George Groves The Movie Sound Pioneer

Part 1 - George Groves Origins (1901-23) - Born Over A Barber's

GEORGE ROBERT GROVES was born on December 13th 1901 over a barber's shop at 57 Duke Street, St Helens in Lancashire, England. His mother, Harriet (née Saxby), was a talented artist and poet who created exquisite silk pictures. George's father, George Alfred Groves, was a master barber and also a very skilled musician. In 1899 at the age of seventeen George Snr. had founded the first brass band in St Helens, along with two of his brothers. Initially there were only six players in the York Street Mission Church Army Band but more members soon joined. During World War 1 George Snr. served as bandmaster of the military band of the 5th South Lancashire Regiment. In 1930 Father Patrick Hayden of Lowe House Church in St Helens presented him with an inscribed silver baton on behalf of the regiment's officers and men. This was in recognition of George Alfred’s long service as bandmaster. George Jnr. inherited musical and artistic talents from both of his parents and soon became a skilled musician in his own right. In his 1973 oral history for the American Film Institute George said: "They tell me I tried to blow on the cornet before I could hold it". When aged seven, George joined his father's church band along with his cousin Charlie and the pair competed to see who could make the most noise with their cornets! Later George became proficient in playing the French horn and cello and also enjoyed drawing pen and ink sketches. As a boy George worked in his father's barber's shop and competed with Charlie to see how much lather they could put on their customers' faces. They were both so small that they had to stand on boxes. George's sister Hilda Barrow interviewed in 1995 said: He studied first at Ravenhead Junior School in Nutgrove, Thatto Heath and then at Cowley Grammar School, also in St Helens, where he excelled himself in his studies. Although his headmaster Mr. Varnish did feel the need to give George the cane once for an inane remark that he passed during an examination. George's sister, Hilda Barrow (who referred in interview to Mr. Varnish as being a "sticky customer”) explained:
George began working professionally at the age of fourteen when he played the cornet in the orchestra at the Hippodrome Theatre in St Helens. His performances were twice nightly, as well as a weekly Monday matinee. Before long he began playing at the town's Theatre Royal which boasted a season of drama, musical comedy shows and opera, including the D'Oyly Carte Company. George said that the Theatre Royal provided him with a much more "sophisticated education".

His academic education wasn't being neglected as the youngster did his homework in the theatre band room in between numbers. George said: “I worked long hours and very hard". However, the headmaster of Cowley Grammar objected to George missing classes each Monday afternoon in order to play the Theatre Royal matinees. So George left Cowley and hired a private tutor, Thomas Gregory, from the Gamble Institute who coached him twice a week. George studied hard in order to pass the Liverpool University scholarship examination in competition with the boys who'd remained in school. A conductor of a touring opera company did offer him a full-time job playing on the road as a professional musician, but his father put his foot down and insisted that George continued his education.

George successfully passed the examination and was awarded an open scholarship to Liverpool University. He chose to study engineering with a specialism in transmission engineering or speech circuits. "I really don't know why. Because like most young boys I didn't really know what I wanted to do", remarked George in 1973. He graduated from the university in 1922 with an honours degree and as was the custom at that time the university set about finding him a job.

Radio was very much in its infancy at this time but George was aware of its potential and the university placed him with the Peal-Conner Telephone Company in Coventry, a division of General Electric, making wireless receivers. While on leave with his family in St Helens, he met and fell in love with Olga who was one of the Tiller dancing girls who was “resting” and staying with her sister in the town. When her troupe obtained a lengthy engagement on Broadway in New York with top entertainer Fred Stone, George was determined to follow her and so applied for a number of positions in the United States. He wrote to Westinghouse, General Electric and Western Electric Research Laboratories (soon to become Bell Telephone Laboratories or Bell Labs) in the States and he was interviewed by the latter's Director of Research Harold D. Arnold who happened to be in England. Above is the letter that George received, although it was wrongly addressed to Bernard Grove.

Dr. Arnold was a highly respected engineer, credited with having developed the first practical vacuum tube amplifier in 1915. In the interview which took place in the North Western hotel in Manchester, Dr. Arnold was unable to offer George a job as such, but gave him his card and invited him to call into the Western Electric offices if he managed to get to New York.

So George Groves left Liverpool on December 1st 1923 on the Laconia arriving in America ten days later. This was just twelve days prior to his 22nd birthday. On the ship's manifest of “alien passengers” and other immigration documents for the voyage, George is described as 5'6" with fair hair, fair complexion and blue eyes. He stated that he intended to live in America for 2 years. It turned out to be 52 years! Incidentally the Cunard steamship SS Laconia had only been built in 1922 but twenty years later while serving as a troop carrier it was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank with the loss of 1,000 lives.