Toni Lamond

In April 1963 the press excitedly announced that Harald Bowden. an executive of J.C. Williamson’s, had returned from a trip to New York with a contact for ‘The Firm’ to present A Funny Thingin Australia. Then this country’s major theatrical producers, Williamson’s traditionally spiced their shows with imported ‘stars’—though most of them were merely tiny twinkles in Broadway and the West End. A Funny Thing was no exception.

The role of Pseudolus went to Jack Collins. Through the program trumpeted his ‘700 network TV shows, 26 Broadway credits and major film work’, Mr Collins was a very minor player in his home country, albeit a competent comedian. Jack Gardner, another American of modest achievement, was chosen to play Hero. Canadian baritone Don McManus, a G&S regular, played Miles Gloriosus. Our Hysterium and Senex were both English—Clifford Mollison and Richard Walker respectively. Mollison had starred in farce here in the 1950s, and Walker was warmly remembered for his G&S roles and as Doolittle in the Australian production of My Fair Lady. The rest of the cast were local favourites: veteran vaudevillian Will Mahoney (Erronius), Bob Hornery (Lycus), Geraldene Morrow (Philia) and Pauline Garrick (Domina). Also joining in the mayhem were Max Phipps, Judith Roberts, Buster Skeggs and Rae Rondell. Berry Pounder choreographed and Brian Buggy conducted. The director was an Australian, Freddie Carpenter who boasted a long list of West End credits.

Cover of souvenir program for premiere Australian season, Sydney, 1964

Cast of the first Australian production: (back) Bob Hornery & Jack Collins; (front) Richard Walker, Clifford Mollison & Will Mahoney

When Carpenter had trouble finding six local girls with the sex appeal expected of courtesans, Williamson’s advertised for hopefuls to attend a much publicised cattle call. This led one sceptical commentator to suggest that Carpenter would find what he wanted if he ventured into Sydney’s three thriving drag shows. There was also a wistful comment that the show would have provided a perfect showcase for the legendary ribaldry of Stiffy and Mo, who had dominated Australian vaudeville stages in the twenties.

Freddie Carpenter at rehearsal

Sunday Telegraph photograph

Jack Gardner as ‘Hero’ & Geraldene Morrow as ‘Philia’

After rehearsals in Melbourne, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum had its Australian premiere at the Theatre Royal in Sydney on 18 July 1964. Audiences loved it, and most of the critics agreed. The Sun’s Norman Kessell praised its 'unabashed exuberance’ and its ‘constant simmer of merriment’, while the Telegraph’s Denis O’Brien called it 'bawdily, glamorously, boisterously good’ and made special mention of Bob Hornery: ‘His absorption in his role is an object lesson for young actors.’ But The Australian’s Francis Evers grumbled that the show ‘scraped the bottom of the barrel of vaudeville and music hall’ while, perhaps predictably, The Catholic Weekly decreed: ‘Too great an emphasis on sex rules it out of the General Exhibition class. It’s strictly Adults Only’. A Funny Thing clocked up 16 weeks in Sydney and 17 in Melbourne, where the reviews were a little more guarded. ‘This is not a show for dad, mum and the kids,’ warned Isabel Carter in The Herald. ‘If it were taken to the dry cleaners, I doubt whether much would come back.’ ‘No wonder the Roman Empire fell,’ said Leonard Radic in The Age. The tour ended with a four-week run at Her Majesty’s in Adelaide. Both Jack Collins and Jack Gardner returned to relative obscurity in the United States, though Collins did achieve a A Funny Thing credit on Broadway: a single performance as Senex, when he stepped in for an unwell Lew Parker on the opening night of the 1972 revival.

Since A Funny Thing’s first Australian outing, it’s become a staple of amateur companies, but we’ve also enjoyed a few notable professional productions. The first of these was in 1966 in Perth, where Edgar Metcalfe starred as Pseudolus in a jaunty National Theatre presentation, which he also directed. Perth scored again in 1981 when His Majesty’s Theatre hosted the ebullient Noel Ferrier as Pseudolus in a production directed by Jenny McNae. In 1977 Alastair Duncan staged the show at Sydney’s Marian Street Theatre. His notable cast included Johnny Lockwood (Pseudolus), Peter Whitford (Hysterium), Reg Gillam (Senex), Tony Sheldon (Hero) and Jennifer McGregor (Philia). Phillip Scott was musical director.

