Raymond Lawrence

Montage by Judy Leech. Image on front page: Oscar Asche in Kismetby Alick P.F. Ritchie. National Library of Australia, Canberra.

By the beginningof the twentieth century live theatre in Australia was at the height of its popularity and attendances at both ‘cultured’ and ‘popular’ theatre continued to expand. Both Sydney and Melbourne boasted several central city theatres as well as numerous vaudeville and variety halls. International theatre companies regularly performed in Australia and their principal stars added to the popularity of the productions.

World War I had an initial impact on theatre attendance, but numbers soon returned, perhaps as a distraction from the European conflict, and Australian audiences continued to enjoy a wide range of entertainment. More than 350 different plays were staged in Melbourne alone during the war years.¹

Newspapers, leading magazines and journals responded to their readers’ passion for the theatre and gave it considerable coverage with reviews and commentary and most had dedicated ‘theatre critics’ on the payroll. Increasingly, and of present interest, this theatre copy was punctuated with illustrations by a raft of ‘black and white’ artists who plied their craft to portray theatrical personnel, often in unflattering, humorous caricatures and cartoons.

While a few of the artists had more or less regular arrangements with the press, for most their input to the theatrical theme was intermittent and only one aspect of their freelance work in a highly competitive profession. Without question, these artists were fortunate to be working in a time when cartooning and caricatures came of age and their output was prolific.

No newspaper or magazine in Australia in the early 1900s did more to encourage black and white artists than the Bulletin. It employed some of the finest artists of the time, including Will Dyson, Harry Julius, Hal Gye, Jim Bancks, D.H. Souter, Tom Glover and Mervyn Skipper. The Bulletin was where many cartoonists made their start. However, the Bulletin was not alone in nurturing the growing number of freelance black and white artists; Smith’s Weekly, Lone Hand, Sydney Sportsman, Bookfellow, Gadfly, Clarion, and Critic were some of the publications that regularly printed cartoons and caricatures.

Unlike other sections of a newspaper or magazine where illustrations were usually editorially driven, it is probably fair to say that as these artists were adding pictorial comment to written theatrical reviews—usually an actor or a scene—many of these theatrical caricatures and cartoons were included without editorial direction; the ‘black and whiters’ enjoyed a large degree of artistic independence.

There are too many artists in the black and white school of cartoonists and caricaturists to do them all justice, as such the following represent this writer’s personal favourites.

Many would agree that Australia’s greatest caricaturist was the exceptionally gifted Will Dyson (1880–1938). Arguable, some of Dyson’s best work were the numerous theatrical caricatures he drew for the Bulletin around 1904–10 as the magazine’s theatre cartoonist.

Dyson was acclaimed for the penetrating force of his cartoons and caricatures and saw the pretentious theatre personnel as a target for his acerbic penmanship; although it was once said that while he did not often attack the ladies with his pointed crow quill, he did the ‘wicked deed’ now and again.²

A ‘wicked deed’ perhaps, was Dyson’s 1908 sketch of Lady Dunscombe (Nellie Mortyne) in Jim the Penmanat the Theatre Royal Melbourne, where the lady, a decorative titled visitor of some importance, is portrayed with a rather unflattering figure. More sensitive was Dyson’s portrayal of Arthur Greenaway as the hunched and doddery King Louis XI in the musical The Vagabond King, which was produced by J.C. Williamson Ltd. in spectacular style during 1928–1929.

Will Dyson: A rather unflattering portrait of Nellie Mortyne as Lady Dunscombe in Jim the Penman at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne

Bulletin (Sydney), 17 December 1908, p.9

Will Dyson: Arthur Greenaway as Louis XI in the musical The Vagabond King, 1928

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Other Dyson works include that of actor Julius Knight playing Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel, performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne—‘a hero whose tigerish nonchalance gives him the aspects of a drugged prig …’—a description which is perfectly captured by Dyson’s caricature.

Another notable caricature shows ‘Norman: The bold bad man of the Bland Holt Co.’ Albert Norman was a leading actor with the Bland Holt Co. for many years and was well known for playing sinister characters. In fact, one review described him thus: Norman ‘is such a villain as he has been many times before, and the sardonic smile of sin on his countenance is the same old smile’.³ Again, a description well captured by Dyson.

A rare survivor, the original artwork for Leave It to Jane, published in Table Talk, demonstrates the use of sepia wash to achieve the tonal contrasts in the published cartoon, and the application of white touch-up to conceal changes.

Will Dyson: ‘Julius Knight in The Scarlet Pimpernel’

Bulletin (Sydney), 5 November 1908, p.9

Will Dyson: ‘Norman: The bold bad man of the Bland Holt Co.’

Bulletin (Sydney), 19 December 1907, p.8

Will Dyson: Original artwork for Leave It to Jane which was published in Table Talk (Melbourne),
17 June 1926, p.27

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Harry Julius(1885–1938) was another fine caricaturist of the period as well as a most versatile artist—among many pursuits, he was a newspaper cartoonist, writer and illustrator, advertising executive and film animator. But it is his theatrical caricatures for which he is best known—stageland appealed to him as a splendid site for the caricaturist. Julius once remarked that for years he’d had opera glasses on actors with evil intent and it was melodrama and tragic grand opera, not placid modern plays, which moved him as a pictorial satirist.⁴

From around 1907, Julius consistently provided magazines, particularly the Bulletin, with humorous caricatures of performers from across the whole spectrum of the theatre from grand opera to vaudeville and pantomime; his output was prodigious. Julius had the skill of getting fine caricatures in a few lines with unmistakeable portraiture.⁵

There is a wonderful record of some 250 of Julius’ early theatrical caricatures (many of which had appeared in the Bulletin) of most of the prominent stars of the period presented in Theatrical Caricatures, published by the NSW Bookstall Co. in 1912. The book also includes stories on the theatre celebrities by Claude McKay. To view these pen and ink sketches in one collection gives an appreciation of how they would have ‘coloured’ the reviews of current and coming shows which the Bulletin ran in its ‘Sundry Shows’ pages.

One example of Julius’ caricatures includes Annette Kellerman in the glass tank from the Annette Kellerman Show at the Sydney Tivoli. Kellerman was an Australian long-distance swimmer, aquatic and vaudeville performer. Of her Tivoli show it was said: ‘the versatile mermaid has added submarine evolutions, toe dancing and wire walking to an endearing personality, and between them have captured the multitude.’⁶

Another cartoon that appears in the Bulletin illustrates a scene from the light musical comedy High Jinks, produced by J.C. Williamson at Her Majesty's in Sydney in 1915. The Bulletin review, on the same page as the cartoon, noted ‘the fair and willowy Gertrude Glyn as usual looms up in one or two gowns which stun the stalls... C.H. Workman one of the comedians puts up a good plainclothes performance’.

Harry Julius: ‘Annette Kellerman in the glass tank’

Bulletin (Sydney), 16 June 1921, p.42

Harry Julius: ‘High Jinks: Dance Chi-Chi (Gertrude Glyn) and the discoverer of the “High Jinks” perfume (C.H. Workman)’

Bulletin (Sydney), 11 February 1915, p.8

In another, John Coates the English tenor appears as Radames in Aida which played at Her Majesty’s, Sydney. In this caricature, Julius shows ‘John Coates going nobly to his doom, escorted by four stalwart Egyptians. Amneris (Edna Thornton) is grief-stricken’. Of Coates’ performance, the review said, it shows ‘what the portly Yorkshireman can do—when he chooses to exert himself’.⁷

Another cartoon shows a scene from Hamlet at the Sydney Criterion, where Hamlet (Walter Bentley) asks Horatio (W.S. Titheradge) and an inoffensive solder to swear an oath. According to the accompanying review, ‘Walter Bentley has a way of “beefing out” his lines on occasion that compels enthusiasm regardless of the exact meaning of the phrases beefed’.

