Minstrels

Everything I know about minstrels in Australia, I learned from Richard Waterhouse's book, From Minstrel Show to Vaudeville. If you are interested in the history of minstrels, I recommend buying it, it's a great read.

Minstrel shows were very popular in Australia in the mid to late 19th century. The tradition of end man and bones was incorporated into variety halls in Australia, and for many years, the Tivoli theatre chain had a minstrel style first part in every programme.

Why I am talking about minstrels? Well, whilst looking in my files last night, I discovered two music sheets.


The first is from Christy's minstrels and is probably an English sheet.

The song is , Smile your sweetest smile again, sung by Ernest Bruce of the original Christy's Minstrels, St James's Hall.

The second appears to be from Australia.

This is The Cuckoos Notes, sung by Mr Rawlinson of the original Christy's Minstrels. It was printed in England but sold at Palings in Sydney, according to an embossed stamp on the left hand side. Of interest is the fact that it has a signature, J Rawlinson, on the bottom left hand side.

Now according to Professor Waterhouse, a Christy's minstrel troupe toured Australia in the late 1860s. I wonder if this music sheet dates from then?

One famous graduate from an American minstrel group which toured later than Christy's was Irving Sayles. An article about Irving is here

Minstrelsy is a fascinating area of Australian theatre history. If you have an interest in it, Professor Waterhouse's book is the best place to start.

-Leann

Tragic Comedians

I've spent today writing an article about Tivoli comedian Tom Dawson.

Tom was a cheerful man who thrilled Australian Tivoli audiences for over a decade. For some reason at age 41, he decided to go to war and died on the fields of France. Tragic.

This lead me to think of that other tragic comedian, George Lauri.

George was an English man who came from a theatrical family. He really had no choice but to become a stage performer.He came to Australia in 1891 and about 4 years later, replaced J C Williamson's star comic, William Elton, in the Royal Comic Opera Company. George worked for Wiliamson's for many many years, but he also met a tragic end.

Here is George in costume in a wonderful Talma photograph.

I like this photo because of the sly smile on George's face, and also for what it says about images of orientalism in the theatre in the 19th century. By my guess, this is a late 19th century photo.

Below is George's wife, Marietta Nash, who was also a performer. She wasn't as famous as George.

Poor George had a nervous breakdown in 1907 after working for Williamson for 16 years without a real holiday. He returned to the stage but was still suffering from exhaustion and depression

In January 1909, George, whilst on holiday with Marietta, sat on the balcony of their beach cottage. Marietta went inside for a moment and heard a cry. She ran out to find George bleeding profusely from a cut to his throat. He had sliced his jugular vein with a straight razor.

His last words were;

'I am tired of life.'

Poor George, and poor Marietta.

-Leann

Some Circus History

Australia has a long long circus history and the place to discover it is at Dr Mark St Leon's website . The website has an incredible variety of resources, including genealogical resources. It is an amazing history site.

I suppose Ashton is the most famous name in Australian circus history. However, another famous name is Wirth. The Wirths ran circuses around Australia for decades their most famous offspring, who wasnt really their offspring at all, was May.

May was an Australian born bareback rider who enthralled audiences with her astounding acrobatic tricks on horseback.She was applauded and idolised in America and worked as a starring act for Barnum and Bailey, but she was never really appreciated in Australia. More on May here

The Wirth family ran a circus until the 1960s and one day I accidentally discovered and subsequently purchased the following items.

Firstly, a Xmas card from Wirths dated 1953-1954

There is a lovely picture of an acrobatic rider in the top left hand corner.



With the card were these photographs, which give some indication of how a circus travelled in the 1960s.









I'm not sure a circus would be allowed to have so many elephants today.



Circus is a long held Australian tradition. Circus folk were often derided in the past, but hopefully we've outgrown that sort of prejudice . What is incredible is the sheer skill of circus performers. Some evidence of this is in this youtube video of Australian acrobats,The St Leons in the United States in 1959, posted by Mark St Leon.



-Leann

Stage Hands Union 1890

I mentioned earlier, that last year I was able to purchase some memorabilia from descendants of Jack Ricketts. Jack was a scenic artist who eventually became the manager of Wonderland City for William Anderson. Jack was also a union man.


Life in the 1890s was unkind to workers. There was a depression and a consequent increase in worker organisation. The result was the formation of many different unions. One such union was the Stage Hands Protective and benefit union.

It was formed at a meeting held in Trades Hall ( in Melbourne I think) in September 1890, and Jack was there and elected secretary. Below are some of the notes he took from that meeting.


