Gregan McMahon

On 12 january 1918, the comedy Turn to the Right replaced The New Henrietta. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest hits at the Palace during 1917, it notched up a further five weeks on its revival. On Tuesday 29 January, to mark the 100th performance of the play in Australia, a pictorial souvenir was handed to all attendees. It was also noted in the press that with the close of the play actress Francee Anderson would be departing for America, with the intention of ‘working her way to New York’.¹

With the withdrawal of Turn to the Right, the Taits’ other major success, Peg o’ My Heart, was remounted. A large and enthusiastic audience welcomed back Sara Allgood, who ‘continued her remarkable success as Peg’, along with Gerald Henson as Jerry, Cecil Brooking as Alaric and Beatrice Yaldwyn as Ethel, and Gerald Kay Souper and Cyril Mackay as Montgomery Hawkes and Christian Brent. With the Easter pantomime season looming, Peg could only be played for two weeks.

Winifred La France in Aladdin

From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1918, cover. Theatre Heritage Australia.

Bert Bailey as the Dame in Aladdin, as seen by the cartoonist Pas.

National Library of Australia, Canberra

On Saturday 9 March 1918, by arrangement with Bailey and Grant, the ‘Gorgeous Pantomime Extravaganza’ of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp opened as the Easter attraction. Written by George Barry and George Slater, this production had premiered in Melbourne at the King’s Theatre in December. The show featured a strong line-up of talent, including Barry Lupino as Abanazar, Bert Bailey as the Dame, with Winifred La France (making her reappearance in Australia after several years abroad) as the principal boy and Olive Godwin as the principal girl. Other characters were played by Andrew Higginson, Fayette Perry and Zola Ferrell, the last-named the principal danseuse, specially engaged by Charles Tait in New York.

The opening night review in the Sydney Morning Herald (11 March 1918) provided the following observation:

Barry Lupino, as the comically disreputable Abanazar, and Bert Baily, as an elderly well-dressed village dame whose broad humour was held in check by a convincing assumption of feminine refinement successfully carried on the gaiety of “Aladdin” at the Palace Theatre on Saturday night. Their duologues, their dancing and their characterisations were star efforts on the best old-time panto lines.

The review went on to say:

Three hours and a half of strenuous movement and constant scenic and costume changes on the little stage accentuated the tropical heat of the summer’s evening. None the less, the crowded audience applauded the many strong features of the piece with energy, showed a tolerant approval of the few weak passage, and still has strength enough to bear up under the protracted enthusiasm of the floral reception at the end.

Of the female cast members, the same reviewer noted:

The character of the scapegrace introduces a new and dashing principal boy from America, Winifred La France, whose graceful figure is backed by an immense voice, which would fill Drury Lane Theatre, and proved somewhat overwhelming at the Palace. … Olive Godwin, who returned after a considerable absence in beautiful voice as the Princess Badroulbadour, sumptuously attired and not less rich in song.

Aladdin played to packed houses until 25 April 1918.

On the warfront, the battle continued to rage with no sign of easing. The previous year, 1917, had proved a devastating one for the country with some 22,000 men losing their lives—the heaviest death toll since the commencement of hostilities. On the homefront, the Taits along with the other key providers of entertainment, continued to play their part in ensuring that the people at home could keep their sanity by forgetting the war for a bit.

Emelie Polini

National Library of Australia, Canberra

The next attraction at the Palace was the ‘brilliant English actress’ Emelie Polini, who opened her first season in Australia with the ‘thrilling mystery comedy drama’ De Luxe Annie. A three-act play by Edward Clark, it was adapted from a short story by Scammon Lockwood. Following try-out performances in Atlantic City, De Luxe Annie opened in New York, initially at the Booth Theatre on 4 September 1917, playing over 100 performances. The play conserns a female swindler who is being pursued by the police, played on Broadway by Jane Grey, who would also go on to star in a film version. The story is told in flashback, with the first act taking place in a pullman car, where a doctor is telling a fellow passenger about an interesting case. As the story progresses, the police discover that Annie is the wife of a respected citizen and that having contracted amnesia as the result of a head injury, had been taken advantage of by a notorious crook, Jimmie Fitzpatrick, created by Vincent Serrano.

