Toni Lamond
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Australia
Finale with everyone in their pyjama costumes. From The Pajama Game souvenir.The Pajama Game
Musical in two acts by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, based on Bissell’s 1953 novel 7½ Cents. Lyrics and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Opened at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 2 February 1957. Presented by J.C. Williamson Theatres Ltd., by arrangement with Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince (of USA). Directed by Fred Hebert (of New York). Scenery by J. Alan Kenyon, Cecil Newman and John Kenyon. Dances staged by Betty Pounder. Musical direction by Gabriel Joffe. All the pyjamas seen in the Australian production of “Pajama Game” supplied by “Schrank”, being made from the famous “Schrank” designs for the New York production.
William Newman & Toni Lamond in rehearsals, Melbourne, January 1957. Photo by Branagan.
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
The lead roles of Babe Williams and Sid Sorokin were entrusted to two relative newcomer, Toni Lamond and William Newman. Keith Manzie of The Argus (1 December 1956) provides the background in the following article:
Local Boy and Girl Make Good
Australian artists are to be given their big chance in the main roles of the American musical, "The Pajama Game", which J.C. Williamson Ltd. will produce at Her Majesty's Theatre from February 2.
Blonde, vivacious Melbourne soubrette, Toni Lamond, will play the principal role of the pajama factory girl, Babe Williams.
Geelong baritone William Newman will appear opposite Miss Lamond as Sid Sorokin, the factory superintendent, who comes to discipline Babe, and remains to fall in love with her.
Terry Vaughan, JCW production manager, who made the announcement this week on behalf of the JCW directors, said:
"This clever musical play gives us the opportunity to use Australian talent as a change from importing overseas players for the parts.
"Tests have proved that Miss Lamond and Mr. Newman are ideally suited to the roles... so why look any further and take a certain amount of risk with artists of unknown ability from America or London?"
That's a significant comment which sounds like the start of a new era of opportunity and success for the local artist.
This will be youthful Toni Lamond's first big part (I hear she's still only 19 years old).
Toni, the daughter of Stella Lamond, well-known in local variety shows and on the radio, has recently been on tour with Max Reddy's Olympic Follies (Max is Toni's step-father).
Toni appeared at the Tivoli with the Tommy Trinder show, and played at the Plaza, Northcote, when that theatre ran regular vaudeville performances.
The part of Babe is the "big break" all young actresses dream about.
William Newman started his career in the chorus of "South Pacific" at Her Majesty's Theatre.
After that he played in "Paint Your Wagon", and was then given the male lead in "Can-Can", in which he will again be seen in a brief return season at Her Majesty's commencing on December 26.
Producer of "The Pajama Game" in Melbourne will be American Fred Hebert, who has been the stage director with the show in New York, ever since it opened there about 18 months ago.
Hebert will arrive her on December 11, to help choose the rest of the cast and start rehearsals immediately.
Hebert is anxious that the Australian production should reach a similar high standard to that of the Broadway performance.
I understand that New York hasn't been entirely satisfied with the London version of the show, now running with Australian Joy Nichols in the lead.
Hebert wants to make sure that the show we see here has all the zip and sparkle of the original production.
"The Pajama Game", which is now being made into a screen musical by Warner Bros. with Doris Day, is one of the most unusual musical shows produced in a long time.
The setting is a pajama factory, and the story concerns the threatened strike by the workers for a wage rise of 7 1/2 cents.
The leading lady is head of the Grievance Committee, and a fiery supporter of the workers' rights. The leading man is the harassed superintendent trying to settle these grievances. An entirely modern theme.
Witty lyrics, tuneful songs and colourful ballets animate these amusing proceedings, spoken in the American vernacular and adapted from an entertaining book by Richard Bissell (who combined with George Abbott in adapting it to the stage).
Music and lyrics are by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross.
The show lends itself to all sorts of novelty numbers.
Outstanding among these is the soliloquy song "Hey There!" sung by the superintendent into a dictaphone and transformed into a duet when the superintendent sings with himself in the "play back".
"The Pajama Game" is a musical without glamor - but with the age-old battle between Capital and Labor. It will carry a lot of impact in being "different".
Publicity shot of Toni Lamond as Babe Williams. Photographer unknown.
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
Cover of JCW souvenir program
Theatre Heritage Australia
Keith Manzie continues the story in The Argus (22 December 1956):
Fred Hebert, who has been busy all the week completing his all-Australian cast for "The Pajama Game", is enthusiastic about a young Sydney singer he has found for the top comedy role of Hines - the part played by Eddie Foy Jnr., in the original Broadway productions.
This is baritone Keith Peterson ("one of the best voices I've ever heard", said Hebert), who has been doing night club work in Sydney and has an easy style in light comedy work which makes him a "natural" for his role in "P.G.".
Hebert has selected Melbourne baritone Don Richards, who is at present appearing at Chevron, for the part of the brash, happy-go-lucky Pres - a role which is complementary to that of Hines.
Richards is also said to have a flair for comedy.
Publicity shot of Tikki Taylor as Gladys. Photo by Ivan Ive.
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
Tikki Taylor’s caricatures of the Pajama Game cast
From The Pajama Game souvenir
Another young Australian who scored a plum role in The Pajama Game was Tikki Taylor. Molly Maginnis in her “Women in the Theatre” column in The Age (12 January 1957) takes up the story:
To Tikki Taylor, with her gamin hair-do and piquant charm, goes the coveted role of Gladys, the dancing comedienne.
