Ethel Dane

Australian actress. Née Ethel Mary Spiller. Born 1876, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Daughter of John Robert Spiller and Eliza Haldane. Married (1) Cyril Keightley (actor), 18 December 1899, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, (2) Louis Wolheim (actor), 12 May 1923, Manhattan, New York, USA. Died 1 December 1963, College Park, SA, Australia.

On stage in Australia and England from 1898.

Riley/Hailes Scrapbook, page 279.

On 20 December 1913, the American Musical Burlesque Company, headed by Bert Le Blanc, Dave Nowlin and Harry Burgess, commenced their second season at the Palace, opening with A Day at the Races, which kept the house in stitches until 30 January. The next evening The Grafters returned, followed by The Speculators on 14 February 1914. For the final week of the season, 21–27 February, the company presented a double bill of The Grafters and A Day at the Races.

As audiences were laughing and enjoying themselves, they would have been unaware of what the coming year would have in store. On the theatre front, things looked rosy with return seasons by many of the old favourites anticipated, but overseas the political situation was very gloomy.

Sheet music cover for the Land of Nod Waltz from The Land of Nod, published by Alberts Music Stores, Sydney, [1914]

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Sheet music cover for “When It’s Apple Blossom Time in Normandy” from The Land of Nod, published by Allans & Co., Melbourne, [1914]

National Library of Australia, Canberra

With the departure of the American funsters, William Anderson’s residency at the Palace continued with the first Sydney production of the pantomime extravaganza The Land of Nod. Written by the prolific songwriting team of Frank R. Adams and Will M. Hough, with music by Joseph E. Howard, the show had been a big hit in Chicago in 1905, with Mabel Barrison, Alma Youlin and William Norris, where it ran for five months. However, it did not do so well in New York in 1907, when it played just 17 performances. As a fairy-tale set in a kingdom made of cards, it is now seen as an “early Wizard of Oz type story”.¹

The Land of Nod had already been produced in Melbourne as the Christmas attraction at the King’s Theatre, where it played for ten weeks or 71 performances, with Anna McNabb as Bonnie and Ruth Nevins as Jack of Hearts. In addition to the American principals, New Zealand-born Tom Armstrong who played the Man in the Moon, was also responsible for composing the song “In the Shade of My Bungalow” (which had been included in the Chicago production). Many old favourites such as Maud Chetwynd, Priscilla Verne and Tom Cannam also appeared.

The musical reached Sydney amid a blaze of publicity, so much so, that “the Palace Theatre was far from big enough to hold all who wanted to see the opening of the piece”.² Although the spectacle did not disappoint, the Sunday Times noted “the smallness of the stage did much to spoil the beautiful scenic settings, and the producer had evidently gone through some of the big ensemble scenas with a blunt axe”.³In addition to a multitude of “pictorial and mechanical features” including “The Electric Hurricane Devastation of the Card Palace of the King and Queen of Hearts”, “The Wonderful Rubber Girl” and “The Startling X Ray Gowns”, the show comprised some twenty-five song and dance routines.

At least five of the songs were from the original 1905/1907 productions—“Love’s Contagious”, “The Belle of Bald Head Row”, “Same Old Moon” and “You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down”, written by the show’s composers; “When It’s Apple Blossom Time” by Mellor, Gifford and Trevor; and the previously mentioned “In the Shade of My Bungalow” by Tom Armstrong and Don Matthews—while the remainder were interpolated numbers—“The Sleepy Pyjama Girl” by Robert Wade;. “Kill That Bear!” by Earle C. Jones and Charles N. Daniels; “Hello! Melbourne Town” by Stanley Murphy and Henry I. Marshall; and “Australia for Mine” by Arthur Don, to name a few.⁴

The Land of Nod packed the Palace for six weeks, closing on Thursday, 9 April 1914. The following night, Good Friday, the motion picture Atop of the World in Motion was screened for one night only.⁵ 

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 2 May 1914, p.8

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 2 May 1914, p.8

On Easter Saturday, 10 April, Allen Doone returned to Palace having just concluded a sold-out season in Melbourne. He commenced his Sydney stint with a revival of the patriotic Irish drama The Wearing of the Green. From the moment he stepped back on to the stage, he was greeted by a “storm of applause”, and this enthusiasm continued for the full eight weeks of his season. On 25 April he revived Molly Bawn, and on 2 May, the old Dion Boucicault sensation drama The Colleen Bawn. Unfortunately for Doone, following the first night of The Colleen Bawn, he was ordered by his doctor to rest his throat, and H.R. Roberts took his place as Myles-na-Coppaleen. Roberts was said to have played the role “nearly 1000 times”.⁶ Doone’s reappearance on Saturday, 9 May, was met by a crowded and enthusiastic house.

A week later, 16 May, the company presented a brand-new play, The Burglar and the Lady by Langdon McCormick, for the first time in Australia. Described as being “off the beaten track of the ordinary Doone play”, it featured two well-known fictional characters, Raffles and Sherlock Holmes, with the former outwitting the later following a series of robberies. As Raffles, Allen Doone “succeeded in making this dare-devil, winning character all that the heart of the most fastidious matinee girl could desire”, while Onslow Edgeworth as Holmes “invested the role … with all the tradition of mystery and grim consistent lack of humour usually associated with this gentlemen”.⁷ Overall the piece was proclaimed a success by the press: “The Allen Doone company as a whole rose to the new opportunities which were thus given”, and as the Referee noted, Doone and Edna Keeley (who played the lady) “both retained just a suggestion of the Irish brogue”.⁸ “Mr Allen Doone takes the part of Raffles, and he played the piece with his accustomed zeal and freedom. He was in good voice, for he sang a new song, ‘Old Erin, the Shamrock, and You’.” ⁹

In America, this play had received its premiere in Trenton, New Jersey, in October 1905, as a vehicle for the boxer turned actor James J. Corbett. The piece proved popular on tour for several years, and in 1914, Corbett reprised his role of Raffles in a motion picture adaptation.¹⁰In 1915, Australians had the opportunity to see Corbett in the film—and in real life when he toured for Hugh D. McIntosh’s Tivoli circuit.

