Beatrice Day

On Saturday, 21 December 1912, Allen Doone made a welcome return to the Palace Theatre. He opened with a revival of The Wearing of the Green. This was performed for the first fortnight of his season and on 4 January 1913, he introduced The Parish Priest, for the first time in Australia.

Written by American journalist Daniel L. Hart, The Parish Priest had premiered in Middletown, New York State, in January 1900, with Daniel Sully as the Rev. Whalen. The play went on to became one of Sully’s biggest hits, and he performed it throughout the USA for many years, including a five-week season at New York’s Fourteenth Street Theatre in September/October 1900. Daniel Hart wrote several more plays, including Melbourne (1901), set on the goldfields, which was staged in New York the same year under the title Australia. In 1920, The Parish Priest was made into a film starring William Desmond. ¹

Allen Doone as the Rev. John Whalen

From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 December 1913

Edna Keeley, c.1912

Wikipedia

The Parish Priest was something of a departure from Doone’s usual bill of fare. Set in a small mining town in Pennsylvania, the drama concerns a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. John Whalen, who takes particular interest in helping right the misunderstanding of two pairs of lovers, one of whom is Helen Durkin, his ward, played by Edna Keeley. As the “tolerant, kindly and affectionate counsellor” with his deep knowledge of human nature and gentle humour, the play provided Doone with an opportunity to demonstrate his skill as a character actor and was the first time that audiences had seen him made-up as an old man. So as not to disappoint his public, he managed to introduce one song into the third act, where sitting by his cosy fireside he sang “The Old-fashioned Mother” (an 1897 song by Chauncey Olcott).

On 25 January 1913, romance returned to the stage with a revival of In Old Donegal. Allen Doone had introduced this play to Sydneysiders during his first Sydney season at the Adelphi in October 1911. As Larry Donovan, the “devil-may-care young Irishman”, he delighted audiences with his songs “Doone’s Rose Song”, “Kate O’Donoghue” (sung for his sweetheart played by Edna Keeley), “Alannah” and “The Tunes We Love to Hear on Paddy’s Day”. With this play, Doone’s Palace season came to an end on 7 February.

Cyril Mackay. Photo by Lafayette. From The Stage Pictorial,1913.

Courtesy of Marriner Theatre Archive

Eugenie Duggan. Photo by Talma. From The Stage Pictorial, 1913

Courtesy of Marriner Theatre Archive

Australian drama returned to the Palace on 8 February, with William Anderson’s Famous Dramatic Company. Headed by Eugenie Duggan, with new leading man Cyril Mackay, the season opened with Jo Smith’s The Bushgirl. This play had been performed in Melbourne in August 1909 as The Bushwoman, with Daisy Scudamore as Kate Brandon and Roy Redgrave as the hero, Jack Dunstan.

Described in the bills as “The Stirring Australian Drama of the Blue Ranges”, it is the heroine rather than the hero who is required to extract her sweetheart from several sticky situations, including a trumped-up charge of murder and the ravages of a bushfire. In one thrilling scene, when Jack is being pursued by the police (for a crime he didn’t commit), the officers are prevented from catching him when they are blocked by a group of school cadets (played by a local squadron of boy scouts) carrying out manoeuvres in the bush. And when Jack is trapped by a bushfire (started by the villain), Kate must fell a tree so that it bridges a chasm, providing him with a path to safety.

Cyril Mackay and Eugenie Duggan in The Bushgirl

From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 March 1913

Packed houses greeted William Anderson’s company. As the Sunday Times (9 February 1913, p.2) noted:

Miss Eugenie Duggan has never seemed more at home in a part than she does as the heroine of “The Bush Girl” [sic]. From her first scene, in which she appears in the homely operation of damping down clothes, Miss Duggan was gladly greeted by last night’s Palace audience as having added a new favourite to the characters of Australian drama. “The Bush Girl” goes far to show how greatly an actress can be assisted by a sympathetic part. As Kate Brandon, Miss Duggan attained a naturalness that is hardly possible to the heroine of some of the English plays in which she has appeared, and that fine actor, Mr Cyril Mackay, provided the right support in the role of the hero.

The Sydney Morning Herald (10 February 1913) concurred:

Miss Eugenie Duggan, who was cordially welcomed back, made sincerity the keynote of the heroine’s character, denouncing the villain in good set terms, and above all, playing the love scenes prettily. These passages were well-written, and Kate’s admission “that when she took to riding in a leading rein, she knew the man who would hold the other end of it”, was touchingly made. Mr Cyril Mackay proved natural, manly and attractive as Jack; and Mr Rutland Beckett’s intensity gave realism to the character of Ackroyd.

The Bushgirl played until 28 February 1913. The following night, 1 March, the romantic drama The Prince and the Beggar Maid by Walter Howard was revived. Once again Eugenie Duggan and Cyril Mackay took the leads. The role of Monica, the Princess who masquerades as a beggar maid in order to win peace for her people and the hand of Prince Olaf, was not a new one for Eugenie, who had created the role in 1910 when the play was performed in Australia for the first time. On that occasion, Prince Olaf, the part now played by Cyril Mackay, was acted by George Cross, with Roy Redgrave and Rutland Beckett as Olaf’s two brothers and rivals. With the current production Rutland Beckett was reprising his original role of Prince Hildred, as was Olive Wilton, who had been the original Camiola. The Sunday Times (2 March 1913, p.2) commended Anderson’s choice of play:

The revival of “The Prince and the Beggar Maid” at the Palace Theatre last night was a good stroke of management on the part of Mr William Anderson. Coming after “The Bush Woman” [sic], the romantic drama by Walter Howard seemed to be even more picturesque than when it was first staged in Sydney at the Criterion Theatre. The play in strong in the elements of love and sacrifice, and there are almost as many “thrills” as one associates with the popular brand of melodrama. Nothing was left undone by Mr Anderson to make the mounting effective, and the acting was remarkably good.