This is the crowning success of a stage career which began when she was six years of age in Blue Mountain Melody with Cyril Ritchard and the late Madge Elliott.
Panto followed, and at 14, while still at school, Tikki spent her evenings at the theatre as a "call boy". This enabled her to absorb a miscellaneous but useful collection of knowledge of backstage craft.
By the time she left school Tikki had completed her Royal Academy of Dancing examinations and went into the ballet of Desert Song.
Her only break with theatre came about three years ago, shortly after her marriage with John Newman, whom she met while both were playing in South Pacific.
Deciding to see something of the world, they worked up a comedy song-and-dance act and set out with Singapore first stop.
The act must have been good - it took them to Colombo, Bombay, Calcutta, New Delhi, Rome, all through England (including the famous Palladium) and France.
In London they saw The Pajama Game, liked it, heard it would be presented by the Firm in Australia - and came home in the hope of being included in the cast. They are.
Tikki Taylor sketching backstage at the Empire Theatre, June 1957. Photo by Ivan Ive.
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
On 2 February 1957, Molly Maginnis in her “Women in the Theatre” column in The Age, introduces her readers to Betty Pounder, the show's choreographer:
New Show Highlight in Career of Local Dancer
The success of The Pajama Game will be a personal triumph for Betty Pounder. But the audience will not see Betty; only the result of her work. She is ballet mistress for the show - a crowning point in 17 years' work with the Firm.
The firm sent her to New York to study the Broadway production. Night after night she sat in front, concentrating on every step, every movement. Then she would dash back to her hotel and make notes.
The numbers you will see tonight have been built up from these notes... augmented by Betty's remarkable memory for movement and position.
Betty joined Williamson's in 1940. For two previous years she had studied in England on a scholarship.
She always wanted to be a ballerina. But now she is just as satisfied with her work back-stage.
Like most young dancers she went through the run of the mill in the ballet of musical comedies before being entrusted with solo numbers.
Next step was her appointment as assistant to Hazel Meldrum who was then Williamson's ballet mistress, but has since retired.
Betty's ability was soon recognised. She was sent off to New Zealand with Gladys Moncrieff, who toured in a series of revivals of popular musicals.
As only the principals were sent from Australia, Betty had to train a local ballet and direct the movements of the ensembles in the requirements of six musical comedies.
Later she tackled a similar task when touring New Zealand with the Italian Opera Company. But local additions to the company had to be taught the different dances and moves in 14 operas.
Betty has assisted to arrange and train ballets for all the "new" style musical plays presented by the Firm. These, she considers, began with Annie Get Your Gun.
There is, said Betty, a big difference in dance numbers between the old and new style of musical. In the former, ballets were interpolated into the story, and did not necessary have any bearing on the play. Today they arise naturally from the course of the story and must be strictly in character.
Because of this, she does not think the modern ballet girl in a musical show needs to be as versatile as in the old days. "We had to be everything from classical dancers to tumblers", she said.
Sid Sorokin (William Newman) meets Babe Williams (Toni Lamond) and the other machine girls, while Hines (Keith Petersen) looks on. From The Pajama Game souvenir.The Cast
Hines Keith Petersen Prez Don Richard Joe Robert Healey Hasler Jack Little Gladys Tikki Taylor Mabel Jill Perryman Sid Sorokin William Newman 1st Helper John Newman 2nd Helper Alton Harvey Charlie Ron Shand Babe Williams Toni Lamond Mae Dorothy Francis Brenda Fay Agnew Poopsie Raphine Sprague Salesman John Sanger Pop Reginald Newson The Melbourne season ran for five months, closing on the 8 June 1957, when the show toured to the other centres:
Empire Theatre, Sydney, 12 June 1957 - 9 November 1957
Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, 12 November 1957 - December 1957
Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 26 December 1957 - 27 January 1958
His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, 10 February 1958
Grand Opera House, Wellington, 12 March 1958
His Majesty's Theatre, Perth, 3 May 1958
Theatre Royal, Adelaide, 18 June 1958
During the fourteen-month tour, the four principal performers (Toni Lamond, William Newman, Keith Petersen and Tikki Taylor) remained consistent.
At the staff picnic, Hines (Keith Petersen) practices his knife-throwing skills on Babe (Toni Lamond). From The Pajama Game souvenir.The Songs
Act 1 The Pajama Game Hines Racing with the Clock Boys and Girls A New Town is a Blue Town Sid Sorokin I’m Not at all in Love Babe Williams and Girls I’ll Never be jealous Again Hines and Mabel Hey There Sid Sorokin Her Is Prez and Gladys Sleep-Tite Babe Williams and Boys and Girls Once a Year Day Sid Sorokin, Babe Williams and Company & Danced by Gladys and two Workers Reprise: Her Is Prez and Mae Small Talk Sid Sorokin and Babe Williams There Once was a Man Sid Sorokin and Babe Williams Reprise: Hey There Sid Sorokin Act 2 Steam Heat Gladys and the two Workers Reprise: Hey There Babe Williams Think of the Time I Save Hines and Girls Hernando’s Hideaway Gladys, Sid Sorokin and Company Jealousy Ballet Hines, Gladys, Mabel and Boys 7½ Cents Babe Williams, Prez and Boys and Girls The Pajama Game Entire Company 
Babe (Toni Lamond), Prez (Don Richards) and Ensemble in the “7½ Cents” number. From The Pajama Game souvenir.The Reviews
American Invasion Is In Full Swing
By Geoffrey Hutton
This sort of thing has happened before. James Cassius Williamson founded his Australian empire on an American play about oil-gushers long before any of us were born. But there must be a reason why American musicals have dominated the stage for so long, and American plays are taking so large a share of it.
