Regina Cyclone - Boris Karloff's Connection

Boris Karloff's Connection

English actor William Henry Pratt, better known by his stage name "Boris Karloff," was in Regina at the time of the tornado as a member of the Jeanne Russell Players, a struggling company of actors and singers. Theatre reviews appearing in at least four Western Canadian newspapers in 1912 prove he had already started using the stage name "Boris Karloff" by this time. The Jeanne Russell Players disbanded in Regina a day before the tornado struck, leaving Karloff stranded and broke. Following the tornado, he worked clearing debris for twenty cents an hour and was later employed in Regina by the Dominion Express Company. He remained in Regina until October 1912 when he joined the Harry St. Clair Players in Prince Albert. In 1958, Karloff appeared on the talk and game show Front Page Challenge where he was featured not because of his fame as a Hollywood actor, but because of his association with the Regina Cyclone of 1912.

American stage actress Henrietta Crosman, who also later went on to Hollywood, was also in Regina at the time of the disaster and toured the devastation with members of her troupe. Her company staged a benefit performance of Catherine Chisholm Cushing's comedy "The Real Thing" at the Regina Theatre on July 4, 1912, with a portion of the proceeds going to the tornado relief fund.

Over the years, some historians have mistakenly placed Karloff as a member of Crosman's company or as a member of the vaudevillian Albini-Avolos Company, which was a third theatrical troupe in Regina at the time of the 1912 tornado. The Albini-Avolos staged benefit performances for the tornado victims at the Regina Theatre on July 1 and 2.