Hi Terry,
Well, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, and Google, I have managed to stumble upon this Birmingham History Forum website, and your posting in December of 2007 concerning my grandfather, Dan Rolyat (Alfred Herbert Taylor). Yes, Dan Rolyat, the famous and popular actor/comedian of the early 1900s, originally from Birmingham, is my grandfather. My father, Dan Taylor, who sadly passed away about a year ago at the age of 80, was his only son by Rolyat's third marriage, to Maira (Clifton) Morgan Merioneth. Rolyat's first wife was the famous actress/singer Florence Smithson, who co-starred with him in The Arcadians, as well as several other well known plays and musicals on the London stage. They had one daughter, Joy, and I have established contact with Joy's two children recently, who are still alive.
I have been doing some extensive family history research over the past few years, and have amassed a decent-sized collection of various memorabilia of my grandfather, and my dad had also collected quite a number of artifacts concerning his father throughout his life, which my mother still has. I was fascinated by the newspaper article you found depicting my grandfather's second marriage to Constance Worth. As I understand it, the marriage ended badly when Worth filed for divorce after only a year or two, citing "abandonment and adultery" on the part of Rolyat.
Anyway, I'd love to hear from you and/or anyone else who happens to view these forum postings concerning Dan Rolyat. If you or anyone might happen to have any additional information or other artifacts on my grandfather I would very much like to view or obtain them for my collection. I also hope to get over to Birmingham sometime in the next year or two to do a kind of "Roots" journey, and try to visit several Birmingham locations of historical interest regarding Dan Rolyat and my ancestors on that side of my family.
Best wishes,
Rich Taylor