In Sydney, Emelie Polini proved a sensation as Annie, with the drama playing to record business for over two months. With a solid supporting cast including Cyril Mackay as Jimmie Fitzpatrick, Gerald Kay Souper as Doctor Niblo, Clarence Blakiston as Hal H. Kendal, along with newcomers, Harmon Lee and Georgia Harvey, making their first appearances in Australia.

De Luxe Annie closed on Monday 24 June with two performance, including a special holiday matinee to commemorate the birthday of the Prince of Wales. Annie was withdrawn at the height of its success, but it needed to make way for Guy Bates Post whose season had already been booked. With the departure of Emelie Polini, the Palace remained closed as preparations were made for the arrival of the Taits’ next big attraction.

Mrs T.H. Kelly (Ethel Knight Mollison) as The Marchesa di Brignole Sala

Mrs Leslie Walford as the Madonna

Miss Langtree, Helen Laidly and Janet Knox

Matinee in aid of Italian Red Cross Day Fund at the Palace Theatre, 20 June 1918. Photographs by Glen Broughton Studios.

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Meanwhile, Friday 28 June 1918 was designated as Italian Red Cross Day, and across Sydney (and elsewhere), a myriad of events, from balls to pageants, took place to raise funds for war casualties and their families. In anticipation, a special fund-raising matinee was held at the Palace Theatre on 20 June, organised by Mrs T.H. Kelly [Ethel Knight Mollison], the wife of one of the key organisers. The event at the Palace was described as one of Art and Diction. It comprised a series of living pictures or tableaux vivants based on pictures by the old masters, including Mrs Kelly and her little son as the Vandyck portrait of the Marchesa di Brignola Sala and child. The program also included dramatic recitations from Shakespeare’s Italian plays and numerous songs presented by society ladies and gentlemen with the assistance of Cyril Mackay, Signor Cappelli and Philip Wilson. The afternoon was described as ‘long and very slow-moving’, with an auction of art objects conducted by Barry Lupino during one of the intervals providing some welcome relief.

Guy Bates Post with his dog Huskie

From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 July 1918, Theatre Heritage Australia

Scene from the New York production of The Masqueraderwith Guy Bates Post and Thais Lawton. Photo by White, New York.

Smithsonian, Washington, DC

On Saturday 29 June, Guy Bates Post, a well-regarded dramatic and character actor, made his Sydney debut. On stage since 1894, he first gained recognition in 1914 with the play Omar, the Tentmaker, which played an eight-month run in New York before heading on the road for three seasons. With his current play, The Masquerader, which enjoyed a long run on Broadway, his position as ‘America’s Irving’ was assured. He arrived in Australia fresh from this success, bringing with him key players from his company, including Thais Lawton, Adele Ritchie (his wife), Ruby Gordon, Lionel Belmore, Milane Tilden—and “Huskie” his trained German Shepherd dog. Post’s Australian visit was limited to just seventeen weeks, which meant that he would only be seen at the Taits’ two theatres in Melbourne and Sydney, opening his first season at the King’s on 27 April 1918.

The Masquerader was a three-act play by John Hunter Booth, adapted from the 1904 novel by Katherine Cecil Thurston. In England in 1905, a play from the same source, John Chilcote, MP, by E. Temple Thurston, was produced with George Alexander as the lead.

The story concerns a British politician, John Chilcote, a hopeless drug addict, who following a chance meeting with his cousin, who happens to be his double, seizes the opportunity to swap identities. The cousin, John Loader, a poor but gifted writer, achieves success as John Chilcote, MP, while the real Chilcote succumbs to his addiction and is buried as Loader.

The Masquerader held the stage until Saturday 10 August 1918. On the following Monday, 12 August 1918, Post staged The Nigger, a three-act drama by Edward Sheldon.² As noted by some historians, rather than use the play’s original title of Philip Morrow, Sheldon chose to adopt the more ‘explosive title’ to ‘make clear the attitudes of his white characters about the black ones in the play’.³ Press advertisements announced it as ‘The play that created a furore in Melbourne’, and also quoted the Argus review saying, ‘It aroused the great audience to a state of excitement seldom seen or heard in a theatre, and the appreciation was as whole-hearted as the acting’. It is not clear why Post chose to present this play in Australia, given his time was limited to just two appearances. When he introduced it at New York’s progressive New Theatre, it divided audiences, playing in repertory with other plays for two months.⁴ The play had also been adapted into a film in 1915 by the Fox Film Corporation, with William Farnum in the lead, and this had been screen in Sydney for one week during March 1916.