Harry Julius: ‘Hamlet at the Sydney Cri: Hamlet (Walter Bentley) asks Horatio (W.S. Titheradge) and an inoffensive soldier to swear’

Bulletin (Sydney), 22 July 1909, p.8

Harry Julius: ‘Aida at Her Majesty’s, Sydney: John Coates going nobly to his doom, escorted by four stalwart Egyptians. Amneris (Edna Thornton) grief-stricken’

Bulletin (Sydney), 8 August 1912, p.10

Another prominent black and white artist whose caricatures regularly appeared in the Bulletin during this period was Jim Bancks(1889–1952). His work also featured in Melbourne Punch, Sydney Sun and Sunday Sun. Bancks fame was ensured in particular, with his comic ‘Us Fellows’ which evolved into Ginger Meggs.

Bancks works include Mr Pim Passes By at Sydney Criterion: Ashton Jarry as Mr Pim, ‘only just a passer-by’. Ashton Jarry first came to Australia in 1917 with Ada Reeve and since then performed in several Australian productions. One of his notable performances was as Mr Pim. Jarry also played Count Dracula in J.C. Williamson’s production of Dracula performed at the Sydney Theatre in June 1929.

Jim Bancks: ‘Mr Pim Passes By at Sydney Criterion: Ashton Jarry as Mr Pim, “only just a passer-by” ’

Bulletin (Sydney), 18 August 1921, p. 34

Jim Bancks: ‘Pianist Mischa Levitzki’

Bulletin (Sydney), 9 June 1921, p.14

Other notable caricatures include Mischa Levitzki, the Russian born American based concert pianist who at the Sydney Town Hall was described as ‘the young man with the strong forearms and rubber fingers’ (Bulletin, 9 June 1921), and Scandal at the Sydney Criterion (Bulletin, 26 May 1921) with Kenneth Brampton as Malcolm Fraser, the rejected lover and Maude Hannaford as the heroine, Beatrix Vanderdyke. Hannaford, described as a possessor of good looks, young and ambitious, had quickly become a star of the American stage with successful roles in Redemption and as the leading lady in The Jest.

Oh, Lady, Lady! was one of a number of sensational J. C. Williamson’s musical comedies of the 1920s. The leading lady, Dorothy Brunton was a hit as ‘Faintin’ Fanny a Peel-street pick-pocket; one review said, ‘The New Dot is as impish as the old one was coy and curly’. Her performance is complimented by an outstanding cast, including William Green as Hale Underwood, a man about town.

Jim Bancks: Two characters from the musical Oh, Lady, Lady! at the Theatre Royal, Sydney: William Green as Hale Underwood and Arthur Denton as the detective Cyril Townsley

Bulletin (Sydney), 8 September 1921, p.34 & 15 September 1921, p.36

Continuing with his depiction of stage actors, his 1921 portrait of George Gee in The Lilac Domino perfectly captures the gait of the rubber-legged dancer and comedian.

Of current ‘historical’ significance is Bancks’ cartoon ‘WHEN AT LAST SYDNEY THEATRE RESTRICTIONS ARE LIFTED: Montague Loveslush and his leading lady, Lulu De Vere, the stage’s smartest dressers, present themselves for re-employment’ (Bulletin, 15 May 1919).

This is Bancks’ take on the news on 15 May 1919 that Sydneysiders could go to the theatre again, with their masks off, after months of anti-influenza restrictions.

Jim Bancks: ‘The Lilac Domino at the Sydney Criterion: A goldfish movement by dancer George Gee’

Bulletin (Sydney), 7 April 1921, p.34

Jim Bancks: ‘WHEN AT LAST SYDNEY THEATRE RESTRICTIONS ARE LIFTED: Montague Loveslush and his leading lady, Lulu De Vere, the stage’s smartest dressers, present themselves for re-employment’

Bulletin (Sydney), 15 May 1919, p.36

Hal Gye (1888–1967) was another brilliant black and white artist, principally working in the Bulletin stable, who provided the magazine with theatrical and sporting caricatures and in 1910 replaced Will Dyson as the Bulletin’s theatre cartoonist. Gye drew for numerous other papers and magazines; caricatures of politicians for Melbourne Punch and sporting identities for the Judge, cartoons for the Australian Worker, Vanguard, Referee, Smith’s Weekly, Table Talk and the Sydney Arrow.

Examples of Gye’s Bulletin caricatures include Oscar Asche and Caleb Porter in Count Hannibal at the Melbourne Royal in 1910; the popular Scottish singer and entertainer Harry Lauder on the occasion of his first Australia tour; J.P. O’Neill in the melodrama No Mother to Guide Her at the Princess, 1913; and comedian W.S. Percy as the gaoler in Nightbirds, an adaptation of Die Fledermaus that played at Her Majesty’s in Melbourne during 1912.

Hal Gye: ‘Count Hannibal at Melbourne Royal: Caleb Porter as Father Pezelay [and] Oscar Asche as the Count’

Bulletin (Sydney), 27 January 1910, p.9

Hal Gye: ‘Harry Lauder, at Melbourne Princess’s’

Bulletin (Sydney), 7 May 1914, p.8

Hal Gye: ‘No Mother to Guide Her at Melbourne Princess’s: J.P. O’Neill as Bill Bunce, the bad’un (with a few of his hobbies)’

Bulletin (Sydney), 6 February 1913, p.11

Hal Gye: ‘Nightbirds at Her Majesty’s, Melbourne: W.S. Percy as the Black-Eyed Warder’

Bulletin (Sydney), 28 November 1912, p.10

Mervyn Skipper(1886–1958) became more prominent in the mid to late 1920s with his work often printed in the Bulletin and at one time he was the Melbourne cartoon correspondent for the magazine. Skipper left the Bulletin in 1933 to start his own magazine, the Pandemonium, which ran for 12 issues. Skipper later returned to the Bulletin as the art and drama critic and wrote extensively for Australian magazines including Lone Hand.

Some of his works include The Masquerader at Sydney Royal and The Truth About Blayds, a comedy by A.A. Milne at the Criterion.

Mervyn Skipper: ‘The Masquerader at Sydney Royal: Winnington Barnes as the faithful Brock, and Oliver Bainbridge as Bobby Blessington, a social hack’

Bulletin (Sydney), 10 September 1925, p.35

Mervyn Skipper: ‘The Truth About Blayds at the Sydney Criterion: Irene Vanbrugh and Janet Eccles return from burying a poet’

Bulletin (Sydney), 26 March 1925, p.35

D.H. Souter(1862–1935) had a 40-year association with the Bulletin, with his first cartoon appearing on 23 February 1895. His cartoons were fanciful and loosely described as ‘art nouveau’. Two examples from the Lone Hand magazine are shown below—‘Contralto Dramatique’ and ‘Prima Donna Assoluta.

