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Percival Mackey

{{Short description|British pianist, composer and bandleader (1894–1950)}}

{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

Thomas Percival Montague Mackey (1 June 1894 – 23 November 1950) was a British pianist, composer and bandleader. He is particularly known for his work as a composer and musical director for films during the 1930s and 1940s.

Life and career

Mackey was born on 1 June 1894 in London, England, one of seven children of music publisher Thomas Mackey.{{cite web|title=Special Features|url=http://www.memorylane.org.uk/al_bowlly_special_features.htm|work=Memory Lane magazine|accessdate=23 April 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204175520/http://www.memorylane.org.uk/al_bowlly_special_features.htm|url-status=dead|archivedate=4 February 2012}} He learned to play piano at a young age,{{cite book|author=Hilton R. Schleman|authorlink=Hilton Schleman|title=Rhythm on record|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzU5AQAAIAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Greenwood Press|page=156|isbn=9780313202575}} and when he was 14 he toured as a pianist with a one-man travelling show, which consisted of ventriloquism, magic and comedy. As part of this show, Mackey improvised a musical soundtrack to a silent film. At the age of 18, he joined the Royal Irish Animated Picture Company in Tipperary, Ireland, a travelling film show managed by Arthur Jameson. Mackey played as part of a musical trio alongside a 72-year-old trumpeter and a fiddler who was often drunk.{{cite book|author=John Huntley|title=British Film Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUXMwgOQX5AC&pg=PA27|year=1972|publisher=Ayer Publishing|isbn=978-0-405-03897-6|pages=27–28}}

After the First World War, during which he served with the Durham Light Infantry, Mackey moved to Brighton and after a while started playing with Jack Hylton's orchestra. In the early 1920s, he formed an ensemble of his own, known as the Broadway Five. In this band Mackey played the piano, accompanied by Dick Langham (tenor sax), Bert Heath (trumpet), Bill Blanche (banjo) and Ralph Hussey (drums). He later became one of Britain's foremost dance band leaders,David Ades. "[http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/46283 Yorke, Peter.]" In Grove Music Online. Accessed 23 April 2012. working with many other musicians, including Al Bowlly (1929), Art Christmas (1931–33), Jack Jackson (1930–31) and Ivor Mairants (1929).{{cite book|author=John Chilton|title=Who's Who of British Jazz|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofbritish00chil|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8264-7234-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofbritish00chil/page/72 72], 110, 230}}

During the 1920s, Mackey was also the musical director for several West End musicals, including No, No, Nanette at the Palace Theatre in 1925, and Follow Thru at the Dominion in 1929.{{cite book|author=Stanley Green|title=Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre|url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116403559523|url-access=registration|year=1980|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0-306-80113-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116403559523/page/308 308]–}}

In 1929, he appeared in a short film directed by Bertram Phillips, The Percival Mackey Trio, made in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process. From the beginning of the 1930s, he began to be involved in film work, as both a film score composer and a musical director. Film scores composed by Mackey include Talk of the Devil (1936), Service for Ladies (1932) and Charing Cross Road (1935).{{IMDb name|0533481}}. Accessed 23 April 2012.

Towards the end of 1934, Mackey was appointed the Director of Dance Music at EMI, for which Mackey directed several bands including the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra.

Mackey was married to actress, singer and dancer Monti Ryan.{{cite book|title=British Film and Television Yearbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7cQAAAAIAAJ|year=1958|publisher=British and American Film Press|page=190}} He died in Edgware, Middlesex, on 23 November 1950.{{cite web|title=MACKEY, Percival|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/287010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113202226/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/287010|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 January 2009|work=Screenonline|publisher=British Film Institute|accessdate=23 April 2012}}

Selected filmography

References

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External links

  • {{IMDb name|0533481}}
  • {{AllMusic|id=mn0001946854|title=Percival Mackey}}
  • [https://archive.org/details/1929PercivalMackeyHisBand-01-06 Recordings of Percival Mackey & His Band] at The Internet Archive
  • [http://www.britishpathe.com/video/percival-mackey-and-his-boys Video of Percival Mackey & His Boys] at British Pathe

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Category:1894 births

Category:1950 deaths

Category:English film score composers

Category:English male film score composers

Category:English bandleaders

Category:Dance band bandleaders

Category:Musical theatre directors

Category:Musicians from London

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Musicians from Brighton and Hove

Category:20th-century British conductors (music)

Category:20th-century British composers

Category:20th-century British pianists

Category:20th-century British musicians

Category:British male pianists

Category:20th-century British male musicians

Category:Durham Light Infantry soldiers

Category:Military personnel from London