Bert Le Blanc

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