Can it be that there is more sheer vitality in the New York than the London stage today? I fear so. With reservations, I applaud The Rainmaker because it tried to say something about real people. With fewer reservations I laughed myself hoarse over The Pajama Game because it brought a much-needed touch of realism to a form of theatre which seemed to be on its last legs years ago.
In its way this light-hearted comedy of American big business is the end of the road which was opened by those back-woods musicals like Annie, Oklahoma and Paint Your Wagon. They were a local retort to the thin and overworked musical play which was not a play at all, but a succession of exotic backcloths with carefully arranged moments for the funny men, the romantic leads and the chorus to do their stuff.
Homely Reality
We were bored with the old-style musicals and the journey the Americans made was really necessary. They introduced a touch of homely reality into a form of theatre which had gone too far from its roots. They set a new fashion, for a while, and like all new fashions it is becoming unfashionable.
The Pajama Game completes the journey. We have learned all we want to learn about Oklahoma and New Hampshire. The folk songs and the apple-jack parties have had their day. The journey which began during the war has ended in a textile factory, which comes a lot closer to life as we know it that corn-cobs and barn-dances. From Ruritania we have travelled to the Sleeptite Pajama factory, from the conservatory to the Ladies' Pants Department.
Long before I saw the play I read Richard Bissell's novel, which was a rarity. It dealt with urgent and potentially ugly problems. In a mood of ironic good humor which was difficult to resist. The pyjama workers wanted seven-and-a-half cents an hour more on their piece rates. The boss told them to get back to work, the pyjama game was at the cross roads, and a lot more nonsense.
In the end the union leader looks a bit of a rascal and the boss looks a bit of a scoundrel. Mr. Bissell, delicately avoiding making a serious issue of this dispute; after all he was writing in a period of prosperity when these issues could be adjusted without real hardship to anyone. By making the hero an executive and the heroine a member of the Grievances Committee he was able to fold capital and labor in each other's arms without any hard feelings.
And the whole piece is done with a naughty jocularity which comes near to the spirit of a sophisticated revue. “This play is symbolic” says the funny man when the curtain rises, gently mocking Tennessee Williams. And before it falls he returns and reminds us that it was. Of course, it wasn't.
It may be that Messrs. George Abbott and Richard Bissell, who concocted the book, and Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, who decorated it with its witty lyrics and sharply discordant music, were only out to amuse. So they were, and they succeeded in doing so, and a little more.
Extract from The Age, 9 February 1957, p.19
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Betty Pounder: The centenary of a remarkable life (Part 2)
Act 1, Scene 10, The Promenade of the Embassy, from My Fair Lady, 1960, with David Oxley as Henry Higgins, Patricia Moore as Eliza Doolittle and chorus. National Library of Australia, Canberra.KEVIN COXHEAD continues his tribute to Australian choreographer Betty Pounder who would have turned 100 on 8 August 1921. Read Part 1»‘I was lucky... I have a husband who encourages me to do what I love.’
Betty and John Baines. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne.1949 was a very significant year in Betty Pounder’s life. On 20 June, she and JCW orchestra member, saxophonist and clarinettist, John Ellis Baines, would marry at the family home which was now on Murray Road, East Preston. Betty and John, who was born 4 September 1905 in Adelaide, remained together until the end, both incredibly loving and supportive of everything they did. Pounder would say in an interview in 1988, ‘I have a very good married life because my husband has allowed me free rein to do what I want to do.’ Although they didn't have children of their own, their ‘adopted’ family was considerable. Pounder always regarded her dancers as her children. She also had the great pleasure of being Godmother to life-long friends, Gloria Lynch and Ormonde Douglas’s daughter Christine, who would go on to have a highly successful operatic career herself; to Dawn Spry and Graeme Bent’s daughter Wendy; and to John and Tikki Taylor’s son, Paul Newman. The early part of their married life was spent living in the Pounder family home, which Betty would acquire following the death of her mother. They would later move to a post-war home on Hill Street, Hawthorn.On the closing night of the musical Camelot in Melbourne in 1964, a farewell party was held in the Penthouse of the 1930s Art Deco apartment building, ‘Stratton Heights’ on Alexandra Avenue, South Yarra. Glamorous actress Bettina Welch, who was playing the role of Morgan Le Fey in the show, was friends with the owner and was staying there during the run. Betty and John were invited to the party and when they saw the apartment with its incredible views across the Yarra River to the city, its wonderful rooftop garden, heated floors AND its secret room which was entered through a door behind the bar in the living room, they fell in love with it. Betty told the owner if she ever wanted to sell, she had to get in touch with them as they would love to buy it. Several years went by and due to the ill health of the husband of the woman who threw the party on that fateful night, she got in touch with Betty to let her know she needed to sell the apartment. The parties held at the apartment are legendary, including get-togethers with Betty’s chorus members in the 60s and 70s where she would get everyone up and say, ‘Tonight we’re going to learn The Totem Dance from Rose Marie,or The Military Tap from The Desert Song’,and she would teach everyone the numbers she had done 20 years earlier. The rest, as they say...
Scene from Kiss Me Kate, 1952. Betty is second from the right in the middle.
Kitty Greenwood Collection
Evie Hayes and chorus in the Washington Square dance scene from Call Me Madam, 1953
National Library of Australia, Canberra
‘I had to work with the dancers as well as discipline them and share a dressing room with them when I was Ballet Mistress and that was difficult. You need to retain your friends but also still do your job.’