D.H. Souter: ‘Contralto Dramatique’

Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 July 1907, p.257

D.H. Souter: ‘Prima Donna Assoluta’

Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 August 1907, p.412

Somewhat different in style was Souter’s cartoon announcing the musical comedy, Betty. The musical was produced by J.C. Williamson Ltd. and opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Sydney on 22 November 1924. Souter’s sketch shows Edith Drayson (Betty), Field Fisher (Duke of Crowborough), Alfred Frith (Lord Playne), Harold Pearce (Earl of Beverley), Reita Nugent (David Playne) and Harry Wotton (Hillier).

His skill as a black and white artist is also demonstrated by his portrait of Elsie Prince in her role of Judy in the Gershwin musical Lady Be Good, which opened at the St. James Theatre in Sydney on 30 July 1927. The original artwork is in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

D.H. Souter: ‘Elsie Prince as Judy in Lady Be Good’, 1927

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

D.H. Souter: ‘First Night Impressions (by DHS)’ of Bettyat Her Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney

Country Life Stock and Station Journal (Sydney), 28 November 1924, p.10

Souter, himself, was involved in the theatre and his operetta, The Grey Kimona was staged in Adelaide in 1907. He was also involved with Alfred Hill’s Sydney Repertory Theatre Society.

Tom Glover (1891–1938) was a New Zealand cartoonist who came to Australia in the 1920s and joined the Bulletin in 1922 where his cartoons and caricatures of personalities stamped him as a talented black and white artist.⁸ Prior to this he was cartoonist for the New Zealand Truth and also drew for the Free Lance under the name ‘Tom Ellis’. In around 1925, Glover joined the staff of the Associated Newspapers Ltd. and remained there until his sudden death in 1938.

A good example of his work is his portrait of the theatrical producer George A. Highland, drawn in 1925. Highland came to Australia in 1917 and worked with J.C. Williamson Ltd. He produced Maid of the Mountains in 1921 and many other productions.

Another portrait by Glover was of Tom Clare, the British music hall singer and pianist best known for singing humorous songs. Clare performed in a vaudeville show at the Melbourne Tivoli where it was said he ‘was better when he was less grandfatherly’.⁹

Tom Glover: Theatrical producer George A. Highland, 1925

National Portrait Gallery, Canberra

Tom Glover: ‘Tom Clare, who purveys songs from the piano’

Bulletin (Sydney), 26 March 1925, p.35

In 1925 he captured a good likeness of Allan Wilkie as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Wilkie and his wife, Frediswyde Hunter-Watts, arrived in Australia in 1914 and worked with Nellie Stewart’s and J.C. Williamson’s touring companies. In 1920, Wilkie established the Wilkie Shakespearean Company, which debuted at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre in September 1920 with Macbeth. The previous year, Glover captured a fine image of showman and cartoonist Bert Levy.

Tom Glover: ‘Twelfth Night at Melbourne Palace: Allan Malvolio Wilkie’

Bulletin (Sydney), 2 April 1925, p.35

Tom Glover: ‘Melbourne Tivoli: Bert Levy, artist, author, journalist, international vaudeville star and good Australian’

Bulletin (Sydney), 18 September 1924, p.35

Ambrose Dyson(1876–1913), another of the artistically talented Dyson family, was essentially a political cartoonist, but occasionally dabbled in theatrical cartoons.

In his cartoon ‘The Tempter’, Dyson combined political and theatrical commentary with a pointed reference on Ada Ward, a former actress who had returned to Australia after ‘finding God’. Ada Ward first performed in Melbourne in 1877 with some success, but after many years performing in London she sensationally left the stage in 1897 to train as a preacher. Ward returned to Australia in 1907 as an evangelist and addressed an audience at the Melbourne Wesley Church on ‘Can an Actress be a Christian’, where she denounced the immorality of the theatre and its ruination of young women.

True to the theatrical theme, another of Dyson’s cartoon was a New Year’s card for 1905 to his theatrical friend the actor manager Bland Holt.

Ambrose Dyson: ‘THE TEMPTER. Miss Ada Ward claims that the actress cannot be a Christian because of the terrible temptations that constantly assail her—AGE.
Dyson’s retort: True, every man in the world will admit that the pretty actress has to encounter fascinations and allurements of which her humdrum stay-at-home sisters can know nothing.’

Bulletin (Sydney), 9 May 1907, p.18.

Ambrose Dyson: New Year’s card to actor-manager Bland Holt, who is depicted tickling the ‘grim old world’ with his cane. Dated 1905.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

One of the lesser known Australian black and white cartoonists of the early 1900s is George Dunstan (1876–1946) who drew under the pen name ‘Zif’. Besides the general run of publications, Zif also contributed cartoons to the Sydney Sportsman and the Australian Worker and was chief cartoonist for the International Socialist Magazine. As one of his many attributes, Zif also took to the stage, regularly performing across Australia as a lightning sketch artist, often billed as ‘Chats in Charcoal’.

Illustrative of his style, Zif created a series of cartoons on ‘Suburban Drama’ for the Bulletin in September 1909. One was captioned, ‘East Lynne in the Suburbs’.

George Dunstan (Zif): ‘East Lynne in the Suburbs: Barbara Hare: “Alas! Alas! Why did he pass me over for a baby-faced chit like that?”.’

Bulletin (Sydney), 9 September 1909, p.10

Harry Julius: ‘Zif: The well-known cartoonist, now appearing at the Melrose Theatre. He is the greatest “drawing” card in Australia’

Truth (Perth), 22 March 1913, p.11

Around 1910, Zif produced a series of coloured postcards for the New South Wales Bookstall Co., in their ‘Art Series’. One set of six cards, ‘Theatrical Travesties’ embodied caricatures of ‘theatre types’, a style which typified his work.

George Dunstan (Zif): ‘Theatrical Travesties: The Scalem Dramatic Coy.
LANDLORD: “I want your board money in advance.”
MANAGER: Have you no heart for these poor orphans?”
LANDLORD: Yes, I have a heart, but it takes cash in advance to touch it.”’

Courtesy of Gary Davies

George Dunstan (Zif): ‘Theatrical Travesties: Scene from East Lynne. Owing to circumstances the parts of “Little Willie” and “Francis Levison” had to be doubled.
LITTLE WILLIE: “Why do you cry Madame Vine. I’m not your Little Willie!”’

Courtesy of Gary Davies

Mick Paul(1888–1945), a Sydney cartoonist of the early twentieth century, contributed to the Bulletin, Lone Hand, Comic Australia, Lilley’s Magazine (cover designs) and the Australian Worker. Paul was well-known for his bohemian lifestyle, his socialist views and anti-conscription cartoons and was a foundation member of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists.

Paul’s cartoon, ‘TOO HOT’, offered a social comment on the influenza which devastated Australia around 1919, while ‘NATURALLY’ presents a feminist view on the prevailing gender imbalance in theatre life.

Mick Paul: TOO HOT—The Manager: “This influenza scare doesn’t seem to have made much difference to us—house full every night.” The Star: “No influenza germ could come within a mile of this show – they hate warmth.”

Bulletin (Sydney), 19 December 1918, p.30

Mick Paul: NATURALLY—Flo: “That beast of a stage manager has complained again about us talking on the stage. He wouldn’t do that if we were men.”