Cover of program for Marion Street Theatre revival, 1977

Frank Van Straten collection

Cover of program for 1998/1999 revival

Frank Van Straten collection

Jon English was Pseudolus in Simon Gallaher's splendidly irreverent Essgee version of A Funny Thing. After opening in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve 1998, the show enjoyed an extensive romp around Australia and New Zealand through most of 1999. English’s accomplices included Drew Forsythe (Senex), John Bowles (Hero), Helen Donaldson (Philia), Joan Brockenshire (Domina), Tommy Dysart (Lycus), Jonathan Biggins (Hysterium) and Basil Clarke (Erronius). Clarke was then a sprightly 86; it was his last stage role. Craig Schaefer directed.

Cover of program for 2012 revival

Helmet worn by Adam Murphy as Miles Gloriosus

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

The Stephen Sondheim frolic also returned to Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 2012, where it opened on 27 October. The new John Frost production was possible because of the unexpected availability of Geoffrey Rush who, it seems, had long held a secret desire to play the deliciously devious Pseudolus. Supporting him were some of this country’s most adept thespians: Shane Bourne, Hugh Sheridan, Magda Szubanski, Gerry Connolly, Mitchell Butel, Christie Whelan-Browne, Adam Murphy. Bob Hornery. Susan-ann Walker and Rohan Browne. Gabriella Tylesova designed the set and costumes, and Simon Phillips directed. ‘It’s not just funny’, said Crikey’s Byron Bache, ‘it’s entirely and unreservedly hilarious. Rush's performance is as a close to theatrical wizardry as anyone will ever get.’ And speaking of theatrical wizardry, on 23 November Sondheim himself joined ABC presenter Christopher Lawrence on the Forum set to talk about his life and work, and to introduce some Sondheim standards performed by members of the cast. Proceeds from the unforgettable afternoon went to support the Rob Guest Endowment.  Due to Geoffrey Rush being available for just 12 weeks, the production played until 25 November 2012.

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:

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):

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:

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:

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

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

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

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.

‘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

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 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.

For forty years, the many hundreds of dance students, acrobats, dedicated mums and dads, little brothers and sisters, future Tivoli performers and those destined for global fame, were greeted—often several times a week—by a half-glass-paned door with large russet-coloured letters painted on the glass: ‘Alice Uren’s School of Stage Dancing’.

From 1921 to the early 1960s, Alice Uren’s School of Stage Dancing could be found in Melbourne’s Flinders Street on the first floor of the Empire Arcade (next to the Mutual Store). Accessed via two flights of narrow stairs or a small elevator, the dancing school was in a great location. Outside was the Degraves Street subway to access train travel, or alternatively, trams and buses were handy in Flinders, Elizabeth and Swanston Streets. An additional treat for students from the 1950s was a Darrell Lea confectionery store situated at the Arcade entrance.

Following the death of her fellow entertainer and husband Frank Uren in 1921, Alice Uren became regarded as one of the top dancing and acrobatics teachers in Melbourne. Her city-based dance-teacher contemporaries were May Downs, Olive Wallace, Ivy Emms and Jenny Brennan. Future stage and television star (the now late) Val Jellay started dancing lessons with Miss Uren in 1931, aged four, and in her autobiography Stagestruck, describes Alice as ‘a wonderful teacher for the stage.’

My recollections of Alice Uren’s dance studio commence in the early 1950s, having crossed Flinders Street from the Railway Building and Miss Dorothy Gladstone’s dance classes, to study with Miss Uren. The half-glass-paned door opened into a huge dance studio with a large mirror to the left on the wall and a piano and chair positioned nearby. An office was to the right, and wooden bench seats for mothers to watch classes lined the right-hand side wall, which ran either side of a door opening onto a balcony. Wooden barre rails ran along part of the left wall which was adorned with photos of star students, including Val Jellay and Toni Lamond. Across the back of the studio was a doorless change-room space with a concrete wash trough. Rubber acrobatic mats lay neatly stacked on the floor in one corner. 

