George Campbell's letter to Everyones Magazine about Vaudeville conditions in the United States 1922

 Vaudeville conditions bad in America

George Campbell- Juggler writes to Everyones Magazine about his experiences in the United States. An amazing recount of the conditions for a juggler in the early 1920s. 

Published 14 June 1922

Eleven months ago, George Campbell, an English juggler, who had been in this country for over ten years, left for another trip to America, accompanied by Bert Western, a young equilibrist. (his wife Ella went too, she is in the shipping records.) Two weeks ago, Mr Campbell returned here, thoroughly fed up with present variety conditions in the United States, and also firmly convinced that, after all, there was no place nearly as good as Australia, the land of his adoption.Mr Campbell summarises his experience thusly-

We landed in ‘Frisco and started work right away for Levy, playing in and around the capital. It took us five weeks to work three, but conditions were congenial even though the salary was not much to enthuse over. This section of the tour gives one the impression that he is going to have a very enjoyable route, but here is where he gets it in the neck, for you are routed over the south, the portion of the circuit known as the ‘death trail’, and consisting of sixteen towns many of them with very long jumps. Although sixteen are scheduled , you are lucky if you play more than nine. The houses are pictures and vaudeville, four are on each bill comprising the latter.

No signed contract is given you for this tour, and it often happens that when you reach a particular town the house manager does not need your act and you have to go to the next circuit theatre. This is a plain statement of fact and is one of the greatest injustices done to an artist. When you play the last house at Amarillo (Texas) you have a fifty dollar trip to reach Chicago- if you hold the cash.

Getting to Chicago, you are soon forced to realise that you are up against a dead end- that is you are one of the great rank and file of artists. You see, there are many thousand acts, not working, and these unfortunates will tell you that the agents do not need novelty (specialty) acts.

When you are lucky enough to do a try-out, you will know what a scream this means. At certain nights of the week, in small houses, the whole programme is given by try-outs, at a cost of nothing to the management. They will tell you that the house will be well filled with booking agents and, after the show, you get to know that there has not been one on the premises.

 

Later on, I worked with Rosie Stifle? and her husband at the Empire Theatre Chicago, a Western Vaudeville house. We played three days at a cut salary in order to get in. The act went over very big at all performances and the manager reported to headquarters that it was the finest show of its kind that had ever played this house. This meant nothing, for the W V A had lost most of its houses. The rest of the circuit was not worth working owing to the very long jumps and you have to pay your own fare. At all places, too, you are supposed to pay 10 per cent to the agent, but it is always 15, and generally more. If you don’t cough up to these parasites, you don’t work. Therefore we found it impossible to get going in Chicago.

On to New York, we again realised our hopelessness, being an unknown quantity. If you haven’t a few hundred dollars to see you over the first few months, you will starve. It is well known that you get nothing unless you tip the agent, or else bet him 200 dollars he can’t book you.

Speaking of agents, their method of procedure is well known . As they are finishing talking to you, they pull out a drawer in their desk. This drawer is left open sufficiently long enough for you to take the hint that you are to drop your donations in. If you overlook this , it is a case of goodnight.

All the Australians are battling, except Mysto, who is making good money at the various clubs and private entertainments. The Kelso boys have split up and both are working, one with a partner. 

….. ( various bits about Australians he met on the circuit)

Now that is my opinion of America, as a country for vaudeville . It is absolutely rotten at the present time and I defy any of the smaller fry (and many of the big acts) to prove it otherwise.

Personally I found most of the people very fine, but the weather dull, and one missed the sunshine. America is the place for big money, if you have the luck to get in ..if not….

I was in the United States some years ago, when it was really God’s own country as they called it. Personally I doubt the Deity would care to live there now, as America is a nation of cranks and high brows, in the main, with the more citizen of other days gradually losing their rights.

George concludes with some remarks about the availability of alcohol in the US. 

George Campbell- Juggler, mentor to jugglers....

 

George Gordon Campbell, a juggler and mentor to other jugglers, came to Australia in 1906 and despite several forays overseas, always came back.

George was born in Leeds in England in 1881. He probably started juggling on the provincial circuit. Neither of his parents were performers, so it’s possible he ran away to juggle.  By 1906 he was with a circus and with a partner- Jarvis. The pair, Charlie Jarvis and Campbell were the featured jugglers in the Bostock and Wombwell’s circus and menagerie which arrived in Australia that year.

