Elton Black

A Vaudeville and a Dramatic Company (1901)

‘Kate Howarde, a clever actress, who made her first appearance in Victoria at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat on Boxing Night 1901’—The Arena, 19 December 1901Kate Howarde managed dual companies in 1901—Federation Year—with her Dramatic Company servicing the NSW mid-north coast and the west of the state, drawing huge audiences with Sins of a City, When London Wakes, Charley’s Aunt and Hall Caine’s The Christian (inexplicably interpolating ‘patriotic’ songs). Brothers Bert and Lou Howarde were included in this combination (Lou now acting as Musical Director). The second company, all variety performers, played concurrently at Grafton and centres in the Northern Rivers. Kate chose to join the latter tour, of ‘14 first class Star Artistes’: Little Jim Smith (comic); Will Anderson; Alf Martin, an American dead shot; a conjuring artist; and The Whitfield Sisters.

The Dramatic Company reconvened after the usual winter respite in Sydney with a brief return to the Northern Rivers before heading down to the Riverina to offer a portfolio of drama from their stock (including The World’s Verdict, The Ticket of Leave Man and Queen’s Evidence) until September.

Harry Craig proved to be a resourceful and enterprising manager, and equally as provocative: an incident described by the Coolamon Echo (19 July 1901) provides a prime example from a performance at Gundagai. It appeared that Craig hired a local band to play in front of the hall to attract a crowd:

The [band] said they wouldn’t play a note till they got paid. Harry Craig, the manager, said he would pay them as soon as they were finished, but the band would not agree, and packed off up the street, and started to give a free concert. The theatricals then employed half a dozen men with bells, and a perfect pandemonium ensued, with the result that the popular actress got a good house.

The season was abruptly cancelled after three nights in West Wyalong when Kate made a hasty return to Sydney to tend to her youngest sister Minnie who was seriously ill; exhaustion no doubt a contributing factor. Since the birth of her son Francis in 1892, Minnie and her husband Robert Henry began to build a career together, working freelance in the first instance for W.J. Wilson’s Company, the Maclean Gaiety Company and the Hawthorne & Lambert Comedy Company, as well as a brief season joining Kate and Irve Hayman’s Criterion Burlesque Company. In January 1897, however, the couple launched their own enterprise, Henry’s Dramatic Company, with Minnie—now calling herself Billie Howarde—as the lead attraction. They launched their season with a production of ‘the sensational military drama’ All for Gold, concentrating on Sydney suburban audiences. In February (1897) they took a lease on the Royal Standard Theatre (Sydney) where, over the next twelve months they built new repertoire (over eighteen productions), alternating between the Royal Standard Theatre and suburban venues (such as Petersham Town Hall). They were regulars at the Victoria Theatre (Newcastle); toured number of circuits (established by Kate) in regional NSW; played in Hobart and South Australia; and made two long and successful tours of New Zealand (in 1899 and 1900). ‘This fine company is now in its fifth year’, observed The Dominion Post, ‘and the heyday of its prosperity, playing to packed houses right through the Maoriland tour.... Their Charley’s Aunt night furnished the largest house ever seen in Wellington. … The performance was the best we have ever had in Wellington, the Company being the strongest that has visited Wellington for several years’. Robert and the Company had just departed for their first appearance in Perth and the West Australian goldfields when Billie fell ill.

Billie Howarde of the Henry Dramatic Company

From Quiz, 17 January 1901

Billie’s first husband, Robert Henry, proprietor Henry Dramatic & Comedy Company

From Western Mail, 23 February 1901

Billie was well enough by October to return to work and she joined Kate’s Comedy and Vaudeville Combination. Kate offered Billie a benefit performance on Friday 25 October (1901), where she made her first appeared, after eight months, as Polly in the C.S. Fawcett’s farcical comedy Bubbles.

The Company then made a return to Tasmania. According to The Hobart Clipper (16 November 1901) ‘Miss Howarde is the smartest woman in Australia; she knows every Show Day; she understands the inner idiosyncrasies of every theatrical proprietor and manager in Australia from Charles E. Davies up to Harry Rickards; she is a right down talented woman’.

The Company passed through Hobart on Friday 29 November en route to Sydney. They were home on 7 December and Kate’s on-going respect in the industry was reflected in a par in The Sunday Times (8 December 1901):

In order to encourage touring managers who desire to go straight, here is an instance for which Miss Kate Howarde is to be commended. A few weeks go Miss Howarde, who was about to leave on a tour, called upon Mr William Anderson, of the Lyceum Theatre, and asked his terms for the right to play a certain piece. Mr Anderson stated the conditions, and received a cheque for the full amount from Miss Howarde before the lady left his office. It is not surprising, when Miss Howarde conducts her business in this fashion, that the estimation in which her name is held in the country is in inverse proportions to that of the average touring manager.

While in Sydney, Kate reorganised her Company to progress through the usual circuits in regional Victoria and NSW throughout 1902. The line up included Violet Bertram, Daisy Strathmore, Christina Tennyson, Wilkie Power, Augusta Glover, Sydney Everett, Ethel Boydhouse, Bert Howarde and Harry Craig; the musical director was Professor Airey, the scenic artist James Hutchensen and ‘a small army of mechanists’, under George Ives. Also making her stage debut was Kate’s eighteen year old daughter, using her stage name Florence Adrienne.

With a repertoire comprising The Silver King, Modern Babylon and On Shannon’s Shore, they opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Ballarat on Boxing night with A City Waif. On New Year’s Night, the box office take was £218, a record for the house. They were playing at the Victoria Theatre (Newcastle) during celebratory week marking the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (26 June). For this season, Kate returned a favour and engaged Collett Dobson¹ as the leading man for both A Midnight Mystery and Dinna Forgo.

(left) Collet Barker Dobson was a member of a distinguished New Zealand pioneering family, the youngest son of of Edward Dobson, civil engineer and survey of Christchurch—Collett Family Collection (c. 1930); (right) The Victoria Theatre and Hotel, Perkins Street, Newcastle. Designed by architect James Henderson with a Corinthian-style facade, the four storey brick and iron building with fly tower was opened in 1891. It seated 2000.—Newcastle Region Library.

It was in Newcastle that Kate also premiered one of her own plays, The Sign of Seven. ‘It was an excellent one’, the Newcastle Morning Herald responded following the opening on 3 July.

It has an abundance of sensational, humourous, and pathetic situations. The piece deals principally with the doings of Socialists, and the scenes alternate between London and Venice.... The part of the hero was excellently played by Mr Collett Dobson. Mr Sydney Everett’s villain was a capable performance. As Nina Hollinswood, Miss Kate Howarde was highly successful.

As there appears to be no public statement from her, it’s unclear how Kate responded to the death of her husband William (known as Bill in the industry) Cowan [né William Henry de Sax] who died aged 35 in Launceston General Hospital in the early hours of 11 July 1902. Kate and William had been estranged for nearly a decade. As reported by the Launceston Examiner (22 July 1902), Bill was ‘a much respected member of the theatrical profession’.

Deceased, whose name was de Saxe, was a chronic sufferer from asthma, which was accentuated by an affectation of the heart, and his death was directly attributable to the last named complaint. He was a well known actor in all parts of Australasia, and came to Tasmania in the early part of April last, when he appeared at the Academy of Music as General Kingsley in The Two Little Drummer Boys, and in prominent parts in other plays which were produced by Messrs Levy & Linden’s Royal Dramatic Company. Subsequently he went on tour with the Company, and returned to Launceston a few weeks ago, suffering seriously from illness. About a week ago he entered the hospital in order to obtain careful nursing but his case was considered hopeless from the first, his heart being in a very weak condition. He was not without means, and recognising the slender hold he had on life, some time ago made arrangements in Melbourne for the interment of his remains at Kew … He … had relatives on the mainland, Mr de Saxe, the well know Melbourne dentist, being a brother.

Meanwhile, further accolades for Kate’s business acumen were offered during her Gundagai season in August: ‘People often remark’, observed The Gundagai Times (29 August 1902), ‘when the Kate Howarde Company visit us “How it is it these people always get a good house when so many others are sent empty away?”’

The answer is that people are attracted to Miss Howarde’s performances because she has earned the reputation of paying her way and because she always lists some good talent. Nobody ever hears of the printer the bellman or the lodging housekeeper chasing the Howarde Company for money earned.

The majority of 1903 Kate spent in Brisbane, the Darling Downs and Far North Queensland (Maryborough, Bundaberg, Charters Towers, Macky, Townsville, Rockhampton and Gympie).