Bulletin (Sydney), 7 November 1918, p.30

Bert Levy(1871–1934) described as a clever black and white artist and showman, began his working life as an apprentice scenic artist at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. A prolific creator, Levy was published in Melbourne Punch, the Mirror, Table Talk, drew cartoons and theatrical caricatures for the Bulletin, was the dramatic critic for the Bendigo Adventurer and cartoonist for the Age, Leader magazine. Levy travelled to America in the early 1900s where he worked for Weber and Fields Music Hall, then the Morning Telegraph while running vaudeville shows in New York.¹⁰

Examples of his work include ‘In a Vaudeville Green Room’, a cartoon which shows several performers waiting in a dedicated space—‘the green room’ before going on stage. Another is of Hugh Ward in The Emerald Isle. Ward was a major figure in Australian theatre as an actor and entrepreneur. He was one time managing director of J.C. Williamson Ltd. and after resigning from that position, formed Hugh J. Ward Theatres Ltd. in partnership with the Fuller brothers.

Bert Levy: ‘In a Vaudeville Green Room’

Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 February 1912, p.299

Bert Levy: ‘Hugh Ward in The Emerald Isle’

Bulletin (Sydney), 28 March 1903 p. 10

Bert Levy: Self-portrait, 1906: ‘As Bert Levy sees himself from the New York Morning Telegraph’

J. Willis Sayre Photograph Collection, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, USA

By the 1920s, Smith’s Weekly had become the premiere source of cartoons in Australia and unlike other publications their cartoonists were on the pay role, not freelancers. To emphasise this and introduce their staff to the public, the magazine often presented cartoons as composite drawings where all artists contributed; the cartoonists and their characters appeared side by side.¹¹

A variation of the composite cartoon can be seen in the work of, Syd Miller(1901–1983), who joined Smith’s Weekly in 1919 and worked there for some 22 years as a cartoonist and film and stage reviewer.

Miller’s illustrations of ‘Sally in Our Majesty’s’ and ‘Six People Who Make The Flaw’ are examples of his style.

Syd Miller: ‘Sally in Our Majesty’s’, with (from left to right) Hugh Steyne, Gracie Laver, George Gee, Josie Melville (out of and in the kitchen), George Baker, George Lane

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney), 27 January 1923, p.12

Syd Miller: ‘Six People Who Make The Flaw—Mayne Lynton, Frank Harvey, Sheila Helpman, Emelie Pollini, Raymond Lawrence, Nancye Stewart’

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney), 10 February 1923, p. 12

Lance Driffield(1898–1943) was a newspaper and magazine cartoonist and illustrator during the 1920s and 30s, drawing under the pen name ‘Driff’. Driffield started his career as a process engraver and went on to work for the Sunday Times, Truth and Smith’s Weekly.

Typical of his work is the cartoon of Mother Goose which stared Roy Rene and Nat Phillips (‘Stiffy and Mo’), two of the most significant comedians of the period.

Lance Driffield: ‘Mother Goose at the Sydney Hippodrome: Stiffy and Mo try to discover what the Dame would like for supper’

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney), 13 January 1923, p.12

Ray Whiting: ‘Windsor, Edgar and Kellaway, three bright Musical Fellows at the Tivoli Circuit’

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney), 5 April 1924, p.12

Ray Whiting (1898–1975) contributed cartoons to Smith’s Weekly, Table Talk and the Bulletin in the 1920s and 30s and later sketched for the AIF ‘News’ when serving with the 9th Division Camouflage Training Unit in the Middle East during WW2. Arthur Streeton once said his cartoons display a fine decorative sense, good drawing and imagination. ‘Some of the works are weirdly grotesque, and yet they are wickedly like the objects caricatured.’¹²

These qualities are evident in his portrayal of Windsor, Edgar and Kellaway, a brilliant musical trio from the London Hippodrome, and Joe Brennan, Charles Heslop and particularly Oliver Peacock from Mother Goose. Peacock is an interesting figure. He had a long association with the Australian musical stage, playing support roles to Florence Young, Carrie Moore and Dorothy Brunton. Notably, in 1922, he was understudy to Oscar Asche when Asche took Cairo and Chu Chin Chow to New Zealand.

Ray Whiting: ‘Joe Brennan (Mother Goose) and Charles Heslop (Fitzrabbit) in Hugh Ward’s panto, Melbourne Palace’

Smith’s Weekly, 26 January 1924, p.12

Ray Whiting: ‘Mother Goose’s offsider at the Melbourne Palace—Oliver Peacock as Squire Hardflint’

Smith’s Weekly, 26 January 1924, p.12

Alec Sass (Sass) (c.1870–1922) drew for Melbourne Punch and its humorous page between 1896-1912, where he introduced the Sass girl, Sass policeman and Sass johnnie. After working at the New York Journal, Sass joined Smith’s Weekly in around 1921 as an artist and art editor. As art editor he was responsible for teaching staff artists to draw for reproduction on newsprint. Like other Smith’s artists, Sass also drew composite cartoons, a style which is well-illustrated in his cartoon ‘Fooling Around at Fuller’s Panto on a Hot Night’. Another portrait shows an exceedingly stout Oscar Asche in Cairo, which was playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Sydney.

Alec Sass: ‘Fooling Around at Fuller’s Panto on a Hot Night’

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney), 7 January 1922, p.10

Alec Sass: ‘Cairo: If Oscar gets any stouter we hope he gets transparent’

Smith’s Weekly (Sydney), 23 September 1922, p.12

Will Donald(1883–1959) was a pioneering cartoonist of the period who contributed to mainstream and socialist newspapers and magazines, including the Bulletin, Quit, Gadfly and the Critic. Donald was one of Australia’s early comic artists.

Examples of his work include a caricature of the Late F.H. Pollock, Lessee Theatre Royal Adelaide. Pollock was an actor and theatre entrepreneur. He acquired the lease of the Royal in 1900 from Wybert Reeve (English actor and impresario) but, following illness, Pollock appointed a manager in his stead. Pollock died in 1908. Interestingly, George Coppin was the first lessee of the theatre.

Another of Donald’s caricatures, published in the Sydney Sun during 1910, depicts Julius Knight and Reynolds Denniston in the romantic drama Henry of Navarre, set in seventeenth century Europe.

His signature profile style is also evident in his caricatures of Victor Loydall and Rupert Darrell in the pantomime Jack and Jill from the Sydney Sun; while his portraits of Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton in The Taming of the Shrew are rare pieces of original artwork.

Will Donald: A caricature of ‘The Late F.H. Pollock, Lessee Theatre Royal Adelaide’

Bulletin (Sydney), 19 November 1908, p.18

Will Donald: ‘Julius Knight as Henry of Navarre and Reynolds Denniston as his faithful watch dog’

Star(Sydney), 13 June 1910, p.7

Will Donald: ‘Victor Loydall as Perks’ and ‘Rupert Darrell as Baron Bounce’ in the pantomime Jack and Jillat the Theatre Royal in Sydney

Star (Sydney), 27 September 1909, p.2

Will Donald: ‘Oscar Asche as Petruchio’ and ‘Lily Brayton “Tamed”’ Drawn during Oscar Asche’s 1909 Sydney Shakespeare season at the Criterion.

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Tasmanian-born Alf Vincent(1874–1915) joined Melbourne Punch in 1895 and a year later he succeeded Tom Carrington as feature artist for the magazine. Vincent joined the Bulletin in 1898 and drew for the magazine until his death in 1915. His style of work was similar to that of Phil May (his mentor) for which he was often criticised by his contemporaries.