In 1951 Betty was offered the position of Ballet Mistress by Australian Musical Productions Pty. Ltd. on the new and successful Australian musical The Highwayman, at the King’s Theatre in Melbourne, one of seven all-Australian musicals that Pounder would be involved in. She was also performing the role of The Riding Mistress in the revival of Annie Get Your Gun at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Kiss Me Kate with Hayes Gordon and Joy Turpin in 1952 would be the last show in which Pounder would appear as a dancer. Maggie Fitzgibbon, Graeme Bent, Alec Kellaway, Robert Healey were also in the cast along with Betty Gribble, Audrey Davis, Kitty Greenwood, Jeanette Liddell in the chorus and who Pounder would cast in future shows herself. More responsibilities as Ballet Mistress came along and in 1953 she was given the official title of Dance Director on Call Me Madam which starred her friend Evie Hayes in the star role, along with Alec Kellaway, Graeme Bent, Coral Deague, Bobby Mack, Jill Perryman, who had been given the position of Miss Hayes’ understudy as well, Betty Gribble, Billie Fowler, Clive Hearne, Shirley Sunners, Dawn Spry, Kevan Johnston, and Garth Welch who would later go on to a highly successful career as a Principal with the Australian Ballet Company. Betty was also the company Ballet Mistress for Call Me Madam.
Scene from Paint Your Wagon, 1954, for which Betty was Ballet Mistress
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
Scene from Can-Can, 1956, with Betty once again as Ballet Mistress
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
‘Everything was going wrong and no one knew what to do so I yelled out, “Blackout! Blackout!” I got fined for screaming “Blackout” in the middle of a performance.’
In 1954 Betty was asked to choreograph a production of The Chocolate Soldier at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne and back at Her Majesty’s, South Pacific and Paint Your Wagon were presented with Pounder as Ballet Mistress once more. Sadly Betty’s father Joseph died at the age of 76 during the rehearsal period of South Pacific. A revival of Viktoria and Her Hussar would finish off the year.
In 1955 J.C. Williamson launched its second Italian Grand Opera season with Pounder overseeing the ballets once again. 1956 saw Williamson’s ‘New Look’ Gilbert and Sullivan company, again with Pounder in charge of the dances. Can-Can was The Firm’s major musical comedy that year with Betty as Ballet Mistress. Jill Perryman and Kevan Johnston, William Newman, Graeme Bent, Alton Harvey, Robert Healey, John Newman, Ron Folkard, Kevin Foote, Joyce ‘Tikki’ Taylor, all JCW favourites, were featured cast members while Adele Jarrett, Valrene Tweedie, Noel Hardres were among the chorus. Can-Canwould also see young Robina Beard make her professional debut as one of the dancers. William Orr borrowed Pounder from The Firm in 1956 to choreograph his pantomime, Alice In Wonderland for the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, with Borovansky ballerina Kathleen Gorham in the title role. It was revived once again in 1958 and yet again in 1961 at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. It was such a successful production that it was revived at the Sydney Tivoli Theatre in 1966 and finally at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre the year after.
Scene from the JCW production of The Pajama Game, 1957, featuring Keith Petersen, William Newman and Toni Lamond
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
Ron Shand, Jill Perryman and John Sanger in The Pajama Game, 1957
National Library of Australia, Canberra
‘It’s very hard to keep a colour in your eye, which is something I learned to do.’
1957 would be what Pounder herself would describe as ‘the highlight of my professional career up to that point’. Although officially still only in the position of Ballet Mistress, Sir Frank Tait entrusted her to fly to New York to bring back the original Bob Fosse choreography for the new hit musical, The Pajama Game. ‘It was my dream to go to Broadway so you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to go over and bring the show back here.’ She watched the show 12 times from out front, taking careful notes on every aspect of the involved choreography, along with notes on lighting cues, colours and fabrics for the costumes, scenery, and direction notes. She had assumed that she would be welcomed by the Broadway company with open arms and that they would take her backstage where they would teach her the routines. This was not to be the case. They gave no help at all. It was up to her to sit out front, watch the show and make her notes and reproduce it exactly as it was on their stage. She always felt that she owed it to the original choreographer of any show to reproduce their work as closely as she possibly could. She also auditioned many, many people for the lead roles but felt we had performers back home who were equally suited to the roles, and after discussions with Sir Frank, he agreed. An all-Australian cast was engaged, among them lifelong friends Toni Lamond, John Newman, Frank Sheldon, Tikki Taylor, Jill Perryman, Kevan Johnston, Robert Healey, Ralphine Sprague. On Pounder’s recommendation, rising star Jill Perryman was given the featured role of Mabel, a role she was actually too young for, but pulled off brilliantly!
Tikki Taylor would later say, ‘Betty Pounder was always the reliable girl when she was so young, as well as having the best legs of any of us, and had a wonderful memory, and that is why she became assistant ballet mistress. Right from the word go, she was the intelligent one in the group. But also, if anyone was down or had any problems, Pounder was always the one they would go to.’
Scene from Lola Montez, 1958. Betty acted as Assistant Director and Assistant Choreographer to George Carden.
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Scene from Lola Montez, 1958, with Mary Preston, Terry Marr and Kevan Johnston
National Library of Australia, Canberra
‘I would sit there in the dark and make rough notes in a little book and then do the routines in my hotel room and go back the next night and catch what I had missed.’