One of the most vexing issues confronting Kate was the variable stage sizes and capacity of venues the Company faced on the various circuits: from the traditional proscenium arch configuration (like the relatively new Victoria Theatre, Newcastle) to the various Mechanics’ Institutes, Masonic or Town Halls with no theatrical facilities at all. When she reached Wagga Wagga she attempted an innovative solution by transforming the Farmers ’Market into ‘a temporary theatre’.

Miss Howarde is incurring great expense, the stage which is being erected being a most commodious and superior class of structure. The building will be lit throughout with gas and very comfortable seats provided for visitors.—Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 15 August 1903

The ‘very pretty and cosy theatre’ made provision for ‘splendidly’ seating 1,000 patrons; the stage was 50’ x 30’ [15.25 x 9.1m]. ‘Miss Kate Howarde’, observed The Sydney Sportsman (25 November 1903), ‘is one of the most marvellous instances of feminine brain and energy forcing their way to the front ever exhibited in this big sand-patch. She has just got in and hustled, and kept her eye on business’. The Sportsman predicted that perhaps her days in the regions were numbered and that she was planning to try her luck in the city ‘with something of her own’. ‘When it comes off, don’t be surprised if you are very agreeably surprised, ye critical first nighters’.

By Christmas the Company were in Parkes and the schedule mapped out a now regular pattern: Western NSW (with a program of musical comedy until March); then Tasmania (April-May); followed by the Riverina (June-September). Kate was in Hay, when she celebrated her 40th birthday on 28 July. The repertoire included both stock and new pieces, including The Monastery Lights, The Girl from Appenzall, The Swiss Maid, A Kiss in the Dark, The Road to Ruin and Aladdin.

The highlight of the year appeared to be an adaptation of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s ‘sensational melodrama’ Run to Earth—based on her own novel—that entered the repertoire in July during the progress through regional NSW. The marketing made it clear that Kate ‘purchased the sole Australian rights at a big cost’. Advance publicity suggested that the play had ‘proved one of the great dramatic attractions of the year in England and elsewhere’.

Locally, interest was drawn to Kate’s new play, When the Tide Rises, that premiered at the Victoria Theatre in Newcastle. Adelaide’s Evening Journal(22 May 1905) provided a succinct synopsis—in the vernacular of the day—of When the Tide Rises:

The story opens in the bar parlour of Zack Ison’s inn. The greasy Jew ‘reigns where knavery is Empire. ’Frank Glenny, a weak but generous hearted gentleman, calls at the hotel in an intoxicated state. He has won £400 at the races. Ison gives his hilarious customer a sleeping draught, and the drink having taken effect he relieves Glenny of his bundle of notes. James Grantley, who is a professional thief of the swell order, witnesses the robbery, and being a partner in all things of the wily Jew, insists on having half the plunder. Glenny recovers unexpectedly, and soon sobers up when he finds his pockets have been gone through. He grows threatening and pugnacious, and Jim Grantley knocks him on the head with a revolver. The two villains then deposit their victim in a secret cellar. Here he is to be left ‘till the tide rises’, when he will be silenced for ever. In the employ of Ison is a girl named Madge, who, in observance of the Jew’s cruel dictates, affects dumbness. Larry Larkspur realizing the danger which hangs over Glenny, secures the assistance of Nat Brewster, a famous detective. Grantly and Ison use all their cunning to outwit and circumvent the office of the law, but, aided in every way by Madge and Larry Larkspur, Glenny is rescued from his fearful doom and restored to his loving wife, while after a long chase, Brewster runs Grantly to earth.

‘It allows full scope for good scenery, and Miss Howarde has made complete arrangements for its staging.... During the evening several of the latest popular songs will be introduced’, (Newcastle Morning Herald, 14 October 1904). The Herald review the following day declared the performance had ‘passed off with a considerable amount of success. It is a drama that appeals strongly to playgoers who appreciate intense excitement and deep emotion’.

Elton Black [aka James McWhinnie], the Scottish comedian—The Critic (Adelaide), 21 November 1923The Metropolitan Dramatic Company was ‘a strong one’, and Kate’s ‘splendid coterie of metropolitan artistes’ included Adey Sabel and Albert Lucas, Violet Beard, Nancy Hymmer, Nellie Dalton, Harry Craig, Vincent Scully, Horace Denton, Charles Archer and Bert Howarde. The season also marked the debut performance of Scots comedian Elton Black.

The comic actor Elton (also known as Edward or Ted) Black [the stage names taken in Australia by James McWhinnie] was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1882, and appears to have arrived in Australian aged 21 in early 1903. His first appearance as an actor was with the Ethel Grey Company from March the same year. As a vaudeville artiste, ‘the newcomer’ Edward Black was in the line up of the Harry Rickards’ Company at the Theatre Royal (Brisbane) in July-August—where he ‘installed himself a favourite’. He made his Sydney debut at the Tivoli, again for Rickards, on Saturday 29 August 1903—‘an amusing corner man² and Scotch entertainer’—after which he became a regular at the venue. Six months later, he was listed amongst the cast (as Lieuteant of the King's Own’) in Billie [Minie] Howarde's Dramatic Company’s production of Shamus O'Brien during their tour of the New England area in March, where he stayed until the combination disbanded under controversial circumstances in June (subsequently, and significantly, he was absorbed into Kate Howarde’s Dramatic Company the following month and made his debut as Larry Larkspur in When the Tide Rises).

The unfortunate situation for the Billie Howarde Dramatic Company had perhaps been brewing for some time; an ‘adjustment ’to the professional arrangement between Billie Howarde and spouse Robert Henry took place two years earlier. While they toured together under the Henry Dramatic Company banner throughout 1902, by July 1903 the emphasis had changed, and the entity was renamed The Billie Howarde Dramatic Company—Kate provided financial and administrative support in the new arrangement. Robert Henry on advertisements remained as General Manager, but was now cast ‘in support’.

An incident occurred in Parkes, NSW, in June 1904, that terminally impacted on the couple’s professional reputation and private relationship. A syndicated article appeared in The Narromine News (24 June 1904) under the following headline ‘The Troubles of the Billie Howard Co’:

At the Police Court on Wednesday 15 June, before Mr C.E. Oslear, PM the police proceeded against Robert Henry for playing without a license, in connection with the recent visit of the Billie Howarde Company. The defendant did not appear, and a warrant was ordered to issues, bale being allowed, self in £20 and one surety of £20.

Maintaining the licence, it appeared, was in Henry’s domain as manager of the Company, but he had been negligent and placed both Billie and the Company in a precarious legal and financial position. Henry compounded the problem when he failed to answer the summons, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. ‘Bob Henry’, wrote the Molong Express (25 June 1904) ‘is probably one of the unluckiest pros in Australia and has more than once experienced the bitterness of defeat in litigious matters. He has a plucky, hard-working little wife, however, and it is due to her efforts that the Company has always managed to keep its head above water’. The Company was quickly disbanded and the cast disbursed—some, like Edward Black, were employed by Kate. When The Billie Howarde Metropolitan Dramatic Company reconvened for their Christmas season at Kyogle, Billie had replaced Henry with comedian Tom Leonard (late of the Tivoli); Ernie S. Duncan was the Advance Agent. Robert Henry then disappeared. There were still advertisements in The Sydney Morning Herald attempting to locate Robert Henry as late as 11 May 1906. Whatever the case Billie and Robert Henry didn’t work together again, and their marriage was over. At some point before 1911 they were divorced.³

Following the Newcastle season, the Kate Howarde Dramatic Company sailed for Western Australia, where, after an absence of three years, they opened at the Theatre Royal, Perth on Saturday 30 November 1904 in Kate’s ‘spectacular melodrama’ The Sign of Seven. With Kate the leading player, her company of eighteen included Albert Lucas, Violet Beard, Edward [now listed as Elton] Black and both her brothers, Bert and Lou Howarde. The repertoire—that included His Natural Life, The Outlaw Kelly, The Brand of Cain, Sins of a City and a revival of her own early melodrama When the Tide Rises—played through to Christmas, after which they progressed to Her Majesty’s Theatre in Kalgoorlie, where they opened on 28 December. Menzies, Boulder and Coolgardie followed until 25 January.

The Company subsequently returned to the East coast and undertook a tour of Western NSW centres during which Kate announced that she would take an extended working holiday abroad. This trip had been floated since 1899.