The Burglar and the Lady played until the end of the season on 29 May 1914, with Doone announcing his planned return to the Palace on 7 November with a host of new plays, including The King’s Highway, Dick of the Dales, O’Shea the Rogue and a new version of Robert Emmett.¹¹

“Miss Ethel Buckley (Bess) among the Mexicans at the Palace Theatre”. Scene from Bess of Arizona

From The Sun (Sydney), 31 May 1914, p.15

Robet Inman, leading man with the Dix and Baker company

From The Australian Screen

With the theatre now under the management of Dix and Baker (a theatrical partnership between New Zealander Percy R. Dix and Sydney-based Reuben S. Baker registered in 1912), the next attraction was Bess of Arizona starring Ethel Buckley, a young actress who as the wife of George Marlow, had previously been seen at the Palace in her husband’s company. The new piece, a four-act drama set in America, was an entirely original work, written by John Morrison and Frank Edwards. It had been given its premiere in Newcastle on 16 May 1914 following a single copyright performance on 9 May.

As Bess, the cowgirl, pre-publicity informed “she’s a dead game sport; she never stops to ask fool questions, but goes right in and brings home the bacon.” ¹²

Ably supported by Robert Inman as the hero, C.R. Stanford as the Sherrif, and John Cosgrove as the proprietor of a shanty, the play promised much, and the opening night reviews were generally enthusiastic:

Despite its obvious defects and glaring improbabilities, there are thrills from curtain to curtain in the new melodrama, and Messrs Dix and Baker are to be congratulated on the success of their initial Sydney venture.¹³

The play attracted an enthusiastic opening night audience, and although the bills acknowledged the “wonderful reception”, Bess of Arizona held the stage for just one week. The following Saturday, 6 June, Ethel Buckley revived one of her former successes, Lured to London, in which she played Natty, the Hero of the London Slums. The drama was withdrawn the following Friday, which also marked the end of the season.

 

National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra

Harry Lauder with his wife

Frank Van Straten collection

Next, on Saturday, 13 June 1914, the film of The Silence of Dean Maitland was presented under the continued direction of Dix and Baker. The film received a private viewing at the Criterion Theatre on 9 June prior to its public opening at the Palace. Produced by the Fraser Film Company, it was an adaptation of the novel by Maxwell Gray, directed by Raymond Longford, with Harry Thomas as the Rev. Cyril Maitland. As noted by Pike and Cooper in their 1980 guide to Australian feature films:

Its presentation [at the Palace] was unusually elaborate: music accompaniment was provided by a grand organ and chimes, with a children’s choir of fifty voices; as the drama rose to the climax of the dean’s last sermon, Longford’s camera moved into a close-up of his face, and an actor stepped onto the stage to deliver the sermon in synchronization with the Dean’s lips.¹⁴

The film received two screening a day for a week, and was followed on 20 June by another film, Nero and Agrippina, a two-and-a-half-hour epic from the Gloria Company of Italy.¹⁵ It played twice daily for a week.

On Saturday, 27 June, the Palace hosted a “Good-bye to Harry Lauder”. Harry Lauder was a Scottish performer, and his songs and character skits were enormously popular. He had been brought to Australia by J.&N. Tait for a 28-week tour of Australia and New Zealand, commencing in Melbourne on 11 April 1914. According to newspaper reports, Lauder, who was known as the “Scotch Dickens” was being paid £25,000 for the tour.¹⁶ In addition, a “star” combination of vaudeville artists from London, New York and Paris had been engaged to support him. Described as “short and sturdy, with a strong and rugged face that gleams with kindly intelligence and humour”, when he was not playing one of his characters, he was invariably dressed in a dark green tartan representing the clan Macleod.¹⁷

Lauder’s first Sydney season opened at the Theatre Royal on 27 May to 26 June, transferring to Palace for four farewell nights and two matinees. On his final night in Sydney, he told his audience: “I have been very happy in Sydney. Nothing has been left undone by my friends to make my visit to this beautiful city as enjoyable and comfortable as possible. I am sorry to be going away, but no matter wherever I may go I can never hope to meet more appreciative audiences.” ¹⁸ To commemorate the event, a flashlight photograph of the audience was taken.¹⁹

While Lauder was making his farewell to Sydney, Australians received the news that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had been assassinated in Sarajevo—an event that was to result in the Britain declaring war on Germany on 4 August. And as a result, Australia was also at war.

Maud Allan in The Vision of Salome, 1908. Photo by Foulsham & Banfield. National Portrait Gallery, London.

Meanwhile, at the Palace, audiences highly anticipated the arrival of Canadian dancer Maud Allan. Dancing bare-footed, bare-legged, and bare-armed, her dancing style which was entirely new had attracted controversy. In addition to dances set to music by Mendelssohn and Schubert, she also presented the spectacular Vision of Salome, composed by Marcel Remy, which featured a special stage setting designed by Joseph Harker and painted by Harry Whaite and George Dixon. The Bulletin had a bit of fun at Maud Allan’s expense:

The famous Salome Dance, which has been Maud’s fortune, is carefully melodramatic, and, with its fine setting, gory accessories and music, requires less mental effort on the onlooker’s part. The trifling bead and chiffon costume resists the whirlwind dancing so well that one suspects it was rigged by a female sailor with long experience of typhoons.²⁰

Frank St Leger conducted a thirty-five-piece orchestra, and Russian brothers Leo, Jan and Mischel Cherniavsky, previously seen at the Palace in 1908, performed works by Chopin and Liszt. Presented by William Anderson, by arrangement with W. Angus MacLeod, the season was set to run from 4–10 July 1914.

