The London Gaiety Burlesque Company

The London Gaiety Burlesque Company toured Australia in 1892-1893. They were performers from the famous Gaiety theatre in London and included E J Lonnen, Marion Hood and Robert Courtneidge. Courtneidge later became a very famous producer/manager in his own right.

They performed two burlesques of opera on the tour, Faust up to date and Carmen up to data. These were,of course, parodies of the originals.

A tour by the Gaiety company was a huge event because they represented the very best in English entertainment, so everything about the production was of high quality, including the souvenirs.

One example was a lovely, "Souvenir of the Gaiety Theatre, George Edwardes" Which included a set of eight sketches by Percy Anderson.

Above is a soldier


This is Carmen and below is Frasquita.

These are beautiful examples of the time and effort that was taken to make visiting the theatre such a special experience in the late 19th Century.

More information about the tour is here

Harry Rickards and the Tivoli Theatre

Harry Rickards was an English music hall performer who became one of Australia's most successful theatre entrepreneurs. Although Rickards isn't very well known, his theatre chain, The Tivoli, is a magic word in Australian Theatre History.

Below is a letter dated 1893 on Harry Rickards' stationery. I'm not sure if it's signed by Rickards or by his brother Jack Leete. The Tivoli circuit was a family affair and Jack managed a lot of the business side.

This is a picture of Harry Rickards from an early 20th Century magazine. It outlines all the theatres he operated in Australia. These included the Tivoli in Sydney, The Opera House in Melbourne, and theatres in Adelaide and Brisbane. As you can see, Rickards had no problem with self promotion.

Finally, below is a 19th Century postcard of the New Opera House in Melbourne. It was later called the Tivoli and was run by Rickards. A shopping mall now stands on the site.

Frank Van Straten's book on the Tivoli called Tivoli, covers everything you want to know about the history of this legendary theatre chain.

Pantomime.

Pantomime was one of the major forms of entertainment for the Australian people in the 19th Century and J C Williamson pantomimes were for decades the highlight of the year for families in the capital cities. Every Xmas, Williamson would produce a lavish show with opulent sets, huge casts, elaborate choruses and dance productions.


Xmas 1883 saw Aladdin come to Melbourne. It starred J C Williamson's wife, Maggie Moore as the principal boy.








Everything about the pantomime experience was special, including the programmes, which detailed the names of cast and crew, the libretto of the panto and beautiful colour prints of the scenes.




10 years later Sydney was treated to Cinderella. Once again a huge production which featured a transformation scene showing the "wealth produce and progress of Australia.' Here is a part of the programme.

The nationalistic theme echoed the concerns of the community of the time. 1895 was the time of Federation debates and a rise in Australian nationalism. The pantomimes reflected the cultural concerns of colonial society and in many ways contibuted towards shaping political and social opinion.



Unfortunately pantomime is a fading art form, particularly in Australia, but in the 19th century it was the epitome of style, class and Christmas cheer.

More information about Australian pantomime.

Jean Jarrott

Some years ago I was sent some information about a woman called Jean Jarrott. Jean was an Australian performer who featured in Queensland WEA productions such as And so to Bed and The Insect Play in the late 1930s.

Here she is in Judgement Day, 1938, as Madame Carelli.

During World War 2 she performed for the Red Cross and with the Brisbane Repertory Society, which was being run by Barbara Sisley, a famous name in amateur theatre. Below is a programme of one of her shows.

I particularly like the war bonds ad on the back.

It says for her future happiness, invest in War bonds

In the 1950s, Jean travelled the world and when she returned to Australia she continued to work for Brisbane repertory. Her career contined through to the 1970s when she appeared in Australian TV serials such as " Until Tomorrow."

Here is Jean performing in the 1950s.

Jean was a talented and generous actress and a fixture in social and theatrical circles in Brisbane. She passed away in 2002.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and other articles

I've just started writing articles for Suite101.com. My profile includes a picture of me and also a list of the articles I have written.

Of the three articles, I think the most interesting was about De Groot,the man who opened the Harbour Bridge, illegally.

I cant believe he was charged with damaging a ribbon worth 2 pounds. Apparently bits of the ribbon are in the bowels of Mitchell Library.

Here's a lovely photo of our wonderful bridge courtesy of Adrian Ng.



It's so beautiful no wonder De Groot was so eager to open it.

My grandfather used to tell stories about travelling by ferry from Manly and watching the bridge being built above him. It must have been an incredible sight. It still is . A true engineering marvel.