The Prince and the Beggar Maid was withdrawn on 14 March 1913, which also signalled the end of the season.

Scenes from A Woman of Impulse, photographed during the company’s Melbourne season by Talma & Co. From left: Beatrice Day; Sydney Stirling & Florence Brough; Sydney Stirling & Lizette Parkes. From Punch (Melbourne), 1 May 1913.

The Hamilton and Plimmer Comedy Company took control of the theatre the following night, 15 March 1913, commencing their season at the Palace with a revival of Dr Wake’s Patient, for the first time in five years.

Manager Allan Hamilton was a regular at the Palace Theatre, from his first visit in 1906 when he introduced the Society Entertainers, Lydia Yeamans Titus and Leslie Harris, to Sydney audiences. Since that time, he had presented many other companies, notably two seasons in 1911/1912, in association with Harry Plimmer and Reynolds Denniston, when the first Sydney productions of Nobody’s Daughter and Inconstant George were performed. Now, with Denniston having joined forces with Hugh C. Buckler and Violet Paget to open Sydney’s Little Theatre, Hamilton and Plimmer were launching a new company. The line-up was a strong one, headed by G.S. Titheradge, H.R. Roberts, Paul Latham, Beatrice Day and Florence Brough, along with Arthur Styan, Sydney Stirling, Lizette Parkes, Muriel Dale, Kate Towers, and Cyril Bell.

Since its first staging in 1906, Dr Wake’s Patient, W. Gayer Mackey and Robert Ord’s four-act comedy, had enjoyed two revivals in Sydney, at the Palace in 1907 and Criterion in 1908. With the current production, Beatrice Day and Florence Brough reprised their original roles of Lady Gerania Wyn-Charteret and The Countess of St Olbyn, while the principal male roles of Andrew Wake and his son Forrester Wake were performed by Arthur Styan and H.R. Roberts, with G.S. Titheradge as the Earl of St Olbyn.

A crowded audience greeted the opening performance, and as The Sun enthused, the play “had lost none of its freshness” and the acting was “excellent”, upholding the high standards set by the late Robert Brough, who had presented the first Australian production. Dr Wake’s Patient played until 11 April 1913.

The next play was A Woman of Impulse by Victor Widnell. This play was familiar to Palace theatregoers having played a short season the previous November under the auspices of Talbot Ltd, with Madge McIntosh as Lady Langford. A few weeks later, Allan Hamilton purchased the performance rights from Francis Talbot. The play was well-promoted but coming at the end of a very short season, it played only four performances, from Saturday, 12 April to Wednesday, 16 April. Beatrice Day now essayed the role of Lady Langford, with G.S. Titheradge as Sir Matthew West, Harry Plimmer as Sir George Langford, and H.R. Roberts as Carl Navourac. Florence Brough was Mrs Dudley, with Lizette Parkes as Bertha Dudley. Harry Plimmer and Paul Latham were joint directors, and Harry Whaite painted the new scenery.

Elocutionist Lawrence Campbell, c.1912

HAT Archive

“Bert Bailey, maker and producer of Australian plays”—Harry Julius caricature (1910)

National Library of Australia, Canberra

With the departure of the Hamilton-Plimmer Company, the Lawrence Campbell Comedy Company presented the double bill of Our Boys (the TW Robertson comedy) and The Bishop’s Candlesticks on the 17 and 18 April 1913. Campbell was an English-born elocutionist who immigrated to Australia in 1888, settling in Sydney in the mid-1890s where he established himself as one of the country’s leading instructors in stage and public speaking.²

On Saturday, 19 April 1913, the Bert Bailey Company returned, having just completed a highly successful tour of New Zealand with the bush comedy On Our Selection. The last time they were at the Palace, they presented the first ever production, but as that season was limited to just three weeks, they returned for an extended six-month season, with the intention of remounting the Steele Rudd play and introducing some other novelties.

The cast was largely the same as the first production with the exception of English actress Ada Oakley, who had been specially engaged to play the role of Kate, replacing Mary Marlowe. Reviewing her debut, The Daily Telegraph (21 April 1913, p. 9) noted:

Miss Ada Oakley, an English actress, who made her first appearance in Australia in the somewhat stereotyped part of Kate Rudd, was an immediate success. A charming little manner, albeit somewhat refined for the part of a selector’s daughter, who “had not yet seen a great city,” a good stage presence and a musical voice, are splendid attributes Miss Oakley brings to the old land. There is the faintest suggestion of the stock heroine from Drury-lane in her work, but of her capabilities there can be no question.

The same reviewer went on to say:

Bert Bailey, as before, stood out from the remainder of the cast for a life-like impersonation of the worried, but none the less courageous selector—the man who fights droughts, fire, and intrigue in the backblocks of his native land. Serious at times, and amusing anon, he got as close to the author’s idea of the man pictured as anyone is ever likely to get.

After six-months on the road, any defects had been ironed out, and play now ran “brisky from rise to fall of curtain”.

The play proved a run-away success, with the “house full” sign on display night after night. However, just three weeks into the season, plans for a six-month season were upturned when William Anderson prevailed upon Bailey to cut his stay short so that he may bring in his next attraction, The Grafters. Bailey and co. agreed to vacate the Palace on 12 June and head to Melbourne, where they replaced Anderson’s company at the King’s, with the understanding that they could return to Sydney on 16 August to present their second attraction, The Native Born.