On Tuesday, 7 July, Allan’s foot slipped while dancing the Vision of Salome and as a result she was ordered to rest by her doctor. With performances cancelled, replacement dates were announced for 11 July, with two special matinees on Wednesday 15 and 22 July, but as her injury did not improve, the whole season was abandoned. It was announced that she would continue with her tour and return to Sydney at a later date.

Due to the season being truncated, William Anderson lost heavily, taking the step to sue Maud Allan for breach of contract and claiming £1000 in damages. During the trial, which was held before Mr Justice Ferguson and a jury at Sydney’s Banco Court in late October, Anderson alleged that Allan’s injury was overblown and that he believed her to be “suffering from bad tempter”. Maud Allan contended that the stage floor was unfit for dancing and that although it had been patched up, it was still inadequate, and as a result, she had slipped and dislocated her semi-lunar cartilage. Evidence by medical specialists supported her claim and in line with a condition of the contact, “that if serious illness rendered the fulfilment of the contact impossible it should be null and void”, the jury returned a verdict in her favour.²¹

Under William Anderson’s direction, the Palace quickly instigated a season of films, beginning with Tess of the Storm Country²² on 18 July, followed by Inheritance of Hatred on 25 July. The first film, which starred Mary Pickford as the heroine, had already been seen in Sydney, and as a result of its continued popularity, extra sessions were given on 30 and 31 July. Inheritance of Hatred, which was being screened for the first time in Australia, featured Mari Carmi, and was produced by the Cines Company of Italy.²³

Leroy, Talma, and Bosco, 1914. Photo by Fruhling Studios, Adelaide. Potter & Potter Auctions, Chicago.

The 1 August, E.J. Carroll took over the lessee of the theatre, presenting Leroy, Talma, and Bosco, billed as the “World-Famous Magicians”. Servais Le Roy was a Belgian magician, Talma (nee Mary Ann Ford) was the English-born wife of Leroy and also an accomplished magician, while Leon Bosco provided the comic relief. The trio had previously performed at the Tivoli Theatre under Harry Rickards’ management in 1906. Now, with themselves as the headliners, they presented a full show that also included Warner and White, American society dancers; Santo Santucci, “The Wizard of the Accordion”; and “The Unknown”, a protean juggler. The main illusion during the Sydney season was “Nero, or Thrown to the Lions”, whereby a Christian maiden (Talma) is captured by Nero (Leroy) and thrown to the lions, but through a “superhuman feat of magic” manages to escape their clutches. To dispel the misconception that the lions were not real, a cage holding the two lions was placed on display in the Palace vestibule during the day so people could see the animals up close.²⁴

Over the course of their four-week season Leroy, Talma, and Bosco played to “splendid houses”. They presented many new tricks, including the patriotic illusionary tableau “The Glory of France”. Due to the magicians’ success, at the conclusion of their Palace season, they transferred to the Little Theatre for a series of farewell performances.

Beaumont Smith

From The Australian Screen

 

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 3 September 1914, p.8

With war declared, the introduction of war-themed dramas began in earnest when the newly formed partnership of Beaumont Smith and Louis Meyer presented The Clash of Arms by Edward White on 29 August. Described as a “highly realistic war drama” in four acts, it featured a strong cast headed by William F. Grant, Reginald Wykeham, Cyril Mackay and May Congdon. The story, which dealt with “the present great struggle”, provided a possible outline of events to come:

The first acts shows England at the declaration of war, the second occurs on the German-French frontier, the third is at British Army headquarters, and the fourth depicts a field telegraph station at work with the battle ranging outside.²⁵

Though some reviewers felt that by depicting scenes of carnage on the battlefield, the play was overtly manipulative in stirring up patriotic fervour—“The patriotism that needs rousing by pictures of disgusting brutality is a sorry sort of patriotism”, wrote the Sun ²⁶—others such as the Sunday Times declared it to be “the right play at the right time”.²⁷ Though reviews were mixed, the audience response was said to be “immense”. This may have been something of an exaggeration as the play was withdrawn after just four nights, The Newsletter surmising that “The people are not war mad, though the daily papers endeavour to whip up the jingo spirit [and] The Clash of Arms, specially written to please the patriotic, was a miserable failure”.²⁸ It was replaced by another play from the Smith and Meyer stable.

UK-based theatre entrepreneur Louis Meyer ran the Strand and Garrick Theatres in London, and following a meeting with the entrepreneurial Beaumont Smith arranged to tour his plays to Australia. Smith had worked as a journalist (Gadfly, Bulletin, Lone Hand) prior to becoming secretary and press agent for William Anderson. In 1911 he set up his own production company, successfully touring a show called Tiny Townthroughout Europe, Australia, South Africa and Canada. He had also had a hand in adapting On Our Selection for the stage.²⁹ Like Smith, Meyer was a man of many talents. A skilled black and white artist, he contributed to Pick-Me-Up and London Opinion, becoming art editor and joint manager of the last-named journal. Since 1910, he had enjoyed success as a theatre producer, beginning with The Woman in the Case starring Violet Vanbrugh. He had also dabbled in playwrighting, translating the play The Real Thing from the French.³⁰

Louis Meyer, 1913. Photo by Bassano.