Outside the usual run of newspaper and magazine caricatures, Vincent did a fine piece of work in a theatrical souvenir, a pamphlet consisting of twelve sketches (some in colour) of performers in J.C. Williamson’s Comic Opera Co. production of San Toy which premiered on 21 December 1901 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. On the occasion of the fiftieth performance of the show on 8 February 1902, a portfolio of sketches was handed out to every lady visitor.

Alf Vincent: Carrie Moore in the title role of San Toy—“I’m not a littee Boy—I’m a Littee Girl.’ From San Toy: Sketches by Alf Vincent.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.

Alf Vincent: Grace Palotta as ‘Dudley’. From San Toy: Sketches by Alf Vincent.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Alf Vincent: ‘Poppy gives Fo Hop a piece of her mind.’ From San Toy: Sketches by Alf Vincent.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Donald MacDonald (Pas)(1862–1945) was one of the finest caricaturists of the early 20th century to freelance his work to several magazines and newspapers in Australia and New Zealand. The scope of his work was not restricted to a particular theme, but he was particularly noted for his caricatures of theatre personnel.

For Sydney Sportsman he contributed studies of well-known theatrical personalities Bland Holt and Julius Grant. Actor-manager Bland Holt, nicknamed the ‘King of Melodrama’, was known for his elaborate stagings of Drury Lane melodramas which he produced at the Lyceum Theatre in Sydney and Theatre Royal in Melbourne. Julius Grant established theatrical enterprises with Bert Bailey and was lessee of King’s Theatre for 15 years. He produced several shows including the record breaking On Our Selection. He also introduced Melbourne audiences to stars such as Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton.

In response to the composer and music teacher Signor Roberto Hazon receiving an address and testimonial from His Excellency the Governor on the occasion of his farewell performance in Sydney, Pas provided a likeness for Sydney Sportsman.

During the 1920s, for Everyone’s, he contributed a sketch of Miss Aylet, ‘Australia’s only trap drummer’ who was performing at Sydney’s Crystal Palace.

Donald MacDonald (Pas): Signor Hazon on the occasion of his farewell to Sydney

Sydney Sportsman, 25 September 1907, p.2

Donald MacDonald (Pas): ‘Julius Grant (Business Manager, Criterion Theatre)’

Sydney Sportsman, 4 December 1907, p.2

Donald MacDonald (Pas): ‘Bland Holt etcetera’, drawn while Holt was performing in the melodrama Women and Wine at the Theatre Royal

Sydney Sportsman,15 March 1905, p.2

Donald MacDonald (Pas): ‘Miss Aylet, Australia’s only trap drummer at the Crystal Palace, Sydney’

Everyone’s (Sydney), 16 July 1924, p.18

Tom Ferry (1891–1954) started his working life as an apprentice with John Sands Ltd. doing lithographic work and before qualifying, he was seconded to work for the Sun newspaper for two years, eventually joining Union Theatres Ltd., drawing and designing posters, advertisements and lobby cards. In the early 1920s Ferry had a casual arrangement with the Sydney Sunday Times to provide weekly cartoons and by 1925 he was the official artist to Fox Films in Sydney.¹³

Examples of his work that appeared in the Sunday Times includes the actors Cyril Gardiner, Frederick Lloyd, Frank Hatherley and Claude Dampier. A drawing he did of visiting English actor Seymour Hicks as Mr William Busby (Old Bill) in the play Old Bill, MP, was published on the programme cover.

Tom Ferry: Frederick Lloyd as Alf in The Man in Dress Clothesat the Sydney Opera House

Sunday Times(Sydney), 29 June 1924, p.24

Tom Ferry: Claude Dampier. who was appearing in revue at Fullers’ Theatre in Sydney

Sunday Times(Sydney), 13 July 1924, p.20

Tom Ferry: Cyril Gardiner in Old Bill, MP

Sunday Times(Sydney), 6 July 1924, p.22

Tom Ferry: Cover of the programme for Old Bill, MP at the Palace Theatre, Melbourne, 20 September 1924, with Seymour Hicks as the title character

Elisabeth Kumm collection

Brodie Mack (1897–1965) combined his cartooning skills with his role as a theatrical business manager. A New Zealander, he initially worked for the Wellington Freelance as a cartoonist before becoming a theatre executive with positions as House Manager for Fullers at His Majesty’s Theatre in Wellington and then with Fullers Opera House in Auckland. Mack later moved to Sydney as Booking Manager for Fullers Vaudeville and Theatre Ltd. He was a founding member of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists in 1924 and did cartoons for Everyone’s, Fuller News, the Bulletin, Aussie, Smith’s Weekly and others.

Examples of his work from Everyone’s included Lee White, ‘the cheerful star of The Girl for the Boy’ at the Sydney Tivoli; and ‘Carter the Great’ (stage name of the American illusionist Charles Carter), who thrilled audiences with his disappearing lion act.

During 1924/24 Mack drew a series of 16 caricatures for Everyone’s titled ‘If Managers Were Artists’. Number 5 in the series depicts JCW theatre manager Tom Holt.

Brodie Mack: Lee White, the cheerful star of The Girl for the Boy, Tivoli Theatre, Sydney

Everyone’s (Sydney), 8 December 1920, p. 10

Brodie Mack: ‘CARTER (not forgetting his lion): The Magic Man at the Sydney Royal’

Everyone’s (Sydney), 16 June 1920, p.11

Brodie Mack: ‘If Managers Were Artists. No.5.’: Tommy Holt, Manager of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne (J.C. Williamson Vaudeville), ‘one of the Leaders of the Tait Navee’

Everyone’s (Sydney), 3 September 1924, p.5

From the early 1900s to the late 1920s the profession of black and white artists was predominantly a male profession, and few women artists were actively involved. There were, however, a number of fine women artists well recognised for their black and white cartoons and caricatures, including Mahdi McCrae, Esther and Betty Paterson, Grace Burns and Ruby Lindsay who were regular but casual contributors to various publications. Later, Joan Morrison and Mollie Horseman were the first women to be employed on the pay roll of Smith’s Weekly.

Typically, the work of these artists, while stylish and amusing, was placed away from the theatrical section of the magazines and appeared randomly throughout, usually as page filler ‘gag’ cartoons or to illustrate ‘women’ stories.

An exception to how the cartoons of women were typically treated was the work of Esther Paterson(1892–1971) who was a student at the National Gallery of Victoria from 1907–1912. A talented artist of street scenes and landscapes, Paterson later applied her skill to commercial art, book illustrating and caricatures/cartoons. Her theatrical caricatures were regularly featured in the Melbourne Punch pre first World War and were prominently featured on the ‘Playgoer’ pages. Her caricatures often featured female performers and her artistic style of her caricatures is markedly different to that of her male contemporaries—her women are more feminine and sensual.

Esther Paterson: Miss Zola Terrill and Ada Reeve

Punch (Melbourne), 7 February 1918, p.37 & 31 January 1918, p.195

Esther Paterson: Maude Fane and Miss Frediswyde Hunter-Watts

Punch (Melbourne), 6 September 1917, p.595 & 12 April 1917, p.595

To be concluded in the next issue.

Endnotes

1. See Elisabeth Kumm, ‘Theatre in Melbourne 1914-18: the best, the brightest and the latest’, La Trobe Journal, No. 97, March 2016

2. Punch (Melbourne), 27 May 1909, p.730.

3. ‘A Life’s Romance’, Bulletin (Sydney), 25 August 1904, p.10.

