Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Celia Ghiloni
She was born in Victoria on Febrary 22nd 1879 the daughter of Italian immigrant Raffallo and his Australian born wife Isabelle. Celia's name at birth was Rosabelle Ethel Celia.
She spent her early years in Western Australia and was singing at the Fremantle Town Hall at the age of 18. A year later she was managing Sunday concerts at the Town Hall and steadily building a reputation as a talented singer and performer. She married a local man, in Perth in 1898.
Soon she was discovered byJ C Williamson and was off on an adventure that took her through Australia and New Zealand. She was rarely without work and was a fixture in Royal Comic Opera Productions between 1900 and 1908.
Perhaps her most memorable performances for Williamson were in a famous series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions which toured the country in 1905-1906.
In 1908, Celia went to London with a Hugh Ward Company which featured Grace Palotta. Whilst there, her husband divorced her. Celia had told him by letter that she preferred the stage to spending time with him.
The divorce didn't seem to bother Celia because on her way home to Australia later in 1908, she married a man she met in India. Upon her return to Australia, Celia and the Ward Company performed a long tour of Australia.
By 1911 she was back with Williamson and performing in musical comedy and revues. Later in the decade she performed at the Tivoli and with stars such as Dorothy Brunton and Jack Cannot in variety .
She was also quite active in the Actors Union movement, signing her name to an application to have an actor's association formed in the post war period.
Celia was a plump woman and tended to act in roles suited for her shape, such as the fairy godmother in pantomime and the jolly nurse in musical comedies. By 1911 she was sick of these roles and publicly trying to lose weight. At one stage she had the whole cast of her latest show on a diet and the newspapers joked that the famous stars were fading away to nothing.
Celia divorced her second husband after World War 1 and then married a third time in 1920.
After this she gave up the stage and settled into private life. The couple stayed together until 1950 when her husband died. Celia died in 1955 in Perth.
More about Celia
Friday, December 24, 2010
History of Australian Theatre at the ibookstore
Houdini's Tour of Australia- A detailed account of Harry Houdini's tour of Australia in 1910.
Stars of Australian Theatre History
Australian theatre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced stars that shone nationally and internationally. Some of these stars were Maesmore Morris, dancers Saharet and Maggie Dickinson, pantomime dame, Arthur Stigant and American import Minnie Tittell Brune.
Stars of the Early Australian Stage- The Royal Comic Opera Company
The Royal Comic Opera Company was the most popular musical comedy company in Australia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The members of this company included George Lauri, Florence Young, Carrie Moore and Celia Ghiloni. Their stories are detailed here.
Magical Tours of Australia-Magicians regularly toured Australia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this booklet discusses the tours of Chung Ling Soo, The Davenport Brothers and a Maskelyne Company of 1908
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Great Performances from Australian Theatre History-A selection of essays about great performances in Australian Theatre History. These include accounts of Blondin, Cinquevalli, The Oliviers and Nellie Melba's tours of Australia.
A history of Australian Theatre from Convict theatre to Depression.-A short history of Australian theatre covering the early convict years to the depression.
-Leann
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Mrs Maesmore Morris
She was born in England in 1872 as Gertrude Willmot the daughter of an doctor. Ten years later she arrived in Australia with her father and at the age of 20 she married Maesmore Morris, an accountant and son of a prosperous iron merchant.
After the birth of a son and the loss of his job, Maesmore turned to alcohol and subsequently became violent towards Gertrude.
The family had no means of support so Gertrrude, with her husband's permission, took to the stage.
She worked for J C Williamson and played with Julius Knight for two years, but this relief in the family finances did not calm her husband.Maesmore began threatening Gertrude's life and he made a scene at the theatre in 1897 yelling obscenities at her as she appeared on stage.
He threw her out of the family home and Gertrude went on tour with Knight, hoping to avoid her abusive husband.
In 1899 she was offered a contract with an English manager and eagerly left for London. She remained there for almost five years and returned to Australia to support Nellie Stewart in a series of plays in 1904.
