Macqueen-Pope, Walter James

Macqueen-Pope, Walter James (1888–1960), English actor, manager, and theatre historian, who traced his ancestry back to the 18th-century actress Jane Pope of Drury Lane, and even further back, to Thomas Pope of the Globe, friend and associate of Shakespeare, and Morgan Pope of the Bear Garden. Though these claims were never fully substantiated, they gave him much pleasure and were seldom challenged. Certainly he merited a distinguished theatrical pedigree, for his devotion to the London theatre (he ignored all others) was whole-hearted and he spent his life in its service. He was at some time in his career business or front-of-house manager of almost every theatre in London, and for 21 years was in charge of publicity at Drury Lane. A stimulating companion, ‘Popie’ excelled in communicating the glamour and excitement of Edwardian theatre-going, and his inaccuracies were forgiven for the sake of the brilliant light he threw on personalities and events in the theatre of his lifetime. After his death a plaque to his memory was unveiled by Sir Donald Wolfit in St Paul's Church, Covent Garden.