The Nigger played for two weeks, and for the final two days of Post’s engagement, 26 and 27 August, The Masquerader was repeated, with matinee and evening performances both days. This marked the final appearance of Guy Bates Post in Australia. As the Taits advised in their advertisements, ‘These performances bring to a conclusion the most triumphant season ever given in Australia’.⁵ The following day, the company set sail for America.

Bert Bailey as Gran’dad Rudd. Photo by May and Mina Moore.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Next, from Wednesday 28 August 1918 to Thursday 19 September 1918, the Palace was sub-let to Bert Bailey and Julius Grant, who presented the Bert Bailey Comedy Company in a brand-new play, Gran’dad Rudd, for the first time in Sydney, having already played seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and the regions. Written by Steele Rudd, this play may have been new, but many of the characters were not. This was the much-anticipated sequel to On Our Selection. The play also saw the return of many old favourites, including Bert Bailey as Gran’dad Rudd, Fred Macdonald as Dave, Lilias Adeson as Lily, and Alfreda Bevan as Mrs Joe Rudd; along with Edmund Duggan and Queenie Sefton in the new characters of Denis Regan and Mrs Banks; and introducing Leslie Woods as Henry Cook, Louis Machilton as Dan Rudd, and Grace Dorran as Nell.

The new play received an enthusiastic welccome, as the Sydney Morning Herald (29 August 1918) observed:

Roars of laughter attended the doings of the family on gran’dad’s selection at the Palace Theatre last night, as the audience settled happily down to the joyous realisation that the old farm was just as homely and “out-back” as ever, and that Steele Rudd’s new piece, under the genial handling of Mr. Bert Bailey, was just as crowded with humorous characters as the old one.

The play is set twenty years after the first one, and as such, the key characters are aged. Most notably, Bert Bailey as Dad, had lost some of his former energy:

... so naturally does Mr. Bailey play the part that one feels quite sad to see the once vigorous pioneer so aged. However, there is a world of unsuspected vigour left in the enfeebled frame and palsied head of that bent old fellow who leans on his stout oak stick, but it flares out only in the vitriolic sarcasms by which the patriarch keeps his troublesome team more or less in subjection.... In fact, Mr. Bailey has achieved a masterly study of old age in the character throughout a whole series of homely, comic situations, and playgoers will be especially grateful to him for the art with which he sustains the recognisable individuality of the first Rudd in the impersonation of the character which dominates the new story.

The Bert Bailey season was limited to just three week. Over the following years, Gran’dad Rudd would play throughout the country, but would not return to Sydney until 1923.

Georgia Harvey & Emelie Polini in a scene from The Invisible Foe (left), and Emelie with her new husband, Lieutenant Harold Ellis, ‘a Sydney solicitor of independent mean’ (right). From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1918, Theatre Heritage Australia.

Characters from The Invisible Foe (1 to r): Harmon Lee as Richard Bransby, Olive Wilton as Mrs Hilary, Cyril Mackay and Gerald Kay Souper as Stephen Pryde & Dr. Lathan, Una Jan as Barkis, and John Fernside as Hugh Pride. From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1918, Theatre Heritage Australia.

Following the departure of Bert Bailey and co., Emelie Polini returned with a new play, The Invisible Foe. Since she was last in Sydney, Emelie had tied the knot. It seems, on her way out to Australia she met a young Australian officer, Harold Ellis, on the boat and fell in love. Ellis had been with the Royal Field Artillery in England but had been gassed and wounded and was on leave. The two were quietly married in Melbourne in July 1918. According to one columnist, Emelie is ‘a very domesticated little lady, and when her contract with the Taits is finished she may slam the stage-door for ever’.⁶

The Invisible Foe opened on Saturday 21 September 1918. Once again, the advertisements said it all:

It’s English, written by an Englishman, concerning English Men and Women, and presented to you by English stars. Like all things English it’s good and powerful and will make a refreshing change in your theatrical diet after a long run of American productions in this city.⁷

The English drama played for just a month, closing on Thursday 10 October 1918. Polini’s next new play, Eyes of Youth, which opened on 12 October, proved a huge hit, running for nine weeks, until 13 December. It seems playgoers were more than happy with a diet of American plays!