Amongst the menagerie of lions, tigers and bears, the jugglers contributed to a variety show which included Japanese acrobats and twirlers, eccentric clowns and of course, the human ostrich. They appeared in Perth together, but Jarvis did not follow the circus to the east coast. He and George split up. Jarvis took a new partner, young Victor Martyn ( Father of Topper) and Campbell went to the east coast with the circus, pairing up with another Jarvis, a member of the circus band.

It was this version of Jarvis and Campbell that toured the east coast of Australia. Their turn was described as clever and amusing, and from an early advertisement, it seemed to involve hoops, balls and passing half a dozen juggling clubs from one to the other. They were described as ‘princes of juggling’ and direct from the ‘London Hippodrome’.

Jarvis and Campbell left the circus and started performing on the Tivoli circuit around 1907/08. They spent almost a year with the Tivoli and on one memorable occasion lost their luggage in Western Australia and were unable to perform. In 1908 they were in Tasmania spellbinding the audience by passing clubs, hoops and balls, and then reducing them to hysterical laughter by presenting ludicrous situations. They were a bit hit in the island State.

 By 1910 they were so familiar to Australian audiences that they were described as ‘the well known jugglers, equilibrists and comedians.’

In July that year they were performing with ‘Godfrey’s concert company’ and one of their fellow performers was Ella Airlie, the stage name of Ella Palzier Ogilvy. Ella, a mimic and instrumentalist was, from 1908, Mrs George Campbell.

Ella and George as Airlie and Campbell toured New Zealand with the Fuller’s Circuit in 1913. They were a refined instrumental act, playing xylophones and piano.

In 1914, they travelled to England via the United States, but they returned to Australia by 1915. That year George was a solo and applauded for the originality of his turn, which marked ‘ a bold departure from the orthodox style.’ His finished it with an ‘original and entertaining spectacle’ using dinner plates.

Ella was a talented writer and musician and during the war she gained fame as the author of the sensational Australian pantomime, The Bunyip. The pantomime ran for years on the Fuller Circuit and was a smash hit. Ella was billed as the musical directress of the show, and both she and George probably took small roles.

By 1921, George had played all the circuits and all the theatres in the capital cities and regional areas of Australia. It was time for something new. So he, with Ella, travelled to San Francisco and Chicago to try their luck on the giant vaudeville circuits of the United States. Upon arrival, 40 year old George was described as 5 foot 10 inches tall, of  dark complexion with brown hair and grey eyes.

They started in San Francisco, on the ‘death trail’. Sometimes George appeared at theatres under appointment and found they had no work and he had to pay his own fares between venues which were often long distances apart. The wages were low and 15 percent went to the agents.

In Chicago he played to houses that were full, but the performers were all ‘trying out’ and unpaid, the acts were lured with promises that the watching agents would employ them.  Although he received ‘eulogistic’ reviews, the managers were still ‘shifty’, and work was scarce. He travelled to New York, paying his own way there after a short season in Chicago where he took a cut in pay to ‘get in’, but to no avail. The agents were ‘parasites.’

George wrote that in New York,  ‘it is well known that you get nothing unless you ‘tip’ the agent or bet him 200 dollars he can’t book you.’ According to George, the agents in New York left a drawer half open expecting tips as you spoke to them in the office. Overall he found the state of vaudeville ‘rotten’, the people ‘fine’ the weather ‘dull’, George ‘missed the sunshine’ and returned to Australia.

 When he returned, he formed his own show, and in 1923, the Campbell- Beaver- White company was touring regional Australia. Beaver was Herbert Beaver, who became a well known juggler and later a personality in Sydney radio. He was another performer who was probably trained by George.

Ella was with George for most of these years and had suffered through the disastrous tour of the United States with her husband. In 1923 the two divorced in a  high-profile case, where Ella was accused of adultery. She remained in Sydney working for Fullers and writing songs.

From around 1925, George created another company called the Cockatoo Farm company. They travelled through all the country areas of Australia producing pantomimes, burlesques and variety shows.  They were tremendously successful and popular. The company continued through the depression and into 1930s, at times employing up to 16 people. Their band, the cockies jazz band, was highly regarded in the industry.

In 1935, George passed away in Sydney aged 54. He was a mentor to young jugglers and was involved in the training of at least two who had solid careers. He was a man of staunch business principles with a dedication to vaudeville. There are few photos of him, and few reminiscences, but he was a pioneer of juggling and rural entertainment during some lean and lonely times in Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Torino in Australia 1928- Cinquevalli's only pupil

 Juggler William Campbell, known as Torino, had toured Australia in 1914. He returned in 1928 to a completely different entertainment scene. Moving pictures were challenging the major vaudeville chains for entertainment supremacy and they were winning the fight. Torino recognised this and came to Australia under contract to Union Theatres, a cinema chain. It was a prudent financial decision for the juggler.