National Portrait Gallery, London

William F. Grant in Mr Wu, as seen by cartoonist Harry Julius

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 16 July 1914, p.8

Mr Wu, an “Anglo-Eastern drama”in three acts by Harry M. Vernon and Harold Owen, had already been seen at the Adelphi Theatre in Sydney on 11 July 1914 when it inaugurated the partnership of Smith and Meyer. The play’s popularity in London was enormous, having opened at the Strand Theatre on 27 November 1913. With matinee idol Matheson Lang in the title role, it would run until 28 November 1914, amassing 404 performances.³¹

As the Sydney Morning Herald noted:

Last night the play was revived at the Palace … when the big situations again held the audience firmly. The cast is practically the same as played the piece so effectively at the Adelphi Theatre, and playgoers who missed it then may see it now to advantage in the smaller house.³²

As noted above, the main parts were played by the same actors, notably William F. Grant as Mr Wu, the Oxford educated Chinese businessman, who kills his own daughter after learning she is to have the child of an Englishman, and then seeks revenge on the young man and his father who runs a company in Hong Kong.

The two principals William F. Grant (who had also played the lead in Clash of Arms) and May Congdon, who played Mrs Gregory, had been in Australia before: Grant in the early 1900s in Trilby with Tyrone Power and Ben Hur; and May Congdon with Meynell and Gunn’s company, appearing in The Fatal Wedding and other dramas. Cyril Mackay who played the young man, had previously been seen at the Palace in February 1913 in The Bushgirl opposite Eugenie Duggan.

Mr Wu played until 11 September 1914. At the matinee the Palace held the first of many benefits in aid of the war effort. This one, the Red Cross Stage Children’s Matinee, saw the Auction of Eight Boxes by Reg Wykeham and H.R. Roberts; with another matinee for the same cause on 17 September.

Next the theatre hosted the screening of Josephine,³³ a film about Empress Josephine, which played twice daily from 12–18 September.

William Anderson’s Specially Organised Dramatic Company made a welcome returned on 19 September with an old-fashioned melodrama, The Face at the Window by E. Brook Warren, first performed in London in 1899 and in Australia by Anderson’s company in 1903. With this production, Robert Inman was reviving his original role as Paul Gouffet, the detective, with Vera Remee as the leading lady. A lurid melodrama, the opening night attracted a crowded house:

Though there appeared to be some trace of hurried rehearsal, “The Face at the Window” was, on the whole, adequately presented, and Miss Vera Remee carried off the palm as the heroine, Marie de Brisson, her interpretation of the part being natural and convincing. Miss Connie Martyn furnished an admirable sketch of Mother Pinau, the old and relentless hag who has charge of the Rogues’ Retreat. Mr Robert Inman, as the self-contained Detective Gouffet, was quite up to his usual standard, and had much to do with the success of the sensational scene in the Rogues’ Retreat, and the subsequent fight on the housetops. As Delgado (The Wolf) Mr Carl C. Francis presented in clearly defined lines all the attributes of the melodramatic villain.³⁴

It played until 2 October 1914.

Ethel Dane as Kiki in The Glad Eye, London, 1911. Photo by Fousham & Banfield.

Author’s collection

Sheet music cover for “The Colleen That I Marry”, sung by Allen Doone in his new play, The Bold Soger Boy

National Library of Australia, Canberra

On the 10 October, the Smith-Beaumont partnership launched their next major play direct from London: The Glad Eye, a farcical comedy in three acts by Jose G. Levy, adapted from the French of Paul Armont & Nicholas Nancey. Like many French farces to come before (and after), The Glad Eye concerns a pair of wayward husbands who pretend to go on a balloon flight in order to escape a boring trip to the country with their wives.

The leading actress, Ethel Dane as Kiki, the Parisien milliner, reprised the role she had played in London for almost 500 performances, firstly at the Globe, transferring to the Apollo and then to the Strand Theatre from November 1911.³⁵ An entirely new company of players was engaged to support her in Australia, including Tom Shelford (Gaston) and H.J. Ford (Maurice) as the husbands, with Dorothy Whittaker (Lucienne) and Alice Hamilton (Suzanne) as their wives. In London these roles had been played by Lawrence Grossmith, H. Marsh Allen, Auriol Lee and Daisy Markham.

Ethel Dane was an Australian who acted as Emily Spiller prior to her departure for England in 1902. This was the first representation in Sydney, the comedy having already played a five-week season in Melbourne. The Glad Eyewould go on to enjoy many revivals over the next few years.

The Sydney Sportsman neatly summarized the plot and reaction of the audience:

There was standing room only, and very little of that when “Sportsman” called in to see the fun on Saturday night. It is a performance that gets off the marks as if it were wearing a pair of running shoes, and fairly races with hilarity at full speed from barrier to winning post. The merriment circles around the ludicrous efforts of two gay husbands, who are endeavouring to escape the boredom of a trip in the country. Probably no other two husbands caused such an amount of laughter since husbands were invented. The company, both masculine and feminine members, are a fine crop of comedy dispensers.³⁶

The final engagement for the year was Allen Doone and his company, returning as promised on 7 November. He commenced his season with a brand-new play, The Bold Soger Boy, originally written by Theodore Burt Sayre for Andrew Mack and performed by him for the first time in 1903. Set in an American military camp, albeit with numerous Irish characters, the story involved the thwarting of a German spy. The play also gave Doone the opportunity to sing several new songs: “The Colleen That I Marry”, “The Rose of Old Kerry” and “The Kerry Guards”.