The United States of America and United Kingdom (1905-1909)

It was theatre polymath, colleague and impresario Bland Holt ‘who advised [Kate] to pack up half a dozen manuscripts and try them on the American market’, Kate revealed in an interview a decade later. (The Herald, 12 November 1919) Leaving her Company in the capable hands of Harry Craig, Kate surprised many when she chose Elton Black, clearly some years her junior, as her travelling companion.

Popular stage actor Lee Willard (1873-1940) went on to have a successful career as a screen star

J. Willis Sayre Collection, University of Washington

The Almeda Times Star,3 January 1906

They had, however, married in secret in Port Adelaide on the journey back from Perth, just before they sailed together for the United States in July 1905. 

Kate easily secured a three week engagement as leading lady opposite the ‘Romantic young actor’ Lee Willard with his Stock Company in Los Angeles (made up from players from San Francisco) and, she was marketed as ‘a long, stellar attraction in Australia’. Kate made her American debut in Arthur Shirley’s ‘roaring comedy’ What Happened to Tompkins at the Opera House in Santa Barbara, California on 18 September 1905; this was quickly followed by roles in J.A. Frazer’s A Gay Deceiver, East Lynne and Way Out West. Elton Black made his first appearance on 26 September 1905 as Augustus Cholmonday (‘a dude’) opposite Kate Howarde in the ‘strong comedy role’ of Mrs Merryweather (‘a dashing widow’) in the great society melodrama His Wife’s Honour.

Willard’s season went on to play in Ventura, Santa Cruz, progressing to San Francisco, but ultimately without the Australians. Kate and Elton otherwise quickly established a vaudeville troupe of their own and played their first performances at the Oxnard Auditorium on 13 October. This gave her sufficient time to build the logistics for her own troupe. She then presented a repertoire of ten plays in the Pomona and San Bernadino areas of Southern California for the two months leading up to Christmas 1905 [the plays included The World’s Verdict, Face to Face, My Sweetheart, The Convict’s Daughter, East Lynne, Night Bride of New York, A Family Affair and Under the Stars and Stripes].

In the new year, they gravitated north and planned a three month residency for the Kate Howarde Stock Company in Alameda (known as the Island city), located on the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay area. Kate engaged Fabian H. Hirshberg as manager, advertised urgently for a new ‘responsible leading man’ and leased the Park Theater (that opened in 1904 as the first dedicated vaudeville theatre in Alameda and seated 800).

Miss Howard has assumed charge of the theater and is not only head of the Howarde Company but head of the theater as well. She said today that vaudeville was being superseded by stock companies in a number of houses on the coast which have been playing vaudeville for several years. … She has declined an offer to play in stock productions in the northwest and manage theaters for a former leading man, Lee Willard, to branch out on her own account as a theater manager. She believes that the change to drama will draw increased business at the Park.—Alameda Daily Argus, 2 January 1906

Kate launched her season on New Year’s Day 1906 with the American premiere of her own new play The World’s Verdict. The Alameda Daily Argus (2 January 1906) recognised ‘the very capable company’ that ‘injected new life into the Park Theater’. Kate reportedly spoke to the opening night audience during which she outlined ‘that the bill would be changed twice a week, the change being made on Thursday evenings’. Otherwise, the reviewer devoted a great deal of space to Elton Black, ‘the comedian of the company’.

This artist is gifted with great personality—this virile force amounts almost to magnetism. Every appearance he made was greeted with laughter, or rounds of applause. In fact The World’s Verdict might be rechristened ‘Sammy Carrotts’, with Mr Black as the titular star.

Of Howarde, ‘who appeared late in the bill’, the review observed that she

had the usually somewhat thankless part of the emotional lead, but was accorded a flattering reception. Her rendition of the forsaken wife was particularly good and it was her personal charm that scored most heavily.

Using the advertising slogan ‘Popular Plays at Popular Prices’, her repertoire subsequently included East Lynne, All For Gold, Man to Man, Looking for a Wife, A Soldier’s Sweetheart, Ten Nights in a Barroom and A Life for a Life. On 1 February, Kate introduced another ‘new and original melodrama’ she had written, Night Birds of New York (that provided another strong role for Elton, and two ‘good characters’ for herself). The work was enthusiastically received, earning the Company an effusive editorial in the Daily Argus (3 February):

Miss Kate Howarde, by hard and conscientious work, is affording Alameda really meritorious entertainment at the Park Theater. Her bills succeed each other rapidly, so that there is ever something new. Her company are hard working and loyal. The acting is earnest and a very satisfactory comparison with that in many more professional theaters. The members are imbued with the old time spirit of the stock actor as we knew him before the days of the syndicate, when he was expected to assume many parts and almost any part at short notice. Miss Howard herself is versatile, and in addition to being a meritorious actress is a successful business woman.

The season, along with her lease, expired with a benefit (for Kate) on Friday 2 March.

The Company then went on the road for the next three weeks, performing in centres north of San Francisco: the outward tour up to Petaluma, Napa and Redding; then, on the way back, to Red Bluff and Chico, with five performances at the Atkins Theatre in Oroville, Butt County, that closed on Saturday 14 April. The trajectory of the tour suggests that Kate and her troupe were heading towards the state capital Sacramento, 70 km further south. However, when the devastating earthquake struck San Francisco four days later, on Wednesday 18 April, Kate later reported that she was actually in the city of San Francisco and ‘staying in an hotel that was badly damaged … and she barely escaped with her life’. She also related that, apart from ‘thousands of pounds’ that she’d spent on preparations for her San Francisco season, she lost ‘most of her possessions,’ including her jewellery and copies of all her manuscripts. (The Herald (Melbourne), 12 November 1919) ⁴ Kate and Elton weren’t the only Australians impacted.  Nellie Stewart—staying at the newly opened luxury hotel, the St. Francis—had just enjoyed a huge success in Sweet Nell playing Downtown at the Majestic Theater at the time of the quake. She and partner George Musgrove were forced to abandon their planned tour to New York after their etire repertoire was destroyed. 

We lose track of her movements at this time, but if Kate was in San Francisco, she and Elton would no doubt have been amongst the ‘many hundreds of refugees’ who left by train travelling east, in their case, to New York. Kate explained the sequence of events in an interview when she returned to Australia:

... all went merry as the proverbial marriage bell till the big earthquake. Who can describe the awful horrors and ghastly experiences of that never to be forgotten time. I saw sights, and heard sounds, that will live in my memory for ever; but enough of that terrible episode.

Those that escaped were grateful to think that amid all that devastation and desolation their lives were spared. Though it spelt to many thousands, as to me, utter ruin, still we had plenty left to be thankful for. Two days after the terrible quake amongst crowds of homeless and penniless refugees I made my way to New York City—by free Government transportation—and from there got my first wire through to my folks at home, assuring them of my escape and safety.—The Gundagai Times, 13 May 1913

She relates further details elsewhere (The Gundagai Independent, 17 May 1911) that she reached New York with 2s in her pocket, half of which was invested in food. The other shilling went to secure accommodation.

Being stony broke, she sought out a theatrical manager and explained her position to him. She asked for a small loan to send a cable to her brother in Australia for financial assistance. She struck a good Samaritan in the manager, and he handed her a purse containing a good many dollars and told her to take what she wanted. The cable was sent, and she got a remittance from Australian.

Various reports suggest that, in the first instance, she found employment as a journalist and theatre critic. Kate later clarified her role as a theatre reporter (Table Talk, 13 November 1919):

... it was killing work. They expected so much... that it was a physical and mental strain all the time. There were forty-eight theatres then on Broadway, and they expected me to cover the half of them each night and find out something about each—how they were doing, any change in cast or business, and to comment upon it. The pay was good, but the strain big, and it left no time for any other work.... I discovered, too late, that there was a big opening for dramatic sketchers, and that I could make much more in this way than by journalistic work. It was just as I was leaving though.

Otherwise, Kate was theatrically frustrated that she had to start again ‘from the bottom-most rung of the ladder’. In the meantime, whatever spare time she had she devoted to her own writing (including revising lost manuscripts, and penning a number of vaudeville sketches and songs) and presumably reconstituting her Stock Company.

Over time, Kate appeared to embellish their achievements abroad. In an interview in The Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) (26 February 1910), Kate details that her tour ‘embraced the entire United States of America’. Further, that Elton Black ‘starred on the big B.C. Whitney Musical Comedy circuit’. Whatever the case, she and Elton were in America for over a year.