4. See The Bookfellow (Sydney), 1 July 1913, p.xvii.

5. Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 August 1912, p. 352.

6. Bulletin (Sydney), 16 June 1921, p.42.

7. Bulletin, 1 August 1912, p.10.

8. Argus (Melbourne), 8 September 1938, p.9.

9. Bulletin (Sydney), 26 March 1925, p. 35.

10. See Bert Levy, ‘Bert Levy (by Himself)’, Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 February 1912.

11. Joan Kerr, Artists and Cartoonist in Black and White: The most public art.

12. Argus (Melbourne), 7 August 1934, p.5.

13. See ‘Knights of the Pencil and Brush, No. 3: Tom Ferry’, Everyone’s, 29 April 1925, p.30.

References

‘Black and Whiters IV: Alfred Vincent’, The Bookfellow (Sydney), 1 January 1913, pp. 20–21.

‘Black and Whiters VII: Harry Julius’, The Bookfellow (Sydney), 1 July 1913, p. xvii-xix.

David M. Dow, Melbourne Savages: A history of the first fifty years of the Melbourne Savage Club, Melbourne Savage Club, Melbourne, 1947.

W.E. Fitz Henry, ‘Stories of “Bulletin” Artists’, Bulletin (Sydney), 14 December 1955, pp. 26–28, 32.

Harry Julius, Theatrical Caricatures, with Marginal Anecdotes by Claude McKay, NSW Bookstall Co. Ltd., 1912.

Joan Kerr, Artists and Cartoonist in Black and White: The most public art, National Trust of Australia, Sydney, c.1999.

‘Knights of the Pencil and Brush, No. 3: Tom Ferry’, Everyone’s, 29 April 1925, p.30.

Elisabeth Kumm, ‘Theatre in Melbourne 1914–18: the best, the brightest and the latest’, La Trobe Journal, No. 97, March 2016, pp.6–23, www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-97-Elisabeth-Kumm.pdf

Bert Levy, ‘Bert Levy (by Himself)’, Lone Hand (Sydney), Vol. 10, No. 58, 1 February 1912, pp. 293–300.

Ross McMullin, Will Dyson: Australia’s radical genius, Scribe, North Carlton, Vic, 2006.

Carol Mills, ‘In Black and White: The little-known Lindsay: Ruby Lindsay’, This Australia, Winter 1984, pp.80-85, available from Women’s Museum of Australia, wmoa.com.au/uploads/the-little-known-Lindsay.pdf

Les Tanner, ‘The Black and White Maestros’, Bulletin (Sydney), 29 January 1980, pp.134–142.

M.G. Skipper, ‘The Art of the Bulletin’, Bulletin (Sydney), 29 January 1930, pp.40–42.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Elisabeth Kumm for her advice and comments.

On 9 January 1920, Sara Allgood made her final appearance in Australia, when the curtain closed on Peg o’ My Heart—undoubtedly one of the most popular plays of recent times—and the audience rose to their feet to say farewell to their beloved Peg and the actress who had so vividly brought her to life. A week later, after eight tumultuous years in the antipodes, Sara was on her way home to the UK. Her subsequent visits to Australia would be via the movies as by 1940 she had settled in Hollywood becoming a popular character actress in films such as How Green Was My Valley.

The following night, Emelie Polini presented the first new play for the year—The Little Damozel—for the first time in Australia. This was Polini’s fourth (and final) season at the Palace, her earlier appearances introducing the plays De Luxe Annie, The Invisible Foe and Eyes of Youth. In July 1919, at the coercion of the Taits, she postponed her planned departure for America to undertake her first visit to Brisbane and a tour of New Zealand.

The Sun, 10 January 1920, p.8

Described as a comedy in three acts, The Little Damozel told the story of a young girl who works as a musician in a seedy café. She attracts the attention of a wealthy rake, Neil Partington, who writes many intimate letters to her and proposes marriage. When a ‘better offer’ comes along, he calls off the engagement, but fearing the letters may find their way to his new paramour, he promises Recklaw Poole, a gentleman turned turf adventurer, £15,000 if he will marry Julie and secure the letters. Recklaw woos and wins Julie and for a time the two are very happy, but when she learns the truth of her husband’s duplicity, she seeks to be rid of him and returns to the café where she is welcomed back by her old friends. But despite his behaviour, she loves her husband and the play ends happily with a reconciliation.

This play by Monckton Hoffe—his first full-length piece—was ten years old, having enjoyed successful seasons in both London and New York during 1909 and 1910. In London, May Blayney and Charles Hawtrey premiered the comedy at Wyndham’s and then the Prince of Wales Theatre where it played for a total of five months. The play apparently became known as ‘The King’s Favourite’ on account of it receiving several Command Performances at the request of the late King. In America, the lead roles of Julie Alardy and Recklaw Poole were acted by May Buckley and Australian actor Cyril Keightley. Following a Washington opening, the play transferred to Broadway, where it played for a month at the Comedy Theatre, relocating to the Nazimova’s 39th Street Theatre for four additional weeks.

Emelie Polini was not unfamiliar with the role of Julie, having played it on tour in England during 1910 with Mark Blow’s company. Now, supported by a cast of old favourites including Gerald Kay Souper, John Fernside, John de Lacey and Marie Ney, she was joined by newcomers Cecil Brooking and W.J. Coulter. The play was directed by Gregan McMahon.

A scene from The Little Damozel: Gerald Kay Souper, W.J. Coulter, Cecil Brooking, Raymond Lawrence, John Fernside, Emelie Polini, and Norman Pearce. From The Theatre, 1 April 1920.

The first Australian production of The Little Damozel received mixed reviews, but as the Sunday Times (11 January 1920, p.2) noted: ‘Opinions may differ on the Little Damozel presented for the first time at the Palace Theatre last night, but there could be no difference of opinion about Miss Emelie Polini’s acting in the title role. Likewise, The Sydney Morning Herald (12 January 1920, p.5) was impressed by Emelie Polini’s performance, but found the play ‘quite simple, rather obvious, and somewhat thin’.

Miss Polini is particularly well cast in the piece. Indeed, the success of the performance is due in great measure to her brightness and resource. The little damozel she is called on to portray has the mercurial temperament in most ample measure. The characterisation would fail were the touch not light, the transitions of mood other than swift as impulse. Miss Polini brings to the part just that quality of impetuousness—of waywardness tinged with artfulness—in which she has displayed so much skill before.

The World’s News (24 January 1920, p.5) wanted the play to succeed:

Emelie Polini has again captured the hearts of Sydney playgoers, this time, thank goodness, with something English. As the actress herself is English, it is only fitting that she should score a big success in the first typically English comedy drama to be produced here for many moons.

The Little Damozel played for nine weeks, closing on 12 March, with the Sydney Morning Herald (28 February 1920, p.14) observing, ‘The unusually good run is due to the charm of the play, and the capable acting of Emelie Polini, G. Kay Souper, Victor Fitzherbert, and Cecil Brooking’.