There can be no doubt that the new play, “The Bold Soger Boy”, has achieved an instantaneous success in Sydney. The play itself is interesting, but its appeal would be a good deal less had its interpretation less humour and elan. … Needless to say, Mr Allen Doone plays the gallant lieutenant, and plays it with all his wonted grace and conviction. One is not surprised at his capturing the heart of the fair Helen, delightfully impersonated by Miss Edna Keeley, whose acting is performed with charm and naturalness.³⁷

Two revivals followed: A Romance in Ireland from 28 November, and Sweet County Kerry from 12 December.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. Stubblebine, p.129

2. The Sun (Sydney), 1 March 1914, p.4

3. Sunday Times (Sydney), 1 March 1914, p. 6

4. These songs were all published in Australia by either Allans & Co. or Albert’s Music Store and may be found in the collection of the National Library of Australia.

5. Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0002039

6. Advertisement, The Sun (Sydney), 3 May 1914, p.10

7. The Sun (Sydney), 17 May 1914, p.4

8. Referee (Sydney), 20 May 1914, p.15

9. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 20 May 1914, p.45. The song “Old Erin, the Shamrock, and You” was composed by Robert S. Vaughan and Edna Williams, a copy of which may be found at the National Library of Australia (not digitized).

10. Sherlock Holmes on the Stage, p.49. See also Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003730

11. Sunday Times (Sydney), 17 May 1914, p.27

12. The Bulletin (Sydney), 28 May 1914, p.8

13. Sydney Morning Herald, 1 June 1914, p.5

14. Pike & Cooper, pp.66-67

15. Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188942

16. Various, including Bairnsdale Advertiser, 10 February 1914, p.2

17. Sydney Morning Herald, 31 March 1914, p.12

18. Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 2 July 1914, p.15.

19. Ibid. Curiously, this photo does not seem to have been published. A similar photo taken to commemorate Lauder’s 32nd (last) performance at the Melbourne King’s Theatre, 8 May 1914 is in the collection of the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne.

20. The Bulletin (Sydney), 9 July 1914, p.8

21. See Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 24 October 1914, p.15, 27 October 1914, p.7, 28 October 1914, p.7 & 29 October 1914, p.3. Maud Allan’s return Sydney season was at the Theatre Royal, 25–30 October 1914.

22. Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004681

23. Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963329

24. The Sun (Sydney), 23 August 1914, p.14

25. Evening News (Sydney), 29 August 1914, p.3

26. The Sun (Sydney), 30 August 1914, p.9

27. Sunday Times (Sydney), 30 August 1914, p.6

28. The Newsletter (Sydney), 26 September 1914, p.2

29. Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/smith-frank-beaumont-beau-11722

30. The Stage (London), 4 February 1915, p.19

31. Wearing, p.241. The Mr Wu was performed at the Strand Theatre, 27 November 1913-29 August 1914, transferring to the Savoy Theatre, 31 August 1914-28 November 1914. The role of Wu Li Chang was also played by Frank Royde.

32. Sydney Morning Herald, 4 September 1914, p.10

33. Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112704

34. Sydney Morning Herald, 21 September 1914, p.4

35. Wearing, p.109. The Glad Eye opened at the Globe Theatre, 4 November 1911-23 December 1911, transferring to the Apollo Theatre, 26 December 1911-31 August 1912, transferring then to the Strand Theatre, 2 September 1912-30 January 1913.

36. Sydney Sportsman, 14 October 1914, p.3

37. Sydney Morning Herald, 9 November 1914, p.5

References

Australian Dictionary of Biography

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

Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com

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

Amnon Kabatchnik, Sherlock Holmes on the Stage: A chronological encyclopedia of plays featuring the great detective, Scarecrow Press, 2008

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

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

Eric Reade, The Australian Screen—A Pictorial History of Australian Film Making, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1975

Donald J. Stubblebine, Early Broadway Sheet Music: A comprehensive listing of published music from Broadway and other stage shows, 1843-1918, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002

J.P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1910–1919: A calendar of productions, performers, and personnel, 2nd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

Newspapers

Trove, trove.nla.gov.au

Pictures

National Library of Australia, Canberra

National Portrait Gallery, London

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

With thanks to

Rob Morrison

While allen dooneand Edna Keeley were wooing the crowds in the evenings, Smith and Beaumont occupied the matinee slot. The attraction was Seven Little Australians, an adaptation by Beaumont Smith of the much-loved children’s book by Ethel Turner. Playing the adult role were Harry Sweeney, Sinna St Clair and T.E. Tilton, with Vera Spaull (Miss Bobbie), Cecil Haines (Suds), Lily Molloy (Pip), Jack Radford (Bunty), Fred Carlton (Dumps), Olga Agnew (Nell), and Esma Cannon (Baby) as the seven little Australians of the title. An interesting name included among the juveniles is Esma Cannon, an actress who would go on to have a successful career in British films playing support roles, generally village gossips.

The principal characters in Seven Little Australians: 1. At rehearsal, 2. Hector Macdonald as Bunty, 3. Olga Agnew as Pip, 4. Esme Cannon as Baby, 5. Cecil Haines as Suds, 6. Vera Spaull as Miss Bobbie, 7. Veta Cannon as Nell, 8. Fred Carlton as Dumps. These photos are from the company’s NZ tour and some of the roles changed.

From NZ Sporting & Dramatic Review, 22 April 1915, p.24 (Papers Past)

The play was well received, especially by the children in the audience, but reviewers were keen to point out that the plot was not a faithful rendering of the original book. Nevertheless, the acting was praised, especially that of Vera Spaull:

Miss Vera Spaull as Miss Bobbie, and a splendid Bobbie she makes. Although only a child, she has a stage naturalness that is delightful, and she carries off both the dramatic and the comic situations of the play with a finish that indicates a possibility of going far in her career as an actress.¹

Indeed, Vera Spaull would go on to enjoy a successful career in Australia and the UK performing in plays and musicals (see Madame Pompadour). During 1911–1912, she had already attracted attention in The Fatal Wedding (as one of the children in the Tin Can Band), and as Tyltyl in Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird.