Messrs Frank Vack (Lodi Mike, a German tramp), Bert Le Blanc (Sacramento Ike, a Hebrew tramp), Dave Nowlin (Bakersfield Pete, a hobo), and Harry Burgess (Rube Skaggs, the village constable) in The Grafters. From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 July 1913. Theatre Heritage Australia.

As arranged, The Grafters opened at the Palace on 14 June 1913. This company heralded from the United States and comprised some forty artists. Under the management of W.R. Hughes, the American Musical Burlesque Company (the performing name of the Oriental Amusement Company of America Pty. Ltd.) was visiting Australia as part of a tour of the Pacific. Since their departure from San Francisco on 23 November 1912, they had already visited cities in China, Japan and the Philippines. The Australian leg of the tour opened in Melbourne on 15 March 1913 and proved such a success that they negotiated with William Anderson to oversee the rest of their Australasian tour, which would take them to Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and New Zealand.

The company was organised along similar lines to the American Travesty Stars who had appeared at the Palace nine years earlier. In place of Kolb and Dill and Barney Bernard, who were the undisputed stars of the earlier combination, were comedians Bert Le Blanc, Frank Vack and Dave Nowlin; along with leading lady Gertrude St Clair, and character comedienne Eugenie Le Blanc. The company’s opening gambit was The Grafters, “a two-act musical scream”. Comic songs, dances and snappy dialogue interspersed the flimsy plot that sees various people, including three tramps, keen to take control of a country town following its owner’s demise. In the end, the prize goes to Mazie Fogg, a lady golf caddy, who also happens to find the decease’s will under a tree.

The Sunday Times (15 June 1913, p.2) was quick to draw comparison with the 1904 company:

While Kolb and Dill are not eclipsed and Barney Bernard is not outclassed by the new Hebrew impersonator, it must be acknowledged that the Musical Burlesque Company have a bigger and better show than the Travesty Stars. The whole entertainment is on a more liberal scale than the one in which Mr Blake appeared, and the chorus and ballet give “The Grafters” the animation of musical comedy as we have musical comedy mounted and performed in this part of the world.

Although some of the humour was lost on Sydney audiences, the music and songs were a decided hit. The four comedians, Bert Le Blanc, Dave Nowlin, Frank Vack, who played the tramps, and Harry Burgess, who was the village constable, were well received, as was Eugenie Le Blanc as the lady golf caddy.

Several members of the company remained in Australia following the close of the tour, notably Bert Le Blanc (ne Bertram Leon Cohen, 1884-1974) and Harry Burgess (1877-1935).³

Comedians Frank Vack, Dave Nowlin & Bert Le Blanc on the sheet music cover for “Big Chief Smoke” from The Grafters

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Gertrude St Clair graces the cover of the sheet music by “My Australian Rose”, which she performed in The Speculators

National Library of Australia, Canberra

After eight-weeks, The Grafters was withdrawn and for the final twelve nights of the season, commencing on 2 August, the company presented another musical burlesque, The Speculators. This new show followed a similar trajectory to the first one: a insubstantial plot (involving a fraudulent stockbroker), but teaming with colour and movement in the form of song and dance routines, as well as humorous set pieces performed by Bert Le Blanc and Frank Vack as Dennis Blossom and Mike Bloom, two would-be speculators, one Jewish and the other German. Harry Burgess as a crazy Russian added to the fun, and Eugenie Le Blanc was amusing in the comic role of Jenny. But it was the two principal comedians who made the show, as the Sydney Sun (3 August 1913, p.10) observed:

The success of the whole piece depended solely upon their work, and it was in good hands. A funnier couple never stepped the stage in Sydney. From the moment they were flung into Cheatam’s office by a crazy Russian Nihilist, they provided fun, and good fun at that. Their dancing and singing were excellent, but it was their comedy acting that hit the audience.

The Speculators was withdrawn on 15 August 1913, and the following evening, as arranged, Bert Bailey and company returned with The Native Born.

Poster for The Native Born, 1913

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Bert Bailey as Charles Spinifex in The Native Born, 1913. Photographer unknown

State Library of South Australia, Adelaide

The Native Born was a “novelty drama” in four acts by Albert Edmunds (i.e. Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan) with Bert Bailey as the undisputed star of the show, playing Charles Spinifex, a magician, hypnotist and wonder worker, giving him the chance to show off his skills as an amateur illusionist. As the image on the poster suggests, the action of the play takes place in the shadow of Mount Kosciusko, where Ned Blackmore (Richard Bellairs), an unscrupulous land-grabber, seeks to acquire land that is rich in gold. With the help of the illusionist, Jack Hillgrove (Guy Hastings), the son of the landowner, manages to save the land and his girl, Lily Armidale (Ada Oakley), from the grasp of the villain.

This play had premiered in Hobart on 8 February 1913, when it played three nights at the Theatre Royal.⁴

Under the heading “Black Art in Melodrama”, the Sydney Sun (17 August 1913, p.4) provided an apt summary:

The striking and novel feature of the play is the introduction of the Black Art into the bush-life of New South Wales. The inimitable drollery of Mr Bert Bailey puts a touch of unquenchable laughter into a finely staged piece of conjuring work which is woven into the story of love and greed.

The Native Born played for just a fortnight and was withdrawn to make way for The Golden Shanty, which was given its world premiere on 30 August 1913.

