Helen Carte

Helen Carte Boulter (born Susan Helen Couper Black; 12 May 1852 – 5 May 1913), also known as Helen Lenoir, was a Scottish businesswoman known for her diplomatic skills and grasp of detail. Beginning as his secretary, and later marrying, impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, she is best remembered for her stewardship of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Savoy Hotel from the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century.

Born in Wigtown, Scotland, she attended the University of London from 1871 to 1874 and pursued brief teaching and acting careers. In 1877 she obtained employment with Richard D'Oyly Carte and became his assistant and, later, business manager. She helped to produce the Gilbert and Sullivan and other Savoy Operas, beginning with The Sorcerer in 1877 and helped Carte with all his business interests. One of her principal assignments was to superintend arrangements for American productions and tours of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

She married Richard in 1888. During the 1890s, with her husband's health declining, Helen assumed increasing responsibility for the businesses, taking full control upon his death in 1901. She remarried in 1902 and continued to own the opera company and run most of the Carte business interests until her death. Although the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's operations decreased after Richard's death, Helen staged successful repertory seasons in London from 1906 to 1909, establishing that the Gilbert and Sullivan operas could continue to be revived profitably; the company continued to operate continuously until 1982.

By the time of her death in 1913, the opera company had become a repertory touring company. Helen engaged J. M. Gordon to preserve the company's unique style. In her will, she left the Savoy Theatre, the hotel business and the opera company to her stepson, Rupert D'Oyly Carte.

Life and career Painting of Helen Carte by Walter Richard Sickert, c. 1885: The Acting Manager

Early years Susan Helen Couper Black was born in Wigtown, Scotland, the second of four children of George Couper Black (1819–1863), procurator fiscal and banker, and his second wife, Ellen, née Barham (1822–1902). One of her brothers, John McConnell Black, became a well-known botanist. Her grandfather, Robert Couper, M.D., was a Scottish physician and poet, and her great-uncle was George Couper, 1st Baronet, an army officer for whom the Couper baronetcy was created.

From 1871 to 1874, registered as Helen Susan Black, she attended the University of London and was a gifted student, passing the examinations for Special Certificates in mathematics and in logic and moral philosophy (the university did not award degrees to women until 1878). She also spoke several languages. She adopted the stage name Helen Lenoir, which, she later explained, had been the surname of her French ancestors until they anglicised it to "Black" upon settling in Scotland in the 18th century.

The woman behind the man From the time that she became a secretary in Richard's agency in June 1877, Frank Desprez, the editor of The Era, wrote, "Her character exactly compensated for the deficiencies in his." She also tactfully and sympathetically dealt with the personal and professional problems of the actors in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company casts.

The couple's London home included the first private lift. James McNeill Whistler, a client of Carte's agency and friend of the Cartes, made an etching of Helen in 1887 or 1888, "Miss Lenoir", and later helped to decorate the Cartes' home. Helen Carte was sometimes referred to as "Helen D'Oyly Carte" or "Mrs. D'Oyly Carte", though D'Oyly was a given name, not a surname. |

In 1894, Carte engaged his son Rupert D'Oyly Carte as an assistant. Rupert's older brother, Lucas (1872–1907), a barrister, was not involved in the family businesses and died of tuberculosis at the age of 34. With no new Gilbert and Sullivan shows written after 1896, the Savoy Theatre put on a number of other shows for comparatively short runs, including several of Sullivan's less successful operas. Young Rupert assisted Helen and Gilbert with the first revival of The Yeomen of the Guard at the Savoy in May 1897. In 1899, the theatre finally had a new success in Sullivan and Basil Hood's The Rose of Persia, which ran for 213 performances.

After Carte's death

Richard died in 1901 leaving the theatre, opera company and hotel business to Helen, who assumed full control of the family businesses. She leased the Savoy Theatre to William Greet in 1901, who managed the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's revival at the Savoy of Iolanthe and productions of several new comic operas including The Emerald Isle (1901; Sullivan and Edward German, with a libretto by Hood), Merrie England (1902) and A Princess of Kensington (1903; both by German and Hood). and Helen leased the theatre to other managements until 8 December 1906. She had married Stanley Boulter, a barrister, in 1902, but she continued to use the surname Carte in her business dealings. Boulter assisted her in the Savoy businesses. She was a founder member of the Society of West End Theatre Managers, along with Frank Curzon, George Edwardes, Arthur Bourchier and sixteen others.

Her stepson Rupert took over his late father's role as Chairman of the Savoy Hotel in 1903, which Helen continued to own. The years between 1901 and 1906 saw a decline in the fortunes of the opera company. The number of D'Oyly Carte repertory companies touring the provinces gradually declined until there was only one left, visiting often small centres of population. After the company visited South Africa in 1905, more than half a year elapsed with no professional productions of G&S in the British Isles. During this period, Helen and Rupert focused their attention on the hotel side of the family interests, which were very profitable. The season, and the following one, were tremendous successes, revitalising the company. Contemporary accounts describe Carte taking three curtain calls with Gilbert on the opening night of the 1906 revival of The Yeomen of the Guard. Carte wrote in 1911 that her health made it impossible for her to produce any more revivals at the Savoy. In March 1909 Charles H. Workman took over the management of the Savoy Theatre from the now frail Carte. She continued to manage the rest of the family businesses with the assistance of Rupert. In 1910 she engaged J. M. Gordon, who had been a member of the company under Gilbert's direction, as stage manager. She implored Gordon to make sure that the operas were performed as the authors had intended. Both Gordon and George Edwardes spoke warmly of Carte.

In 1912 King George V conferred on Carte the Order of the League of Mercy, in recognition of her charitable generosity. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to operate continuously until 1982.

Portrayals in film and television Carte has been portrayed in the films The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) by Eileen Herlie and in Topsy-Turvy (1999) by Wendy Nottingham. She was portrayed by Mary McKenzie in the British 1961 3-part TV series, Gilbert & Sullivan: The Immortal Jesters.