The passenger list for the steamer Philadelphia, that left New York bound for Plymouth in November 1907 lists Elton Black (his occupation surprisingly given as ‘labourer’) and his wife K.H. Black (‘actress’). They arrived in Southampton, destined for London, on 2 December 1907.

Kate told the story that she had not been long in London when ‘she dropped across a brother Thespian, who told her he was making up a dramatic company to tour Australia’.

He had secured several stars in the theatrical firmament, and, oh, yes, he would take her. But she would have to pay £100 to help finance the venture—the others had done so.

Kate thought everything was right, and that this was a perfect opportunity to facilitate her return home. She paid him the £100. Shortly afterwards he disappeared, and so did her £100!

Getting over the disappointment, apparently, she got on with what she did best. Within six months, Kate had collaborated with composer Joseph Tabrar on a musical extravaganza, Jack’s the Lad, that premiered at Colchester Hippodrome on Monday 8 June 1908 under the banner of Jake Friedman’s Company (but jointly produced with Howarde). Fred Lester played Jack, Rosalie Jacobi played Mirabelle, and Frank Wahthorn was ‘a capital dame … without any show of vulgarity’. (The Era, 13 June 1908) They played in Dover and Eastbourne a month later.

Meanwhile, Elton Black found representation with the firm of Zossenheim & Co and made his London Music Hall debut at the Granville on 22 September 1908; billed as a Scotch comedian ‘his success was pronounced’. (Music Hall and Theatre Review, 25 September 1908). This lead to a string of dates at the Chelsea Palace, and tours to Liverpool. Then in the new year, he played in Dublin and Belfast. Kate also revealed later that Elton was also featured in ‘the world-known Moss and Still tours’. Intriguingly, Kate is listed as an ‘impersonator of male characters ’and a ‘descriptive vocalist’ at the Town Hall in Portsoy in January 1909, sharing the stage with the mesmerist Professor Charles E. Erneste and the Scotch comedian Neile Nelson (‘the Second Harry Lauder’).

Kate Howarde and Elton Black were reunited in London in January 1909, during which time he had secured dates at the New Empire Palace, Shepherd’s Bush and the Manchester Hippodrome.

Return to Australia

The couple then made the decision to return to Australia, and Kate wrote to The Sunday Times (Sydney) (21 March 1909) informing her friends and colleagues of her imminent return:

Just a line on the eve of leaving the world’s capital for home. I have visited many places, seen many sights, since leaving NSW for America just over three years since; but like many another weary travellers, I have come to the conclusion that there’s no place like home. It seems years since I’ve seen a decent sun. My tours have taken me all over the best part of the United States, and latterly I have done some flying trips through England; but I’ve come to the conclusion—I can’t better my own bright spot. I haven’t be idle over here, or in America, and am bringing back quite a host of new plays, music ideas, and so forth, and intend to pick up, please the fates, my old theatrical running.

They took six months to make the trip home, breaking their journey in Singapore and ‘playing the Malay Federated States … with splendid success’. From the Adelphi Hotel she again wrote via The Sunday Times (26 September 1909):

Singapore contains many Australian friends, and they rolled up in amazing numbers. We have had a capital reception, and our season here of ten night has been one of my pleasantest experiences, but how sweet to possess the strongest attraction after all and I am just wild with delight at the thought of seeing my own place and people again.

She adds, in the same letter, an odd attempt to reintroduce her husband, with new credentials, to her Australian audience: ‘I am bringing with me a London comedian in the person of Mr Elton Black’.

Kate and Elton sailed into Darwin Harbour aboard the steamer Airlie on the afternoon of 7 September 1909. The couple gave a performance that night at the Darwin Town Hall, the playbill declaring: ‘Miss Kate Howarde, English actress vocalist and “raconteuse”, and Mr Elton Black, the brilliant Scotch comedian and vocalist’. Howarde’s dramatic recitations (from For the Term of His Natural Life and A Tale of the Turf), as far as the local press were concerned, were somewhat eclipsed by the comic songs and ‘versatility’ of Black. The performance was accompanied at short notice by pianist Olive Cain. Kate was otherwise pleased to discover that the Kate Howarde Dramatic Company, active under Harry Craig, were currently performing at the Hippodrome in Brisbane and it was decided that they would rendevouz in Rockhampton by Christmas.

Kate and Elton re-boarded the Airlie the following day, and progressed via Thursday Island—where they played to ‘a splendid house’ on Saturday 11 September—to Cooktown and Warrego, arriving in Cairns by 23 September. They gave a performance in the Shire Hall on the same night, accompanied by Miss Flamenco Adrian. ‘Miss Howarde has just returned from a world tour’, headlined the Cairns Post, and published ‘A Card to the Public’:

To my many warm friends of the past and prospective patrons of the future, I wish to earnestly draw attention to the fact, that after and absence of over four years, during which I have toured America, England, the Mediterranean Ports, Egypt, and the Malay States, I am once more amongst ‘my ain folk’, and again a candidate of your favour. I take much pleasure in announcing too—that I shall have the support and cooperation of the very fine Scotch comedian and vocalist Mr Elton Black, who has joined me, direct from the principal London music halls, and who has just scored a splendid success there. The entertainment we give is one of song, laughter and story—and I may add, that since we gave our initial performance in Port Said, and from thence to Singapore and Thursday Island our efforts have met with instant and most gratifying success. … Trusting, dear friends, to again win the support you have hitherto always accorded me, and with sincerest greetings to all, I am, yours faithfully,

Kate Howarde,

Australian Actress and Manageress

In an interesting, albeit unusual marketing faux pas, when Kate and Elton performed in Charters Towers in late October, they were advertised as the Kate Elton Comedy Company:

Nothing much need be said of Miss Kate Elton, as she is well known throughout Australia as a first class artiste, but Mr Elton Black, the second Harry Lauder, as he has been nicknamed here, was in excellent form, and with Miss Elton, gave an excellent program.—The Evening Telegraph, 27 October 1909

Harry Craig, singer, actor and theatre manager—The Gadfly (Adelaide), 9 October 1907While Kate was abroad, Harry Craig managed her Company touring the well-established circuits; Billie Howarde was the leading lady, and Bert Howarde was also in the line up. By September 1908, however, the organisation was trading as Harry Craig’s Australian Players. The other significant occurrence was that Harry married Kate’s now divorced sister Billie Howarde.⁵ Other family news included the birth of Bert and Violet Howarde’s daughter Evelyn (known as Poppy) in 1907, and Lou (who had spent a couple of years in Lismore), was now settled in Sydney running a prosperous music business in Oxford Street, Paddington (including private pupils and ‘a capable orchestra’).

Kate and Elton stayed in the north through November and early December. They played at the School of Arts in Charters Towers offering ‘the dramatic study’ The Diamond Maker and ‘in the second part, the audience was kept in a constant scream of laughter from start to finish by the comicalities of Miss Kate Howarde and Mr Elton Black. The latter is far and away the best in his line that we have seen here, his Scotch items, in which he imitates the redoubtable Harry Lauder, being splendid’. (The Norther Miner, 1 December 1909)

In Rockhampton, just before Christmas, the Company appeared at the Theatre Royal under engagement to the British Bioscope Company; a mixture of moving pictures in conjunction with comic sketches and song.

Kate and her now brother-in-law Harry Craig connected in early January 1910, and it was agreed that Harry and Billie would maintain their discreet company (as they headed north to Mackay), while Kate was determined to return to Sydney and re-establish her credentials. They also agreed to share production values for their now substantial repertoire.

The ‘original’ Kate Howarde Dramatic Company featured a combination made up from Bland Holt’s and Meynell and Gunn’s late companies, with her opening piece being ‘the great American western drama’ entitled The Ranch Girl, one of the ‘many novelties’ secured while abroad. In an open letter published throughout Western NSW in February, she wrote (presumably to distinguish herself from Harry Craig): ‘My object, apart from the pleasure I feel in renewing my old acquaintanceship, is to definitely inform my patrons of the fact that it is myself—the original Kate Howarde—who is now coming back amongst them...’.

Over the following months, Kate began rebuilding her repertoire of ‘new and attractive plays’ to include The Nightbirds of New York, The Irishman, The Man Next Door, The Female Swindler, The Convict’s Daughter and the latest London version of Hall Caine’s The Christian. Touring out as far as Cobar and back, and then down to the Murray, most of the plays now featured and promoted Elton Black, as Kate consciously began to pull back on her own performance career. Elton was 28 years old at this time; his wife, in reality was 46.