Emelie Polini as Gina Ashling with Alfred Bristowe as the Yogi in Eyes of Youth

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Eyes of Youth was a runaway success in America and the UK, playing for over a year in New York and for eight months in London. It is the story of a young woman, Gina Ashling, who consults an Indian Yogi, and is given a glimpse into the future: will she become a school teacher, a famous opera singer, wed a millionaire, or marry the man she loves? Summarising the play’s success, The World’s News (19 October 1918) wrote:

‘Eyes of Youth’, at the Palace Theatre, is a success; a big success—a J. and N. Tait success. There is enterprise and daring in this young firm’s activities. They had no hesitation in bringing to Sydney-siders ‘Eyes of Youth’, although it is a drama along lines entirely without precedent in Australia. It is a spoken movie—a  trick melodrama. It rushes forward with breathless speed. One momemnt you are depressed by its pathos, the next you are screaming with laughter... You came to see on comedy-drama. You were given four.... For Emelie Polini, it is, perhaps, the most perfect vehicle that could be built for her great talents and versatility.... In this play she holds the centre of the stage from curtain rise to the final fall, and in the course of the evening gives five big characterisations.

Going on to say:

It is characteristic of the Taits that, whether they put on a gloomy play like ‘The Invisible Foe’, or a sparkling comedy-drama like ‘Eyes of Youth’ and ‘De Luxe Annie’, they get the perfection of gloom or the perfection of sparkle. They are thorough—and artistic.

On Monday 11 November 1918, after four years of hostilities, and over 60,000 Australian war-dead, peace was declared with the signing of an armistice between Germany and the Allies. The news reached Australia in the evening, just as theatregoers were taking their seats. At the Palace, before the curtain went up, Mr E.J. Gravestock, the manager for J. and N. Tait, steppeed onto the stage and made the joyous announcement. The audience rose to their feet cheering as the band played the national anthems of the Allied forces.⁸

Perhaps the decision to stage an issue-laden play such as The Nigger was not so strange after all. On 18 October, the Palace played host to an important public meeting, when E.J. Tait addressed the audience on the need for a Repertory Theatre in Sydney. Under Gregan McMahon’s leadership, the Repertory Theatre Movement had gained some momentum in Melbourne, when in 1911, he staged the second act of The Critic and The Two Mrs Wetherbys at the Turn Verin Hall. Between 1911 and 1916, the organisation, modelled on similar undertakings in the UK, staged three seasons a year, presenting dozens of works deemed too intellectual or racy for the average theatregoer. The Repertory Theatre Movement championed the theatre of ideas, which encompassed the plays of Bernard Shaw, St John Ervine, Harley Granville Baker and John Galsworthy, as well as Ibsen and Strindberg. Typically, the plays were made available to theatregoers on a subscription basis. In the UK, this method was adopted to avoid scrutiny by the Lord Chamberlain, as plays mounted by clubs or staged privately did not require licencing in the normal manner. This was a useful arrangement, as many of the plays, due to their subject matter, might not have been deemed fit for the commercial stage.

By 1916, the Melbourne Repertory Company was struggling, it was losing subscribers and the pool of competent actors was dwindling, notably the male actors who had left to join the war effort.

In 1917, McMahon relocated to Sydney, taking up a role with the Tait organisation as an actor and director. E.J. Tait was impressed by McMahon’s achievement in Melbourne and determined to support a new Repertory-style company in Sydney. It was decided to utilise the actors from Emilie Polini’s company. At first, they would perform matinees of selected ‘repertory’ plays alongside their own repertoire, and slowly as the ‘repertory’ plays gained traction, would present them in their own right.

The first appearance of J. and N. Tait’s Repertory Company took place at a matinee on Thursday 31 October 1918 with George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, under the direction of Gregan McMahon. The play had first been performed by his Melbourne Repertory Company in March 1914. Key roles now were played by Gerald Kay Souper (Sir Colenso Ridgeon) and Olive Wilton (Jennifer Dubedat), with other characters by Gregan McMahon, Alfred Bristowe and Raymond Lawrence. It was repeated at the matinee on Thursday 7 and 21 November, the proposed matinee on 14 November being cancelled on account of Sydney’s ongoing peace celebrations.