In 1905 she finally divorced Maesmore, although throughout her theatrical career she had continued to use the name Mrs Maesmore Morris.
The next year she returned to England and remarried. She retired into private life and left a legacy as one of the most beautiful and bravest actresses to appear on the Australian stage.
She died in England in 1951
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Website updates
Included in the update are several extra photographs of performers, 200 extra names for the database and an article about Tom Dawson, Australian Comedian.
The article is one I wrote for Stage Whispers Magazine, the November/December issue is available in full colour at selected newsagencies or through their website. I write regularly for the magazine, and some of my articles are on the website.
For genealogists, my article about researching your Australian Theatrical ancestors is available through the Suite101 website. More articles about the history of Australian theatre are also available there.
Apologies for not updating the blog regularly. Life has been a bit busy.
Please enjoy the update of the website, whilst I look in my old trunk for some more anecdotes for the blog.
-Leann
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Greenwoods
Maribel was one of the older daughters, she worked for George Rignold in Australia in 1890 and was praised for her stately, charming presence. For a while, the company was known as the Maribel Greenwood company and traded off her fame. Maribel, had a lovely voice and played the violin very well.
Nora acted as the company's advance agent and was rarely mentioned in reviews of the company. They spent a great deal of time in country areas of Australia and Nora occasionally got into heated arguments with local business people about bills. In April 1903, she was brought to court by an Albury hotel owner for the non payment of accomodation fees. The hotel owner won the case. Nora must have been the level headed daughter for in 1902 when her mother's dress caught on fire, Nora was the one who put out the fire and saved her mother from harm.
Roberta, real name Ruby, was the youngest of the sisters. As a child, aged 9, she wrote a book about her early life which was illustrated by her sisters.This made her quite popular with the wife of the New South Wales Governor.
Roberta worked primarily for the family company although occasionally she worked for other managers. Around 1902 she married a fellow performer called Walter Andrew Baird who she met whilst working for another manager at the Standard Theatre in Sydney. Walter joined the family company and in 1903 Roberta gave birth to twins at Castlemaine in Victoria. Later that year Walter was killed in a tragic accident on the Chute, at Manly in New South Wales.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Cyril Maude
He was born in 1862. A fragile child, he was sent to Australia to regain his health. He returned to England without his health, but still nursing the ambition to be an actor. He fulfilled that ambition in Denver, USA. From that time his career grew and he soon was leasing London theatres as an actor/ manager.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Melbourne Theatres
It's a book called Magical Nights at the Theatre by Charles Waller, a magician.
Above is the Princess Theatre. Melbourne tends to preserve its buildings far better than Sydney and so the Princess Theatre can still be visited at Spring Street. It was here that J C Williamson ran his Melbourne business and it was here that 13 year old Carrie Moore auditioned for the great man. The black and white picture is dated 1908.
Her Majesty's Theatre on the corner of Exhibition and Little Bourke Streets. This was J C Williamson's other theatre. He leased it, renovated it and changed its name from the Alexandra. The Royal Comic Opera Company used this as their second home.
Finally a repeated photo to complete the set. The Opera House ( later the Tivoli) and Bijou Theatres in Bourke Street between Swanston and Russell Streets. As in Sydney where the Tivoli and National Amphitheatre were virtually neighbours, the two major popular theatres in Melbourne were also close together.
The people of Melbourne do not seem to be afflicted with the dreaded destoy and rebuild disease so prevalent in Sydney. I hope their immunity continues. Sydney, of course, remains the best city of Australia, despite her dreadful affliction.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Minne Tittell Brune
Her family were quite religious and so was Minnie, she once said she was "half a nun" She particularly disliked the way men looked at her, and how many people equated "actress" with bad moralily.
She was not very successful overseas but JC Williamson saw something in her that would appeal to Australian audiences. He was right, and she was tremendously popular on the Australian stage.
She played male and female roles and her most famous character was "Sunday" in the Western themed play of the same name.
When Minnie left Australia, her career dwindled. In her later years she returned to the US and after her husband's death,retired to a convent.