Kate introduced her ‘Great London Musical Comedy’ Jack’s the Lad during her excursion to the Clarence River area, where she launched in Grafton on 18 April 1910; and, from 7 May, they went south and played for two months in regional centres in Tasmania, as well as Hobart, introducing My Moonlight Maid and Smile On Me. Included in this tour was Kate’s twenty-four year old daughter Lesley [formerly Florence] Adrienne [but often billed as Lesley Howarde]. ‘It is seldom, if ever’, wrote The North Western Advocate (12 May 1910), ‘one sees such a versatile all-round combination. First class artists, magnificent scenery, and new and popular plays, are all included in this bill of fare; also a unique combination of musical excellence’.

To be continued …

Endnotes

1. Dobson (1861-1936) began his career in his father’s surveying office but he chose a career in the theatre and became an accomplished actor. He married Harriet Meddings,  the daughter of the Inspector-General of Telegraphs in New Zealand, and their daughter Agnes Dobson was also a prominent actor.  Dobson spent much of his later career with the Fuller organisation, both as a producer and later an assistant to Bert Lennon. He died in 1936 at his office at the Majestic Theatre, Adelaide in 1936.

2. In a vaudeville house the cornerman led the applause once an act had finished. Other notable performers who began their careers as cornermen were George Sorlie and Roy Rene. 

3. Reverting to his birth name, Robert Henry Nichols, he married Ethel Beatrice Pearsons (she was sixteen years his junior) on 30 May 1911 [three months after, their son, Ross Henry Nichols, was born (23 February 1911)]

4. In another version of the story, Kate related that ‘when the big earthquake occurred... she was running a dramatic show in the city and in a few seconds lost everything she possessed—she had £1800 invested in a theatre there’. (The Gundagai Independent, 17 May 1911)

5. In her private life, Billie used the name Mrs Evelyn Craig.

The Sydney Stadiums (1911-1912)

Kate Howarde—Table Talk, 6 November 1919 [AI enhanced]Back in Sydney in September 1911, Kate Howarde instigated a major theatrical initiative in the suburbs of Rozelle (Darling Street) and Annandale: two stadiums—or ‘open air theatres’—to provide outdoor performances. To put the idea into perspective, the advent of moving picture shows had ‘taken cheap entertainment right to the doors of the people’, was an opinion shared by The Argus (23 November 1910). ‘All the principal suburbs of Sydney have one or more permanent picture shows.’

Looking through a Balmain paper this week, we notice there are three permanent picture shows in that suburb, besides a visiting show, the general price for admission is 3d and 6d, there is also a Vaudeville show every Saturday, and a dramatic company every Wednesday and Friday, all at 3d and 6d. We also note that our old friend, Kate Howarde and company are advertised to show there every night in an open air theatre. The Convict’s Daughter is the title of the piece with which Miss Howarde is raking in the shekels at present. Miss Howarde is presumably getting  higher rates than the other shows quoted, for we note she does not advertise her rates, being content with the notice, ‘Prices as Usual’.

While the outdoor theatres played successfully throughout the summer, other forms of entertainment constituted her public program in these venues in the colder months (including a grand military display by cadets). By autumn, Kate Howarde’s ‘Premier Dramatic Company’, featuring George Cross (late of William Anderson’s Company), Billie Howarde (loaned for the season from Harry Craig, his Australian Players then ‘bushwhacking’  in Victoria) and with a company of fourteen artists, opened their touring season during Show Week at the Theatre Royal in Grafton (with From Scotland Yard).

When the Company progressed west in June, Kate’s daughter Leslie Adrienne made her debut in a leading role in the ‘sensational English drama’ London by Night and ‘gave a capital rendition of a most trying part... as the ill-fated heroine’. (Leader, 23 June 1911)

It was during a return season to the Hunter region, that Kate introduced another enterprise: what she called her ‘travelling theatre’. Instead of a traditional theatre space or hall, Kate erected a large marquee in the old hospital grounds in John Street, Singleton. She had experience of a temporary theatre at the Farmers’ Market in Wagga Wagga, but this idea provided more opportunities without compromise, notwithstanding the obvious logistical difficulties of travelling the tent and finding the labour to erect and dismantle the structure. It was nonetheless, equipped with stage, seating and gas lighting.

By December, Kate and Elton returned to Harry Rickards’s Tivoli Theatre, performing in the annual ‘Christmas Dinner for 1000 Poor’ charity, instigated by the late showman before his death.

The operation of the stadiums consumed Kate in the early months of 1912 but the demands were overwhelming, and by the end of February she offered both for sale ‘as going concerns... well fitted up and seated, and electric light’. Further, she invited tenders for ‘a large quantity of built scenery; lights; piano... stadium fittings, timber, iron, forms’. In what appeared to be a complete clearance sale, the auction was scheduled for 9 May.

While there is no way of knowing if she attended, it is clear that Kate was in the city for the premiere performance of her old colleague, actor-manager Bert Bailey’s production of On Our Selection, that opened at the Palace Theatre in Sydney on 4 May 1912.¹ Bailey had collaborated with Edmund Duggan and Beaumont Smith to adapt Steele Rudd’s well-known humourous story ‘On Our Selection.’

A plot with a strong dramatic interest has been interwoven for stage purposes with the comic doings of Old Dad, Mum, Sandy, Sarah, and other favourite characters, and picturesque scenery. (The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1912)

It was a bitter sweet opening for Bailey, as his mother, Mrs McCathie, had died suddenly a few weeks earlier.

In the meantime, unencumbered and debt free, the Kate Howarde Company then embarked on a tour of the western districts of NSW (the crowds in Cobar and Bathurst were so big that ‘the police were called to stop the sale of tickets at a quarter to eight’) and New England.

The family were heartbroken by the death of Bert Howarde’s wife, Violet, who died during the birth of their son Kenneth on 4 June. The three sisters, Jessie, Billie [Minnie] and Kate, along with Lou and his wife Mary, were all at Violet’s funeral to support their brother.

During the next few months Elton Black partnered with ‘Bel Bronte’ to perform in vaudeville. Their first major appearance was at Brennan’s Theatre Royal in Brisbane on 14 September 1912 in ‘their Screaming Farcical Travesty’ The Female Raffles.‘Of the newcomers’, wrote Queensland Figaro (17 September 1912),

were Elton Black and Bel Bronte, who swept all before them in a whirlwind of humour, monologues, songs and platform eloquence. Their Scottish specialities with sly hints and quaint allusions especially appealed to their hearers, and their stay at the footlights was a lengthy one.

The Telegraph(following their third week, on 30 September 1912) noted that

Black and Bronte more than pleased the audience in their sketch, in which some clever burlesque acting was succeeded by Scotch character songs by Elton Black in Harry Lauder style, in which Bel Bronte personates a typical Scotch lassie.

Black and Bronte were ‘the hit of the season’ and no one suspected the ruse that ‘Bel Bronte’ was in reality Kate Howarde! Although when the pair made an earlier tryout appearance at the Amphitheatre in Sydney, the review in the The Newsletter (22 June 1912) was unkind:

Black and Bronte, who are said to be a ‘terrific hit from the Moss and Stolls’ English Empire Circuit’² look very much like Elton Black and Kate Howarde from Balmain; Black is a good comedian, but is handicapped in having an ancient partner in Bronte; her voice is worn out, and appearance faded.

Elton was listed on the Empire Circuit throughout 1908, but as a solo Scotch Comedian; Kate was incorrigible in her invention and manipulation of the media! The disguise was surrendered in the new year.

The ‘Return of Australia’s Favourite, Miss Kate Howarde’ occurred at the Centennial Hall in Moss Vale on 21 April 1913 in the musical comedy After the Ball; apparently, it was also ‘the first appearance’ of the brilliant young English comedian, Elton Black, ‘direct from the Palace Theatre, London’. Kate’s marketing hyperbole was brazen! Eloise Taylor, Dick Hastings and George Dean were amongst the cast; so too was ‘gifted soprano’ Nance Adrien [aka Lesley Adrien, aka Leslie Adrienne, Kate’s daughter]. ‘The feast of good thing’ continued south and west to the Riverina for the next two months, the latter weeks hampered by heavy rain. ‘I am touring Australia, as you know’, Kate told The Border Morning Mail (17 June 1913), 

in my big English ‘Star’ touring car, specially imported for me, and we are having a real good time. Do I like motoring? I love it, and our car is a beauty, you’ve only got to see her climb a hill—and we’ve a fairly heavy load, too—to realise what a privilege it is to have our own mode of conveyance.

