While those born after 1970 may have never heard of the Elliman family, their influence over the cultural and entertainment life of Ireland was writ large over more than five decades from 1911 to the closure of the Theatre Royal in June 1962.
Wendy Elliman begins her family history with her grandfather Moishe Helman, who arrived in Dublin in 1892, aged 20, having decided to leave his home in northwest Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire and not overly fond of its Jewish population. Arriving in Dublin with no English, no money and a different name, Moishe became Maurice Elliman, and flourished in Dublin’s ‘Little Jerusalem’, the square mile of streets around Clanbrassil Street and South Circular Road.
Ireland, Elliman notes, was a place of welcome for Jewish refugees, the exception being the horribly anti-Semitic Limerick priest, John Creagh, who used the pulpit for his racist rantings.
Maurice thrived in Dublin, first as a greengrocer and florist, before adopting the fledgling motion picture technology, showing bioscope projections in a canvas tent. In 1911, he converted a disused garage on Dublin’s Great Brunswick Street (renamed Pearse Street in 1922) into the Cinema Theatre, setting the template for the 34 cinemas the family would eventually own.
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It wasn’t just in film technology that the Elliman family excelled, however, as they moved into the theatre world, adding the Gaiety Theatre and the Theatre Royal to their burgeoning empire in the 1930s, while the Ellimans were also instrumental in the creation of Ardmore Studios in Bray, Co Wicklow. By now the family empire was being run by Maurice’s third child, Louis, who eclipsed his father as the business enjoyed a golden age, its venues and its boss becoming known the world over.
[ The father and son who built an Irish entertainment empireOpens in new window ]
The first third of this book is Wendy Elliman’s comprehensive family history, from Maurice and his wife Leah to their 12 children.
The final two-thirds is given over to Louis Elliman’s extensive journal from the extraordinary global trip in 1950 that saw him meet some of the true heavyweights of the movie world, from Billy Wilder to Walt Disney, Jack Warner to Louis B Mayer. Part travel guide, part gossip column in waiting, it’s a whirlwind of parties, dinners and business meetings with those who helped to shape 20th-century entertainment and a fascinating insight into Ireland’s place therein.