Winifred Atwell

Winifred Atwell was a hugely popular star in Australia in the 1950s, everybody knew her. She was also a very talented musician and performer. I was lucky to get these candid snaps of her, some of them are on my website, but these are not.

Winfred's father was a pharmacist and she was supposed to follow the family path, but she was lured by music and succumbed to its siren song.

She played in the US, studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and wowed them with her boogie tunes in the clubs there. She headlined the Palladium and the music charts, and finally came to Australia to stay.

Above is a signed copy of a programme from Chequers in Sydney. In the pages of the programme she is asked a series of questions one of them is,

"What do you hate?"

She answers

"Colour prejudice and new shoes."

Winifred Atwell died in 1983 in Sydney.

La Motogirl

This curious postcard is of 'la motogirl'

She was brought to Australia by Harry Rickards, of the Tivoli Circuit in 1906. Her Manager, Fred Melville, accompanied her.

La Motogirl was taken from her cabinet on stage and left there to dance, sing, play the violin and perform other comedic feats. It was said that she was run by electricity, and sparks flew from her limbs as she performed.

The audience were allowed to look at La Motogirl and encouraged to decide, 'Is she real?"

A young American lady named Doris Chertsey may have also been part of the act.

Maude Beatty

While looking through my trunk full of theatre programmes yesterday I found a letter signed by Maud Beatty.

Maud was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1878. Her parents ran the Theatre Royal in that city. She and her younger sister, May, were soon recruited by Pollards Lilliputians, a famous children's theatre troupe.

Maud was famous as a teenager for taking the male lead roles in productions such as Paul Jones. According to Peter Downes, who wrote the definitive book on the pollard company, The Pollards, Maud's physique and voice made her suitable for such roles.

Here is a picture of Maud in tights from an old cigarette card.

By 1904, when the letter below was written, Maud had been to London and was performing at the Theatre Royal, Brisbane doing a variety turn.

In the letter she thanks an admirer for sending her some flowers. So she was obviously a very polite, well brought up lady. Nobody seems to know when Maud died, but she was still performing in 1919 with JC Williamson. Her sister May, two years younger, died in 1945.

Our Glad-Gladys Moncrieff

Gladys Moncrieff was one of Australia's greatest performers.Gladys began her career with J C Williamson and one of her most famous roles was as Teresa in Maid of the Mountains.


She would spend most of her life playing Teresa. Above is the original song music from 1921, with a very young Gladys on the cover.

Another of her famous roles was the lead in the Street Singer.

Glad's marriages, her accidents and her every move were chronicled by the Australian Press and avidly followed by the public. She was, in every way, a superstar.

When Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney closed in 1933, who better to farewell the old place than Glad? Maid of the Mountains was the last performance in that grand old hall. Below is the front page of the programme for the final night, if you look closely, or click to enlarge, you can see Glad's autograph in the top right hand corner.

Glad died in 1976, but she is remembered forever.

Larry and Viv

I have always been a big fan of Gone with the Wind and especially the leading lady, Vivien Leigh. Vivien was an amazing woman because she courageously battled a terrible disease, bi polar disorder, and yet she produced some of the most incredible acting performances ever seen. Of course when Vivien lived there was no drug treatment , so she had shock treatment. There are stories of how she would have shock treatment in the morning and then in the evening, covering the burns with makeup, she would go on stage and produce a perfect performance.

In 1948, Vivien and her more famous husband, Laurence Olivier toured Australia. Vivien was already showing signs of her disease and according to the authoritative book on the subject,( Darlings of the Gods by Garry O Connor), their marriage was floundering.

That didn't bother the audiences. Larry and Viv were treated like royalty, literally. They reviewed troops, they came to parliament and were adored by the Australian press and public.

Above is an autographed copy of one of their programmes. The tour was conducted in a most professional manner and the programmes were exquisite works of art as can be seen.

In Sydney, they performed at the Tivoli Theatre, which was located near Belmore Park at Central. This was the second Tivoli, the first was located at Castlereagh Street and was transformed into the Embassy Cinema before demolition.Some years ago when I was working at a shop in Sydney, a customer told me that he had met Larry and Vivien during their tour. They had stayed in the Mosman area and he was a child at the time. He said Vivien was wonderful, but Larry was awful, a horrible man.

That is the lasting impression of Vivien Leigh in Australia.

-Leann

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

HAT-website update

Updated the website tonight.

