Jose G. Levy

Jose Gerald Levy was a producer, impresario, and translator of French drama, as well as being the founder of London's Grand Guignol. He was born in Portsmouth on 29 June 1884 and educated at Portsmouth Grammar School and L'école de Commerce in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1912 Levy was working in theatre. On 23 August 1912 the Lord Chamberlain's Office issued a license for his play 'Seven Blind Men' to be staged at the Palladium from 20 September. It was a play in the style of the Grand Guignol. In 1915 Levy was engaged as a producer for the Grand Guignol season at the Coronet and submitted a number of French plays for licence. After the war, in 1920 he led the way in setting up London's own Grand Guignol theatre. In March 1934 Levy received the order of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour for services to French Dramatic Art in England. He died in 1936 at the age of fifty-two. For more on Levy's Grand Guignol see Hand, Richard J. and Michael Wilson, 'London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror' (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2007)