Florence Brough

English actress & vocalist (contralto). Née Florence Major; aka Mrs Robert Brough; aka Florence Trevelyan. Born 4 November 1856, Covent Garden, London, England. Daughter of Richard Major and Harriet Davis. Sister of Emma Temple (actress) and Brenda Gibson (actress). Married (1) Robert Brough (actor), 26 July 1880, St James Church, Plymouth, Devon, England, (2) Cyril Bell (actor), 1909, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Died 7 January 1932, Sydney, NSW, Australia, aged 74.

 On stage in England and Australia from 1876. Based in Australia from 1886.

Riley/Hailes Scrapbook, page 118.

English actor, vocalist & manager. Né Lionel Barnabas Brough; aka LB Brough. Born 13 July 1855, London, England. Married Florence Brough (actress), 26 July 1880, Plymouth, Devon, England. Died 20 April 1906, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

On stage in England and Australia from 1871. Based in Australia from 1885. Co-managed Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company with Dion Boucicault Jr from 1886-1896.

Riley/Hailes Scrapbook, page 118.

Christmas1910 at the Palace Theatre saw the return of Hugh J. Ward’s company, bringing with them a new comedy, The Girl from Rector’s, which opened on Christmas Eve, 24 December. With this season, Ward was also announcing his ‘farewell to the footlights’, having accepted an offer from J.C. Williamson Ltd. to become a principal with The Firm.

Described in the bills as ‘A riotous piece of extravagance’, ‘A laughing paralysis in four fits’ and ‘A spicy banquet of merriment’, the new piece was a comedy in four acts by Paul M. Potter (best known for turning George Du Maurier’s 1896 novel Trilby into a play). Ward’s company had presented the first Australian production of The Girl from Rector’s at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne the previous June, and on tour, where it was a huge success. Derived from the French farce, Loute, by Pierre Veber, the play focusses on the adulterous goings-on of several couples.¹ When it was first produced in Trenton, New Jersey (29 January 1909) by A.H. Woods, it attracted the ire of the local clergy and was withdrawn after just one out-of-town ‘try-out’. As a result, it received a great reception when it moved to Broadway, opening at Weber’s Music Hall on 1 February 1909, and playing for 184 performances.²

Scene restaurant scene in the last act from The Girl from Rector’s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.

In advertisements, Ward reproduced a rather tongue-in-cheek ‘Author’s Note’, which read:

The Girl from Rector’s is a full version of Pierre Veber’s famous comedy ‘Loute’, which has had a triumphant career in Europe. Based on the strange theory that married men often lead double lives, and that the saint of the rural home may be the Lothario of its city, Mr Potter hesitated to introduce this comedy to a community where he believed, in his innocence, that married men of double lives were practically unknown, but as many recent lawsuits have tended to prove the contrary, the management has decided to produce the play, in the hopes that it will serve as a warning to husbands, and strengthen the hands of matrons and maids who are battling for the purity of the home.³

From The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 31 January 1911, p.9Like many farces, its plot is complicated. Nevertheless, the central character, has just been dumped by her lover Richard O’Shaughnessy, a New York playboy. She goes by the name of Loute Sedaine, but she is actually the wife of a small-town judge. Richard is on the hunt for a new girlfriend and falls for a pretty heiress, Marcia Singleton, who is also the object of Professor Maboon’s affections. Richard tells Colonel Tandy of his plans, little knowing that Tandy is really Marcia’s father, believed by his wife and daughter to be Martinique. In the end identities are revealed and the various couples pair off, with Loute returning to her husband and Richard marrying Marcia. The final big scene involves a dinner in a suburban restaurant between Loute and Richard, whereby the staff are all Marcia’s friends and family in disguise.

The play’s title, which references a stylish New York restaurant, has little to do with the plot, but rather reflects the current fashion for plays and musicals with titles beginning The Girl from … .⁴

In America, the central characters were played by Violet Dale (Loute Sedaine), Van Rensselaer Wheeler (Richard O’Shaughnessy), Nena Blake (Marcia Singleton), William Burress (Colonel Tandy), Herbert Carr (Judge Caperton), Elita Proctor Otis (Mrs Witherspoon Copley) and Dallas Wellford (Professor Aubrey Maboon). In Sydney, the same roles were performed by Grace Palotta, Aubrey Mallalieu, Ruby Baxter, Reginald Wykeham, Robert Greig, Celia Ghiloni and Hugh J. Ward.

