For more than 50 years, on either side of the Second World War, brothers Gilbert and Arthur Cooper were influential figures in Bermuda’s cultural and arts scene as painters, writers, performers and patrons.
They were founding members of two of Bermuda’s oldest arts organisations, the Bermuda Society of Arts and the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society (BMDS), and Gilbert played a key role in establishing City Hall as Bermuda’s first major arts centre.
The eldest sons of Alexander Samuel Cooper and Laura Ann Cooper, and brothers of Edmund and Forster Cooper, who were swimmers on Bermuda’s first Olympic team in 1936, Arthur and Gilbert were still in their teens when they made their name with the hugely popular Harem Scarem revues in 1923.
The shows, written with pianist and lyricist Billy Adderley, were born when the three were at Saltus Grammar School. Headmaster Henry Cox had suggested that the three talented students put on a show to raise money for a pupils’ bicycle shed. At the suggestion of The Royal Gazette editor Arthur Purcell, who had been suitably impressed while attending a rehearsal, the trio hired the Colonial Opera House for the show, which was so successful that a repeat performance was held a few evenings later and a Bermudian tradition was born.
A mix of musical comedy and vaudeville, Harem Scarem—named after an early sketch featuring a harem—was the first show to poke fun at local politicians and Bermudian foibles and was the forerunner of other local satirical shows like The Somerset Lot, the Um Um Show and Not The Um Um Show. Among the other regular cast members were Hilda (Onions) and Jeffrey “Curly” Astwood (who would become a prominent Parliamentarian and Speaker of the House), Wil Onions (who would become Bermuda’s greatest architect of the 20th century) and his sister Edith, and Jack and Belle O’Brien.
The show became a national institution and was performed annually until 1948, except for a six-year interlude between 1926 and 1932 when the Opera House was being rebuilt after it was severely damaged in a hurricane.
Both Gilbert (popularly known as “Gibby”) and Arthur received their early education at the home of Constance Fraser on Serpentine Road, Pembroke, before attending Warwick Academy and then McGill University in Canada.
After graduating from McGill with degrees in commerce, they returned to Bermuda to work for the family’s business, A.S. Cooper & Sons Ltd., where Gilbert later became chairman of the board and Arthur, a manager and director.
The brothers’ artistic sensibilities and taste helped transform Cooper’s from what was essentially a general store into a high-end department store, carrying world famous names like Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Royal Copenhagen and Goss. In the 1930s, Arthur and Gilbert travelled throughout Europe to find the finest china, glass and ceramic art for the store, which became a magnet for the booming tourist trade.
A talented painter who specialised in landscapes and seascapes, Arthur studied at the Art Students League and the Allbright Academy in Buffalo and his local exhibitions included a joint show with Gilbert, also an accomplished oil painter, at the Bermuda Society of Arts in 1968. The brothers had been among the 25 founding members of the BSoA (then known as the Society of Artists in Bermuda) in 1952.
But he is best remembered for his diverse theatrical talent. In addition to writing and performing many of the Harem Scarem skits, Arthur was responsible for the creation and construction of the sets as well as devising and directing all the choreography, and went on to be involved in countless local theatrical and musical productions.
He was also active in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, taking part in many productions at the Opera House as a performer, set designer and choreographer. He also directed several productions, including Arsenic and Old Lace, and Now Or Never.
Arthur later became very involved in the Bermudiana Theatre at the old Bermudiana Hotel where the Bermuda Theatre Company, under the management of Bruce Yorke, produced plays starring professional casts brought in from the US and Canada as well as local actors. Arguably the most successful of Arthur’s many roles was that of Elwood P. Dowd, the dipsomaniac bachelor plagued by an invisible six-foot rabbit, in Harvey—a role he repeated in 1966 with the Bermuda Theatre Guild.
He also produced and directed four Christmas pantomimes at the Bermudiana—Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Cinderella (twice) and Robinson Crusoe —as well as designing the sets.
A founding member of BMDS in 1945, he headed the group’s drama committee for many years and acted as production manager for the Bermuda Ballet in 1962, Twelfth Night (1963) and The Winslow Boy and Mary Mary (both in 1963). He produced and played the leading role in Roar Like A Dove—the first BMDS production to be staged at City Hall.
Perhaps his biggest triumph as a set designer were the spectacular settings he designed for The Tempest and the Festival Ballet performances at Prospect for Bermuda’s 350th anniversary.
In 1982, he received the Stella Halsall Award from the BMDS for his outstanding contributions to the arts in Bermuda. Then BMDS president Dr. Stanley Ratteray called him “one of the artistic greats of Bermuda”.
Outside of the theatre, Arthur managed Cooper’s furnishings store on the corner of Reid and Burnaby Streets. In 1944, he became chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and was appointed to the Trade Development Board (the forerunner of the Tourism Board. He served on the TDB for more than 40 years, during which time he carried out the interior design of their New York and London offices.
He also used his creative flair to design the interior of the Forty Thieves Club, restore Fort St. Catherine as a tourist attraction, decorate No.6 Shed for the popular annual Fairs For All charity event, and designed and staged a successful international charity fashion show at the Castle Harbour Hotel showcasing the designs of Emilio Pucci.
The Coopers were patrons to many artists, including Byllee Lang, the Canadian sculptor who came to Bermuda in 1945 and taught and influenced many local artists. She became a close friend of Arthur and Gilbert, who rented her studio space on the second floor of A.S. Cooper’s and hired her to be a window dresser.
In the 1950s, Arthur and Lang, along with fellow artists and Cooper’s employees Eddie Lima and Vivienne Gardner, created many spectacular prize-winning floats for A. S. Cooper’s in the annual Floral Pageants.
In addition to his acting, writing and producing roles with Harem Scarem, Gilbert also sang in several Gilbert & Sullivan productions and acted in several plays, including Outward Bound. A talented musician, he had harboured thoughts of being a concert pianist in his youth and continued to play piano throughout his life.
He was a successful and influential businessman and politician serving as a Member of Colonial Parliament (MCP) and Mayor of Hamilton. He joined the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1921, becoming a Major in 1928, and served during the Second World War at Prospect Camp.
He was a MCP from 1948 to 1968, and served for nine years as chairman of the Finance Committee from 1959, before being appointed to the Legislative Council (now the Senate) for four years. He was Mayor of Hamilton from 1963 to 1972. He was knighted in 1972 for his public service.
In his more than 26 years service with the Corporation of Hamilton, Sir Gilbert regarded the building of the City Hall as his greatest achievement, not least because it provided a permanent home for Bermuda’s visual arts.
As senior alderman, he headed the committee responsible for the planning and construction of the building on the site of the old Hamilton Hotel after it had been destroyed by fire. He worked closely the building’s architect Wil Onions’, his friend and a former Harem Scarem cast member, and through his persistence and love of the arts, he ensured that the building, which opened in February 1960, contained a theatre and an art gallery space.
The gallery became home to the Bermuda Society of Arts that Gilbert had headed as president for many years and in 2001, the BSoA renamed its main exhibition space the Onions Gallery in honour of the architect. City Hall later became home to the Bermuda National Gallery in 1992 and was fittingly renamed the City Hall & Arts Centre.
In 1978, Sir Gilbert and other surviving members of the Harem Scarem company unveiled a plaque over the doorway to the City Hall theatre in Wil Onions’ honour that read in part: “… members of this company hope that amateur theatricals will continue to thrive in this beautiful theatre”.
Both Arthur and Gilbert were bachelors and died within a year of each other. Arthur died after a long illness, aged 83, in July 1988 while Gilbert died in May 1989, aged 85.