The Reddy/ Lamond Family, 1959. From left: Max Reddy, Helen Reddy, Stella Lamond, Tony Sheldon and Toni Lamond. Photograph by Chris Whitehorn.

Toni Lamond Collection, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Program showing details of Alice Uren’s Xmas Revels at Melbourne Town Hall, 3 December 1955. Item No.11 features Helen Reddy as soloist.

Sourced from Threadgold private collection

In the early 1950s, Toni Lamond was an Alice Uren legendary star pupil, and her sister Helen Reddy was a student. Miss Uren staged her splendid annual concerts at the Melbourne Town Hall accompanied by an orchestra, and Helen Reddy would sing solos. Helen’s future fame as a world-class performer was of course unknown then, but for this younger soloist (Cheryl McPhee) and other students of that era, it is rather awesome to have been included as a soloist in the same program as future global star Helen Reddy!

Miss Uren devoted several days a week over four decades to teaching her students singing, ballet, toe, tap and acrobatics in private lessons, a Friday night seniors’ class and the Saturday afternoon large group class, but rarely talked about her own successful performing history.

Records reveal she was born Alice Johnston in Balmain, New South Wales in 1899. A trained contortionist and juggler, Alice started her professional performing career at age fifteen after meeting her future husband, juggler Frank Uren.

Frank Uren

Photo courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

Frank Uren and Carl Bracken, c.1912

Photo courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection.

Frank Uren was born David Francis Uren in 1894 in Victoria. Using the stage name ‘Frank Uren’, his first recorded professional engagement was in 1911 with Jones Moving Theatre. At 17 years old he was billed as ‘the London Juggler’ and after teaming up with strong man and wire walker, Carl Bracken, Frank toured Australia in small variety groups juggling clubs, six fiery torches, plates and balls.

The duo used different names, such as ‘Carl and Frank Brackens’ when performing a loop-the-loop turn with a bicycle, or as ‘The Urens’, when billed as ‘Australia’s Comedy Jugglers’.

Frank Uren in Bicycle Act, c.1912

Photo courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

Poster advertising ‘The Brackens’ (Carl and Frank) at the Theatre Royal. c.1912

Image courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

Poster advertising ‘Frank, Lank and Alice’ at the Empire Theatre. c.1915

Image courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

Frank and Carl split after a year and Frank went solo, described in 1913 as an ‘expert sensational juggler’ in his act with the Coles Vaudeville company at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Geelong, Victoria.

When World War One commenced in July 1914, many young male performers enlisted for service, creating vacancies and opportunities in Australia’s vaudeville circuit. Frank was most likely exempted from war service due to ill health and was soon performing in another duo—this time with fifteen-year-old contortionist Alice Johnston. Their variety act ‘Frank and Alice’ was first performed In October 1914 between movie screenings in Townsville, Queensland. Leeann Richards writes that life on Australia’s vaudeville circuit was difficult, with poor quality food, lack of, or underpaid wages, basic accommodation and uncomfortable, constant travelling. However, as Richards points out, it must have been an exciting adventure for two young performers such as Frank, now 20, and Alice. Although Frank and Alice were inexperienced and open to exploitation, a duo was less vulnerable than a solo performer when dealing with ‘unscrupulous employers’.

In 1915, Frank and Alice invited ‘droll and witty’ comedian William Thompson to join them, and they became ‘Frank, Lank and Alice’, a combined juggling, contortionist and comedy trio. The act is said to have drawn praise from critics for their ‘extraordinary skills and original routines’ (ozvta.com/practitioners-f/). ‘Frank, Lank and Alice’ signed with the Fullers and began touring to the firm’s Australian and New Zealand circuits.

Comedy, juggling and contortion act Frank, Lank and Alice, 1916

Image source: Australian Variety, 1 March 1916, front cover

Frank Uren and Alice Johnston married in February 1916 in Balmain, New South Wales. A week after the wedding, the trio’s photo was taken for the front page of Australian Variety. The accompanying article described them as ‘youthful and attentive to their work’ and the ‘excellence’ of their act being ‘fit to take a prominent place on any bill.’