At the matinee on Thursday 28 November 1918 a new program was given, comprising the one-act plays, How He Lied to Her Husband and The Pigeon, the first by George Bernard Shaw and the second by John Galsworthy. How He Lied to Her Husband had been previous been seen at the Palace in September 1909, when it received its first metropolitan Sydney performance by The Sydney Stage Society in aid of the Women’s Hospital.

A second matinee took place the following Thursday 5 December 1918.

The Court of Injustice, a charity event organsied by Commercial Travellers’ Association of NSW with assistance from the Actors’ Association. The Sydney Mail, 18 December 1918, p.7.

On Friday 13 December, the Palace was turned over to the Commercial Travellers’ Association of NSW for a special event that ran from 10am to 5pm. Described as a Court of Injustice, it comprised a series of trials, whereby prominent citizens were accused of ludicrous crimes and ordered to make payments to charity. The Sydney acting fraternity lent their support. Arthur Styan was the Chief Justice with Phil Smith as the Chief Constable. C.R. Bantock, C.H. Workman, Walter Baker, Frank Harvey, Roy Redgrave, Walter Bentley, Louis Kimball and others appeared as Justices, Judges, Prosecutors and Counsels, while Florence Young, Gladys Moncrieff, Muriel Starr, Ethel Morrison and other prominent female performers were the Ladies of the Jury. The event was deemed enormous fun and £1,000 was raised, with calls for a return-performance.

With the close of Eyes of Youth on 13 December, after a highly successful nine weeks, the Repertory Company commenced a short residence from 14 December, when George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma was revived for five nights and two matinees, followed by How He Lied to Her Husband and The Pigeon from 20 December for four nights and one matinee.

On Christmas night, a special concert, under the direction of Oswald Anderson, took place, with Peter Dawson, Philip Newbury and others performing songs, ballads and recitals. A proposed revival of De Luxe Annie was held over until Boxing Night.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 1918, p.8

2. This was Sheldon’s second play, his first, Salvation Nell, achieving success at the hands of Mrs Fiske during 1908. Sheldon would go on to write many noteworthy plays, including The High Road (1912), Romance (1913) and The Czarina (1922).

3. The A to Z of American Theater, p.349

4. The New Theatre opened on 28 November 1909 as a repertory theatre with seats for 2,300. An ambitious project, it lasted just two seasons.

5. Advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 August 1918, p. 2

6. The Bulletin (Sydney), 25 July 1918, p.38

7. Advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1918, p.2

8. On 8 November 1918, 200,000 Sydneysiders prematurely gathered in Centennial Park to celebrate the end of the war. With the official annoucement four days later, jubilant crowds continued to flock into the city. Wednesday 13 November was declared a public holiday., when 250,000 people attended a service in the Domain, with 60,000 servicemen and women marching from Central Station. Scenes of merryment continued throughout the week with tens of thousands of people packing Martin Place.

References

Gerald Bordman, The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, Oxford University Press, 1984

James Fisher, The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, 20009

James Leve, American Musical Theater, Oxford University Press, 2016

Viola Tait, A Family of Brothers: The Taits and J.C. Williamson; a theatre history, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1971

Newspapers

Trove, trove.nla.gov.au

Pictures

National Library of Australia, Canberra

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Theatre Heritage Australia

With thanks to

Rob Morrison

Montage by Judy Leech.

Rickards’ tivoli companymade their last appearance at the Palace on 19 January 1900. With their departure, short-lease seasons resumed at the theatre, ranging from single performances to one or two week seasons. They included Victor the conjuror; the Sydney Comedy Club; the Sydney Liedertafel (who premiered a new opera by Alfred Hill called Lady Dolly), and McAdoo’s Georgian Minstrels (with a variety program and performances of Uncle Tom’s Cabin). During February 1900, the tragedian Walter Bentley was using the theatre for rehearsals prior to taking his company on an extended tour around Australia.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, manager Skinner was making arrangements for significant alterations to the theatre to make it suitable for large-scale dramatic presentations.