The cohort crossed the border to Wangaratta for performances beginning on 20 June. They retraced their steps throughout July and headed back to Sydney. Kate then reconvened her Dramatic Company for a tour west of the mountains and they opened at the Colosseum in Lithgow on 9 August (with Her Downward Path). As well as Kate and Elton, the cast comprised Lesley Howarde [Leslie Adrienne], William Goodall, Walter Wallington, Fred Wright, Bert Royal, Claude Turton, Dulcie Turton, James Ashby, Mable Love and Nance Murdock. The Company travelled as far as Bourke and Cobar, before backtracking, and returned to Sydney—via Queanbeyan and the Southern Highlands—in late September.

The National Theatre, Balmain (1913)

In November 1913, Kate Howarde put ‘bushwacking’ on hold when she became the lessee of the new National Theatre in Darling Street, Balmain.³ This was a return to  her stadium idea, to have a home venue for her theatre company, but the situation also provided her with the opportunity to sub-lease to a range of other entertainments.

The National Theatre, Balmain—The Telegraph, 28 November 1911

The National, Balmain—not to be confused with The National, Castlereagh Street—had been one of a number of theatres (including his newly opened Bridge Theatre and the Coliseum, North Sydney) regularly used by John (Harry) Clay’s (1865-1925) Vaudeville combination. By 1913, however, he was rationalising his organisation (he had been operating three venues, six days a week) and winding down his commitment to the National, confining his suburban activities to the Bridge. Kate’s brother Bert Howarde was a colleague of Harry Clay, they shared the honorific as the Lord Mayor and King of ‘Poverty Point’⁴ (respectively). Bert, so doubt, facilitated the opportunity for Kate to take on the theatre.

‘Poverty Point’ at ‘Marshall’s corner’at Pitt and Park Streets, Sydney. Marshall Brother’s Chemist was at 256 Pitt Street; the Criterion Theatre and Hotel opposite, on the right. National Library of Australia, Canberra.

The acquisition of the National was fortuitous, providing Kate an introduction to Ben J. Fuller (1875-1952) (Governing Director of Fuller’s Vaudeville and Theatres Ltd), who regularly used the National throughout Kate’s tenure. Fuller later engaged both Kate and Elton for performances at the National, as well as a major tour to New Zealand. Otherwise, the space was available to other producers and local organisations (including Birchgrove Public School for their Empire day celebrations), but Kate also used the venue to produce her own work.

The Kate Howarde Dramatic and Comedy Company was reported to be doing ‘good business’ in May 1914. Three pantomimes were played—Dick Whittington,Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor—and the Company made weekly changes, alternating from pantomime and drama to musical comedy. She also found the time to write two of the pantomimes and adapted several musical comedies.

At least three of her original works were staged at the National in 1914: Sins of the City,The White Slave Trafficand Why Girls Leave Home. Kate had toured the latter play through parts of regional New South Wales as early as 1912.

On 28 July, Kate was still in situ at the National to celebrate her 50th birthday, and the achievement of just over thirty years in the business. 

Five days later, Sunday 2 August, newspapers carried the banner that Germany had declared war on Russia; the German invasion of France was inevitable. On 4 August, Britain declared war on Germany, and the Australian Government offered its unreserved help. Australia was also at War.

First World War

A month after War was declared, Kate Howarde made her first tour in almost a year. ‘Really, the audiences were kind to us’, she told The Daily News(2 October 1914),

throughout the nine months [occupancy of the National Theatre] we put on weekly changes—no child’s play. The strain of constant study and rehearsal proved too much eventually, and that is why we decided to take a rest by transferring elsewhere for a time.  When this step was determined upon I had offers from many parts of the Commonwealth, but eventually I chose that from Perth, because not only were the terms advantageous, but I have always loved the west.... We hope to stay here some two or three months.

‘After a long journey from Sydney’, wrote The Sunday Times (27 September 1914), ‘Charley’s Aunt has succeeded in dodging the Germans and will be seen at the Shaftesbury Theatre⁵ (Perth)’ from 3 October. The Company this time was advertised as being ‘under the direction of Elton Black’. The combination included William Goodall, Fred Neilson, Will B. Wright, Phillip Nelcourt, Reg O. Hewitt, Hector Vernon, Conrad Berthold, Lyell Morton, Lesley Howarde, Madge Surtess, Elsie Doran and Maud Holmes. As well as Charley’s Aunt, they brought The Runaway Match,London by Night,Sins of a City,The Woman Who Tempted,The Convict’s Daughter,The Kelly Gang and At the World’s Mercy, amongst others.

Auditorium, Luxor Theatre (formerly Shaftesbury Theatre), Perth (1926). State Library of Western Australia, Perth.

The Company played seven weeks in Perth, then moved to the Goldfields (Boulder and Kalgoolie). In Boulder, Kate remounted her own play Why Girls Leave Home, that had premiered at the National some months previously.

The story is one of a pretty daughter, her lover, and a drunken and cruel father. The girl runs away and marries her lover, but then meets with adversities at the hands of an arch villain, with the result that the couple are separated, and driven to distraction the girl contemplates suicide by throwing herself into the Thames. The villain throws the mother’s body into the river, and just in time the husband and wife are again united. (Synopsis courtesy The Evening Star, 24 November 1914)

Kate also presented a revival of her other new work, The White Slave Traffic,at the Kalgoorlie Town Hall. ‘There is a necessity for the striking of a warning note on the subject’, Kate told The Kalgoorlie Miner (28 November 1914):

She points out that at important railway stations in the United States and elsewhere, there are warnings displayed that make their need obvious. She said that during her tour in America she heard over a million persons in Chicago alone had witnessed the performance of The Traffic [by Rachael Marshall and Oliver D. Bailey],and it was the immense interest that play caused in America that impelled her to try and make a similar success in Australia, with which object she conceived the drama to be produced in Kalgoorlie. Miss Howarde gives the assurance that her play is so constructed that the dialogue could not in any way be called into questions and consequently it was fit for any audience.

The White Slave Traffic, she confirmed ‘had received the approbation of the Minister for Education in New South Wales’, who had described it as ‘one of the most interesting and best object lessons he had witnessed’.

The Company returned to the west coast and played at the King’s Theatre, Fremantle from 12 December, where they stayed until the new year, offering the pantomime Aladdin over Christmas.

Why Girls Leave Home was then offered as the Company’s first major season in Melbourne; it opened at the Empire Theatre [the cinema in Brunswick] on Saturday 16 January 1915. Under the British Flag and Uncle Tom’s Cabin followed, featuring both Elton and Leslie Adrienne, and provided ‘one of the  most exciting and interesting bills ever being presented. (The Brunswick Leader,22 January 1915)

Ben J. Fuller became the governing director of the National Theatre in August 1915, one of his first major vaudeville offerings was what they were calling a new fashion, ‘compressed revue’: Kate Howarde and Elton Black—The Kate Howarde Revue Company—‘in their original, dittycal, typical, topical, termpsichoreal, beatifical, whimsical, electrical, psychological, ecliptical musical comedy review Catch On’; the company boasted 20 artists and opened on Saturday 7 August. ‘The action takes place on a yacht, and the plot is unimportant’, wrote The Sunday Times (8 August 1915), ‘Mr Black (as Tiddley Tosh, a vaudeville artist) gives amusing impersonations of Charlie Chaplin and Harry Lauder, and some miscellaneous comedy and song. Miss Howarde appears as Mrs Millicent Baylis, a wealthy widow, and takes part with Mr Black in several items’. The Sunday Times (15 August 1915) also made the distinction that Kate Howarde was ‘the only woman producer in Australia. She not only produces, but manages and composes her pieces’.

Meanwhile, Kate would have been both proud and delighted that her daughter, Leslie Adrienne, had secured Violet, the eponymous role in The Squatter’s Daughter to play opposite the melodrama’s authors Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan (Fred MacDonald was also in the cast) for their season at The King’s Theatre, Melbourne on 21 August. As a gift to her daughter, Kate provided Leslie with the proprietary rights for both The White Slave Traffic and Why Girls Leave Home. ‘Miss Adrienne hopes to have an opportunity of having the play(s) produced and herself appearing in the role(s) created for her at some not long distant date’. (Table Talk, 2 September 1915)

Kate and Elton’s new musical comedy revue, Sure Thing,meanwhile, opened at the National in Sydney the following night. ‘There is a vague plot dealing with racehorse doping, but, as usual, the added songs, talk, dancing and specialities are the thing’. (Referee, 25 August 1915)

As soon as the season closed, Ben Fuller put the combination on a steamer bound for New Zealand—interestingly under the banner of The Elton Black Revue Company—playing in Dunedin from 3 September. It was billed as Elton Black’s ‘First Appearance in New Zealand’ and he was the featured artiste. The players, as in Sydney, included Billy Maloney, Harry Quealy, Cliff O’Keefe, Peter Brooks, Gerald Cashman, Nellie Quealy and Pearl Livingston, as well as a cohort of ‘speciality vaudeville artists’.

