Lionel Mortimer. Photo published in the Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc., on October 25, 1933.

Lionel Mortimer

1891-1964

Lionel Mortimer was a violinist, theatre musician and orchestra leader who was prominent in Ottawa during the vaudeville and silent film era. He also performed for early radio programs and conducted orchestras for Canada’s first public broadcaster.

Lionel Mortimer’s career is worth following in some detail because it offers a window into the working lives of musicians in Ottawa when live entertainment was thriving. In the 1920s, many of Ottawa’s more than 100,000 residents flocked to ornately decorated vaudeville theatres for the great variety of entertainment they offered. There were several theatres downtown, some within a few blocks of each other, and thousands of theatre-goers attended each week.

Early years in Ottawa

Lionel Mortimer was first mentioned in an Ottawa newspaper in September 1907 as part of the Mortimer Trio, which performed at the Stormont County agricultural fair. Sixteen-year-old Lionel, his brother Harry, and Miss S. Mortimer were reported as performing songs with violin and banjo, and as being recent arrivals from England. In ancestry records, Mortimer’s surname is sometimes referred to as Salkoff.

In January 1909, Mortimer played for a concert and dance at St. George’s Hall on Bank St. organized by Lady Laurier. Over the next few years, Mortimer performed in various settings in Ottawa, including the popular recital series held by music retailer C.W. Lindsay Ltd. on Sparks St. He also performed at fundraising and recruitment events for the war and had close ties with the Jewish community, playing at religious and community events. By 1916, he was described as being “one of the talented violinists of the Capital” and was performing as a recitalist and in a small ensemble he led for dances and concerts.

Music for vaudeville and silent films

Starting in 1917, Mortimer’s name was advertised in newspaper ads as director of the New Family Orchestra for the Family Theatre, a vaudeville venue on Queen St. The Family Theatre was built specifically as a vaudeville house. It had a capacity of over 1,100 and was often sold out.

Vaudeville theatres offered frequent new programming that included stage shows and orchestra and theatre organ music. They also screened silent movies and newsreels. Mortimer’s orchestra provided musical support for the vaudeville acts and played selections that evoked the various moods depicted in the silent films.

An aspect of the working environment of theatre musicians during this period was the establishment of the Theatrical Federation of Ottawa and District, which operated from at least 1915 to 1919. It included Local 180 and Locals 95 and 257 of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees. It arose after a strike in 1914. These groups went on strike together in 1921, and the musicians’ union supported theatre stagehands in strikes again in 1924 and 1929.

Mortimer was involved in union affairs for Local 180, serving as an executive officer in 1920 and taking part in the organizing committee to mount a special concert by members of Local 180 at the Russell Theatre in late April 1920.

On April 1, 1920, the Ottawa Journal wrote about Mortimer’s role in providing music for screenings of silent films:

‘Lionel Mortimer is the man in charge of the ten-piece orchestra at the Family Theatre and to him goes much of the credit for appropriate musical accompaniment in that house. Mortimer has been striving to obtain artistic results and he is meeting with results. Mortimer pays particular attention to ‘cue sheets.’ The latter outlines appropriate musical selections for a screen feature and also designates the playing time of the various musical numbers during the presentation of the feature…. Perfect moving picture orchestration consists of playing with the picture. An audience is literally carried away by the film story when the picture and orchestration harmonize to a complete extent.’

In September 1920, the Family Theatre was renamed the Franklin Theatre, with Mortimer directing the Franklin Superior Orchestra. Its newspaper ads announced weekly shows of “refined vaudeville” and as catering to music lovers, with three live performances daily plus screenings of newsreels and films.

In a slightly later phase of the theatre’s programming, the orchestra also performed an overture. Examples of overture selections advertised by the Franklin Theatre were “Raymond Overture” by Ambroise Thomas, “Rose-Marie” by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, “Irene” by Harry Tierny, and Vincent Youmans’ “Hallelujah” from the musical comedy Hit the Deck.

Newspaper reviews of shows at the Franklin praised Mortimer’s musical direction highly. In 1923, the Ottawa Journal wrote that the Franklin Superior Orchestra under Lionel Mortimer’s direction “is winning new laurels daily” and that “a high standard of vaudeville has been preserved at the Franklin Theatre since its opening a short time ago, and it is very noticeable how efficient is the support afforded by the orchestra under the direction of Mr. Lionel Mortimer.”

In September 1923, the Franklin Theatre took the unusual step of publishing a newspaper ad to feature the names of the six members of its orchestra “who have contributed so much to the success of the Franklin and the enjoyment of the public.” A week later, the Ottawa Citizen’s T.J. Palmer wrote:

I paid a visit to the Franklin theater last week to hear the orchestra just recently formed and to determine personally whether the music was up to the standard admirers were claiming for it. The director of the orchestra is Mr. Lionel Mortimer, with Messrs. Harry M. Gough (piano), Charles Mathe (’cello), Thomas Dunne (clarinet), C. Payette (cornet), and Jack Linderman (drums, etc.). I found the balance and tonal blend of this orchestra of six players excellent. Mr. Mortimer, whose work I have admired in the past, controls his organization with artistic taste and renders the tricky accompaniments with ideal intensity and shading. There was never any attempt to overpower the stage artists, but always a feeling of subserviency on the part of the players.