The first resolution passed was the proposition to form a stage hands union. The aims of it were First to maintain a fair rate of wages in theatres Secondly to obtain a finality of hours of labour in theatres. Thirdly to protect the employees of theatres against the introduction of cheap unskilled labour.

Of course every union must have funds and the stage hand union was no exception. They met the first Sunday of each month at the Trades Hall in Carlton and charged an entrance fee of two shillings 6 pence or 6 pence weekly. Of course nobody was allowed entry unless they had a union card like this.


Jack must have been either particularly rich in April 1891 or a long way behind in his dues because that month he contributed 14 shillings to the cause




Im not sure how long the Stage Hands Union lasted, but by the 1920s scenic designers had their own associaton, the Society of Scenic Artists of Australia .

Sydney Theatres past and present

I was born and bred in Sydney and sometimes I'll even admit it. One of the side effects of this affliction is, that to me, a real city is a city that is constantly destroying and rebuilding its streets. In my opinion, if a city is not a building site, it is not a real city.

Today I took some photos of the sites of two of Sydney's most famous theatres, Her Majestys and The Criterion.

Her Majestys Theatre was built in 1887 on the eastern side of Pitt Street on the corner of Market Street. This was Her Majesty's in the early years.

And this is the building site it is today.

Her Majesty's closed in 1933 with a performance of Maid in the Mountains, starring Gladys Moncrieff. A Woolworths store opened on the site, but it is probably best known as the former site of Centrepoint.

More on Her Majestys is here

The next demolished theatre I looked at was the Criterion. The Criterion was built in 1886 and lived on the corner of Pitt and Park Streets Sydney.

Below is the Criterion Theatre at the height of its glory.

The Criterion was demolished in 1935 so that Park Street could be widened. Basically they demolished the theatre and kept the pub! Here is the pub as it appeared today.





You can read more about the 'Cri' here

There's a nice document from 1993 which has a list of Sydney's old theatres and their locations. It was done by the Masonic Historical Society of NSW and a copy is held at the Royal Australian Historical Society in Sydney.

By the way, why was Queen Victoria wearing such colourful clothes today? I think the council workers were trying to undress her. Scandal!




-Leann

Miscellaneous pictures (non theatrical)

Often I purchase or receive boxes full of memorabilia. Most of it is theatre related, but often it contains material which is fascinating as general history.

The pictures from the last post came from a box of memorabilia I bought about a year ago from descendants of Jack Ricketts, a scenic designer. Obviously a lot of the material relates to scenic design and Jack's life in the theatre, however, there is also much that is related to general life in the late 19th early 20th centuries.

Here is a small sample of that material.

Firstly, a very old union card from the Shipwrights provident union. It is made out to Mr James Nicholson, member number 268 and is dated, 16th March 1876. The caption under the coat of arms says, united we stand, divided we fall
.


Next is a postcard/letter from Ballarat. It is dated 27th April 1915. The top right hand corner of the postcard has been torn off, to either reuse or save the stamp. As it was war time, I guess stamps were at a premium.


Below is a picure of Prince Albert's statue at Hyde Park in Sydney. I'm not sure of the date, but there is a very fetching cart standing in front of the statue. The picture is quite yellow and faint with age.


Finally, a postcard of the US ship Louisiana.I am unsure of the date, but it could be related to the visit of the American fleet in 1908.




I hope you enjoyed looking at these wonderful items. If you wish to reuse or redistribute them, please credit HAT and me...

Leann

Miscellaneous pictures (Theatrical)

Updating the website takes hours, so I thought I would post some pictures tthat I haven't had the time to put on HAT onto here.

Firstly, we have some pictures from the Xmas card that Mr and Mrs Jack Fanning of the Tivoli Theatre in Adelaide sent to their friends in 1917.

Here are Mr and Mrs Fanning;

and here is the Tivoli Theatre in Adelaide.



This is an old advertising card for a play called A Woman of Pleasure., a melodrama. THe caption says ' The troopship on fire! The last boat!" It looks like an English production. probably early 20th century.

The next picture is a Talma photo of an old performer. probably early 20th century, possibly earlier. Talma was the most famous photographic studio in Sydney and Melbourne. They took most of the theatrical promotional pictures. They also produced postcards by the thousands. Talma postcards are worth far more than ordinary postcards of the Edwardian period.

This lovely gentleman is, I think, Mr Harry Gribbin. It looks like he was a comedian.
I hope you enjoyed a brief look at my theatrical pix. They will be posted to the HAT website when I get the time...whenever that will be....

-Leann