The Independent Theatre in Sydney borrowed her talents for their 1957 Australian show, Nex’ Town, which was set in a sideshow. J.C. Williamson stalwarts Minnie Love and Victor Hough were in the cast, Vic having been in the chorus of shows like No, No, Nanette, Rose Marie, Follow the Girls and Annie Get Your Gun with Betty when she was also a chorus member.
Pounder would be taking regular trips to New York to select shows as possible JCW productions until they folded in 1976, and as well as notating the dance routines for the shows which The Firm finally settled on, on her recommendations, she would be making detailed notes on the costumes, colours and fabrics, the sets, the lighting designs and cues, publicity etc. As Nancye Hayes pointed out, ‘Not only was Pounder writing all the choreography down, she was reproducing what she saw back at The Maj... the other way around to what she was looking at!!’ John Newman said, ‘She devised her own shorthand of dance. She would pay for her seat and sit up the back somewhere with her little notebook and write the steps down. She noted the lighting plot, the colours and details of the costumes and everything. She knew the whole show. Perhaps not officially, but practically, she produced the show.’
The Australian musical Lola Montezwas premiered by the Union Theatre Repertory Company in association with the Australian Elizabethan Trust at the Union Theatre at Melbourne University, opening on 19 February 1958. Later in the year the Trust presented a reworked, rescored, redesigned, recast and re-choreographed version of Lola Montez at Her Majesty’s in Brisbane (1 October 1958) and at the Elizabethan Theatre in Sydney (25 October 1958). For this new production Pounder was appointed assistant choreographer to George Carden, ‘courtesy of J.C. Williamson Theatres Ltd.’.
‘I'd like to see that show revived. It really didn’t get the chance it deserved the first time around. Unlike Broadway where shows have tryout seasons, everything here opens cold.’ Mary Preston (replacing Justine Rettick who created the role of Lola in Melbourne), Frank Wilson, Jane Martin, who would go on to play Eliza Doolittle in the second company of My Fair Lady,Bruce Barry, Fred Patterson were all in the cast. Sadly the reworked version was never staged in Melbourne.
Damn Yankeesalso had the Betty Pounder stamp with it played in Melbourne and Sydney during 1958.
Betty Pounder backstage at Her Majesty’s, 1950, when she was appointed Ballet Mistress
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
Embassy Ball scene from My Fair Lady, 1959, with Robin Bailey and Bunty Turner
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
‘Fred Astaire and the rest of them couldn’t get over the youth and beauty and energy that we have out here.’ (My Fair Lady)
My Fair Lady hit Australia in 1959 and was the biggest show to come to our shores since Annie Get Your Gun in 1947. The hype was huge and of course, Williamson’s wanted Pounder to reproduce the original Hanya Holm choreography, but the American producers would not have any of that. Pat Drylie, who was Dance Captain on the original 1956 Broadway production and Holm’s assistant, would be sent over to reproduce it here, along with Sam Liff who would reproduce Moss Hart’s direction, Liff having been Stage Director on the Broadway production. Typical of Pounder’s way, she happily stepped aside for the very serious and non-smiling Ms Drylie, but was always on hand to teach any of the dancers steps they were having trouble with. She was there in the background, but her presence was felt by all and the dancers knew they could go to her. Once the American team had gone back home, Pounder put her own stamp on the choreography, making small but improved changes. This would be something she would always do. Small changes but for the better of the overall look of the routines. She was listed in the program as ‘Ballet Mistress’. For the next seasons in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne’s return season and the New Zealand and South African runs, the program credits read, ‘Original Choreography and Musical Numbers staged by HANYA HOLM. Adapted by PAT DRYLIE. Choreography for the Brisbane Production Staged by BETTY POUNDER.’
Fred Astaire, Betty Pounder and Gregory Peck with cast members of My Fair Lady, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, 1959
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
Scene from Grab Me a Gondola, 1959, featuring Guido Lorraine (with hat), Barbara Robinson and chorus
National Library of Australia, Canberra
A special treat came to Betty and the cast one night in Melbourne when Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Gregory Peck attended a performance and met everyone on the stage of Her Majesty’s at the end of the show during their time in town filming the movie, On The Beach.The original run of My Fair Lady was the biggest show in Australian Box Office history until the first season of The Phantom of The Opera in 1990.
Grab Me a Gondola also had Pounder as choreographer in the same year with favourites, Sheila Bradley, Tikki Taylor, John Newman, Robert Healey, Letty Craydon and Bill French. There was also a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was presented by Williamson’s in association with The Royal Shakespeare Company which Betty would work on.
ATN-Channel 7 borrowed Pounder for their televised 75 minute musical comedy presentation, Pardon Miss Westcott,with music, lyric and book team Peter Stannard, Peter Benjamin and Alan Burke, who also wrote the musical Lola Montez. The amount of work done in one year was proving just how incredibly hard working Betty was, not only for J.C. Williamson’s but also for other companies who they loaned her to.
The Union Theatre Repertory Company engaged Pounder to choreograph their review, Look Who’s Here in 1960. Anne Fraser did the sets and costumes, George Ogilvy directed while Wendy Pomroy was Musical Director. Fred Parslow, Joan Harris, Mary Hardy, Bob Hornery and Marion Edward were all in the cast.