Poster for The Golden Shanty, 1913

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Edward Dyson, 1900s. Photographer unknown

National Library of Australia, Canberra

The Golden Shanty was a play in four acts by Melbourne journalist Edward Dyson, based in part on his 1889 short story of the same name. Having served his “apprenticeship” by localising English plays for Bland Holt, this was his first full-length play.⁵ Set in and around the Shamrock Hotel in a gold mining town, the story involved an assorted group of characters and their reactions when it is discovered that the brick walls of the shanty hotel contain gold. Once again, Bert Bailey “stole the show”. As Chiller Green, an amateur pugilist, he “kept his audience in a simmer of laughter, working up again and again to geyser bursts of uncontrollable mirth”. (The Sun, 31 August 1913, p.4) Ostensibly a melodrama dealing with dirty dealings on the diggings, it was the comedy elements and Bert Bailey’s impersonation that helped make the play a success. In concluding their review, the Sydney Sun noted: “Special congratulations are to be offered to two people: To Mr Bailey, that he had Mr Dyson create a character for him; and to Mr Dyson, that he had Mr Bailey to play it.”

It was hoped that this play, replete with “quaint characterisations”, would become as popular as On Our Selection. Newspaper reports and interviews with Dyson and members of the Bailey company puffed its credentials, but sadly, apart from its Sydney outing, it was staged only a handful of times on tour. It did not make it to Dyson’s hometown of Melbourne.⁵

Two weeks later, on 13 September 1913, Bailey introduced another new play, The Ninety and Nine, a 1902 American drama by Ramsay Morris. Inspired by the hymn of the same name, the play, which was relocated to an Australian setting, tells the story of a dissolute engineer, Tom Silverton, who loses himself in drink after separating from an unworthy woman, but when a nearby town is ravaged by forest fire, he is the only man with the specialist knowledge to save the 600 inhabitants from certain death. The fire however is not Tom’s only worry; he has also been wrongly accused of theft and murder. But through the love of good woman, he succeeds in saving the town and finding the necessary proofs to prove himself an innocent man. With this play, Bert Bailey contented himself with the small role of a telegraph operator, but despite the sympathetic acting of Guy Hastings and Ada Oakley, critics still awarded Bailey with the “honours of the piece”. The success of the play also rested on the realistic fire scene, which was created using special light projectors imported from America.

With three weeks to go before the end of the season, On Our Selection was presented as the final offering. The enthusiasm of this play outweighed the popularity of any of the other new plays in the company’s repertoire. As the Referee (1 October 1913, p.16) observed:

No locally written comedy has ever scored the wide success that has attended the dramatization of Steele Rudd’s famous book, and in spite of its long previous runs in this city, it is reputed to be packing the house nightly this week, and still bringing large sums into the coffers of the Bert Bailey management.

With the close of the season on 17 October 1913, the Bert Bailey combination left on a short tour of country New South Wales, before heading, for the first time, to Western Australia.

Chauncey Olcott, the original Barry of Ballymore, on the cover of sheet music for “Eileen Asthore”

Library of Congress, Washington DC

Sheet music cover for “My Heart’s Bouquet” sung by Allen Doone in Barry of Ballymore

National Library of Australia, Canberra

On 18 October 1913, Allen Doone’s introduced Barry of Ballymore, for the first time in Sydney. The play had received its Australian premiere at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne on 30 August 1913. Written by Rida Johnson Young, it had originally been performed in America in 1910 with Chauncey Olcott in the title role, supported by Edith Browning as Lady Mary Bannon. Set in eighteenth-century Galway, the drama tells the story of Tom Barry, an artist, who returns from Paris with a French girl, who turns out to be the daughter of Lord Bannon by his first wife. Lord Bannon has another daughter, Lady Mary, by his second wife, and Tom falls in love with her. After many complications, Tom and Mary are married.⁷

As the Sydney Sun (19 October 1913, p.10) observed:

There are intense love scenes, fierce hatreds, bubbling mirth, and the ancient mysteries surrounding an apothecary who indulges in crystal gazing. The whole lot is bound together with a thread of melody which allows Mr Doone to lilt in a soft musical voice several new songs, which the boys will be whistling on the street to-morrow morning, the best of them being an entirely new “Mary” … “My Heart’s Bouquet”, “Eyes of Irish Blue”, and “Mother Asthore”.

Poster for Andrew Mack’s production of The Rebel, 1900

Library of Congress, Washington DC

Allen Doone on the sheet music cover for “Doone’s Lullaby” from The Rebel

National Library of Australia, Canberra

A month later, on 15 November 1913, Doone planned to revive Molly Bawn, but as he had contracted a cold and was “unable to sing the five difficult songs incidental to the play”, The Parish Priest was staged instead.

The final three weeks of the season, still sporting a sore throat, he mounted a new play, The Rebel, which was given its Australian premiere on 22 November. Written by J.B. Fagan, the drama revolves around the exploits of Jack Blake, the leader of the rebels, who falls in love with the daughter of the local squire and enjoys many exciting adventures. First performed at the Academy of Music in New York on 20 August 1900, Andrew Mack created the role of the singing rebel. Doone (despite his cold) played the role of the “indomitable Jack” with his “usual excellence”, ably supported by Enda Keeley as Eileen, his sweetheart. Doone’s songs (which he also composed) included “For Ireland and Liberty”, “Doone’s Lullaby” and “Eileen Aroon”. ⁸

Two years later, in 1915, Allen Doone and Edna Keeley starred in a film version of The Rebel, shot in Sydney, under the direction of American J.E. Mathews for Mathews Photo-Play Company. ⁹

The season came to an end on 12 December 1913.

