Isabella Hurgon

Austen Hurgon (real name Richard Cornelius Horgan) 1867-1941, was an actor, stage producer, director and librettist active in the theatre between 1905 and 1922. In 1907 he produced the successful musical Miss Hook of Holland, co-writing the music and lyrics with Paul Rubens, with whom Hurgon also collaborated with on a number of other musical plays with varied degrees of success. Hurgon worked in conjunction with Frank Curzon from 1905 to 1909 at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Richmond, Surrey, and subsequently went to the London Hippodrome where he directed Hullo, Ragtime! and its sequels for Albert de Courville. Hurgon went on to travesty Hullo, Ragtime! in What Ho! Ragtime at Chiswick Empire. In 1910 Hurgon directed two musicals on Broadway, New York, then continued to produce and direct musicals and operettas in England, though none were as successful as his earlier productions. Hurgon retired from musical theatre after His Girl, his last production, in 1922.

From the guide to the Austen Hurgon Collection, 1902-1935, (V&A Theatre and Performance)