To be continued
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Early Stages: Tony Locantro
We are excited to commence a new series titled Early Stages, in which we invite people to share their earliest theatre memories with us. London-based TONY LOCANTRO, who grew up in Sydney in the 1940s, sets the ball rolling with his recollections of Tivoli turns and JCW musicals.My earliesttheatrical memories are being taken by my mother and grandmother in the 1940s to sit in the stalls at matinees at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney to see the variety shows which they presented twice daily. I was born in June 1937 so I would not have been more than a toddler, but I can still recall the chorus line of beautiful girls wearing fishnet stockings and I was particularly fond of Jenny Howard, who sang the comic repertoire of Gracie Fields as well as other popular songs. I am fairly sure that the local comedians George Wallace and Jim Gerald were in those shows but I cannot recall their acts although I do remember acrobats and jugglers, and performers who balanced on tight-ropes or slack-wires. There were also three microphones on stands across the front of the stage that rose up vertically when required and then subsided again back into their holes in the stage like snakes from a snake-charmer’s basket. These always intrigued me!
The one act that impressed me the most was the American-born Music Hall star Ella Shields, who was making a return visit to Sydney in March 1947. Immaculately dressed in men’s white tie and tails, with her silver-grey hair cropped in male fashion, she stood alongside a grand piano and sang songs like ‘If you knew Susie’, ‘Let Bygones be Bygones’ and ‘Cecilia’. Then as a separate act, in front of a painted backcloth representing the Thames Embankment in London, shabbily dressed, she performed her immortal signature song: ‘Burlington Bertie from Bow’. She sounded neither male nor female, but her voice had a unique quality that captured one’s imagination and made her one of the greatest stars of her era. She made a number of gramophone records and can be heard on YouTube singing ‘Burlington Bertie from Bow’
Theatre program for the Tivoli show Laugh and Be Happy, starring Ella Shields
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
French strip-tease artist Micheline Bernardini
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
I continued to attend the Tivoli throughout the 1950s and saw stars like Tommy Trinder, Gus Brox & Myrna, Micheline Bernardini (a French strip-tease artist who first introduced the ‘Bikini’ two-piece swim suit), and Chico Marx (of Marx Brothers fame from the movies), whose comedy matched his cheeky piano playing. But in 1960 I travelled to London where I have lived ever since. My memoirs of theatre-going, working for a major record company and playing piano professionally for Music Hall and Variety can be found on Theatre Heritage Australia under the title The Adventures of an Australian in London: A Double Life in Music.
So much for my early memories of Variety. But, thanks to Trove, I can say with absolute certainty that the first stage musical I ever saw was White Horse Inn at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, between December 1942 and April 1943, when I would have been about five-and-a-half years old. I recall that when we entered the stalls to take our seats we noticed that the auditorium had been decorated to resemble a picturesque Austrian inn, like the real White Horse Inn on the lake in St Wolfgang in Upper Austria. The show starred Strella Wilson and Don Nicol and I was completely entranced by the singing and the dancing, but especially impressed by the scenic effects. The First Act ended with a rainstorm and a real curtain of water fell across the front of the stage. Then at the very end of the performance, what turned out to be a central revolve in the middle of the stage went slowly through a complete revolution to reveal the scenes we had seen earlier in the show. These theatrical wonders made such an impression on me that I can still remember them to this day. Many years later I visited the real White Horse Inn (Weissen Rössl) on the Wolfgangsee in Austria, which was reached by a ferry across the lake, but nobody was singing any songs or dancing and it was a bit of a disappointment!
Tommy Trinder with Toni Lamond at the Tivoli
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
Max Oldaker as the Red Shadow in The Desert Song, with Joy Beattie
Tait Family collection
After White Horse Inn, I have another memory of a stage musical at the Theatre Royal, which is The Desert Song starring the inimitable Max Oldaker and Joy Beattie, in late 1945. For some odd reason, the scene that sticks in my mind is when the Red Shadow, to demonstrate his strength to Margot, breaks a sword over his knee. From the ‘crack’ that it made when it snapped, the property sword was obviously made of wood, but instead of spotting that a real sword would have been made of metal, the thought that entered my eight-year-old brain was that this must have been an expensive show to run as they needed a new sword for every performance!
But then it was Annie Get Your Gun with Evie Hayes in 1948 that really hooked me on musical theatre and I have written more about this in my memoirs.
Flyer for the 1942/43 revival of White Horse Inn at the Theatre Royal, Sydney. SB&W Foundation, Sydney. -
Keith Petersen: Australian trouper
PETER STEPHENSON JONES offers a personal tribute to funny man Keith Petersen, whose stage antics in pantomimes and musical comedies convulsed audiences at the Tivoli and Princess theatres, but whose name is not as well remembered today.
Keith Petersen as Oscar in The Odd Couple, 1966. National Library of Australia, Canberra.In Michael Powell’s 1966 film of They’re A Weird Mob there is a scene of an abusive drunk on the Manly Ferry who ends up in the harbour. It is quite a funny scene.The actor was Keith Petersen and I hope he can be remembered for much more than this cameo in the iconic Australian film.
Born in 1919 in Port Macquarie the young Keith was clearly one of those people born to perform. He was only ten when he made his first appearance at the Princess Theatre while studying tap dancing with the legendary May Downs. He appeared in several juvenile roles and pantos. Keith had outstanding physical skills so it is not surprising that in his early years he joined a comic acrobatic group. This group played all over Australia.
Like many performers of his generation Keith loved vaudeville with a passion. I have spoken to many performers over the years and noticed how their eyes would always light up when I asked about the Tivoli or a variety show. Keith loved performing in the 1953/54 Harry Wren production of Thanks For the Memory with legends such as George Wallace Sr, Jim Gerald and Queenie Paul.