The year ended with the return of the American Musical Burlesque Company on 20 December 1913. They brought with them a new show—A Day at the Races.¹⁰ Sub-titled, “The Realistic and Exciting Musical Racing Revel” in two acts, the program proclaimed rather boldly “The Furore of New York for Two Seasons”. Indeed, there seems to have been a show with the same name doing the rounds in late 1904, but the character names are different, and it only notched up a few performances on Broadway. Nevertheless, the show, as it was performed at the Palace, was a huge hit. “The house was packed with a crowd that laughed from start to finish”, wrote the Sunday Times (21 December 1913, p.6), “and the hilarity was quite justifiable”. As with the previous show, the scant plot served as a device upon which to hang a stream of amusing songs, skits and dances. As well the old favourites, Bert Le Blanc, Dave Nowlin and Harry Burgess, there were a several new faces, with Paul Stanhope, Elaine Ravensburg and Anna Clark now replacing Frank Vack, Gertrude St Clair and Eugenie Le Blanc. The departure of Frank Vack and Eugenie Le Blanc seems to have occurred unexpectedly as they were announced as being in the show.

A Day at the Races played until 30 January 1914.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. See Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012549/

2. See Australian Variety Theatre Archive (Ozvta), https://ozvta.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/campbell-lawrence-1192018.pdf

3. For more on Bert Le Blanc and the American Musical Burlesque Company, see Australian Variety Theatre Archive (Ozvta), https://ozvta.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/le-blanc-bert-1172012.pdf; https://ozvta.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/american-burlesque-co-2492014.pdf

4. In Australian Melodrama, Eric Irvin lists Theatre Royal, Adelaide, 1 March 1913, as the first performance of The Native Born.

5. Dyson also wrote a one-act play, The Climax, which was produced by the Melbourne Repertory Company at the Academy of Music in Melbourne on 15 April 1913. Dyson’s two plays are not mentioned in his ADB entry, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dyson-edward-george-ted-6073

6. On tour The Golden Shanty played a few nights each in Newcastle (29-31 October 1913), Maitland (4 November 1913), Launceston (30-31 January 1914) and Hobart (11-13 February 1914). Perhaps it was due to the comparative failure of this play that Dyson did not write again for the theatre.

7. New York Clipper, 3 September 1910, p.722

8. Sydney Morning Herald, 24 November 1913, p.4

9. See Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper, Australian Film, 1900–1977, p.70. The Rebel (1915) appears to be Allen Doone’s only foray into the movies.

10. The Sun (Sydney), 12 December 1913, p.2, attributes A Day at the Races to [Will] Hough and [Frank] Adams, with songs by Joe Howard. Other than the title, the work has no connection with the 1937 Marx Brothers movie. Hough, Adams and Howard did work together on several musicals, notably The Land of Nod (1905), A Stubborn Cinderella (1908), and The Golden Girl (1909).

References

Australian Variety Theatre Archive (Ozvta), ozvta.com

Dan Dietz, The Complete Book of 1900s Broadway Musicals, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MA, 2022

Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com

Eric Irvin, Australian Melodrama: Eighty years of popular theatre, Hale & Iremonger, 1981

Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper, Australian Film, 1900–1977, Oxford University Press in association with The Australian Film Institute, 1980

Newspapers

Trove, trove.nla.gov.au

Pictures

National Library of Australia, Canberra

State Library of South Australia, Adelaide

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, University of Washington Libraries

With thanks to

Rob Morrison

On the 17 november 1906Meynell, Gunn & Varna’s New English Comedy Company commenced a short season at the Palace with the three-act farcical comedy The Little Strangerby Michael Morton. With the play’s withdrawal on 7 December, W. Arundel Orchard’s comic opera The Emperorwas revived for a single night on Saturday, 8 December.

The theatre remained dark for a fortnight pending the ‘first appearance’ in Australia of comedian Harry Macdona in The New Boyon 22 December 1906.

Written by Arthur Law, this three-act farce had been seen in Australia during 1894 with Ralph Roberts as Archibald Rennick. Since its first production in London that same year, with Weedon Grossmith in the title role, it had enjoyed much success throughout the UK and America.

John Cosgrove, c.1910, who was a member of the Macdona company and Harry Macdona’s brother. Photographer unknown.

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Weedon Grossmith who created the role of Archibald Rennick in The New Boy, 1894. Photo by Hills & Saunders.

National Portrait Gallery, London.

In addition to Macdona, who played the eponymous ‘new boy’, the second husband of Mrs. Bolder, who somewhat younger (and smaller in stature) than his wife, is mistakenly believed to be her son. For various reasons, he is prepared to go along with the assumption and is enrolled at a local school. In reviewing the play, the Sydney Morning Herald reported:

A gentleman whose name was announced as Mr. Harry Macdona took the part of Archibald Rennick, the new boy, and Miss Vera Remee was Mrs. Rennick. Miss Remee may not have all the arts and graces of a highly finished actress, but she carried herself through her part with more than credit. She was natural, enunciation was clear, and distinct, and she was not in the least stagey. Mr. Macdona, on the other hand, was not a thorough success. He was boisterously rollicking throughout, and though he was expected to do a good deal of fooling, he did some of it too well.¹

As the Herald alludes, the claim in the ads that Macdona was a ‘distinguished English comedian … known throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom as the Greatest Laughter Producer of the modern stage’, ² seems to have little validity. The only acting Macdona on the UK stage during the early 1900s (as listed in theatrical journals/directories of the period) seems to be Charles Macdona, an Irishman, who would go on to establish the Macdona Players and become a champion of George Bernard Shaw. A small mention of the 1906/07 Palace season in the UK-theatre journal The Era, refers to Harry Macdona as a ‘Sydney comedian’.³ Indeed, closer investigation suggests he was none other than Tom Cosgrove, a local actor, whose brother John Cosgrove was also a member of the company. It is not clear why he changed his name as over the following few decades he can be spotted performing under both names.