In May 1899 Adams had purchased the premises of Gowing Brothers, tailors and outfitters, which occupied the corner of Market and George streets, part of which backed onto the Palace Theatre. In addition to consolidating his property holdings on the block, it also gave him the opportunity to expand the rear of the Palace Theatre. Minor works had been undertaken in mid-1899 when the stage was increased by a few feet. Now it was proposed to increase the depth of the stage by a further sixteen feet, making it 46 feet deep. Other changes to the auditorium and the widening of the proscenium by two and a half feet, would provide better views of the stage, allowing for increased seating capacity of the theatre. While still one of the smallest theatre in Sydney, the house could now seat over 1,300 patrons. Contracts were struck with builder Alexander Dean, and James Bull Alderson, the architect, was engaged to draw up the plans. Alderson had been responsible for the design of Adams’ Marble Bar in 1891.¹

Ironwork design for the Palace Theatre, drawn by James Marriott, Metalworker, Melbourne, 1901

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Sometime in 1901 Adams and Skinner commissioned the firm of Melbourne-based metalworker James Marriott to design a new verandah and portico to the Palace Hotel and Palace Theatre. These drawings, dated 1901, are at the State Library Victoria. It is not clear if these designs were carried out, but the new wrought iron canopies may have been proposed ahead of the Royal Visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York who arrived in Sydney on 27 May after opening the first Federal Parliament in Melbourne on 9 May 1901.

With the re-working of the interior complete, the Palace could now welcome a wider range of companies. The plan was to open with a comedy season by Charles Arnold and company on 9 June 1900, but Arnold’s plans changed and the date was pushed back to 28 July, though this too was altered and he was expected to open in late August following the completion of his Melbourne and Adelaide seasons.

To bridge the gap, Johnstone Sheldon’s War Lecture (with limelight views) occupied the theatre for a week from 30 June, and Boar War films, under the direction of Messrs Wyld and Freedman, were screened from 28 July to 21 August 1900.

Poster for the American production of Why Smith Left Home, 1897

Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Programme cover for Charles Arnold’s production of Why Smith Left Home at the Palace Theatre, 1900

Mitchell Library Performance Programme Collection, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Charles Arnold’s company finally opened at the Palace on 25 August 1900, launching their comedy season with What Happened to Jones. Arnold was well-known to Australian theatregoers, having made two previous visits, during the 1880s, and again in the 1890s with Hans the Boatman, Captain Fritz and other plays.

For his third tour, he brought with him several new comedies. The first, What Happened to Jones, a three-act farce by George Broadhurst, had been performed in New York in 1897, with George C. Boniface as Jones, the travelling salesman who disguises himself as a cleric in an attempt to escape the police. Having purchased the British and Colonial rights, Charles Arnold first produced the play at the Grand Theatre, Croydon on 30 May 1898 (with himself as Jones), prior to opening at the Strand Theatre in London on 17 July 1898, where it played for 325 performances. With the conclusion of the London season, he took it and other plays to South Africa. He arrived in Australia in April 1900, opening at the Melbourne Princess’s on the 18th of the month. The play proved a huge success and played an unprecedented eight weeks or 52 nights (76,000 people). Arnold was said to have made £5000, with the nightly receipts eclipsing all previous records for the theatre (with the exception of the Bernhardt and London Gaiety Burlesque seasons of 1895).²

In Sydney, What Happened to Jonesplayed to full houses for seven weeks. It closed on Wednesday, 17 October 1899, the occasion of its 54th night, thereby eclipsing Melbourne by two performances! As a result of playing Jonesfor the full term, Sydney did not get to see The Professor’s Love Story, which had been given its Australian premiere in Melbourne.

With the conclusion of the Arnold season, the company departed for New Zealand, via Hobart.

Pending the arrival of the Hawtrey Comedy Company in December, the theatre remained dark, with the exception of a few one-off performances. The most notable was the world premiere on 1 November 1900 of Thou Foolby the Rev. George Walters, author of Joseph of Canaan. The play was being performed for copyright purposes, with the prospect of producing it in London (though this does not seem to have happened). The play was staged by Philip Lytton, who also played the leading role. He was supported by a cast of amateurs.

The Hawtrey Comedy Company, with (1 to r) Henry Stephenson, Herbert Ross, Ruby Ray, E.F. Bradley, W.F. Hawtrey, Mrs Ross and Alma Allen. Photo by Talma, Sydney and Melbourne.

From Sydney Mail, 22 December 1900, p.1507

The next play at the Palace was A Message from Mars, a fantastical comedy-drama in three acts by Richard Ganthony, which was being performed for the first time in Australia on 22 December 1900. This play had been a huge hit in London, and was still playing at the Strand Theatre when the Australian production opened.³ The play was a morality tale, not unlike Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, whereby a selfish man is reformed after a visitor from Mars appears to him in a dream and shows him the effect of his actions on the people around him. When the play opened in London, the principal characters were played by Charles H. Hawtrey (Horace Parker), Arthur Williams (Tramp), Jessie Bateman (Minnie Templer) and G.S. Titheradge (Messenger from Mars).

