912. One reviewer described the book as "an ex parte statement, from the Italian standpoint, of Italy's claim to Tripoli", presenting "the reasons why Italy had the right to seize upon Tripoli". Italy's aggressive campaign was characterised as "the seizure of the territory of a friendly power in the midst of profound peace", another instance "of the application of the modern doctrine of might is right". A review of the book in The Nation commented that "one readily gains the impression that [Lapworth] is presenting a semi-official brief on behalf of the Italian Government".

The Daily Herald

After returning to England, in about September 1912 Lapworth was appointed as the editor of the Daily Herald, replacing Rowland Kenney. The Herald had been established in April 1912 as a permanent daily newspaper supportive of the labour movement, but independent of the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress. In its previous incarnation it had been a daily strike bulletin during a period of considerable political upheaval in Britain, with Asquith's Liberal government challenging the powers of the House of Lords and organised agitation for female suffrage and industrial conflict leading to a large number of strikes.

Lapworth's appointment to the role of editor of the Herald was encouraged Charles Granville, a publisher who had promised to put four thousand pounds into the newspaper, during a period when its finances were particularly dire. Under Lapworth's editorship the pages of the Daily Herald became more sympathetic to a syndicalist agenda which emphasised the primacy of industrial workers within the structure of society. Strike action was encouraged as a means of enforcing solidarity amongst workers and controlling the means of production in the process of achieving a post-capitalist society. Lapworth himself has been described as "a committed syndicalist". Coinciding with Lapworth's appointment as editor was the recruitment of the Australian cartoonist Will Dyson, who was initially paid five pounds a week and given carte blanche to engage in the expression of his ideas. Dyson developed a dramatic visual language, often featuring symbolic representations of labour and capitalism. With Lapworth as editor new typefaces were introduced and Dyson's radical cartoons were given a full page and regularly featured. Industrial news in the Daily Herald was presented under the regular heading of "The War That Really Matters". The opinions published in the newspaper were "accompanied by a greater venom"; Lapworth and his colleagues "were not content to attack the system, but denounced everyone who compromised with it". In June 1913 the company operating the newspaper, the Daily Herald Printing and Publishing Society Ltd., was forced into liquidation due to "a want of working capital". A new private company, The Limit Printing and Publishing Co., was then formed to run the newspaper, with Lansbury and Lapworth as directors. The expenditure was cut down to £500 a week, reducing the weekly production shortfall to £200, "which several anonymous rich friends of Mr. Lansbury guaranteed to make good". Francis Meynell, representing the anonymous benefactors, was added to the board of directors. Lansbury was a Christian socialist and disapproved of aspects of the editorial direction of the Herald. In October 1912, for example, he had publicly objected to the published description of the Labour MP Philip Snowden as a traitor to the labour movement. In The New Age of 1 January 1914 letters in support of Lapworth were published, as well as letters from the management committee of the Herald and Francis Meynell claiming that Lapworth's account of the December meeting was inaccurate. Lansbury did not exercise day-to-day editorial control of the Herald until February 1914, after he returned from the United States. Lapworth answered Lansbury's letter in The New Age of 5 March 1914. In regard to the meeting in December 1913, he remarked: "So completely had the conspirators prepared their plot, that immediately I conceded my 'resignation,' the question of compensation was broached". He added: "I'm afraid I said some bitter things about the indecent haste". In regard to Lansbury's comments about him leaving the country, Lapworth explained that he had made an incidental remark that he might get work abroad "as I felt I could not see a 'Daily Herald' that was not my 'Daily Herald'". He maintained that his "casual sentimental remark... was subsequently taken advantage of, and financial pressure was brought to bear upon me to go abroad at once". Lapworth concluded his letter: "And so I was forced to abdicate, because, as Mr. Meynell put it with sweetly becoming embarrassment, 'we want the paper to represent Mr. Lanbury's ideas'".

After leaving the Herald Lapworth worked as the night news editor of London's Daily Mail newspaper, owned by Lord Northcliffe. He was there during the early months of World War I, including during the early German airship bombing raids that began in about January 1915. In May 1915 the Daily Mail published criticism of Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, for not supplying enough munitions to the army in France. Lapworth later recalled: "When the first editorial came up from the composing room and we read it in the office, we felt quite confident that the whole staff would be hauled off to prison, or possibly stood up against a wall and shot".