Harry Macdona and company in a scene from The New Boy, 1907. Photo taken by Albert E. Gregory during the company’s season in Bathurst, NSW.

Bathurst City Library

Nevertheless, despite some lukewarm reviews of opening night, The New Boywas not a complete failure. The Bulletin noted for example: ‘At Sydney Palace Harry Cosgrove Macdona continues to give sparkle to the comedy of The New Boy. The Boy is having quite a run, and the people who a few weeks ago were merely good amateurs are now getting a professional touch in the quality of their performances.’⁴

On the 12 January, the company produced Jane, and on the 28 January, Dr. Bill, both farcical comedies that had been performed back in 1890 by the Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company.

‘Ned Kelly Shoots Fitzpatrick’: scene from The Story of the Kelly Gang, 1906

National Library of Australia, Canberra

‘Capture of Ned Kelly’: scene from The Story of the Kelly Gang, 1906

National Library of Australia, Canberra

With the departure of Macdona and co., concert and film promoters J. & N. Tait returned with the film The Story of the Kelly Gang which screened from 9–23 February 1907. The film, described by the promoters as ‘one of the most realistic types of cinematography yet placed before the public’⁵ had created a sensation in Melbourne where is ran for seven weeks. It had also just completed a two-and-a-half-week season in Adelaide. Now it was Sydney’s turn. Running for just over an hour (film historians continue to debate claims that it was the world’s first feature film⁶), it occupied the second half of a two-part entertainment, with the crowded house displaying ‘considerable impatience’ during the first part.⁷ Indeed, audiences were not disappointed in the main event, cheering and clapping at its conclusion. Yet despite the crowds who flocked to the Palace, the season was limited to only a fortnight, closing on 23 February.

On the 20 and 21 March, the Bank of New South Wales Dramatic Society presented The Brixton Burglary(another comedy made popular in Australia by the Brough Comedy Company in the 1890s).

Herbert Flemming as Captain Mowbray in Mrs. Gorringe’s Necklace, 1907. Photo by Johnstone, O’Shannessy and Co.

Hat Archive

Miss Gordon Lee as Vicky Jardine in Mrs. Gorringe’s Necklace, 1906. Photo by Tuttle & Co., Hobart.

Author’s collection

On Saturday, 23 March 1907, Herbert Flemming’s company commenced a six-week season. In partnership with Robert Brough, Flemming had been joint manager of the Brough-Flemming Company, and in early 1906 following Robert Brough’s death, had taken over the reins of the organisation. Still operating as the Brough-Flemming Company they opened their season at the Palace with the first Sydney production of Mrs. Gorringe’s Necklace, a four-act comedy by Henry Hubert Davies, which the company had premiered in Adelaide in September 1906. With this piece they were making their reappearance in Sydney after a twelve-month absence. The company had just returned from a tour of New Zealand with Florence Brough (née Trevelyan) (Mrs. Robert Brough) as leading lady. The tour had been a huge undertaking emotionally and mentally for Mrs. Brough and as her health was still fragile following her husband’s death, she withdrew from the Sydney season. Her absence necessitated a complete change of personnel among the female cast. Newcomer Madeline Meredith stepped into the role of Mrs. Gorringe, while Beatrice Day (the original Mrs. Gorringe), now played Isabel, one of Mrs. Jardine’s daughters (previously played by Kate Gair). Miss Gordon Lee continued as Vicky Jardine, her other daughter. Robert Brough’s sister Bessie Major made a welcome return, taking on the role of Mrs. Jardine, originally performed by Mrs. Brough.

When Mrs. Gorringe’s Necklacewas first performed at Wyndham’s Theatre in London in 1903, the title character was considered the lead role, with Mary Moore as Mrs. Gorringe and Charles Wyndham as Captain Mowbray (played in Australia by Herbert Flemming). Under Flemming’s direction, Mrs. Jardine was considered the principal female role as the personality of Mrs. Gorringe (whose necklace is stolen at Mrs. Jardine’s house-party) is considered a silly and flighty character, whereas Mrs. Jardine is more grounded and sensible—and admirably better suited to the persona of Florence Brough.

An interesting aside concerning Madeline Meredith who played Mrs. Gorringe in Sydney. Born Madeline Constance Tudway in 1873, she was the only daughter of Charles Clement Tudway and Lady Edith Nelson (daughter of Lord Horatio Nelson)—and consequently a member of the British peerage. But rather than follow family tradition, she decided to pursue a career on the stage, making her debut in 1892. She came to Australia in 1906 as a member of the Julius Knight-Maud Jeffries company (and was with them during their 1906 Palace season) and since that time had been playing second leads with the Meynell-Gunn company at the Criterion Theatre.

A scene from Dr. Wake’s Patient, Act III, with Mrs. Brough as the Countess of St. Olbyn (right), 1906. In Sydney the role was played by Madeline Meredith. Photo by Talma & Co., Sydney and Melbourne.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Miss Meredith’s performance in the Brough-Flemming Company’s next piece, a revival of Dr. Wake’s Patienton 6 April 1907, was much anticipated. Would she be as good as Mrs. Brough in the role of the Countess of St. Olbyn? Perhaps breeding would help. As noted by The Australian Star: ‘Her conception of the part was excellent, and she was equal to every emergency called for in the representation of the haughty and altogether selfish countess.’⁸ Other roles were filled by Herbert Flemming as Farmer Wake (his original role), with Carter Pickford as Dr. Wake, Beatrice Day as Lady Geronia, Bessie Major as Mrs. Wake, and Mary Milward as Mrs. Murdoch.