The farce was to have been followed by another comedy on 28 January 1911, but on account of it “drawing such crowded audiences”, Ward decided to keep it running for a fortnight longer.⁵

The Girl from Rector’s was finally withdrawn on 3 February 1911, and the following night Seven Days was produced for the first time in Australia. By way of a publicity stunt, prior to its opening, one of the ladies in the company, Clara Budgin, undertook to climb a scaffold and paste a huge poster on the side of a building in Pitt Street announcing the opening of the play. This stunt was undertaken in response to a claim in a newspaper article that there was “at least one business in which women could not excel”: namely bill posting!⁶

Though not as hilarious as The Girl from Rector’s, Avery Hopwood and Mary Robert Rinehart’s three-act comedy did very well on Broadway, playing for a year (some reviews exaggerating it to two!). Based on Rinehart’s 1908 novella When a Man Marries, it was her first play and only the second play of co-writer Hopwood. The two would enjoy further successes with Spanish Love and The Bat.

Scene from Seven Days. From the left: Grace Palotta, Reginald Wykeham. Maud Chetwynd, Aubrey Mallalieu, Celia Ghiloni, Hugh J. Ward, Ruby Baxter and Robert Greig, with H.H. Wallace (top). Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.

Seven Days opened on Broadway at the Astor Theatre on 10 November 1909, following a single ‘try-out’ performance at the Taylor Opera Houe in Trenton, New Jersey, on 1 November. Deftly combining comedy and crime, the play centres on a group of people who are forced to spend seven days together after a case of smallpox is detected among the servants. James Wilson has divorced, but has not told his rich Aunt Selina, so when she comes to visit, he gets Kit McNair to pretend to be his wife. Just before the household is thrown into quarantine, James’s former wife arrives, as does James’s friend Dallas Brown with wife Anne; Tom Harbison, an admirer of Kit’s (amazed to find her ‘married’); a red-headed police officer; and a burglar in hiding. The Broadway line-up included Herbert Corthell (James Wilson), Lucille La Verne (Aunt Selina), Georgie O’Ramsey (Kit McNair), Hope Latham (Bella Knowles), Allan Pollock (Dallas Brown), Florence Reed (Anne Brown), Carl Eckstrom (Tom Harbison), Jay Wilson (Office Flannigan) and William Eville (Tubby McGirk). Unlike The Girl from Rector’s, Seven Days also played a short season in London, when it was performed at the New Theatre for 16 performances from 15 March 1915, with Lennox Pawle, Lotte Venne, Athene Seyler and Auriol Lee.

Seven Days was performed for the final three weeks of Ward’s season at the Palace, with the key roles played by Hugh J. Ward (James Wilson), Celia Ghiloni (Aunt Selina), Grace Palotta (Kit McNair), Ruby Baxter (Bella Knowles), Aubrey Mallalieu (Dallas Brown), Maud Chetwynd (Anne Brown), Reginald Wyckham (Tom Harbison), Robert Greig (Office Flannigan) and H.H. Wallace (Tubby McGirk). Opening night was a memorable one for Ward. Not only was he entering his final weeks as an actor-manager, but just before the curtain went up, he received news that his house (‘Lafayette’, William Street, Double Bay) was on fire. Fortunately, the fire crew was able to contain the blaze to a bathroom, lavatory, and luggage room, but the timing was not great. This was on top of an already busy week for Ward, not only rehearsing a new play, but as the chief organiser and participant in a benefit for two surf lifesavers. The benefit, which was held at the Stadium (in Rushcutters Bay), took the form of a ‘boxing display’, including a match between Ward and Reginald ‘Snowy’ Baker (a professional pugilist and brother of one of the lifesavers). The event raised £800. (For the record, Ward won the bout when in the second round he delivered a knockout punch with his left to Snowy’s jaw. Snowy fell back and hit his head and was carried off unconscious. Shocked at the outcome, Ward vowed to hang up his gloves!)

From The Bulletin (Sydney), 2 March 1911, p.8 (left) and Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections (right)

On the last night of the season, Saturday, 25 February 1911, by way of his farewell to the stage, Ward performed his Scarecrow dance for the first time in Sydney. The dance was part of a larger sketch entitled The Scarecrow, which according to publicity had been devised by him some years earlier when he was appearing in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet. The character was subsequently introduced into the Drury Lane pantomime Humpty Dumpty in 1903–1904. A quote from the London Telegraph was included in newspaper ads:

A wonderful scarecrow of old clothes and bursting straw stuffing, impersonated with rare skill by Mr. Ward. His movement, so invertebrate and fifth of Novemberish, are like nothing we have ever seen. There is a pathetic grotesqueness about them quite fascinating.⁷

With the departure of Ward and his company, Spencer’s Theatrescope Company commenced a short season at the Palace (pending their relocation to the Lyceum Theatre) and over the following fortnight they presented a weekly change of ‘picture plays’ beginning with Rip Van Winkleon 27 February.