Two weeks before the opening of the musical Bunyip, Alice gave birth to Virginia F. (‘Wattle Blossom’) Uren (fondly known as ‘the Bunyipbaby’) in the Sydney suburb of Petersham. The Bunyip musical pantomime (subtitled The Enchantment of Fairy Princess Wattle Blossom) written by Ella Palzier Campbell (aka Ella Airlie) in 1908, opened at the Grand Opera House, Sydney, on 22 December,1916. 

Bunyip musical pantomime sheet music. c.1916

Image courtesy of Leeann Richards

Alice Uren and daughter Virginia. c.1922

Photo courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

‘Frank, Lank and Alice’ don’t appear to have been part of the Sydney or Melbourne Bunyip seasons, but joined the cast at Adelaide’s Majestic Theatre, opening on 2 June 1917. With baby Virginia, they toured with the pantomime mostly at Christmas and Easter, and Virginia also performed in a pantomime when older.

Roy Rene writes about performing with Alice in The Bunyipin his book Mo’s Memoirs:‘One of the things that I always did in The Bunyipwas to frighten the life out of Alice Uren. I used to get hold of her daughter … and then Stiffy and I would put the baby in the pushcart with a lot of vegetables where the audience could not see it and go on for our act. Alice used to think her baby had been kidnapped. She did not really mind the practical jokes we played, because I would always mind the baby for her if she wanted some help. It was such a lovely show that we all helped each other … ‘.

Until the end of World War One, ‘Frank, Lank and Alice’ mixed pantomime performances with working individually for other leading firms such as Harry Clay, Dix-Baker and Birch and Carroll. In 1920, they briefly toured New Zealand and were warmly received. ‘Frank, Lank and Alice’ enjoyed much success, with Frank described as ‘the only juggler in Australia juggling three clubs in one hand’. Lank was also praised by critics for his Charlie Chaplin impression during the act, while in December, in Broken Hill, Alice also received plaudits from the local paper, which noted that ‘Miss Alice contributed some graceful and clever contortionist work’.

In late 1920 they returned to Australia, performing in Rockhampton, Queensland. Frank became ill with tuberculosis, and this would be one of their final performances. In 1921, Alice, Virginia and Frank were living with his family at their hotel, the Great Western, near Melbourne. In October, Frank went to see his cousin Tommy in a prize fight, went ‘motoring’ the next day, returned home and unexpectedly died in his sleep at 27 years old. Eulogised as a ‘clean-living husband who was a credit to the vaudeville profession’, Frank Uren was also described as ‘Australia’s greatest club juggler’.

Leeann Richards writes that ‘Frank, Lank and Alice’ may not have become international superstars, ‘But they were part of the backbone of Australian vaudeville during the First World War, when many performers were absent. As such, their short career played a significant role in ensuring the visibility of juggling during a difficult time for vaudeville in Australia.’

The large Uren family was supportive to Alice and her daughter, as were Fullers. She was employed as a ballet mistress with the vaudeville chain and from that experience created the dancing school in Melbourne, which would have a long and distinguished history. Alice married her second husband Sydney Burgess in 1924, but maintained her professional name, Alice Uren.

After establishing her dancing and acrobatic school in Melbourne in 1921, Alice Uren quickly earned a fine reputation. Everyone’smagazine incorporating Australian Variety and Show Worldwrites favourably of a student performance on 20 December 1922:

‘Alice Uren’s cleverly trained children performers are one of the added attractions at the Lyric Theatre, St Kilda, where their unique speciality proves very popular.’

The Tivoli Theatre advertisement for Celebrity Vaudeville, January 1927. ‘The Eight Urens’ are described as ‘Melbourne’s Cleverest Children’. 

Image courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

Acrobatics were the ‘speciality’ skill taught by Alice as well as ballet, toe, tap and singing, and she and her students were regularly praised in reviews in Victorian newspapers. One example is The Werribee Shire Banner, which refers to 5 November 1931 when ‘A fine programme was presented last Saturday night by Miss Alice Uren’s pupils and supporting artists at the Mechanics’ Hall, Williamstown in aid of the Altona boating tragedy appeal. Miss Uren is to be congratulated on the fine performance of her many talented pupils … ’. The paper also mentions an acrobatic troupe called ‘The Tivoli Juveniles’.