Mr. Franklin is to be congratulated upon his orchestra, which is doing yeoman service in creating an air of refinement to the performances in his theater.

Mortimer would later direct the orchestra at B.F. Keith Theatre and play violin with the Centre Theatre Orchestra.

Theatres at this time advertised heavily in newspapers, which in turn published reviews and articles on upcoming attractions. Some writers published opinion pieces on the merits of each theatre’s programming and orchestra, and generally about Ottawa’s increasing musical sophistication. Mortimer was a visible part of this development, and he wrote to the Ottawa Citizen to express his thanks for its critical writing on theatre entertainment in the capital:

I must acknowledge with much pleasure your little note of praise of the B.F. Keith orchestra, which I have the privilege of directing, and which appeared in your music column yesterday.

Subservient as we must be at all times to the requirements of the artists on the stage, we have not the opportunity of “shining” as an individual organization. Nevertheless, our work is of the most exacting nature, yet must at no time be conspicuous in itself.

It is gratifying to have such commendation from one who knows, and I thank you sincerely.

Lionel Mortimer, Musical Director, Ottawa, Feb. 4th, 1925.

During these years, Mortimer also performed as part of the Ottawa String Quartette at events at Dominion Church, St. James’ United Church and Erskine Presbyterian Church.

Early radio days

Mortimer had begun an association with the B.F. Keith Theatre by fall 1924 with a nine-piece orchestra. Under his direction, it gave a radio broadcast of orchestral music for CKCO Ottawa in October 1924.

In addition to his theatre work, Mortimer conducted orchestra broadcasts in Ottawa for CKCO’s “The Motor Co. Studebaker” and the “Special Hour of Symphony Music” programs in 1926. These generally featured single movements from the standard classical repertoire and arrangements of popular music.

By the late 1920s, theatres were becoming wired for sound movies, and the days of silent films and vaudeville became numbered. Mortimer remained associated with Keith’s until 1930, when the theatre permanently discontinued its vaudeville shows.

By July 1931, Mortimer had relocated to Toronto. He was in charge of musical activities for Famous Radio Features in Toronto. He conducted the weekly “Canada Bread Hour” series of half-hour programs of popular music for CFRB radio that featured a large symphonic orchestra.

The Ottawa Journal reported on Mortimer’s return to Ottawa in August 1933. It described him as having been active in orchestral work in Toronto for three years and as associating with orchestra leader and violin teacher Alexander Chuhaldin, who taught some of the leading violinists in Toronto. It also indicated that Mortimer had played concerts at Massey Hall and Hart House and that he had led his own 16-piece orchestra on radio and for other programs.

In October 1933, Mortimer led a 30-piece orchestra for the Canadian Radio Commission as part of what was described as Ottawa’s largest radio program. The broadcast was in support of Federated Charities. Over 100 musicians participated at no cost to the charity, with the Ottawa Citizen noting that “every co-operation has been given by the Musicians’ Union in furthering the splendid work.” For this event, Mortimer was described in the news as a “Commission feature” from Toronto and in charge of the musical details of the broadcast. His orchestra performed the overture to Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave as part of the hour-long live broadcast on CRCO.

Mortimer was involved in other charitable performances in the 1930s, including at the RKO Capitol Theatre for the Christmas Fund of Kiwanis. The union’s support of this event ensured that musicians could perform with no fees charged to the charity.

Later years

In 1944, Mortimer advertised in the Kingston Whig-Standard for students, describing himself as musical director for theatre and radio, and as a violinist with the symphony orchestras in Ottawa, Quebec and Toronto. He performed for the Kingston Music Club in December 1944.

In August 1945, he advertised in Ottawa newspapers as being a former violinist with the Toronto Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. He continued to advertise his teaching studio until at least 1948. He played various engagements and community events in the late 1940s and led incidental music for a production of Love for Love by the Theatre Guild at the Capitol Theatre in 1947. He had at least some involvement with the Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra, playing first violin in its first season in 1950-51 after its reorganization.

[Location of photo6 with caption:] Lionel Mortimer in a family photo, 1953. Source: Ancestry.ca.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the social pages of Ottawa newspapers mentioned visits to Mortimer and his wife, Theresa (née Sayers, d. 1981), by their daughter, two sons and extended family at their home.

Lionel Mortimer died in Ottawa in October 1964, at age 73. Local 180’s newsletter wrote that Mortimer was “a fine musician who performed in and conducted many theatre orchestras in and around Ottawa, a staunch unionist and a former officer of the local.” It added that he was “well respected and loved by all.”

References of interest

• Cinema Treasures

• Elsa Marshall: “Silent Film Music Research as Local Musicology: A Case Study of Musical Practices and Networks in Ottawa Theatres from 1897 to 1929,” M.A. thesis, University of Ottawa, 2017

• Entry for Lionel Mortimer on lowertownottawa.ca

• Hilary Russell: “All that Glitters: A Memorial to Ottawa’s Capitol Theatre and its Predecessors,” Canadian Historic Sites, National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Parks Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs, Ottawa, 1975

• Lantern (searchable platform for the collections of the Media History Digital Library)

• Silent Film Music in Canada

Kevin James