On 6 January 1915, a notice appeared in several of the dailies announcing the dissolution of the partnership between Beaumont Smith and Louis Meyer, “by mutual consent” with Smith taking “over the assets, agreements, and theatrical rights of said partnership for Australasian and New Zealand of the plays … and as from the first day of December instant the said Beaumont Smith will carry on in his own name the business of and pay the liabilities of the said partnership.” ²

According to reports, Meyer’s health had been poorly for some months, and he decided to resign from active management of the Garrick and Strand Theatres and settle in Brighton in the hope of regaining his strength.³ Sadly, his condition did not approve, and on 2 February 1915, he died, aged just 43. The cause of death was said to be heart disease.⁴

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 14 January 1915, p.8 & 1 October 1914, p.9

When the Allen Doone season concluded on 15 January, Smith took over the whole bill at the Palace. With Seven Little Australians playing at the matinee, he introduced a new comedy to the evening position, Who’s the Lady?, a farce by Jose G. Levy, adapted from the French of Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber. This play had enjoyed a seven-month season (175 performances) at the Garrick Theatre in London during 1913, with Jean Aylwin (Gobette), Farren Soutar (Cyprien) and Millie Hylton (Mme Tricointe) as the leads. With a reputation as “one of the most risky farces to be produced on the London stage”,⁵ it featured a scene, where in the course of a flirtation in the offices of the Minister of Justice, Gobette’s flimsy dress is torn and falls to the ground leaving her in just her petticoats. And when her dress is lost, she must borrow that of Madame Tricointe. In New York, under the title Madam President, it played for 128 performances at the Garrick Theatre, with Fannie Ward as Gobette, supported by Pattie Browne, George Giddens and John Dean. In 1916, it was made into a film, Madame La Presidente, starring Anna Held.

In Australia, the key roles were played by Ethel Dane (Gobette), H.J. Ford (Minister) and Sinna St Clair (Madame Tricointe). Advertised in some papers as “The Play that would make the Kaiser laugh”,⁶ Who’s the Lady? opened at the Palace on 26 December 1914, following successful seasons in Melbourne and Adelaide. With Seven Little Australians still running at the matinee, both plays attracted big houses.

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 21 January 1915, p.8

On 16 January 1915, The Chaperon was presented for the first time in Sydney. As Rosamund Gaythorne, Ethel Dane reprised a role that she had played in London. This play had already been seen in Adelaide where it had received rave notices. The plot concerns a young man, Hilary Chester, played by Tom Shelford, who takes the position of professional chaperon at a London restaurant. As protocol requires, when an older gentleman wishes to meet a young lady, a chaperon must be present, with the idea that the chaperon and the young lady are Mr and Mrs Jones, and that they are guests of the gentleman. So, when Christopher Pottinger MP wishes to entertain an actress, Rosamund Gaythorne, her chaperon must be present. As luck would have it, Pottinger’s wife and sister appear on the scene, whereby the chaperon and the lady are introduced as man and wife. And when Mrs Pottinger invites them to her country home things start to unravel when Chester’s fiancée turns up at the same house party.

The Sun (17 January 1915) called The Chaperon “one of the liveliest and original pieces of farce seen in Sydney for a long time”, “It has an elaborate and attractive setting, is well dressed and well acted, but it specially wins praise because of its constant action through amusing complications and their relief.”

The farce ran for a fortnight, and for the final week of the season The Glad Eye was revived. Thereafter the company departed for New Zealand, with the promise of returning to Sydney in the Winter with a new children’s play The Rag Doll by Arthur Adams, and the farce The Real Thing.

As the Beaumont Smith season was entering its last days, news of the death of Louis Meyer was received in Sydney. Although the original partnership had been dissolved the previous November due to Meyer’s poor health, it was now thought that “but for this inevitable change Australian playgoers would have enjoyed the additional enterprise of a London manager of unusual talents and energy”.⁷

With the departure of The Glad Eye company, Seven Little Australiansalso closed (notching up a six-week run), marking the end of the current Beaumont Smith season.

With Smith gone, Harrie Skinner, the Palace manager, was after a new lessee to fill the breach before the arrival of Allen Doone at Easter. In the meantime, the Palace was repainted and renovated.

From The Queenslander Pictorial supplement, 1 May 1915. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

The breech was duly filled by Frederic Shipman Enterprises Ltd. with Neptune’s Daughter starring Annette Kellerman, “the famous water-girl”. This was not a live show, but an “Alluring, Thrilling, Stupendous, Spectacular Photo-play”.⁸ It was claimed that the film had “broken all records in America”, achieving an “unprecedented run of 300 nights at the Globe Theatre, New York City”.⁹ Described as “one of the finest examples of the cinematographic art presented in this city for some time”, the film was a showcase for the talents of the Australian-born star:

In several of the scenes Miss Kellerman, in white, close-fitting tights, gives entertaining exhibitions of swimming and diving, her graceful form standing out against the brushwood like a marble statue as she poses before she dives.¹⁰

Neptune’s Daughter opened, for the first time in Sydney, on Wednesday 17 March 1915. Sydney-born Kellerman had achieved success as a professional swimmer and vaudeville star and was the first woman to wear a one-piece bathing suit.

Canadian-born entrepreneur, Frederic Shipman (1873–1961), who was presenting the film, was a well-known theatrical agent, having since 1906 been the manager for numerous operatic stars including Jessie McLachlan, Marie Narelle, Paul Dufault, David Bispham and Madame Nordica. Taking a break from the “slippery ground of concert management in favour of picture enterprise”, Shipman had acquired the sole Australian and New Zealand rights for the film—Annette Kellerman’s first full-length feature.