It’s unclear how Kate reacted, as either a wife or a once highly regarded actress, at suddenly being surpassed by her appreciably younger husband—‘the King of Revue-dom’—and relegated in reviews to ‘Miss Howarde also figured’; by October she was no longer listed in advertisements.

The third musical comedy revue offered by the Elton Black Revue Company was entitled Oh, Yokohamaand premiered in Lyttelton on 18 October; Elton played a properties man called Noodles. The fourth and last production to enter the repertoire was Going Some. First seen on 25 October, it’s the story of a young man who was required to provide a wife and family for himself at a very short notice.

The Company progressed to Wellington and then Auckland during November, giving their final performance on 24 December. While still under the Fuller management, the Elton Black Revue Company passed through Wellington en route to Dunedin where they performed on 2 January to complete the circuit; they were back in Sydney by early February 1916.

The Pavilion Theatre (1916)

The Kate Howarde Dramatic Company was reconstituted and, ‘headed by the most versatile comedian in Australia’ Elton Black, the ‘bushwacking’ began in earnest with performances in Glen Innes on 13 March with London by Night. By the time they reached familiar territory in Armidale a week later, they had added The Angel of His Dreams,Why Girls Leave Home and Mary Latamer, Nun to their repertoire. Kate rekindled old acquaintances in Tamworth, Scone, Muswellbrook and Guyra; by Easter; in late April, they had crossed the border to Dalby (where they were scheduled to play on Anzac Night but cancelled when Kate realised that their performance would clash with public commemorations) and Toowoomba; thence to the far north Queensland circuit, that concluded in late August.

Two distinguishing features of this tour were: firstly, Kate—following the example set by the great Sarah Bernhardt—now toured with her own ‘moving theatre’ (a spacious canvas tent that was advertised as ‘The Pavilion Theatre’); secondly, without fanfare (having just turned 52) she announced her retirement from the stage, intending to no longer perform (apart from a special  occasion, such as a benefit or contributing a patriotic song).

When the Kate Howarde Dramatic Company arrived in Melbourne in November, Melbourne Punch (30 November 1916) confirmed that ‘Miss Howarde does not play herself, but fills the unusual role—for a lady—of managing and producing her pieces’. Kate launched her Melbourne assault with The White Slave Traffic on 16 December at Bert Bailey and Julius Grant’s King’s Theatre, and played to capacity audiences throughout the Christmas holidays. Set in Sydney, the incidents (Newcastle Morning Herald, 14 May 1928) ‘deal with happenings in city life, and the plot is stated to be candour itself’.

The story opens at Manly, where Jim Carston meets his close friend, Frank Arden, and tells him that the failure of his father has broken their fortunes. As a result Carston informs Arden that the has joined up with a detective agency, and is engaged in trying to find the secret influence behind the white slave traffic, mention being made of several girls who have strangely disappeared. Later evens lead to the betrothal of Joy Arden and Carston, the girl refusing to allow her lover’s misfortune to stand int he way of their happiness. Joy has attracted the attention of Abru Phalanx, for whom Garvice Altros has been acting, and she is kidnapped. At the wealthy potentate’s zenana, to which the girls is shipped, she finds a friend in Mora Altos. Carston and his ally, Bertie Blair get on the track of the abductors, and at the critical moment, when the girl is fighting for her honour, they rescue her by a clever subterfuge, both Phalanx and Altos meeting a just retribution.

The acting members of the company included Leslie Adrienne, Olive Sinclair, Enid Bowman, May Brooks, Austin Milroy, W. Mallony, Lewis Vernon, Fred Neilson, Lester Carey, Gordon Holmes and Elton Black; James Laidlaw was the musical director.

‘The gigantic American Comedy Success’ The Accidental Honey was the program exchange for two weeks from 6 January 1917.

The Company then travelled back up to Newcastle, where Kate’s ‘specially equipped and comfortable’ Pavilion Theatre was erected at Gordon Avenue in Hamilton. The White Slave Trafficopened on 26 January. Performances in Scone, Inverell, Tamworth, Glen Innes and Armidale followed, with Charley’s Aunt,Mary Latimer, Nun,The Night Birds of New York and the musical comedy The Runaway Match built into the program. By April, the Company were in Orange and heading west; the return progress taking two months.

Actor John (known as Jack) Souter was taken on at this time to assist Kate managing the Company. After performances in the Darling Downs, the Pavilion Theatre was erected next to the Brunswick Street Railways Station in Brisbane, where Triss, the Yankee,Girl Parted at the Church Door,Nobody’s Child and Married to the Wrong Man were presented from early June (some given as a benefit in aid of the Red Cross Fund). Instead of heading north as expected, the cohort progressed south, playing in the Tweed and Grafton, but were forced to cancel the season; the troupe disbanded due to the railway strike and they returned to Sydney by steamer.

Ben Fuller’s Majestic Theatre, Newtown (1917)

After a couple of months’ forced layoff, Ben Fuller came to Kate Howarde’s rescue. According to Table Talk(29 November 1917)

The Fuller firm were so satisfied with the success of the stock dramatic company at the Palace Theatre [Melbourne] with its policy of a new piece every week, that they have decided to try the same idea in Sydney  and in their new Majestic Theatre, Newtown, have installed Kate Howarde and her dramatic Company.

(left) Ben Fuller, 1916. State Library Victoria, Melbourne. (right) Majestic Theatre, Newtown built in 1917 by builders Elder and Totterdell, for the Brennan family. It was leased to Benjamin & John Fuller who produced variety and melodrama shows there for three decades. In 1955 it became the home of Australia’s first national theatre company, the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. The building was destroyed by fire in 1980. City of Sydney Archives.

Kate launched with Mary Latimer, Nun at Ben Fuller’s new Majestic Theatre, Newtown on Saturday 17 November. The Sun(11 November 1917) reported that Fuller proposed ‘sandwiching vaudeville seasons in between other attractions, which will include all the firm’s most important enterprises’. The new ensemble for the proposed six month residency included Leslie Woods, Len Buderick, Leonard Stevens, Walter Vincent, Beatrice Esmond, Maude Edwards, Ethel Bashford and Enid McNair (in the first instance, as ‘the sweet-faced nun’); ‘comedy relief was supplied in liberal quantities by Elton Black’. At Fuller’s insistence, new plays were introduced weekly, opening on Saturday nights: The Outcast of the Family (from 24 November); The Bad Girl of the Family (from 1 December); London by Night (from 8 December); A Girl Without a Home (15 December); and The Fatal Wedding played over the Christmas week. Their final production for the year was For Her Child’s Sake (with a special matinee on New Year’s Day).

The Kate Howarde Dramatic Company residency continued at the Majestic into 1918, still under the patronage of Ben Fuller. A Life’s Revenge,Married to the Wrong Man and The Mystery of a Hansom Cabwere offered through January and February (at which time Kate was delighted to welcome the well known actor Fred Neilson to the Company).

With Ben Fuller’s blessing, Kate reconvened her ‘bushwacking’ touring company as the Kate Howarde Pantomime Company—with a new and discrete combination—for a season of The Bunyip to coincide with the Armidale Racing Carnival, opening on Tuesday 12 February. The Company of 22, who played in the Pavilion Theatre (in the Town Hall Grounds), included a line-up of Vaudevillians: Doody and Knight, Pearl Livingstone, Alice Walton, Will Kenny, Lyla and Stella Lamond [The Tiny Tots], Jack Gordon, Harry Bryant, May Despard, Ivy Holmes and others. In Guyra a week later, they added Robinson Crusoe to the circuit.

Concurrently, back at the Newtown Majestic, Ticket-of-Leave Man,Why Girls Leave Home and The Little Church Around the Corner were additions to the program. Kate’s residency, however, came to an end on Friday 14 April when the Fuller Management announced a new replacement dramatic company. Kate was back in Sydney for the change over, but both Kate and Elton Black—along with Leslie Adrienne, and other stalwarts from Kate’s Dramatic Company—rejoined the touring ensemble for the final months of the northern excursion (as far north as Gympie and back). They concluded the season in Grafton with Uncle Tom’s Cabin on 20 July.