This interview dated 7 April 1933 was included in the Commonwealth Society of Teachers of Dancing 50^th Anniversary of Dance, 1933-1983

Image courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

In an interview dated 7 April 1933, Miss Uren speaks of loving her dance teaching work and of creating ‘a great harmony among my children’. She comments that her school has been represented in every Melbourne theatre and shares her philosophy: ‘You must love them to get the best that’s in them, to scare them is not right, you must have discipline.’ Alice also speaks of her daughter Virginia about to start a course in chemistry and not being interested in dance teaching.

The Bijou Theatre at 225 Bourke Street, Melbourne, by now owned by Sir Benjamin Fuller, operated as a high-quality vaudeville venue. Alice presented her annual student performances from this venue until its closure in 1934. As it turned out, the last attraction at The Bijou Theatre before its closure on 13 January 1934, was produced by Alice Uren—Mickey the Mouse Revue—which opened on 23 December 1933 and performed by ‘250 clever kiddies’. The popularity of this show saw it extend beyond the originally planned one-week season. Press advertisements dated 5 January 1934 claimed that 9,423 children had seen the show.

In March 1934, A.R. Harwood of Centenary Films launched a stage show at the Palace Theatre, and the Everyones publication praised ballet mistress Alice Uren for the ‘graceful ballets’. 

Miss Alice Uren with students. c.1930s

Photo courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private photo collection

Alice Uren’s students continued entertaining during World War Two, including being advertised as ‘Alice Uren’s ballet of beautiful girls’ in a two-and-a-half-hour midnight revue titled ‘New Year’s Eve Revels’ in 1943. An article headed ‘People Behind the Shows’ in the ABC Weeklydated 14 July 1945 reads: 'Alice Uren, the Melbourne ballet mistress who arranges the ballets for the 3XY live-artist shows Radio Revelsand Salute to the Allied Services, now proudly boasts of having provided 1300 ballet items for these shows (presented at the Princess Theatre) in the last two years.’

Virginia Uren was married in 1939 in a society wedding to Mr Colin Campbell-Thomas. She worked as a presenter on Melbourne radio station 3AW. 

The Times 26 April–2 May 1941. Virgie Uren at right was organiser of the 3AW Sports Ball, with Fred and Mrs Tupper and Terry and Mrs Dear.

Article courtesy of the Uren/Thomas family private collection

Virgie Uren on behalf of the 3AW Women’s Association presents an ambulance donated to the A.I.F. (at left) and at right, presents tea-towels for the A.I.F. Armoured Division as the result of a 3AW two-day appeal. c.1940s

Scrapbook articles courtesy of Uren/Thomas family

In early December 1949 in a gala premiere show at the Northcote Plaza Theatre celebrating the transition from ‘picture-house’ to ‘live-stage’ performance venue, Alice Uren again received a positive review from The Age: ‘An energetically graceful ballet testified to the direction of the ballet mistress Alice Uren.’

As a young student, Val Jellay had two private lessons weekly in the 1930s and attended the Saturday class. She writes of Alice Uren teaching tapping as ‘combination rhythms’ which helped Val understand ‘rounded’ beats that flow. ‘She taught style, and did all her own “bearing” when teaching acrobats’, says Val.

Miss Uren hired a pianist for the Saturday afternoon classes, but for private lessons accompanied students herself, quickly adapting to any musical key to suit vocal ranges. Val Jellay describes Miss Uren as ‘a great sight-reader who would watch in the mirror, talk, sing, bang her feet, wave her arms and play all at the same time’. Val also recalls the music publishers Albert and Chappell sending Miss Uren copies of their latest publications, and what fun it was to go through the new songs.

Alice Uren’s best acrobatic performance troupe was called ‘The Melbourne Marvels’, which Val was proud to eventually join. Val also joined young Kevin Swain to become a miniature Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing act, advertised for engagements as the ‘Tip Top Tappers’. The photo below was displayed on the dance studio wall above the clock.

