Henry Clive O'Hara was born October 3, 1881 in Melbourne, Australia. His father, Dr. Henry Michael O'Hara, was born in 1850 in Ireland. His mother, Ernestine Klingender, was born in 1857 in England. The parents married in 1876 in Australia and had two children, Eileen Louise O'Hara (b.1877) and Henry Clive O'Hara (b.1881). The father was a doctor at "Cromwell House" in Melbourne, and "Avonlea" in St. Kilda.
On October 7, 1883 a third child was born, Lawrence Edward O'Hara, but it was a complicated birth, and after one day he died. After one week of recuperation, the mother also died.
In 1885 the father married a second wife and had seven more children, Osborne (b.1886), Jay (b.1887), Nina (b.1889), Myles (b.1890), Sylvia (b.1894), George (b.1899), and Peter (b.1903).
On December 15, 1898 the Melbourne Punch reported on an evening's entertainment for the Consul-General of Belgium, at which "Master Clive O'Hara, son of the popular Medico, delighted the audience with some very clever sleight-of-hand tricks."
On December 17, 1898 Henry Clive O'Hara, age seventeen, graduated from St. Francis Xavier's High School in Melbourne.
In 1899 he joined the theatrical circuit with the Canary Concert & Variety Company "delighting the audience with some exceedingly clever conjuring and sleight-of-hand tricks," according to The Prahran Telegraph.
On October 11, 1900 The Melbourne Punch reported, "Clive O'Hara, a son of Dr. O'Hara, of Collins Street, has taken to the vaudeville stage as a conjurer and illusionist under the stage name Clive. He makes his appearance at Rickard's Adelaide Tivoli. As an amateur young O'Hara has paralyzed audiences around Melbourne by the dexterity of his card tricks and the weirdness of his experiments. His palming is wonderful. He is following in the footsteps of the late Dante, the conjurer, of whom he was a pupil. Possessed of youth, a good appearance and a breezy manner in addition to his talent, the new mystifier should be a hit, and will undoubtedly rank as the best man in his own particular line Australia has to date turned out."
In February of 1903 Henry Clive O'Hara traveled with a touring group to England, where he his magic act was filmed by the British Biograph Company.
In August of 1903 Henry Clive O'Hara traveled with a group of actors on the steam ship Sierra and arrived in San Francisco on August 17th.
On July 18, 1904 The Bendigo Independent of Victoria, Australia, reprinted a letter from Henry Clive O'Hara, "Just a line to let you know I am doing well. I have been in America since August 1903 and have been playing vaudeville dates all the time. I am now in Chicago, where I open at the Chicago Opera House, thence go to New York. I am doing a comedy act, introducing a little legerdemain."
In New York City his theatrical circle included popular illustrators of glamorous show girls, such as Harrison Fisher (1877-1934) and Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944). Henry Clive O'Hara was inspired by their example and began to study drawing and painting.
On May 9, 1908 Henry Clive O'Hara, age twenty-eight, married Mary Sturgis Walker in NYC. She was born in 1888 in Chicago and worked as an actress. They lived in NYC at 321 West 55th Street.
On October 10, 1909 Henry Clive performed at the Oakland Orpheum in California.
In August of 1911 he and his wife sailed on the steam ship Lusitania to perform as an actor for two months in London.
In August of 1912 he and his wife again sailed to England, where he performed at the Hammerstein Theatre in London.
On September 6, 1916 The Melbourne Winner reported "Henry Clive recently toured Australia with his wife, the chic comedienne from America. After their tour ended she continued to tour, and headed one of Schlesinger's comedy companies, and right well she was able to show what a top liner is supposed to put over."
In 1916 he divorced his wife. They had no children.
He worked for Fox Films at West 46th Street in NYC. He appeared in Fighting Odds (1917), Her Silent Sacrifice (1917), On The Jump (1918), We Should Worry (1918), I Want To Forget (1918), and As A Man Thinks (1919).
On December 31, 1917 he married his second wife, Doré Plowden. She was born in 1894 in London and worked as an actress. After the marriage she became known as "the girl on the magazine cover."
On September 12, 1918, during the Great War, Henry Clive O'Hara registered with the selective service and was recorded to be thirty-six, six-two, medium build, blue eyes and brown hair.
In 1919 his illustrations of glamorous women began to appear in periodicals. On June 20, 1919 The Warwick Daily News of Queensland, Australia, reported "Henry Clive has just been commissioned by the New York American to create twelve color front covers. In New York such an order is regarded as a blue ribbon prize among artists, but young O'Hara has for a long time made good both as a painter and designer, as well as an actor, in which role Melbourne knew him best. In each branch he has got to the front."