 The sea journey to Australia took 6 weeks, and during the voyage Torino attempted to teach some juggling tricks to his fellow passengers. One trick was to kick a match box from his feet and light a match as the box fell. It is unclear how many passengers learnt this trick which Torino called ‘simple.’

He finally arrived in Sydney in late July 1928 . He spent a week there and performed at the Lyceum Theatre supporting the movie, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. Sydney was home to over 90 cinemas at the time and movies had overtaken vaudeville as the entertainment choice of the masses. Torino’s act was squashed between showings of films and his talent, although recognised, was unable to compete with the novelty of the new medium.  It was not until he reached Queensland that he gained some notoriety.

In July, Torino told reporters that Cinquevalli was ‘his teacher’, but when he arrived in Queensland in August he had become ‘Cinquevalli’s only pupil’. The story was to expand with various embellishments as the tour progressed. It was enhanced with huge advertisements stating that he was ‘greater than Cinquevalli’.

Cinquevalli was a well loved and remembered performer in Australia. He toured the country four times in the early 20th Century and was highly regarded as an individual and juggler. Capitalising on his reputation was a logical marketing ploy for Torino and Union Theatres.

In Brisbane,Torino performed at the Wintergarden Theatre between showings of ‘Lures of Love’ which starred Lionel Barrymore. He performed a 20 minute set which included juggling tumblers of water , the matchbox trick, balancing billiard balls and cues and sending letters via a ‘flick of the wrist’. The Brisbane newspapers called it an ‘extremely clever’ turn.

It was in Queensland that Torino’s Cinquevalli story became more intricate. According to the papers, Torino, when a young man, had been a fan of all the famous jugglers and saw all their acts. One day he was attending a Cinquevalli show, and the great juggler asked for volunteers. Torino volunteered and Cinquevalli was so impressed with his talent that he decided to train him as a juggler. Thus Torino became Cinquevalli’s only pupil, and it was with this description that his tour of Australia continued.

In Toowoomba, in rural Queensland, Torino manipulated tennis racquets and whirled a dollar coin on a parasol. He was described as ‘lithe and athletic’ in stature and performed in settings of ‘exquisite beauty’. The way he sealed and posted a letter sent the audience into hysterical laughter.

He was very popular in northern parts of the state, and spent most of September in the area. After a brief return to Sydney, Torino travelled to Western Australia and arrived in the middle of October.

There was little fanfare for his arrival and he was mostly reduced to a footnote in Western Australian reviews. Perth and Fremantle newspapers focused on the moving pictures, Torino was an adjunct to that main event, although the turn was ‘very popular.’

He stayed in Western Australia until early November when he left the country, presumably for Germany.

In later years, Torino toured the world as a juggler with his wife Doris, who died in 1936. His performances dwindled during the 1930s with the decline in vaudeville around the world, but he returned to the stage in England during World War 2. Some of his last performances were at the Golders Green Hippodrome in London where he appeared with his second wife, Eileen Slater, who worked under the name Joyanita Cole.

  Two weeks after this show,  his brother George Latour appeared on the same stage. It’s possible that Torino was suffering some impact from the cancer that would eventually cause his death, and his brother was filling in for him.

Torino died in 1943 in London aged 64. He was survived by his wife Eileen and their daughter, Joy Campbell.

 

 

 

 

Short note....

 I have just added my 18,000 name database of people associated with the Australian theatre to the site. A link is on the right hand side.

This was the main feature of my original website HAT-archive, and I am happy to be able to feature it again,

The link is to a searchable pdf file that I am keeping on my google drive. Access is open to everybody. It's about 700 pages long so I don' t advise downloading it.

I have also added my old articles from the HAT-archive website to another blog- the link is on the right hand side..

Enjoy

Leann

Ossie Delroy...mmmm was that really his name? with Jimmy Wallace.....mmmmm was that really his name?

This amazing two page spread of Ossie Delroy and Jimmy Wallace comes from Everyone's Magazine in 1940. Ossie was a legend in the juggling world and travelled overseas to entertain the troops in World War 2.

I suspect his real name was not Ossie Delroy, and I also suspect that his mate, Jimmy was actually James Bell who lived in Marrickville with his sister Florence...