Added some pages about William Anderson and corrected some mistakes on the Winifred Atwell page.

Also added a link to this blog on the front page.

-Leann

Amazing theatrical travels with Jack Ricketts, scenic designer

Being a lazy human being I can barely manage to walk a couple of kilometres some days, but our theatricals in the 19th and early 20th centuries were people of adventure and travellers extraordinaire.

Take for example, Jack Ricketts. Jack was born in Orange NSW in 1864 and was apprenticed to an illuminator and painter in Sydney when he was 16. His apprencticeship was over after 3 years and then he was left to fend for himself as a painter, scenic designer and illuminator.

Jack painted back cloths, wings and scenery for various theatre companies.He wasn't employed by the larger entrepreneurs and so had to travel with smaller companies to earn money. Often he combined his painting duties with minor acting roles. His diary of 1899 tells the story of an amazing man who travelled far and wide to make a living.

He began the year in New Zealand with the Alfred Woods/ Maud Williamson dramatic company.On 2nd January they were in Greymouth, then they travelled to Nelson two weeks later,and arrived in Blenheim on the 19th. He worked in Wellington on the weekend of the 21st and proceeded to Wanganui the next Tuesday 24th.They spent February in Napier and Hastings and then returned to Wellington on the 25th. After that, Jack left the Woods company to pursue a project back at Greymouth with the Opera House Company.

The people of the Greymouth Opera House Company were generous and gave him a 15 pound bonus after he finished the job. Jack bought new boots, a new coat and a new hat with the money. He also gave some to his mum.

In June he took ship back to Sydney and painted a drop cloth for Mr Ward's skating Rink.

That job finished in August and Jack once again hit the road and ended up in Brisbane, back working for the Alfred Woods Company. He stayed with them as they travelled around Queensland, finally leaving the irregular paying manager in October, when they reached Toowoomba.

He arrived back in Sydney later that month and started to work for the Commonwealth Fair. A celebration held in Sydney later that year. Jack managed a quick holiday to Pearl Beach in summer before starting work for Harry Plimmer at the Standard Theatre in Sydney.

1900 was equally as strenuous, but I will spare you the details. Suffice to say that Jack was willing to travel far and wide to get an irregular wage. He was an artisan with no respect and no income except that which was grudgingly given by stingy managers. His livelihood depended on his skill as an artist and his skill as a negotiator. It was a hard life and Jack had no time to start a family until much later when he found steady employment with the unreliable but loyal William Anderson at Wonderland City.

But that is another story....

Some Theatre History Links

There are a few really good theatre history websites but these are the homes of some of Australia's greatest theatre historians. ( myself not included.) As I am based in Sydney, these are basically Sydney sources.


Australia's greatest Circus Historian- Dr Mark St Leon- www.pennygaff.com.au

Kent Blackmore- Sydney Magic Historian- www.sydneymagic.net

Leann Richards (me) History of Australian Theatre- www.hat-archive.com

Stage Whispers magazine- Current and past theatrical information- www.stagewhispers.com.au

What to do with Theatrical memorabilia.

I receive many emails from people wanting to sell Australian Theatre History Memorabilia. I appreciate these emails, but of course I cannot afford to buy everything, in fact at times I cannot afford to buy anything.

Australian Theatrical history is studied by a limited number of people in Australia. Some of them are also collectors. Not many items of memorabilia are worth anything to people outside this limited few. Therefore, unless your item is from a very famous name, such as Nellie Melba or Harry Houdini, it is unlikely that the item will pay your mortgage or fund your retirement.

So what to do with that precious or not so precious heirloom from Great great grandmother Iris who was on the stage?

Well, the first step is to try and get an idea of its value. State libraries are a good place to start. Mitchell Library in Sydney has a field librarian who will occasionally visit people who have memorabilia and value it. You can contact them through Mitchell Library in Sydney.

Other State Libraries probably have a similar service.

Secondly you can try Ebay or another on line or off line auction service.

Or you can contact a theatre historian, like me. Remember I am not a professional valuer, but I will try and give you an honest opinion. But usually I will recommend going to the State Library for a valuation.

So before you throw out grannie's or grandie's old theatrical store, have a good look. You might find an unusual letter from Houdini or an old autograph of W C Fields. (Yes he did come to Australia) Most importantly, please remember that the old programme or postcard may not be worth a lot financially, but it is a part of our nation's cultural heritage and should be placed in safe hands, not thrown in the scrap heap.

After all, one person's trash is another person's treasure.

-Leann