Scene from the London production of Peter’s Mother with Marion Terry and A.E. Matthews, 1906. Photo by Ellis & Walery, London.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Beatrice Day, c.1906. Photo by Alice Mills, Melbourne.

National Library of Australia, Canberra

The following Saturday, 13 April 1907, Peter’s Mother was presented for the first time in Australia. Mrs. Henry de la Pasteur’s three-act comedy had just closed in London after 149 performances, with Marion Terry (sister of Ellen Terry) as Lady Mary Crewys. Sydneysiders hoped that Mrs. Brough would make her reappearance, but she did not, and the role was played by Beatrice Day. Carter Pickford played her son, Peter, with Bessie Major as Lady Belstone, Herbert Flemming as John Crewys QC, and Miss Gordon Lee as Sarah Hewell.

Peter’s Mother was performed for a fortnight, and on the 27 April, another new play was given its Sydney premiere: What Would a Gentleman Do?

Cartoon by an unknown artist. This was published in The New Zealand Mail, 13 February 1907, during the Brough-Flemming Comedy Company’s recent tour.

A comedy by Gilbert Dayle, this play had brief run at the Apollo Theatre in London during September 1902. Prior this, under the title The Man from Australia, it had been seen at the Princess Theatre in Llandudno (Wales) the previous April. As What Would a Gentleman Do?,it had its first Australian outing in Perth in August 1906 with Herbert Flemming as Dickie Hook—the man from Australia—a wealthy but unsophisticated young Australian in England, who with the aid of The Complete Gentlemanattempts to understand the manners and customs of polished society. Other roles were played by Florence Brough (Agatha Kederby), Beatrice Day (Madge Kederby) and Emma Temple (Dolly Banter).

For the first Sydney performance Gregan McMahon now played the young would-be gentleman. Audiences sympathised with poor Dickie as his attempts at assimilation failed and he grappled with the problem of ‘What would a gentleman do?’. A complete change to the female roles saw Beatrice Day as Dolly Banter, Bessie Major as Agatha Kederby and Miss Gordon Lee as Madge Kederby. The curtain-raiser In Honour Bound by Sydney Grundy was also performed with Beatrice Day and Herbert Flemming as Sir George and Lady Carlyon.

Beatrice Day as Susan Throssel in Quality Street, 1906. Photo by Alice Mills, Melbourne.

Author’s collection

Henry Irving as Dr. Primrose and Ellen Terry as Olivia in Irving’s 1885 revival of The Vicar of Wakefield. Photo by Window & Grove, London.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Two revivals followed, The Walls of Jericho (11–14 May) and Quality Street (15–17 May) with Beatrice Day playing leads in each of these plays. The season closed with the first Australian production of Olivia, a play by W.G. Wills, based on The Vicar of Wakefield, and first performed in London in March 1878 with Hermann Vezin as Dr. Primrose and Ellen Terry as Olivia. A 1885 revival saw Henry Irving as the vicar with Ellen Terry again as Olivia. In Sydney, the play was directed by H.W. Varna (previously associated with the Meynell, Gunn and Varna company), who was said to be using a copy of Irving’s original script containing his marginal notes and directions.⁹ As Olivia, Beatrice Day was commended for her finished performance as the pretty muslin-clad heroine, supported by Herbert Flemming as Dr. Primrose.

With the close of the season on 31 May, Herbert Flemming re-badged the company as the Herbert Flemming Comedy Company and headed north for a tour of Queensland. Although his company would play one more season in Sydney during 1908, Herbert Flemming sadly died in October 1908, aged just 52.

The following evening, Saturday, 1 June, saw a change of pace with Charles Holloway’s company. Their opening piece was the melodrama The Coal King by Ernest Martin and Fewlass Llewellyn for the first time in Sydney. This play had first been performed at the Elephant and Castle in London in October 1904 and had enjoyed a successful provincial career. The first Australian production had been given at the Theatre Royal in Hobart by Holloway’s company in November 1906.

Beatrice Holloway and Mabel Russell as Dick and Wally, the title characters in the melodrama of Two Little Vagabonds. From The Theatre (Sydney), September 1906. Theatre Heritage Australia.

Charles Holloway’s company excelled at melodrama, and The Coal King was true to form. Tom Roberts, the son and heir of a mining magnate is brought up in humble circumstances, having been swapped at birth with his foster mother’s real son. Working in the colliery Tom has risen to the position of mine-manager. He is love with the village schoolmistress, Grace Shirley, which earns the enmity of Walter Harford, the fake heir, who is cruel and vindictive. Tom manages to avoid being accused of a crime he didn’t commit and a mine collapse to win the hand of Grace and his rightful position as the real son of the mine owner. Beatrice Holloway played Grace, with Robert Inman as the hero and Godfrey Cass as the villain.

The 1860 Irish drama The Colleen Bawn by Dion Boucicault followed on 15 June for six nights only, with John P. O’Neill as Myles-Na-Coppaleen (with songs) and Beatrice Holloway as Eily O’Connor.

The final seven nights of the season saw a revival of Two Little Vagabonds with Beatrice Holloway reprising her original role as Dick, one of ‘little vagabonds’. The other, Wally, was played by Mabel Russell.