I will be confirming this in the future- I hope.

And look at those clubs- how clunky are they?

 

Torino in Australia 1914......

 Background information for this article came from this excellent recount of Torino's career.

In July 1914 Melbourne Punch wrote that a London newspaper had ranked the top five jugglers in the world. Cinquevalli was number one, followed by Salerno, Kara, Torino and Hern. Shortly afterwards, number one, Cinquevalli, and number four, Torino, visited Australia.

It was Torino’s first visit to Australia. His real name was William Campbell and he was born in Scotland in 1879. His family moved to the United States when he was young, and it was there that he and his brother George began their juggling careers. In 1914 he told an Australian newspaper that as a child he often practised with his mother’s silverware, and that he spent some of his early career as a club juggler and Indian ball puncher.

After some years working in both the American and English vaudeville circuits as William Campbell, he made a dramatic announcement to the theatrical press in 1911. William Campbell had passed away and Torino was replacing him. Thus it was Mr Torino whose name appeared on the passenger list to Australia in 1914, finally arriving in Adelaide in September that year.

Australia was at war, and Cinquevalli, the world’s number one juggler, was performing around the country.

Torino 1928- from the newspapers

The timing was strange. Torino’s contract was with the Tivoli circuit, the same circuit that employed Cinquevalli. Unlike Cinquevalli, whose wage was 100 pounds a week, Torino earned 40. The two jugglers toured the same theatres in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, sometimes within days of each other. Cinquevalli got the headlines, the pictorials and the page long reviews, Torino, who was described as ‘Cinquevalli’s rival’ at least once, got passing mentions. ( a rough comparison of their travels)

Torino’s act was different from that of Cinquevalli. It was called ‘a Japanese Fete’ and had, as the name implied, a Japanese theme.

The curtains opened to the juggler lying in a hammock underneath an umbrella from which hung several lanterns.  He juggled tennis racquets with balls, threw a penholder so that it nestled behind his ear and concluded by making a coin ‘waltz’ around the top of the umbrella. According to an Adelaide reviewer ‘ He seems to have a knack of making everything look remarkably easy and graceful.’

Torino spent about two weeks in Adelaide and received good reviews. By September 28 he was performing in Melbourne. On September 30, Cinquevalli arrived in Adelaide.

In Melbourne Torino made water remain fast in an upturned glass and was praised for his ‘picturesque’ Japanese setting whilst his assistant was described as ‘humorous’.

Meanwhile in Adelaide, a local paper, The Critic, published a full page pictorial on Cinquevalli ‘at home’ and included an interview with the master juggler.

I was not until Torino reached Sydney, later in October, that the press noticed him, and it was in small paragraphs rather than in full length articles. Cinquevalli was performing in Melbourne at the time and promoting his final ever retirement performances.

In Sydney, Torino introduced the flying cue stick to his act. In this trick he triggered a small cannon by foot which propelled a cue stick high in the air. He then caught it on his forehead. The Sydney newspapers also reported Torino’s experiences in battle. Apparently he was on a cycling tour when the United States and Cuba went to war. He joined a regiment and was commended for his service. Unfortunately for the US military, the pull of vaudeville was too strong for the juggler to become a professional soldier.

There was one published comparison between Cinquevalli and Torino. It was an odd comment, Cinquevalli, according to the Brisbane Worker was ‘old school’ because he wore gymnast’s tights in his act, Torino, in contrast, belonged to ‘the ultra modern school’, presumably because he did not wear tights.

Torino finished his 1914 tour in Sydney around November 11. On November 16 Cinquevalli performed his final show. He kissed his cannonball goodbye and left Australia the next day.

Torino left Australia in early December from Sydney. So if the two jugglers met it was probably between Torino’s last show in Sydney on November 11 and Cinquevalli’s last show in Melbourne, on November 16. Did Torino attend this performance? What juggler would miss the opportunity to see Cinquevalli’s last show?  Particularly as both artists worked for the same employer, and the train journey between Sydney and Melbourne was not too arduous.

Torino returned to Australia in 1928 when he regularly mentioned his relationship with Cinquevalli who died in 1918.  The extent of that friendship and when and where they met, was never clarified.

 I'll be writing about Torino's 1928 tour in my next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cinquevalli at Home- Adelaide Critic Newspaper October 7 1914

 Just a nice way to start a Sunday

Cinquevalli at Home- October 1914 Adelaide Critic Newspaper