Neptune’s Daughter played twice daily until 1 April. On Good Friday, afternoon and evening, the Kalem Company’s 1912 “sacred picture drama” From Manger to Cross was revived, having previously been seen in Sydney at Christmas 1914.

The following evening, Easter Saturday 3 April, Allen Doone made his return to the Palace. He opened, not with O’Shea the Rogueas announced, but with a reprise of Barry of Ballymoore, the romantic Irish drama by Rida Johnson Young, which reintroduced Edna Keeley as the heroine Lady Mary Bannon, supported by Ethel Bashford (Nanette), Ella Carrington (Mrs Barry), Ethel Grist (Betty O’Mara), Maurice Lynch (Michael McShane), Frank Cullenane (Lord Bannon), Onslow Edgeworth (Sir Edward Emery), Clive Farnham (General O’Mara) and other favourites.

As on previous occasions, Doone was greeted by “a cordial and delighted audience” and at the end of the play “in response to prolonged applause, he sang ‘The Wearin’ o’ the Green’, amid a scene of enthusiasm, while masses of flowers, tributes to Miss Edna Keeley and other, adorned the stage”.¹¹

Doone was an enormous attraction, and it seems opening night was oversubscribed. As a note in advertisements observed: “Saturday night hundreds were turned away from the Palace Theatre. Those who purchased tickets and were unable to gain admission are notified that their tickets will hold good for any night this week”.¹²

As the Sydney Sportsman (7 April 1915) opined, “The Doone boom is an assured success that is not likely to fade while ever its creator elects to remain with us”.

A fortnight later, Doone introduced Too Much Johnson for the first time in Sydney. His only new play for the season, this farcical comedy was by William Gillette (of Sherlock Holmes fame)—adapted from La Plantation Thomassin by Maurice Ordonneau—and originally staged in America in 1894. The play was a success on its first production (with Gillette in the lead), playing for 216 performances at the Standard Theatre in New York.¹³ This was the first Sydney production, the play having been seen in Adelaide and Melbourne in 1897 with Harry Paulton and Alma Stanley as the leads. Like so many three act farces, the plot defies description. But suffice to say, it concerns a married man, Augustus Billings (Allen Doone), who under the name of Johnson has been conducting an affair with a French woman and giving the excuse that he is visiting his sugar plantation in Cuba. Soon Billings, his wife, his mother-in-law, his latest girlfriend and her husband, and the fiancée of the real Plantation owner (a Mr Johnson) are on a ship bound for Cuba. What could go wrong?

Swapping his Irish brogue for a Yonker’s accent did not dent Doone’s popularity. As one paper summarised:

It was strange to see him [Doone] stripped of his Irish environment, his brogue, and the picturesqueness and quaint humour which appealed so strongly to Hibernian sentiment. The verdict of a crowded house, however, seemed to endorse the change with its approval, though the piece viewed either as a pure farce, a comedy, or a farcical comedy, is certainly not of the brilliant order.¹⁴

Too Much Johnson held the stage for three weeks and was replaced, on 8 May, by The Parish Priest, the hit of Doone’s 1913 season. This played for a week and was to have been followed by O’Shea the Rogue, but for a second time this piece failed to appear, and instead the season played out with revivals of In Old Donegal (15 May) and Molly Bawn (22 May). The season was concluded on 28 May after which the company departed for a tour of New Zealand.

Advertising postcard for the first London production of A Scrape o’ the Pen, 1912

Author’s collection

Advertising postcard printed by Syd Day Ltd for the first Australian production of A Scrape o’ the Pen,1915

HAT Archive

Scottish sentiment replaced Irish sentiment with the next offering at the Palace, with the first Australian production of A Scrape o’ the Pen. Written by Graham Moffat, and performed by him and his wife, the play was presented under the direction of E.J. Carroll. The Moffats had been in Australia since June 1914, when they made their first appearance at the Sydney Theatre Royal in Bunty Pulls the Strings. Since that time, they had been touring the country with that play. This new piece, which centred around Scottish marriage law, had first been performed at the Comedy Theatre in London on 4 September 1912.

Set on New Year’s Eve 1874/75, the play sees a young man return from working abroad to find his ‘wife’, whom he had married in the Scottish tradition, married to the manager of a farm belonging to his parents, played by Mr and Mrs Moffat. Although the drama of the marriage is central to the play, the “exquisite pictures” of Scottish home life and the comedy scenes featuring the bickering older couple were absorbing and delighted the audience.

A Scrape o’ the Pen played until 3 July and for the final week of the season Bunty Pulls the Strings was revived for a week. On its first Sydney production the title character had been performed by Ella Young, but this current revival introduced a new Bunty played by Jean Clyde. This young Scottish actress, who had played the role on tour in England, understudied Ella Young in the role in Australia, and in February 1915 finally succeeded to the role when Ella returned to England. With the close of the season the company departed for Newcastle en route for New Zealand.

The next attraction at the Palace was The Royal Strollers, an English company of entertainers headed by Sydney James, G.W. Desmond and Madeline Rossiter. Presented by J. & N. Tait, The Royal Strollers were making their first appearance in Sydney following success in Adelaide, Melbourne and the regions. Billed as ‘From the Palace Theatre, London’, the combination had earned the title of ‘Royal’ having appeared before the King and Queen on 1 July 1914. Originally founded in 1900, the company toured extensively throughout the British Isles, South Africa and the USA prior to their arrival in Australia in November 1914. Adept at whistling, mimicry, impersonations and ventriloquism (with dummy ‘Billy’), Sydney James was the key attraction and known as the ‘father’ of the Royal Strollers.¹⁵

Sheet music cover for ‘On the Promenade’, written and composed by Madeline Rossiter and sung by Gwen Lewis of the Royal Strollers, 1916