The Graphic

In about late 1915 Lapworth travelled to the United States with his family, where they eventually made their way to Los Angeles.

In 1917 Porter decided to sell The Graphic and extended a three-month option to his editor to purchase the magazine. It is likely that Lapworth lacked the funds to buy the publication outright, but was enabled to purchase The Graphic by entering into a partnership with Eldridge Rand, a friend he had known in London before the war. Rand was from a wealthy Californian family. In 1910 in Lisbon he had married Lucille Gage, the daughter of Henry T. Gage (who was then serving in the role of ambassador to Portugal). The newly-weds lived in Florence (where Rand may have first met Lapworth), and afterwards moved to London (during Lapworth's stint as editor of the Daily Herald). Lapworth and Rand became co-owners of The Graphic from June 1917, with Rand providing most, and possibly all, of the funding to buy the magazine.

There was a distinct change in the style of The Graphic after Rand and Lapworth took charge, with a greater coverage of the arts and society with a similarity to East Coast magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Town & Country. Any political comment was more akin to satire or irony than analysis or critique. The impetus for the changes have been attributed to Rand, especially evidenced by the fact that Lapworth departed from the partnership in about September 1917. By late-September 1917 Lapworth's name had disappeared from the pages of The Graphic, probably indicating that he had sold whatever stake he may have had in the magazine to Rand.

The film industry

In the 1918 Los Angeles City Directory Lapworth was listed as an employee of Chaplin Studios. After the completion of A Dog's Life Lapworth joined Chaplin as he travelled through the southern states of America during April 1918 on a Liberty Bond tour, urging the buying of war bonds. The tour ended in New York City in front of the United States Sub-Treasury Building with Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford (who had been touring the north-east states), entertaining a large crowd.

Lapworth on the set of The Master of Man in 1923, with the leading woman Mae Busch and the director Victor Seastrom.

By about April 1920 Lapworth had joined the board of Goldwyn Ltd., the English branch of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, and was appointed to the executive position of secretary and director of promotion and publicity. The company's London offices were located in Little Newport Street. In April 1923 it was reported that he was returning to America "to do special work" at the Goldwyn organisation's Culver City studio in California. In Culver City Lapworth was associated with the film directors Victor Seastrom and Donald Crisp. In about October 1923 Lapworth worked as the technical advisor on the film adaptation of Hall Caine's The Master of Man (released as Name the Man, directed by Seastrom, in January 1924). In December 1923 Lapworth resigned from the Goldwyn company. Interviewed in New York on his way to England, he said that "his plans are at the moment indefinite" though he might possibly "take up production on his own". The film was released as The Mountain Eagle in October 1926, with Lapworth credited as a co-writer. Lapworth was also a writer, together with the director Graham Cutts, on the production of The Cabaret Kid (also known as The Sea Urchin), released in November 1926. Lapworth resigned from Gainsborough Pictures in July 1926.

Lapworth was employed as the production manager for the Société Générale des Films, producers of La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, released in France in October 1926.

Lapworth was on the board of directors of Whitehall Films Ltd., in the position of distribution manager. The company was floated to the public in November 1927. Whitehall Films built a studio at Elstree in Hertfordshire, completed by about May 1928. In July 1928 it was reported that Whitehall Films had acquired three French films, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Gentlemen at Arms and Baccarat, for distribution in Britain. The company had also completed its first production, Juan Jose. After having paid seven thousand dollars for Joan of Arc, the film was banned by the British censor for its depiction of tormenting English soldiers prior to Joan's execution. The share float had raised "£168,000 from the British public on the strength of Government 'protection' of the British film industry", but by early 1929 Whitehall Films was showing a substantial loss.

Later years

In 1930 Lapworth was living at Calabasas, in the San Fernando Valley north-west of downtown Los Angeles.

In July 1937 it was reported that Lapworth was working on-air for the Los Angeles radio station KFI. On Monday afternoons in a segment called "What the Papers Say" he presented a digest of the news of the week; on Thursdays he presented "What the Critics Say", a coverage of motion pictures, theatre and radio.

In 1942, Lapworth launched the short-lived weekly Malibu Bugle, the first newspaper in the city.

In 1947 Lapworth was working as the public relations representative for Loew's International studio.

Charles Lapworth died on 26 October 1951 in Los Angeles, California, aged 73. Self Determination for California (1919), San Francisco: W.N. Brunt Press; "reprinted from The Bulletin, San Francisco".