The Tip-Top Tappers (Val Jellay and Kevin Swain)

From Stagestruckby Val Jellay, p.14. Image reproduced with permission.

Val Jellay and Kevin Swain reunite at the 2006 Alice Uren past students’ reunion

From The Melbourne Observer 26 April 2006. Image courtesy of Ash Long, Editor, Melbourne Observer.

In April 2006, a reunion lunch for 63 past Alice Uren students and Uren family members was organised at the Tivoli Theatre Restaurant, Malvern. Val Jellay and Kevin Swain caught up after 70 years and their photo appeared on the front page of the Melbourne Observer on 26 April 2006.

Over the years, many of Miss Uren’s students performed at the Tivoli Theatre. A wooden rostrum with steps was used by students in classes to encourage graceful poise and good posture.

Today, former students still speak very highly of Miss Uren. Mezzo soprano Toni Adelman remains grateful to Alice Uren for discovering her singing voice. Toni remembers attending her first Saturday afternoon class in the late 1950s and lining up in rows with other students for ‘singing’. Miss Uren would walk the rows, listening, and on this occasion when returning to the front, she called 11-year-old Toni out to sing the song by herself. Toni remembers her face turning red but started to sing and at the end everyone clapped. Toni says, ‘I felt so good—I loved to sing.’ This would be the start of a wonderful journey for Toni—first in the television show Swallow’s Juniors, studying classical music at the Melba Conservatorium with Joan Arnold, Margaret Schofield and Erich Vietheer; then Geoffrey Parsons in England. ‘My singing took my husband, son Craig and me to England’, says Toni. ‘Thanks to Miss Uren, my life has been full of some great years of singing.’ Toni has always remembered Miss Uren’s advice to ‘Never stop if something goes wrong … keep smiling and no one will know.’

Lesley Harrison (now Phillips) is also grateful to Miss Uren for her career in TV, cabaret and theatre, which started when almost seventeen. Lesley attributes this to the grounding of her younger years. She had commenced dancing at age nine and would attend three classes per week—a private lesson on Wednesday night, the seniors’ class on Friday night (which Lesley credits for her training for cabaret shows), and the Saturday afternoon class. Lesley also remembers Miss Uren walking along the rows of students singing in class and being picked one day to sing. From then on, Lesley sang solos in concert items with the dancers behind her. Lesley believes Miss Uren’s method of amalgamating all students in the one group class on Saturday afternoons was educational and inspirational, particularly for younger students.

Kay Neenan was a leading acrobatic student and performer in the 1950s and highly praises Miss Uren’s dedication to train her acrobatic troupe after the three-hour Saturday afternoon dancing and singing class had finished. The acrobats’ item was always a major highlight of Miss Uren’s annual shows at the Melbourne Town Hall. Kay’s niece Lyn Honeyman was three years old when following her older Aunty Kay to take lessons. Lyn recalls singing ‘The Wedding of the Painted Doll’ in a Melbourne Town Hall show and having make-up applied to her face while being sat up on a table in the dressing-room.

Alice Uren (centre) backstage with students at a performance, c.1958. Back row from left: Judith Cuthbert, Annette Potts, Miss Alice Uren, Lesley Harrison, Cheryl McPhee, dancer unknown. Front row: Kay Neenan, dancer unknown.  

Photograph courtesy of Kay (Neenan) Myers

In 1955, the Empire Arcade was purchased by the adjacent Mutual Store and in forthcoming years underwent a range of modifications. This included Alice Uren’s dance studio, so Miss Uren relocated her classes to a downstairs space in the Empire Arcade until it became flooded and unavailable. By now, Miss Uren was also teaching dance classes in Altona, so in the early 1960s, the Alice Uren School of Stage Dancing began operating full-time in Altona.

