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Another question......................about Lupino Lane.

Why "change and flip" his name from Henry Lupino to Lupino Lane?
He performed with his brother Wallace Lupino, so it was rather obvious that "Lupino" ws his last name.

Any idea why he changed it?

I have an unpublished biographical article which I'll give you next week. Lupino descended from two long-time theatrical families. As he tells it in his authorized biography, Born to Star, one of the Lane aunts was concerned that her surname was dying out due to a lack of newborn males in the Lane family. She offered the Lupinos a large bequest if they would change their son's name to Lupino Lane. That's the story he told anyway. To make matters more confusing, when Lupino directed his own comedy shorts he used the name Henry W. George. IMO Lupino didn't look much like Wallace anyway. Wallace was stocky and Lupino was thin and wiry.

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Hammersmith/Lupino.htm

"Charles [Chaplin] and I are old friends. During my stay in Hollywood, we had many a chat and reminisced about old times,, particularly those pantomimes produced by my great aunt, Mrs. Sarah Lane, at the famous Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, where she made a large fortune. Sarah Lane made me her heir, and at her request "Lane" was tacked on to my family name "Lupino." Her will was made out to be signed next day. but she died during the night, and all I got from an estate worth a quarter of a million, was the name "Lane", and the nickname "Nip," her term of endearment, by which I am still known to my intimates."

I was friendly with Lupino Lane's nephew Richard Lupino (Wallace's son) and spent a lot of time talking to him about the family history. The story about Sarah Lane is the one he told me about how the Lane got to be part of his name. Since his real name was Henry George Lupino, the Henry W. George came from there (not sure about the W. - maybe it stood for Wallace who was probably his A.D.).

Looking at family photos Lupino Lane looked like their father, and Wallace the mother.

Steve

Does anyone know how many of Lupino Lane's sound Educational shorts are "out there"?
I've had PURELY CIRCUMSTANTIAL on video for decades, and have seen FIRE PROOF a couple of times, but those are all.
I'm looking forward very much to seeing FIRE PROOF again at Slapsticon (love the "burning furniture" line!)

The Library of Congress has Lane's first talkie, "Buying a Gun". Here is the cataloging info if you want to call it up before you get to town.

http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebreco ... 3833&SID=1

MoMA has a silent version of the first sound short SHIP MATES (4/21/1929). His nephew Richard had a copy of BUYING A GUN (7/14/1929) which he told me he got from the BFI. He also had NO LADY ('31) one of the first films Lane made on his return to England, much of which consists of he and Wallace re-creating sequences from his silent Hollywood shorts in sound.

Steve Massa wrote:Looking at family photos Lupino Lane looked like their father, and Wallace the mother.

Steve

I've noticed that when Lupino Lane's face filled out a bit in the late 20's he and Wallace started to look more alike.