Scene from the New York production of A Message from Mars, with Henry Stephenson (left) as the Messenger, Fred Thorne as the Tramp (centre), and Charles Hawtrey (standing right) as Horace Parker. Photo by Byron, New York.

University of Washington, University Libraries, Washington, DC

The Hawtrey Comedy Company was managed by Charles Hawtrey’s brother William F. Hawtrey, who also played the role of the tramp in A Message from Mars. Hawtrey had been working in Australia since 1897 as stage manager for Williamson and Musgrove’s Dramatic Company, but on the dissolution of the partnership had returned to England to arrange the current tour. The role of Horace Parker was played by Herbert Ross, Ruby Ray was Minnie Templer, and the Messenger from Mars was portrayed by Henry Stephenson, who had understudied the role in London. With the conclusion of the Australian season, Stephenson would join Charles Hawtrey in New York, making his Broadway debut in the role of the Messenger.

Ahead of the company’s arrival scenic artist Harry Whaite recreated the London scenery.

The play proved a huge success in Sydney and played to packed houses for eight weeks.

To mark the new year 1901 and the foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia, Sydney’s building were decked with lights. The illuminations along Pitt Street were considered particularly striking:

Tattersall’s Hotel and the Palace Theatre were prettily lighted up with electric lights, small coloured globes outlined the windows; over the verandah in the centre of the building was a transparency scene representing Her Majesty the Queen; above this likeness were the words ‘Our People, One Destiny’, underneath a representation of the British coat of arms, supported by the Australia coat of arms with the words ‘The Crimson Thread of Kinship Sealed with Australian Blood’.⁴

Herbert Ross, O.P. Heggie and Gregan McMahon as Tom, Dick and Harry, photographed during the Melbourne season. In Sydney, the role of Harry had been played by Philip Lytton. Photo by Talma, Sydney and Melbourne.

From The Arena (Melbourne), 28 September 1901, p.12

Ruby Ray, one of the leading ladies in the Hawtrey Comedy Company

Author’s collection

The second play of the Hawtrey season was Tom, Dick and Harry, a three-act farcical comedy by Mrs Romualdo Pacheco, described as a ‘hyper-inflated farcical version of The Comedy of Errors’ involving three identical red-headed men: one pair of twins and another who for reason of his own copies their appearance. First produced in New York in 1892 under the title Incog, it starred Charles Dickson, Louis Mann and Robert Edeson as Tom, Dick and Harry, with Clara Lipman as Mollie Somers. When Charles H. Hawtrey produced the play in England he changed the title and relocated the setting from San Francisco to Margate. The first production took place at the Theatre Royal, Manchester in August 1893, and it opened in London at the Trafalgar Square [Duke of York’s] Theatre in November 1893. In London, the complexity of the plot with three identical characters, confused audiences and when the play was sent on tour, Charles Hawtrey hit on the idea of adding an additional scene that showed the bogus twin applying his make-up.⁵ The play later formed the basis for the 1908 musical Three Twins.

Tom, Dick and Harry was performed for the first time in Australia at the Palace on 23 February 1901. The cast included Herbert Ross, O.P. Heggie and Philip Lytton as the eponymous Tom, Dick and Harry, with W.F. Hawtrey as Colonel Stanhope, and Roxy Barton and Ruby Ray as Molly [sic] Somers and Daisy Armitage. Also on the bill was the one-act play A Highland Legacy by Brandon Thomas (the author of Charley’s Aunt), with W.F. Hawtrey as Tammy Tamson MacDonnel. This Scots trifle, first performed in London in 1888, saw W.F. Hawtrey as a Scottish laird who disguises himself as an old Highland retainer in order to discover the character of an estranged nephew who stands to inherit a substantial fortune.

The double-bill played to packed houses at the Palace until the end of the season on 29 March 1901.