Program for Alice Uren’s Red, White & Blue Revue, Melbourne Town Hall, 11 March 1954

Sourced from Threadgold private collection

Program for Alice Uren’s Xmas Revels, Melbourne Town Hall, 3 December 1955

Sourced from Threadgold private collection

Program for Alice Uren’s Xmas Revue, Methodist Hall, Altona, 14 December 1962

Sourced from Threadgold private collection

On 1 May 1974, Miss Uren reunited with 40 students and their mothers at a surprise lunch event. The venue was Smacka’s Place, the jazz restaurant operated by entertainer Smacka Fitzgibbon in North Melbourne. It was a joyful event for those in attendance, especially for the guest-of-honour, Alice Uren.

A surprise reunion on 1 May 1974 for Alice Uren with 40 past students and their mothers at Smacka’s Place, North Melbourne. Miss Uren at centre is with Cheryl Threadgold (left). Other names are not known.

From The Sun, Thursday, 2 May 1974. p.16

Alice (Uren) Burgess passed away in Glen Iris on 31 December 1978, aged 79. Her ashes are located in the Rose Urn Garden at Fawkner Cemetery.

During her wonderful life, Miss Uren achieved splendid success in her performance career. She overcame adversity from losing her beloved first husband and fellow performer, Frank, by transitioning to become mentor, teacher and friend to many hundreds, probably thousands, of students. Every student benefitted not only from Alice Uren’s talents and theatrical professionalism, but also her fine personal ethics, discipline, philosophy and friendship.

Acknowledgement of this special performer and dance teacher’s contribution to Australian theatre is long overdue.

Miss Alice Uren, please take a bow.

Photo of Alice Uren c.1920s

Photo courtesy of the Uren/Thomas private collection

Postscript: It was incredibly lucky that Miss Uren’s family members were located just prior to publication of this story and have generously sourced and shared precious photos from their private collection. Thank you so much to the Uren/Thomas family.

Grateful Thanks

Toni Adelman

Marty Fields

Claudia Funder

Lesley (Harrison) Phillips

Lyn Honeyman

Ash Long, Editor Melbourne Observer

Rob Morrison

Kay (Neenan) Myers

Leeann Richards

The Uren/Thomas Family: David, Carol, Ashley and Penny

References

ABC Weekly,‘People Behind the Shows’, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 14 July 1945, Vol.7, No.28, p.47, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1335046818 (accessed 2 June 2025)

The Age (Melbourne), ‘Stage Variety at Northcote’, 3 December 1949, p.6,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189489012 (accessed 1 June 2025)

The Argus (Melbourne), ‘Acrobatics on Henley Lawns’, 26 June 1930, p.7, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4095839# (accessed 1 June 2025)

The Argus (Melbourne), ‘Miss Alice Uren’s Pupils’, 11 December 1933, p.5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11719577 (accessed 1 June 2025)

The Argus (Melbourne), ‘Mickey the Mouse Revue’, 1 January 1934, p.3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11725602 (accessed 2 June 2025)

The Argus(Melbourne), ‘Gala Midnight Revue’ (New Year’s Eve Revels) advertisement, 28 December 1943, p.11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11796744 (accessed 2 June 2025)

Clay Djubal, ‘Frank, Lank and Alice, Comedy, juggling and contortion act’, Australian Variety Theatre Archive, ‘Popular Culture Entertainment: 1850–1930’, 13 March 2011, ozvta.com/practitioners-f/ (accessed 26 May 2025)

Everyones, Incorporating Australian Variety and Show World, Vol.3, No.146, 20 December 1922, p.27, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-552028296 (accessed 2 June 2025)

Everyones, Incorporating Australian Variety and Show World, Vol. 14, No.734, 21 March 1934, p.27, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-580086339 (accessed 2 June 2025)

Leann Richards, ‘Frank, Lank and Alice—“the only juggler in Australia juggling three clubs in one hand … ” ’, Threw the Hat, A History of Juggling in Australia, 26 February 2023, https://www.threw-the-hat.com/search/label/Alice%20Uren?m=0 (accessed 22 December 2024)

Val Jellay (Mrs Maurie Fields), Stagestruck, An Autobiography, Richmond, Victoria, Spectrum Publications, 1994

Roy Rene, Mo’s Memoirs, ‘The Bunyip’, Reed & Harris, Melbourne, 1945

Werribee Shire Banner (Vic) ’Altona News’, 5 November 1931, p.3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74578589 (accessed 1 June 2025)