She died in Los Angeles in 1974 aged 99 years .
Monday, October 25, 2010
Music Postcards
To encourage people to buy music sheets and to return to the theatre, companies produced postcards. The ones here date from around the mid 1900s and the first three come from "Albert's Lyric series". There was an Albert's music store in Sydney in 1905 which specialised in sheet music and Edison phonographs, so the postcards may originate from there.
Below is the American Baritone Post Mason, singing Would You Care? A love ballad. Mason did a series of concerts around Australia in 1906-07
Heba Barlow is next, singing"Im trying so hard to forget you" For many years Heba was the leading lady of Irish American John F Sheridan's Company. After Sheridan's sudden death in 1908, Heba went to England to continue her career.
Finally, the song that everybody knows, "Home Sweet Home." Sung by Lilian Hallows and Sidney Howard of the Sidney Howard English Drama Co. They were presented by Harry Rickards at the Criterion Theatre in 1907 according to the reverse of the postcard. This postcard is English and it seems to have been altered to include details of the Australian season.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Nance O Neil
Friday, October 22, 2010
Jack Cannot's last letter
Jack Cannot was a very famous comedian in the 1920s, but the talkies and the depression came and life was difficult for Jack and his family.
When you get this it will be a case of "Alas, poor Yorrick", and I want you to do the best for my family, who will be more or less destitute. I have fought against doing what I intend to do, but it is the only way I can see clear to enable my children to get a proper education and my darling wife to feel that every postman's knock does not mean a summons.
Charles, I have the greatest wife and children a man could wish for, so you can guess with what heart yearnings I am leaving all I love best, but I cannot get decent work. I have done 26 weeks work in two years and then I got scaled for 70 pounds in a pantomime.
More on Jack's Story
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Allan Wilkie
Here is Allan
and here is Frediswyde
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Her Majesty's Theatre Fire
In the early morning hours of 23rd March 1902 another fire occurred in the heart of Sydney.
Her Majesty's Theatre on the corner of Market and Pitt Street went up in flames. The theatre had a hotel attached and almost shared a wall with its other neighbours.
The fire decimated the theatre as can be seen in this photo from the Town and Country Journal
Tragically a young woman was killed when a wall at the back of the theatre collapsed upon her. She was a cleaning lady and was doing the early morning rounds of the theatre when the fire broke out.
Fortunately the fire brigade managed to contain the blaze and it did not spread to other parts of the city.
JC Williamson lost 35000 pounds worth of sets and equipment, but the theatrical community pitched in and helped with a benefit performance for him and for the people who lost their jobs through the destruction of the theatre.
Naturally they rebuilt .
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Australian theatre programmes of the 20th century
For example during World War 1 programmes were on rough paper, in black and white like this
During the 1920s the programmes reflected the optimism and excitement of the times. They were also in many cases beautiful artistic worksThis is a full colour cover and a booklet printed on glossy paper.
Of course as the depression came, the programmes became less showy.
The Williamson programme above is from 1931. The same cover was used through 1931 only the pictures of the stars on the cover changed. It was a booklet, but in black and white.
As the economy improved so did the programmes. Williamson updated to colour covers, but still kept the same cover through the mid 1930s.
Of course during the Second World War the theatres had to show patriotism by keeping their programmes simple. They went back to brouchure type programmes, many with colour covers like the one below from 1943.
Theatre history is a reflection of cultural and economic history. The above programmes are a fantastic illustration of the relevance of our theatrical history to the wider history of Australia.
Monday, October 18, 2010
William Anderson
Above are Bill and Eugenie on the cover of a programme. Eugenie soon became the leading lady of Bill's company.
Bill spent 15000 pounds on Wonderland, it had a circus, a helter skelter, rides, amusement halls and other entertainments. At times it had its own vaudeville performances. It also had wowser neighbours who complained about the noise and the obstruction of the beach.
With all these enterprises, it was perhaps inevitable that the freewheeling Bill would get into financial difficulties. After 4 years Wonderland was closed, his productions became scarce and Bill's life became a bit less flamboyant