Keith appeared in several pantomimes. Strange that very few younger Australian audiences would know what a pantomime or ‘Panto’ is, yet years ago mums would take their young kids off to the Tivoli during holiday time to yell ‘he’s behind you!’ Pantos were a very quirky form of entertainment. The Principal Boy or lead was mostly played by a woman! The most famous in Australia was Jenny Howard.
There was quite a lot of audience participation in Panto with many popular phrases such ON NO I DIDN’T to which the audience would yell OH YES YOU DID! Lollies would be thrown out to the audience by the cast, to be eagerly caught by the kids. Panto was full of slapstick, campy humour and variety acts thrown in. Lots of jokes for the kids but the adults were not left out. There were many risqué jokes for the mums and dads. The kids were often laughing at very different things to their parents.
The most important role was a man dressed as a woman: the Pantomime Dame. These Dames were played by famous comedians of the day. Jim Gerald, George Wallace and numerous great stars of vaudeville played the Dame! The young Keith would watch the Dame, wishing he could talk to him and meet him. Keith vowed that one day he would play the Dame and go and meet the kids. The dream came true when he formed his own company and in full drag would greet the kids after the show. For over three years he played the Dame throughout Victoria and South Australia, touring with his wife and fifteen-month-old baby.
He played Dame Trot in a production of Jack and the Beanstalk. His wife Joy played Second Boy. At that time fashion was changing because as frocks were becoming short and skimpy there was nothing to burlesque. Keith studied the makeup of the day very carefully. He often said that he would look at the very good and then do the opposite! ‘You then,’ he said ‘HAD A DAME!’
He experimented especially with hats and wore a different one in each performance. He LOVED feathers!
It could be argued that in some ways Panto was ‘gender bending’ way before it became a social and equality issue. In Pantos they often used a children’s dance school to build up the size of the cast. Keith did this a child as we know. Pantos were musical with lovely sets and costumes.
It is hard to understand why pantomimes disappeared from theatre. I loved my days going off to see pantos. I still remember seeing Robinson Crusoe On Ice starring the popular comedian, Jackie Clancy.
Yet even though we do not see much Panto today in Australia it is alive and well in the UK. At Christmas holiday time people flock to theatres all over the UK to celebrate this great theatrical tradition.
Programme cover for Ice Parade, Princess Theatre, Melbourne, 1953
Theatre Heritage Australia
Programme cover for Cinderella On Ice, Empire Theatre, Sydney, 1958
Theatre Heritage Australia
Often the cast members of an evening vaudeville show would also perform two matinee performances of a Panto and then the nightly show. Three performances a day! This happened in the case of Ice Parade which Keith played in Sydney Adelaide and Melbourne. These kinds of shows were popular. They were performed on ice and on stage. In Ice Parade Keith played alongside the Kermond Brothers, Enzo Toppano and Peggy Mortimer. It was a colourful expensive show! Keith even learned ice skating!
Then during the day Keith performed in Cinderella On Ice. This was a lavish spectacular Panto performed at the Princess Theatre with the Carroll Management. Cinderella was played beautifully by Peggy Mortimer. Keith often formed friendships with fellow cast members and kids loved him. Peta Toppano recalls ‘Uncle Keith’ taking her skating.
Keith played the role of Buttons in Cinderella. It is a tricky part because although it’s comedy there is an element of pathos needed to play a good Buttons. He is Cinderella’s best friend but he also loves her. Cinderella however does not love Buttons and Cinders always lives happily ever after with the handsome Prince. Keith was a perfect Buttons.
Some may be surprised about an artist doing more than one show a night but this was not unusual in vaudeville. Keith performed in all areas of entertainment. His career in musical comedy was extraordinary.
Musicals in Australia were often cast with an overseas import. There are several theories why JCW and Carrolls did this. Often the stars were not stars at all but understudies or even minor cast members of a few shows. Still what many of the critics of this policy forget is that these performers often stayed in Australia and contributed much to Australia theatre. Australia would be the poorer without Hayes Gordon, Sheila Bradley, Johnny Ladd, Jeff Warren and so many others.
Still many wondered why we could not have an all Australian cast. We certainly had the talent. It was the great choreographer, Betty Pounder, who often ‘pushed’ for this. There was a strike once which made it impossible for imported artists to come here. The Aussies seized the day!
Programme cover for The Pajama Game, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, 1957
Theatre Heritage Australia
Toni Lamond as Babe Williams in The Pajama Game, 1957
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
In 1957 it finally happened. JCW took a gamble and they presented The Pajama Game with an ALL AUSTRALIAN CAST. It starred Toni Lamond, Bill Newman (then called William) and Keith Petersen in the role of Mr Hines.
Hines is a great part. It is the third lead and for Keith it was a triumph. It gave him the chance to sing dance and really strut his stuff.
There is a lovely number in the show when Mr Hines, who suffers from pangs of jealousy, gets advice from Mabel in a song which became a show stopper ‘I’ll never be jealous again’. Keith sang this with a relatively unknown actress who was playing a much older character than she really was. Her name? Jill Perryman!
Pajama Game toured Australia and New Zealand for two and a half years. Keith, like other JCW performers, not only did the show, he became involved in the show’s promotion. He appeared at Hordens Department store promoting blankets. He was on radio, TV and many public appearances promoting the show. It was a tough schedule.
Programme cover for Once Upon a Mattress, Princess Theatre, Melbourne, 1959
Theatre Heritage Australia
Patsy Hemingway as Lady Larken, John Hunter as the Jester and Keith Petersen as the King in Once Upon a Mattress. 1959. Photograph by Zeus Merfield.
Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
In 1962 Carrolls presented Once Upon A Mattress and Keith had great fun playing the King. This role was mimed because the King cannot speak and Keith was both poignant and funny. The show starred Gloria Dawn. Keith and Gloria were great friends and later worked on a show called Peaches and Screams. Mattress later starred Sheila Bradley. Keith’s performance in Once Upon A Mattress eared him much acclaim including the Sydney Press annual awards for which he won ‘comedy performance of the year’.
For a few years Keith returned to vaudeville and toured with the Tivoli in Many Happy Returns and Yellzapoppin. He performed with great stars like Gladys Moncrieff, Jenny Howard and others.
Jim Gerald, Keith Petersen and George Wallace Jr in a sketch in Many Happy Returns, c.1960
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Programme cover for Wildcat, Princess Theatre, Melbourne, 1963
Theatre Heritage Australia
In 1963 came Wildcat. This was a vehicle on Broadway for Lucille Ball, giving the ‘Queen of Television’ her first show on Broadway. Wildcat on Broadway had nothing but problems. It is a lovely show and terribly underrated. On Broadway there was more emphasis on Ball than on the show itself. When Ball became ill the show floundered.
Carrolls took a huge risk on Wildcat. They did see that it was actually a good show and also it would be relevant to Australia because of our growth of oil refineries and mining. This is the setting for Wildcat and it is about Wildy and when she struck oil.
The starring role went to one of Australia’s great stars, Toni Lamond, and her co-star was by Gordon Boyd. The comedy role of Sookie went to Keith. The showstopper was Keith and Toni singing ‘What takes my fancy’. Some sources claim that the Australian production reinstated the duet for Sookie (Keith) and Wildy (Toni) ‘Ain’t it sad, ain’t it mean’ which was cut from the Broadway production yet I cannot find it listed on my programme.
Wildcat has a wonderful score and a pleasant enough book. When one listens to the score you wonder why it was not a more successful show. Toni Lamond was at her peak and from all accounts was excellent. Wildcat is one of those shows that deserved more success than it got.
When the American director Fred Hebert directed Keith in The Pajama Game he was so impressed with him that he invited him to play Oscar in Neil Simon’s smash hit comedy The Odd Couple. The cigar smoking Keith relished the role and delivered one of his best performances. He was teamed with Fred Parslow as the whimpering and obsessive Felix. There was a superb chemistry between Keith and Fred and it is a pity they did not get to work together more often. I have seen many productions of The Odd Couple and no one has been as good as Keith and Fred.
John Newman and Keith Petersen in the Duelling Scene from Can-Can, 1958
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Judy Nunn, Keith Petersen, Yvonne Matthew and Fred Parslow in The Odd Couple, 1966. Photo by Rembrandt Enterprises, Sydney.
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Other productions in which he appeared included Simple Spymen, TheRoaring Twenties, a stint in Can-Can and even the light opera Die Fledermaus.
Throughout the sixties he was resident comedian at the Bankstown Sundowner Hotel where he frequently worked with his good friends Gloria Dawn and Frank Cleary. Keith was a regular act at the clubs around NSW donning his trademark baggy suit and cracking gags. His famous cigar and hat routines were pure vaudeville.
He often finished his routines with a tap dance and even thrilling his audiences by doing the splits!
He worked with many headline acts on the Club circuit. One of Keith’s most unusual ventures was an attempt in his later years to bring vaudeville back to the suburbs. Keith argued that audiences had not changed all that much and many longed for a return to vaudeville.
Business card for Keith Petersen’s West Side Theatre Restaurant. Courtesy of Vanessa Berry, Mirror Sydney, https://mirrorsydney.wordpress.com/tag/keith-petersen/The business card (above) is for the West Side Theatre Restaurant in Marrickville. Keith argued that the working class people wanted a return to variety as much as anyone else. In 1967 he opened what he regarded the most lavish theatre restaurant in Australia. From all accounts it was beautiful.
Keith was the manager and of course a performer and Edwin Duff, various guest artists and thirteen dancers were in the cast. There was also a dance floor.
As a kind of hobby, Keith had a pig farm near Campbelltown. He often joked that he was so busy he had no time for his pigs any more and pigs were his ‘relaxation’.
In 1970 Keith mounted the pantomime Dick Whittington.It starred his wife Lynette and a newcomer called John Farnham. It was a brave noble venture, but it was not a complete success.
Keith died in 1971 near Campbelltown.
While writing this it has struck me as sad we do not have many video records of Keith at his best. It would be great to see some of his live performances. As a teacher I often ask my students why they want to be actors. Most often (but thankfully not always) they respond saying that they want to be famous or get into Neighbours! Artists like Keith Petersen simply had to perform. He loved a connection with a live audience. He was hardly ever out of work, living by the old show biz slogan... no job too big or too small.
As I spoke to performers they smile when they talk of Keith … they say, ‘He was a trouper’ I can think of no greater epitaph!
The ‘On the Rue de la Paris’ scene in Many Happy Returns, c.1960, with Keith Petersen (costumed as a gentleman’s pissoir!), George Wallace Jr (checked shirt) and Jim Gerald (as the blind man). National Library of Australia, Canberra.Very special thanks to Frank Van Straten for his assistance with the preparation of this article.
Keith Petersen and Jill Perryman sing ‘I'll Never Be Jealous Again’ from The Pajama Game. This is from Keith’s only recording: Selections from The Pajama Game recorded in His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland. Issued on the Prestige label, it was released only in New Zealand and is extremely rare.
