Freda Cuthbert was one of the most versatile performers to entertain in Australia, and at one time was ‘Australia’s only lady juggler.’
Freda’s birth date was, according to her mother, around 1889-1890. Freda once told a newspaper that she arrived in Australia with her parents with Bostock and Wombwell’s Circus, and her daughter, Cleo, later repeated this. An oral tradition in the circus community suggests that she was born in South Africa. During her early career the papers claimed that Freda was from Albert Park, and it seems that Melbourne was her early home.There is also a high probability that Freda was a nickname and that she may have been Dulcie Winifred. Regardless, records of her early life are sparse and inconsistent.
Freda’s first sensational entrance into entertainment was as Australia’s only lady lion tamer in 1905 in Melbourne.
That year in Princes Court, Freda entered a lion’s cage and danced in front of the lions. On occasion she also twirled Indian clubs in front of them. There is no record of her juggling the clubs at this stage, but she was certainly able to manipulate clubs as she danced.
The lions apparently were not too impressed by the performance and just lay there watching her shenanigans. Later that year Freda worked for Bostock and Wombwells circus doing the same performance during which she was accompanied by Mons Marco, the lion tamer of the circus. Bostock and Wombwells also featured the famous juggling act of Campbell and Jarvis. George Campbell remained in Australia and was a mentor to several Australian jugglers.
In a July 1906 interview 16 year old Freda was described as ‘a really pretty girl with an olive complexioned face, full regular features, a fine head of jet-black hair and well developed limbs’
Her proud mother, who accompanied her to the interview, stated that the circus had wanted to bill Freda as ‘Signora Leonora’, but she had insisted that ‘I want Australians to know she is an Australian and to know her by her own name.’
In early 1907 Freda worked at Dreamland at St Kilda beach, but unfortunately, in August that year, Mons Marco, the lion tamer who had trained her, was seriously attacked and mauled by his lions. This did not deter Freda, who teamed up with another lion tamer, Carl Wilheim to continue her career in 1908.
Perhaps it was the attack on Marco that caused Freda to take her career into another direction. In February 1909, she performed the Salome Dance at the Melbourne waxworks.
The dance was introduced by Maud Allan in London the previous year. Allan had scandalised London society by performing topless. The dance illustrated the famous biblical story of Salome who danced for the head of John the Baptist. In both Maud’s and Freda’s version of the dance, a waxwork head was a major prop in the act.
Freda took the dance to Sydney in March, surrounded by mirrors, the effect was dazzling and memorable.
Standing in the back of the stage in a costume of beaded shield vest and gauze skirt draperies, which allow the limbs free play, Miss Cuthbert commenced with a slow rhythmic sensuous motion and the dance increased gradually in speed till a pause is reached… Seizing the trophy (the head), the girl whirls it around until she collapses on the floor.’
Freda received rapturous applause from the Queens Hall audience at this display, however, some members of the Sydney press were appalled.
A writer for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph stated that the dance retained some of the ‘objectionable features’ of Maud Allan’s dance in London, suggested that it was ‘moderately interesting’, and questioned the suitability of having a severed head on stage. The reviewer was also offended by Freda’s gauze skirt. However, this view was a minority, and Freda’s career as the Salome dancer with a faint air of scandal, lasted for several years.
Between 1910 and 1914 Freda danced her way through Tasmania and regional Victoria with a variety of travelling troupes, including Elton’s entertainers, Pagden’s minstrels and Percy Foster’s. She varied the Salome dance with a Cleopatra dance and the ‘Dance of Death’ in 1911. She performed with the Kelsos and other jugglers during these tours and may have learnt juggling from them.
During the First World War, Freda was based in Melbourne and performed regularly at the People’s Concerts. During this period,she refrained from scandalous dances and primarily sang and participated in skits. In 1917 she began juggling professionally.
In May she was described as ‘ a charming lady who juggles while dancing in an original and decidedly clever fashion’
Billed as a dancing juggler, Freda combined dance with juggling and juggled a ‘pot pourri’ of items in her act. In Melbourne the ‘turn went big’ and her ‘dainty manner’ imparted an ‘original touch’ to the act.
From this time Freda alternated between a dancing juggling act and dancing. She continued to perform the Salome dance, and added other dances as specialties.
In 1918 Freda travelled to Broken Hill where she danced in the Britannia Theatre for a few months. When the war finished later that year, Freda joined a group called the ‘Dinkum Diggers’ one of many troupes who capitalised on performers who were returned soldiers.
By the 1920s Freda was a well known dancer, and a minor local celebrity. In 1921 she travelled to Sydney and performed at the Princess Theatre on the Clays circuit.
That year a man called Joseph Zahn Rinaldo performed at the Tivoli Theatre in both Melbourne and Sydney with a trained dog act. Rinaldo had gained fame many years before whilst ballooning in Melbourne. The balloon failed in windy conditions and Rinaldo smashed through the window of a lady’s house. It was one of many ill fated ballooning incidents in his life. In 1914 he performed in New Zealand as a magician and dare devil. Rinaldo was born in Bohemia, and during the war was declared an enemy alien as Bohemia was part of the Austrian Empire. He was interned in New Zealand and returned to Australia in the 1920s. His trained dog act was a hit for a short time in 1921, until he was accused of cruelty towards one of the dogs. A court case found him guilty and the Tivoli banned him from further performances. It was around this juncture of his life that he seems to have met Freda and the pair formed a partnership that lasted over 20 years.
Freda and Rinaldo formed the Freda Cuthbert company which revolved around a dog act entitled A Day in Dogtown. The act was patented by Rinaldo. It consisted of several dogs performing human activities including one which staggered around the stage drunk, one which undressed and went to bed, and one which prayed by a gravesite. The dogs also performed circus tricks such as jumps, and standing on their hind legs. Freda danced and juggled whilst Rinaldo performed conjuring tricks and told comic stories. The pair travelled around Australia with this combination.
In the early 20s many women in Australia were defying convention and playing bigger roles in public life. Freda was part of this trend. She was the public face of the company formed with Renaldo. Freda gave most interviews, she corresponded with the trade papers during disputes with managers, and the company operated under her name. Rinaldo’s reputation may have contributed towards Freda’s prominence, but her acumen ensured that the pair and their family earned a solid reputation and had strong business for over a decade.
At one point the company featured a juggler called ‘Dulcie Wynne’ which seemed to be a stage name for Freda, as Dulcie performed the same ‘dancing juggler act’ as Freda. Rinaldo also performed under several names including Flaneur. In the early 20s the pair toured with a lion cub called Cleo which caused a stir in the regional towns they visited.
In the 1920s, Freda was performing ‘deft manipulations with balls, clubs, cushions and many other articles’ she was assisted by a pomeranian which added greatly to the humour of the act.
After many years of travel, Freda gave birth to a daughter, Cleo in 1925. Cleo later married Stafford Bullen of the famous Bullen circus family.
Freda and Rinaldo continued to tour Australia through to the 1930s, in 1934 Freda gave an interview to a Perth newspaper where she stated that she and her parents had arrived in Australia with Bostock and Wombwell's circus. She mentioned her early years as an ‘animal trainer’ and asserted that there was no point in being cruel to her performing dogs, as treats worked better than punishment to ensure their obedience. It seems that Rinaldo’s ban by the Tivoli was still haunting the act. The couple continued their travelling ways until the outbreak of World War Two.
In the 1940s Freda and Rinaldo settled in Queensland. During the Second World War, Rinaldo worked as a tattoo artist.
Rinaldo died in 1964. Freda’s daughter, Cleo, played a major role in the success of Bullen’s circus and was a prominent member of the international circus community until her death in 2007.
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