National Library of Australia, Canberra

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Emelie Polini’s next offering, which opened on 13 March, was Kindling, a three-act comedy drama by Charles Kenyon, a journalist on the San Francisco Examiner. More drama than comedy, the play, set in the home of the Shultz family in a New York tenement, is ‘a sympathetic study of the emotions of the desperate poor’. First performed on Broadway at Daly’s Theatre, it opened, ‘unheralded by any advertising in advance’, on 3 December 1911, with Margaret Illington as Maggie Schultz, and although it was withdrawn after a month, it attracted a band of supporters who considered it an ‘admirable work of art’ and ‘important as a social document’. The play subsequently took to the road and was performed for fifty weeks.¹

Despite the subject matter, the drama was warmly received at its Sydney opening. A week into the season, it was reported that the Taits had received ‘many letters of appreciation’.²

In addition to Emelie Polini, supporting roles were played by Gerald Kay Souper, John de Lacey, Cecil Brooking, Olive Wilton and Marie Ney, with Maggie Moore and Harry Roberts specially engaged to strengthen the ensemble.

As Maggie Shules (changed from Shultz), Emelie Polini vividly portrayed the struggles of a young mother, who when her husband loses his job, is forced into a life of crime for the sake of her child. As the Sydney Morning Herald (15 March 1920, p.5) observed, she played the role with ‘infinite skill and with that rare insight into the human emotions which stamp the true artist’. Of the supporting cast, the same paper noted: ‘The docker is drawn with absolute fidelity by Harry Roberts [giving] him an opportunity to show once again that he has lost none of those gifts which in earlier plays brough hm right into the forefront’, while Maggie Moore, in the play’s only comic role, showed she ‘has no equal on the Australian stage in her particular line’. Overall, the Herald concluded, Kindling ‘is a play far above the average merit, a play of the people, with many appealing touches that strike home’.

During Easter holidays, 3-10 April, The Little Damozel was revived for five matinee performances, with Kindling continuing to fill the evening slot, enabling country visitors and others to appreciate Emelie Polini’s versatility, ‘as the Bohemian Julie and the steadfast, serious labourer’s wife’.³

With the Polini season concluding on 22 April, Kindling was withdrawn to make way for a brief revival of Eyes of Youth (15-22 April), with Maggie Moore stepping into the role of Joan.

Barry Lupino as Mother Hubbard

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Elsie Parkes

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

From Saturday 24 April, the theatre was transformed into a colourful and music-filled wonderland of ‘mirth, melody, and beauty’, with the Sydney premiere of Mother Hubbard, J&N Tait and Baily and Grant’s spectacular Christmas pantomime, ‘direct from a fourteen-weeks’ record-breaking season in Melbourne, and a two-weeks’ capacity business in Adelaide’.⁴

With book and lyrics by Leonard F. Durrell, music by Robert Keers, and directed by Barry Lupino, it saw the return of many old favourites who had contributed to the success of the previous year’s Jack and Jill. Once again Barry Lupino was the Dame, with William A. Hassan in the ‘skin’ role of Billy the Dog, supported by Jack Cannot as Mr Hubbard, and Dan Morris as the Hubbards’ son Fauntleroy. The pantomime boasted two principal boys, Marjorie Carlisle (Captain Jack Merryweather) and Dorothy Leigh (Harry Wildair), with Miss Wensley Russell as Dorothy, the principal girl, and Ethel Walker as the Fairy Queen. Specialty dances were provided by Elsie Parkes, Daisy Yates and Kelso Henderson, and additional songs by Gertie Latchford and Colin Crane.

Playing to capacity houses for seven weeks, it didn’t eclipse the Melbourne run but with Brisbane, Newcastle and New Zealand yet to visit, Mother Hubbard was withdrawn at the height of its success.

The Theatre, 1 July 1920

Marie Ilka, who followed on 19 June, made her first Sydney appearance in the thrilling three-act drama Tiger Rose by Willard Mack, having already enjoyed sell-out seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Launceston. Supported by a ‘band of talented American actors’ including Ethan Allen, John Waller, Louise Waller, Reginald Goode, Douglass Ross and C. Henry Gordon, the new actress was hailed for the passionate strength of her emotional acting and her great beauty.

When Tiger Rose opened on Broadway in October 1917, the title role was performed by Lenore Ulric, with William Courtleigh, Willard Mack and Edward Mack in supporting roles. Produced under the direction of David Belasco, the drama, which featured numerous realistic scenic effects, including a violet rainstorm, proved a sensation, running for just on a year at the Lyceum Theatre.

Set against the backdrop of Canada’s rugged north-western frontier, the play is a story of a hot-blooded half-bred Indian girl who goes to extraordinary lengths to shield her lover from the police after he shoots a man dead in self-defence.

On her first appearance, The Sydney Morning Herald (21 June 1920, p.6) reported:

The action introduced Marie Ilka as the heroine, a role she fills “au pied de la lettre”—petite and trim of figure, her dark face with its flashing eyes and aquiline nose full of expression, her art a happy commingling of vivacious comedy and dramatic intensity. Marie Ilka, though clever, is not a great actress, but she is playing a star-part which might have been written for her, and will become a favourite here.

Of the highly anticipated special effects, the Sunday Times (20 June 1920, p.2), painted a vivid picture:

The stage illusion is so good that it carries the audience far away, and Pitt-street comes as a strange country after the last curtain falls. The thunder-storm is reality itself. The window curtains flap, the thunder rolls, the lightening flashes until the eyes ache, and, beyond everything else, the deafening rain rattles and patters and pours down.

A subsequent article in The World’s News (26 June 1920, p.5) provided a behind the scenes look at how the storm was created by a ‘corps of supernumaries’.

The whistling of the wind is produced by silk stretched on wooden drums, and scraped by wooded cogs, two “supers” being employed to turn the handles which bring about this result. Electric torches operated from the wings supply lightning, and four electric fans, placed in suitable positions, cause the agitation of the curtains. The rain comes from an overhead main placed in the flies, the water pattering upon a large sheet of canvas and escaping through pipes into a tank below the stage … Each burst of thunder is numbered and described, the parts reading: “No. 1 Rumble”, “No. 2 Crash”, and so forth. Cues are given by means of colored electric lights, operated by the stage manager, who stands beside the switchboard.

Tiger Rose held the stage until 30 July, and for the final week of the season The Heart of Wetona was introduced for the first time in Australia. Written by George Scarborough and first performed in New York in 1916 with Lenore Ulric in the lead, this play also has an impetuous half-bred Indian girl as the heroine, but unlike the previous play, Wetona falls in love with a cad. And it is through the devotion of an Indian agent, John Hardin, that she slowly comprehends the truth of the situation. As the Sydney Morning Herald (2 August 1920, p.5) observed:

Marie Ilka emphasised the capricious nature of the Redskin princess in the intensity with which her love turned suddenly to hate; and the comedy passages with the “papoose cat” happily illustrated the extreme youth of a vivacious girl.

The play was enriched by the ‘manly impersonation’ of Ethan Allen as Hardin, and the welcome addition of George Bryant, whose powerful voice and statue made the role of Quannah as success.

National Library of Australia, Canberra

With the departure of Marie Ilka and her company for Brisbane, the next attraction at the Palace was Tilly of Bloomsbury, a J.C. Williamson Ltd production, which was being transferred from the Criterion Theatre. A comedy in three acts by Ian Hay, this play had opened at the Criterion on 24 July, following successful seasons in Melbourne and Brisbane. The play introduced a new actress, Dorothy Manville, in the title role, alongside many old favourites including Arthur Styan, J.B. Atholwood, Florence Brough (recently returned from London), Emma Temple, Meta Pelham and Dorothy Seacombe.