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Sydney James with his dummy Billy, from the sheet music cover for ‘Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser’, written and composed by Alf Ellerton, published by Allan & Co., Melbourne, 1914

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Mixing comedy, song, dance and variety, the Strollers proved a hit at the Palace. As one reviewed observed of the seven-strong troupe:

In the Royal Strollers, who opened at the Palace Theatre last night under the Tait direction, we have the smartest and gayest collection of comedians seen on the Sydney stage for a long time. … The Chief Stroller is Sydney James, a comedian whose gift for burlesque is remarkable; while as a ventriloquist he is not only the cleverest but also the most amusing performer within the memory of our playgoers. Under Mr James are a bunch of men and girls whose distinct talents mark each with a special individuality. Some sing, others dance, they all talk smartly, and whatever they do is done well. … The Strollers form, on the whole, a more skilful combination of drawing-room comedians than any the Australian stage has welcomed, and provide an evening of wholesome laughter.¹⁶

Indeed, the Royal Strollers became a fixture at the Palace. Originally engaged for four weeks, their season was extended to twelve weeks, and they held the stage until 1 October 1915. During their stay their program of ‘refined vaudeville’ underwent many changes through the introduction of new routines and burlesques. The type of entertainment presented by the Strollers was just what war weary Sydneysiders craved, their antics providing a “constant simmer of mirth”.

In Europe, the war continued to rage, and as Australian men and boys were urged to join the call to arms, so too did members of the theatrical profession. With the boarders virtually closed to new arrivals from England, many English entertainers chose to remain in Australia rather than return home.

When the Stroller’s season at the Palace was concluded, Sydney audiences were not prepared to say ‘good bye’ and it was arranged for them to play an additional two weeks at the Little Theatre, the extension also allowing for country visitors coming to town for the racing season to attend the show.

From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1915, p.23. The journal has mistakenly written Harold rather than Cleave McGrath. Harold McGrath (1871-1932) was an Amerian novelist, whereas Cleave McGrath (1871-1932) was an actor and later a cinema manager in NSW.

Preparing the family for a visit to Sydney. The Waybacks’ arrival in Sydney. In George-street. In Bathurst-street. Inside the coffee palace. Dad’s deputation to the Minister for Works. Waybacks in a back yard at Balmain. Back at Dingo Flat. The city visitors. The Waybacks rehearsing a bush comedy.¹⁷

Though critics were not overwhelming in their appraisal, they were unanimous in their praise for the play’s mounting and acting. Audiences were prepared to go with the improbabilities of the story and applauded generously and the “House Full sign was posted up early in the proceedings”.¹⁸

A fortnight into the season, the Daily Telegraph (9 October 1915) observed, “the success of season has exceeded even the most sanguine anticipations”.

The Sydney Sportsman (20 October 1915) elaborated:

Shows of a sad and serious nature appear to be taboo in this city of ‘silken sin and openwork wickedness’ at the present. For hilarious humor and fun and frolic, at full gallop, though, ‘The Waybacks’ is easily first past the judge’s box. It is a kind of foster brother to ‘On Our Selection’, but has a freshness all of its own in the visit of Dad and Mum of immoral fame, and the family to the Big Smoke.

After 12 weeks at the Palace, The Waybacks were still drawing the crowds, but unable to extend his tenancy at the Palace beyond 12 November, Philip Lytton arranged for the play to be transfer to the Theatre Royal, where it continued to delight audiences until 3 December.

From The Sun (Sydney), 28 November 1915, p.22

On 13 November 1915 films returned to the Palace with the Australian premiere of Hypocrites. Described as “morality sermon”,¹⁹ the film might have struck a somewhat sombre tone after the antics of Dads and Mums Wayback, but the attraction of “a clergyman steadfastly pursuing a nude through several thousand feet of filmed landscape”²⁰ proved irresistible. (Historically, the film is now regarded as the first non-pornographic film to contain full-frontal nudity.) The film, which had been banned in some American states for being ‘anticlerical’, proved a money-spinner at the Palace and remained the attraction for five weeks, making it the longest running film in Sydney, second only to Quo Vadis at the Lyceum two and a half years earlier.²¹

Following the closure of Hypocrites on 18 December, the Palace closed its doors for a week’s respite, reopening on 27 December with The Rosary.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. Referee (Sydney), 30 December 1914, p.15

2. Argus, 6 January 1915, p. 4

3. Weekly Dispatch (London), 31 January 1915, p.10

4. The Stage (London), 4 February 1915, p.19

5. Herald (Melbourne), 10 January 1914, p.10

6. See for example The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 6 January 1915, p.2

7. Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 1915, p.8

8. Advertisement, The Sun (Sydney), 15 March 1915, p.2

9. Advertisement, The Sun (Sydney), 12 March 1915, p.2

10. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 18 March 1915, p.9

11. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 5 April 1915, p.5

12. Advertisement, The Sun (Sydney), 5 April 1915, p.2

13. Refer https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/too-much-johnson-7246

14. Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1915, p.4

15. Western Mail (Perth), 19 March 1915, p.39–40

16. The Sun (Sydney), 11 July 1915, p.4

17. Advertisement, The Sun (Sydney), 2 October 1915, p.2

18. The Mirror of Australia (Sydney), 3 October 1915, p.16

19. Sunday Times (Sydney), 31 October 1915, p.16

20. The Bulletin (Sydney), 18 November 1915, p.8

21. The Theatre (Sydney), 1 January 1916, p.43

References

Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com

J.P. Wearing, The London Stage, 1910–1919: A calendar of productions, performers, and personnel, 2nd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014

Newspapers

Trove, trove.nla.gov.au

Pictures

HAT Archive

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Papers Past

State Library of Queensland, Brisbane

With thanks to

Rob Morrison