After the winter rest period in Sydney, the Company were back on the road, and opened their season on the Murrumbidgee at Wagga Wagga with The White Slave Traffic in the Pavilion Theatre (erected near the Salvation Army Hall) on Tuesday 28 August. Young, Cowra, Seymour, Goulburn, Canowindra, and across the border to Shepparton and Warrnambool were other towns included on the schedule.

Post War (1918)

The Kate Howarde Company were in Hamilton, giving The World Against Her, when, after more than four years’ conflict, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. The armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending the War. No doubt, Kate and her colleagues joined the population of Hamilton at the Melville Oval the following day (12 November)—declared a public holiday by the Acting Prime Minister, William Watt—for a Peace Demonstration.

Ballarat and Colac were the last on the calendar, when the long tour closed (with Nobody’s Child) on 20 November. The combination included Leslie Adrienne, Elton Black, David Warne, Vivian Langley, Eleanor Gurney, Len Buderick, Reg Hall and Maurice Nodin.

While Kate, her daughter, and Company returned to Sydney, Elton Black travelled to Tasmania. With the backing of the Fuller Organisation, Elton established his own Elton Black Musical Revue. His combination included Alma May (soprano), Molly O’Connor (soubrette), The Estelles (dancers), Sid Doody and Edie Wright (eccentric musical entertainers), George Campbell (juggler) and Earnest Gollmick;  the full orchestra was under the direction of Maestro  J.P. Knowles. Elton’s revue, Struth, opened at the Temperance Hall, Hobart on Boxing Night. ‘The unanimous verdict’, wrote The Hobart World(2 January 1919) of Elton’s Revue Company, was that it ‘is the brightest and most versatile company that has visited Hobart for many years’. The season closed on 15 January.

Leslie Adrienne (The White Slave)

Graphic, 15 December 1916

Jack Souter

Table Talk, 4 December 1919

Kate Howarde with Jack Souter, her secretary and  Business Manager

Table Talk, 3 November 1919

The Kate Howarde Company opened a short season ‘to a very satisfactory house’ in her Pavilion Theatre opposite the Empire Hotel in Peel Street, Tamworth on Monday 3 February. The play was When the Tide Rises. Elton took the comic part of Larry Larkspur, while Leslie Adrienne assumed the role her mother once played, Madge; others in the troupe included Ernie Gollnick, Sophie A’Dair, Marie Bell, Fred Anstey and Jack Souter (again assisting Kate as General Manager). The change of program saw Her Life in London on stage. The usual circuit through the New England region delivered them ultimately to Armidale.

On Friday 14 February, The Armidale Express ran a rather intriguing advertisement alerting its readers that ‘on Monday, for the first time, the Company will stage Miss Howarde’s great nameless Australian play. Two guineas are offered to the person selecting the most appropriate title’.

Following the season—that closed with Fun On the Bristol on Saturday 15 February—Kate announced that she had disposed of her tent to a Sydney buyer, with the intention of reverting ‘to the old plan of showing in the local halls’ for future shows. As The Armidale Chronicle(22 February 1919) explained:

The canvas theatre was adopted by travelling show people a few years ago. It had the charm of novelty, which proved an attraction to patrons until this quality wore off. A second reason for the adoption of the movable theatre was that its holding capacity was more fitted for the accommodation of the crowds in country towns during the carnival weeks than the local halls. But drawbacks have been found in the use of this form of theatre, and not the least of these is the trouble of securing reliable labour for the erection and dismantling of the tent in each town, and other worries incidental to the transport of such a bit lot of luggage.

During March they played in the Warialda School of Arts Hall; Narrabri Town Hall; and The Rink Theatre in Moree, before heading back to the Theatre Royal in Tamworth.

Interestingly it was suggested in the press at this time that, at the end of the current tour, both Elton and Kate ‘would head to America... where they had signed a three year musical comedy contract’. It didn’t happen.

Heading back to Sydney, the Company played in Maitland on 18 March; then Scone, Dungog, Gloucester, Taree, Wingham, bringing the final curtain down on the tour with Oh! Oh! Josephine at McQuade’s Hall in Macleay on 29 March. There was no indication that this past season would be Elton Black’s final appearance in any production associated with his wife Kate Howarde.

While Kate and the Company returned to Sydney for their winter respite, Elton made his way to Melbourne where he joined a vaudeville combination under the direction of Ben and John Fuller. Elton Black made his Melbourne debut headlining ‘a Brand New Revusical tidbit’ that commenced at Fuller’s Bijou Theatre on Saturday 3 May 1919.  In June, Elton was at the Majestic Theatre, Adelaide:

He lost no time in placing himself on good terms with his audience. He is a Scotch humourist of repute, but can shed his accent quite readily if so desired, and become the funny man of almost any nationality. (The Journal,7 June 1919)

Elton joined John N. McCallum’s Courtiers when they presented at His Majesty’s Theatre, Geelong on 11 July, and their subsequent tour of regional Victoria for the remainder of the month. The same combination travelled to Brisbane, where they performed at ‘the considerably altered and improved’ Cremorne Theatre from 16 August. Elton subsequently maintained an independent career. He and Kate did not work together again.

Meanwhile, it was a small par in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 30 August (tucked away on page 19) that made a surprising announcement about his estranged wife’s future: at some risk, Kate Howarde had taken the lease on J.C. Williamson’s Theatre Royal in Sydney to present the ‘untitled play’ that she’d given an out-of-town preview in Armidale. The title given to ‘the great nameless Australian play’ was Possum Paddock.

To be continued...

Endnotes

1. The new firm of Bailey, Duggan & Grant, according to The Sun (7 April 1912), were ‘developing the rich vein of Australian drama... with The Squatter’s Daughter... The Man from Outback... The Trump Card...  They not only write their own plays, but manage them, and play leading roles in them. Another trump card will be the production shortly of a dramatisation of Steele Rudd’s popular book, On Our Selection’.

2. British impresario Sir Horace Edward Moss, with partner Australian-born Oswald Stoll, operated Moss Empires, the largest group of variety theatres in Britain, with the London Hippodrome as the flagship. In 1904 they introduced the initiative of a ‘four shows a day’ system. Moss died at this time, on 25 November 1912.

3. The National Theatre, Balmain (Architects Eaton & Bates). ‘The main entrance vestibule abuts on Darling Street and is flanked by eight large, well-lit shops; the frontage is 174ft [53m]  to Darling Street, 114ft [34.7m] to Rountree Street and 114 [14.7m] ft to North Street; there is also a grand entrance vestibule from Rountree Street, with cloak rooms and ticket offices; the theatre is planned on the amphitheatre system, the seats from the proscenium rising  tier by tier in one long sweet, the auditorium holds from 1800 to 2000 person; and the entire building will be lit by electricity’.(The Telegraph,28 November 1911)

4. ‘Poverty Point’ refers to the location where theatrical managers and agents operated their businesses in Sydney and hence where out-of-work actors and vaudevillians congregated. Sydney’s first Poverty Point (corner of York and King streets) dates back to the 1880’s; then later in the 1890s at the corner of King and Castlereagh. In the early 1900’s it moved to the Marshall’s corner (at Marchall’s Brothers Chemist, at the intersection of Pitt and Park Street. Harry Clay,  the ‘King of Poverty Point’ conducted business on the street; Bert Howarde (the ‘Lord Mayor of Poverty Point’) had his ‘office’ in a doorway; messages would be left in chalk on the pavement. Other leading managers frequenting the corner included Percy Lodge, Bert Bailey, Roy Rene, Arthur Tauchert, ‘Pipeclay’ Wallace, John Cosgrove, Clyde Cook and Harry Shine.

5. The Shaftesbury Theatre (1911-1924), Perth. Theatre at 49 Stirling Street [cnr  James Street] built by Thomas Shaft (who also built the nearby Shaftesbury Hotel) and officially opened on Saturday 11 March 1911 as a gardens theatre with three thousand seats. Within a month, the venue was closed and a roof and other renovations were made before it reopened in June. Known as the Shaftesbury Theatre from 1912, the entertainment from 1918 was almost exclusively vaudeville, until it closed in 1924. The building was later known as the Luxor, Tivoli, Perth Ice Palais, and finally Canterbury Court before demolition in 1992.