With this change, it seems Williamsons and the Taits were undertaking something of a ‘swap’, whereby Tilly was moving into a more appropriate intimate theatre, with the Taits’ new musical Irene to occupy the larger theatre.

Tilly of Bloomsbury was withdrawn on 3 September and the following evening the same cast appeared in a new play, The Blindness of Virtue, for the first time in Sydney. Written by Cosmo Hamilton, this comedy-drama in three acts featured Dorothy Manville as Effie Pemberton, with Frank Freeman as Archibald Granham and Florence Brough as Mrs Pemberton.

On 25 September, J&N Tait presented the ‘intriguing spy drama’ The Luck of the Navy by Mrs Clifford Mills for the first time in Sydney. This was one of the few English plays that impressed E.J. Tait when he was in England and America during 1919 seeking new attractions for Australia. The hero of the piece, Lieutenant Clive Stanton, VC, RN, was played in London by Percy Hutchison. At the Queen’s Theatre, this stirring patriotic naval drama ran for almost two years and gave the Admiralty a huge boost by shining some light into the secret missions undertaken during wartime. Looking resplendent in his navy blue and gold buttons, Frank Harvey made a striking hero, alongside Olive Wilton as a society spy, Marie Ney as the heroine, with Gerald Kay Souper, Eardley Turner and Arthur Greenaway in supporting roles.

With the arrival of Marie Tempest and W. Graham Browne set for 9 October, The Luck of the Navy was transferred to the Theatre Royal for a final performance.

The 9 October saw the first appearance of Marie Tempest at the Palace. Marie Tempest was a leading West End performer, having commenced her career on the musical comedy stage in the mid-1880s, developing an international reputation for her skill and charm, and becoming a popular postcard actress. On the advice of her second husband, the actor-playwright Cosmo Stuart, whom she married in 1899, she abandoned the musical stage in favour of light comedies. During the war years, she toured throughout America, and in 1917 she visited Australia for the first time under the auspices of JCW. With leading man W. Graham Brown, her repertoire included the plays The Marriage of Kitty, Mrs Dot and Cousin Kate. After a year, they departed for South Africa, returning to Australia via India and the East, bringing with them several new attractions.

Marie Tempest, 1920, by Harold Cazneaux

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Program cover for Outcast

Theatre Heritage Australia

They opened their return Australian tour at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne on 11 September 1920 with The Duke of Killiecrankie. This play, a three-act farce by Robert Marshall, had premiered in Australia in 1905, but this was the first time that it was being performed by Marie Tempest’s company. This play also opened the company’s Sydney season at the Palace.

The young Duke of Killiecrankie (Roger Barry) falls in love with Lady Henrietta Addison (Dorothy Hamilton), but when she rebuts his marriage proposals, he concocts a plan to abduct her and carry her off to his castle in Scotland. To avoid suspicion, he co-opts a wealthy widow, Mrs Mullholland (Marie Tempest) to act as chaperone, also inviting Henry Pitt Welby MP (W. Graham Browne), an ageing fortune hunter.

Owing to the limited season at the Palace, The Duke of Killiecrankie was staged for just a week, as were most of the plays that followed: Cousin Kate (16 October), Mrs Dot (23 October), The Great Adventure (30 October), The Marriage of Kitty (13 November), At the Barn (20 November), Penelope (30 November), Good Gracious Annabelle (4 December) and Outcast (11 December).

Of these plays, Cousin Kate, Mrs Dot, The Marriage of Kitty, Penelope and Good Gracious Annabelle, had been performed in Australia during 1917/1918, while The Great Adventure, At the Barn and Outcast were new additions.

The first play, Cousin Kate, was a comedy by Hubert Henry Davies, which sees Kate the recipient of a fortune on the proviso she marries. Mrs Dot by Somerset Maugham had been specially written for Marie Tempest and the character of Mrs Worthington, the ‘bright, merry, and fascinating widow’ who contrives to find a husband for Nellie Sellinger so that she may secure her sweetheart for herself. With The Marriage of Kitty, written in 1902 by Cosmo Gordon Lennox, she engages in amusing repartee as she navigates the perils of matrimony with her new husband, Sir Reginald Belsize. Penelope, also by Maugham, is a social comedy about a woman who seeks to reclaim her husband’s affections after he becomes entangled with another woman. Good Gracious, Annabelle is the only American play in the repertoire, written in 1916 by Clare Kummer, it is the story of a girl who is forced into an unhappy marriage, and who falls in love with a mysterious stranger who turns out in fact to be her husband in disguise.

Of the new pieces, The Great Adventure by Arnold Bennett, ‘a romantic play of fancy’, sees Marie Tempest in a totally new character, that of a middle-class widow, who marries Ilam Carve, England’s foremost painter, in the belief that he is the artist’s valet (the valet having been buried in place of the reclusive Carve), and rather than reveal his identity, the painter is happy to live simply and comfortably with a doting wife. In Anthony P. Wharton’s At the Barn, she plays an actress who, escaping the clutches of a rich patron, finds refuge in a rural cottage that turns out to be occupied by three bachelors, an author, an artist and a journalist—and of course, they all fall in love with her. The final play, Outcast by Hubert Henry Davies, a somewhat dramatic piece about a man, who after being abandoned by his wife, becomes addicted to whiskey and morphine, and the actress who moves into his apartment and wins his heart.

On the last night of the season, 17 December, in response to sustained applause following the fall of the curtain, Marie Tempest came on to the stage and ‘murmured words of thanks and farewell’.

She wanted to acknowledge the generous reception of the evening, and not only so, but the whole-hearted support which had made her return to Sydney a pleasure and a joy. She wished also to remember the J.C. Williamson management, and the many friends unseen by the public in and around the theatre who had smoothed the path of continued effort from week to week.

And with a ‘cheery au revoir’ she left the stage amid loud cheers from a delighted audience.

John D O'Hara, 1920

Theatre Heritage Australia

Sydney’s Chief Theatre

The Sun, 16 December 1920, p.12

The following night, the joint management of JCW and J&N Tait presented the return of veteran American character actor John D. O’Hara to Sydney, with a revival of Three Wise Fools, a comedy by Austin Strong. Described as looking more like a clergyman than an actor, offstage ‘his classic features, silvery hair, kindly mouth, and quiet dressing might give him somewhat the appearance of a bishop in mufti were it not for the humorous twinkle of the eye’.⁵

O’Hara had arrived in Australia in August 1919 under engagement to JCW. His first Sydney season had commenced at the Criterion Theatre in November 1919 and in March 1920, he performed the current play in Australia for the first time. Playing the role of Theodore Findley, one of the ‘wise fools’ of the story, the other two being Dr Richard Gaunt (Sydney Stirling) and Judge Trumbell (Fred Esmelton), the three crusty old bachelors help Sidney Fairchild (Lizette Parkes), the daughter of a woman they once admired, find happiness.

Three Wise Fools played until 31 December, bringing the year 1920 to a successful close.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. Clayton Hamilton, Introduction to Kindling, Samuel French, New York, 1914

2. Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 1920, p.14

3. Sydney Morning Herald, 3 April 1920, p.8

4. Advertisements, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 1920, p.2 & 24 April 1920, p.2

5. Table Talk (Melbourne), 28 August 1919, p.12

References

Gerald Bordman, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1914-1930, Oxford University Press, 1995

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

With thanks to

Rob Morrison