When the cinematograph first made its appearance, we were told that the days of the ordinary theatre were numbered.

For the second of these his songs included one of his few well-known comedy numbers "And her mother came too" with lyrics by Dion Titheradge written for Jack Buchanan. On 27 June 2009 a statue of Novello was unveiled outside the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. In the 1920s he turned to acting first in films and then on stage with considerable success in both.

His 1917 show Theodore & Co was a wartime hit. His first big hit was "Keep the Home Fires Burning" which was enormously popular during the First World War.