In 1920 he painted the cover of People's Favorite Magazine.
In 1921 he appeared in "The Oath" starring Miriam Cooper.
On April 7, 1921 his father, Dr. Henry Michael O'Hara died at the age of seventy-one in Australia.
On December 17, 1921 The Chicago Daily Tribune reported Henry Clive O'Hara had sued his wife for divorce on charges of desertion. She had pursued an acting career on the London stage, where after two years of separation they divorced.
On January 27, 1922 Henry Clive O'Hara married his third wife, Helen S. Cunningham. She was born in 1900 in Kentucky, and was a chorus girl in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies. They had one daughter, Helen May O'Hara, born November 8, 1922.
On February 8, 1922 nationwide newspapers reported "He Married The Girl He Crowned Queen Of Beauty - The rapid fire romance of Henry Clive, painter of lovely girls. He looked once at a blond vision, and presto! Two divorces and one marriage."
In 1925 Henry Clive became a top artist for The American Weekly at 235 East 45th Street in NYC, a Sunday magazine supplement of the Hearst newspaper syndicate. Henry Clive remained a prominent contributor to this publication for the rest of his life.
In 1925 the Australian Film Company produced "Glimpses Into The Studio Life of Clive O'Hara" for national distribution as a "short film" shown between feature films.
In 1927 he and his wife and child moved to Los Angeles. They lived at 1434 Crescent Heights Boulevard.
On April 26 1928 nationwide newspapers carried advertisements for, Houbigant, the Parisian parfumer, endorsed by Henry Clive, the "famous painter of gorgeous women," who used their products to enhance the beauty of his models.
The December 1929 issues of Hollywood fan magazines published a publicity photo of Joan Crawford posing for Henry Clive.
On November 7, 1933 nationwide newspapers published a photo of the most beautiful artist model and Henry Clive, a judge in a beauty contest at the Seven Arts Masked Ball in Los Angeles.
In 1933 he appeared in "Obey The Law" starring Leo Carrillo and Ward Bond.
In 1934 he divorced his third wife, Helen (Cunningham) O'Hara.
On August 16, 1935 he married his fourth wife, Sonia Karlov. She was a New York City actress and show girl working under the stage name "Jeanne Williams."
In 1939 he appeared in his ninth and final motion picture "Frontier Marshal" starring Randolph Scott.
During the 1939 World's Fair in San Francisco Henry Clive ran a concession stand to paint portraits of women, but according to his wife, "After sinking a lot of his money, my money, and my mother's money, into the concession, he paid it very little attention, He would go out drinking instead. The last time he was gone for three days. He finally came back, but then he just left town."
The 1940 U.S. Census listed Henry Clive O'Hara, age fifty-eight, at 8250 Fountain Street in Los Angeles. He shared the apartment with Glenn Pope, age twenty-seven, a variety show performer born in Arkansas.
On March 19, 1940 nationwide newspapers reported that Henry Clive's wife, Sonia O'Hara, had been granted a divorce by the New York Supreme Court. She claimed she "lost him to a bottle, and that life was one long, well-oiled party for hubby, and her efforts to reform him were futile." They had no children.
On April 27, 1942, during WWII, Henry Clive O'Hara registered with his draft board. He was recorded at the time to be sixty-one, six-two, 215 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair, a light complexion, and "scars on his left hand." He listed his home address as 1979 Grace Avenue in Los Angeles.
On June 8, 1944 nationwide newspapers reported "Henry Clive Turns Out A Masterpiece." The artist's daughter, Miss Helen O'Hara, "is MGM's number one glamazon. She stands six feet one inch in her stocking feet and is being groomed for stardom. She's the daughter of the well-known artist, Henry Clive, who has created no end of magazine covers."
On March 23, 1951 Henry Clive O'Hara, age sixty-nine, married his fifth wife, Burnu Acquanetta, age twenty-nine. She was born July 17, 1921 in Wyoming, an Arapaho native American. She became an orphan at age two and was raised as Mildred Davenport in Norristown, Pennsylvania by adopted parents, William and Julia Davenport, who were African American. She became an actress and in 1944 starred in "Jungle Woman." She was promoted as "Hollywood's Jungle Girl." She and Henry Clive O'Hara remained married for the rest of his life. They had no children.
Henry Clive O'Hara died at age seventy-nine in Los Angeles on December 12, 1960.
© David Saunders 2017 |