On Monday, 1 July 1907 the Empire Pictures Co., under the direction of Edwin Geach, commenced a season of films presenting for the first time in Sydney scenes of ‘Bonnie Scotland’ and ‘Dear Ould Ireland’. On 15 July, they were supplanted by ‘Canada As It Is’ and ‘Magnificent Naval Display’ (depicting a torpedo-destroyer and submarine flotilla attack).

Florence Baines as Mary Ellen Thompson in Miss Lancashire Ltd., c.1907

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Poster for The Yellow Peril, Palace Theatre, Sydney, 5 October 1907

National Library of Australia, Canberra

On Saturday, 3 August 1907, music hall artiste Florence Baines made her first appearance in Australia. Accompanied by a company of fifteen English artists, she opened in an original musical play entitled Miss Lancashire Limited. This was performed with success throughout the English provinces during 1905 with Baines as Mary Ellen Thompson, a Lancashire parlourmaid who changes places with an heiress. The farce, written by Sydney Sydney, (yes! this was his name) was liberally interspersed with songs and ditties to demonstrate Florence Baines’ talent as an entertainer, including her popular ‘Laughing Song’. A lady of generous proportions, she was a larger-than-life figure, and her magnetic performance style earned her the title ‘the girl who set London laughing’. She proved one of the most popular attractions at the Palace in recent years.

Miss Lancashire Ltd. played to capacity audiences at the Palace until 1 October 1907—an extraordinary 59 performances!¹⁰ Florence Baines and her ‘Laughing Song’ continued to keep Australia and New Zealand in stitches until July 1909 when she returned to England.

The following Saturday, 5 October 1907, saw the production of a new drama in four acts called The Yellow Perilby Alfred Newcomb. Being presented for the first time by Charles W. Taylor’s New English and Australian Dramatic Organisation, the play was described as the ‘only DRAMA on a CHINESE SUBJECT ever written for the ENGLISH STAGE’, replete with magnificent Chinese costumes and scenic effects.¹¹ According to news reports, the play’s author was a New Zealander who had spent ’22 active years in the Far East’ and was therefore an authority on the ‘Chinese question’ and the perils of inter-marriage, the theme of the play.¹² Laura Roberts played the heroine Vera Montgomery, who becomes the unhappy wife of a Chinese potentate, the Marquis Lo-Feng-Sao (Harry Diver).

Unfortunately for Taylor and his company, The Yellow Peril did not ‘catch on’ in Sydney and it was abruptly withdrawn on 15 October. As a result, the theatre was plunged into darkness.

It was re-opened for a special ‘Irish Night’ organised by Dr. Charles W. MacCarthy on Saturday, 2 November 1907. The evening was dedicated to a certain Mrs. Kevin Izod O’Doherty, an Irish woman whose story of hardship and survival earned her the sobriquet ‘Eva of The Nation’. Andrew Mack who had just concluded a successful season at the Criterion Theatre gave his services as did ‘The Australian Queen of Irish Song’ Marie Narelle who contributed to a largely amateur program of songs and monologues.

On Saturday, 9 November 1907, Carter, the Great Magician, assisted by Miss Abigail Price, made his first appearance in Australia, presenting a program of Magic, Mirth and Mystery.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. Sydney Morning Herald, 24 December 1906, p.3

2. Advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 December 1906, p.2

3. The Era, 2 February 1907, p.13

4. The Bulletin, 10 January 1907, p.8

5. Advertisement, The Daily Telegraph, 9 February 1907, p.2

6. See Graham Shirley & Sally Jackson, ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang: Restoring the world’s first feature’, n.d.; Ina Bertrand & William D. Routt, The Picture That Will Live Forever: The Story of the Kelly Gang, 2007.

7. The Australian Star, 11 February 1907, p.2. Henry William Varna (1865–1935) was an American-born, British educated theatre producer. In 1897 he joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s company at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London as stage manager. In this capacity he travelled to Australia to oversee the staging of Tree’s production of The Darling of the Gods with Julius Knight and Maud Jeffries. He next teamed with Meynell and Gunn and oversaw the production of The Little Stranger. During 1908, with Herbert Flemming’s Company he produced The Mummy and the Humming Bird. Settling in Australia he was subsequently associated with actor-manager Allan Wilkie and in later years ran his own dramatic school in Sydney and was a prominent member of the Actors’ Association.

8. The Australian Star, 8 April 1907, p.2

9. The Daily Telegraph, 4 May 1907, p.19

10. Advertisement, The Daily Telegraph, 1 October 1907, p.2

11. Advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 1907, p.2

12. The West Coast Times, 19 March 1907, p.3

References

Allardyce Nicoll, English Drama 1900–1930: The beginnings of the modern period, Cambridge University Press, 1973

Ina Bertrand & William D. Routt, The Picture That Will Live Forever: The Story of the Kelly Gang, ATOM, 2007, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=H-elDgAAQBAJ

Graham Shirley & Sally Jackson, ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang: Restoring the world’s first feature’, National Film & Sound Archive, n.d., https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/story-kelly-gang

J.P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1900–1909: A calendar of productions, performers, and personnel, 2nd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

Newspapers

The Australian Star (Sydney), The Bulletin (Sydney), The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), The Era (London), The New Zealand Mail (Wellington), The Sydney Morning Herald, The West Coat Times (Hokitika)

Papers Past, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/

Pictures

Bathurst City Library, Bathurst, NSW

HAT

National Library of Australia, Canberra

National Portrait Gallery, London

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

With thanks to

John S. Clark, Judy Leech, Rob Morrison, Les Tod