Poster for the American production of Why Smith Left Home, 1899

Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Actor George Willoughby, c.1904

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

The following evening saw the return of Charles Arnold with the comedy Why Smith Left Home. This piece, like What Happened to Jones, had been written by George Broadhurst. In England, the title role had been created by Maclyn Arbuckle at the Grand Theatre, Margate, 27 April 1899. Arbuckle would go on to star in the first London (Strand Theatre, 1 May 1899) and New York (Hoyt’s Theatre, 2 September 1899) productions.

First produced by Charles Arnold during his South African tour, Why Smith Left Homewas given its Australian premiere at the Palace Theatre on 30 March 1901. The farce concerned a newly married couple who decide to spend their honeymoon at home, but are unable to get any time together when their house is filled with noisy servants and visitors. The roles of Mr and Mrs Smith were played by George Willoughby and Agnes Knights, with Charles Arnold as Count von Guggenheim and Dot Frederic as Julia. Smith was played until 3 May 1901.

Entertainer and baritone G.H. Snazelle, c.1898. Photo by A.H. Fry, Brighton, England. From Snazelleparilla, 1898.

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

William Hawtrey’s famous brother, Charles Hawtrey, c.1899. Photo by Bassano, London.

Author’s collection

With the departure of Charles Arnold, there was a change of pace at the Palace.

On 4 May 1901, G.H. Snazelle presented Our Navy. This was not a play, but an illustrated lecture on the capabilities of the British Navy. Rather than simply a catalogue of achievements and a description of the Navy’s arsenal, Snazelle’s ‘lecture’ included anecdotes and songs delivered in his own inimitable way. The illustrations were provided in the form of a projected film made by G. West and Son of Southsea, which was made on board HMS Jupiter during manoeuvres. Snazelle was well known to Sydney audiences having toured Australia in the early 1890s, presenting his one-man show Music, Song and Story. The possessor of a fine baritone voice, during his first visit he also sang with the Royal Comic Opera Company, notably as Bouillabaisse in Paul Jones, alongside Nellie Stewart and Marion Burton.

Snazelle’s entertainment held the stage at the Palace for five weeks.

Poster for In the Soup, Richmond Theatre, London, 1901

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Playbill for In the Soup at the Palace Theatre, 1901

Author’s collection

On 27 May 1901, the Hawtrey Comedy Company returned to the Palace. A Message from Marsand Tom, Dick, and Harry were revived for the first four weeks of the season, and on 15 June 1901, they presented a new three-act farce, In the Soup by the late Ralph R. Lumley.

In the Soup concerned an impoverish junior barrister, Horace Gillibrand, who after marrying takes on an expensive London apartment. In order to maintain its upkeep and deceive a visiting uncle, the apartment is sub-let to a number of different tenants, the play culminating in an riotous dinner scene in which sleeping powder is added to the soup. Following a ‘tryout’ at the Opera House, Northampton in August 1900, a revised version of the farce was brought to London later the same month. Comedian James A. Welch (who would go on to score a huge hit in When Knights Were Bold) played one of the lead roles, supported by John Beauchamp, Audrey Ford and Maria Saker.

In Sydney, the role of the barrister was played by Herbert Ross, with W.F. Hawtrey as Monsieur Moppert, one of the tenants, Henry Stephenson as the peppery uncle, and Ruby Ray as Mrs Gillibrand. The farce, which had played for over a year in London, proved just as popular with Sydneysiders and played until the end of the season on 13 July 1901.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. Australian Star, 6 January 1900, p.3; Sydney Morning Herald, 2 May 1900, p.4

2. Evening Journal, 2 July 1900, p.3

3. A Message from Mars was performed at the Avenue Theatre, 22 November 1899 to 30 March 1901, transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre, 6 April 1901 to 20 April 1901, a total of 544 performances.

4. Sydney Morning Herald, 2 January 1901, p.14

5. Charles Hawtrey, pp.245-246

References

Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A chronicle of comedy and drama, 1869–1914, Oxford University Press, 1994

Guide to Selecting Plays, Samuel French, 1913

G.S. Edwards, Snazelleparilla, Chatto & Windus, 1898

Charles Hawtrey, The Truth at Last, Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1924

J.P. Wearing, The London Stage: A calendar of productions, performers, and personnel, 1890–1899, 2nd edn, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

Newspapers

The Arena (Melbourne); Australian Star (Sydney, NSW); Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA); Sydney Mail (NSW); Sydney Morning Herald (NSW)

With thanks to

John S. Clark, Judy Leech