Saturday, 11 March 1911 saw the arrival of the Hamilton-Plimmer-Denniston company, fresh from a successful tour of New Zealand. The company, which was considered the heir to the old Brough-Boucicault company, included Mrs Robert Brough (nee Florence Trevelyn), the widow of Robert Brough who had died in 1906. After his death she had gone to the ‘old country’ for a time and had also (rather unexpectedly) remarried. The three directors of the new company had also performed with the Brough company at various times. When he was last at the Palace, Allan Hamilton had been associated with Max Maxwell, but with the dissolution of that partnership, he joined forces with Harry Plimmer and Reynolds Denniston. The combination that was now at the Palace had previously appeared in Sydney in September 1910 at the Theatre Royal.

Pre-publicity suggested that they would be opening their season with the first Australian production of Somerset Maugham’s comedy Smith. However, this was not the case. Instead, they revived A Message from Mars (Hamilton having acquired the sole Australian rights from Clarke and Meynell), with Plimmer as Horace Parker and Denniston as the Messenger. Lizette Parkes was Minnie Templar and Mrs Robert Brough was Aunt Martha. The play was mounted with all new scenery by Harry Whaite. As the season was strictly limited to five weeks, it was withdrawn on 17 March and replaced by The Passing of the Third Floor Back. Written by Jerome K. Jerome (based on his short story) and originally performed in England in 1909 with Johnston Forbes Robertson and Gertrude Elliott, it was subsequently staged in Australia by the Clarke and Meynell company in June/July 1910 with star London actors Matheson Lang and Hutin Britton. Sub-titled, ‘an idle fantasy’, it was the story of a mysterious stranger who takes a room in a London boarding-house, and one by one he helps its miserable and dissolute tenants to find their ‘better selves’. For the current revival, Harry Plimmer played The Stranger, with Lizette Parkes as the Slavey, Mrs Brough as the Landlady, and Reynolds Denniston as Major Tompkins.

Characters from A Message from Mars. From The Sun (Sydney), 13 March 1911, p.5.

On the 25 March 1911, the Hamilton-Plimmer-Denniston company presented their last play for the season, a revival of Lovers’ Lane, a rustic tale of a “country parson’s troubles with his flock and his sweethearts”, by Clyde Fitch. First performed in America in 1909 and by the current company in 1910, it saw Harry Plimmer reprise his role of the Rev. Thomas Singleton, with Reynolds Denniston as Herbert Woodbridge, Mrs Brough as Mrs Woodbridge, Valentine Sidney as Miss Mattie, and Lizette Parkes as Simplicity Johnson. During the second act, Myra Wall, sang ‘Ben Bolt’ (composed by Nelson Kneass in 1848 and memorably reprised in Trilby), and Lizette Parkes, together with a ‘band of merry youngsters’, sang ‘The Old Red School’ (by Irving B. Lee, with music by Hampton Durand).⁸

With the close of the season, the company headed north to Brisbane. In advance, Allan Hamilton secured a return season at the Palace in September.

Next, for two nights only, Saturday, 1 April and Monday, 3 April, the Sydney Stage Society presented Civil War, a comedy in four acts by Ashley Dukes. It saw the reappearance of G.S. Titheradge, who as Sir John Latimer ‘gave an able and polished exposition of the proud and obstinate old Baronet’.⁹ He was supported by Leonard Willey, Stephen Scarlett, Lily Titheradge and Ruby Ward. A.E. Greenaway directed.

From 4–7 April, the Palace hosted the Lyric Opera Company in a new and original Australian ‘Musical Military Frisk’ by P.C. Gray (libretto) and George Tott (music) called 19–20. It seems rehearsals had been held in September 1910 and these were the premiere performances. A notable element of the production were the ballets created by Ruby Hooper (a younger sister of J.C. Williamson ballet mistress, Minnie Hooper) which featured a young Madge Elliott as solo danseuse.¹⁰

George Marlow was back on 8 April with The Luck of Roaring Camp—the play that had been a huge hit the previous year. But it was not the play! It was the ‘moving picture’ version, directed by W.J. Lincoln, with Ethel Buckley reprising her role of Nell Curtis. The hero, Will Gordon, was now played by Robert Inman. The review in the Sydney Morning Herald (10 April 1911, p.4) noted:

The drama was played before the camera by George Marlow’s dramatic company … and the result, as shown, by the pictures, is a thrilling “story without words” … The play has been carefully selected for this method of portrayal, because it teems with exciting episodes and thrilling incidents in particular that could never be seen on any stage without the camera is the splendid exhibition of horsemanship shown by a team of rough-riders.

The film, which had been seen in Melbourne the previous March, was being screened in Sydney for the first time. It played for six nights only as part of a longer program of films.¹¹

Good Friday, 14 April saw a Grand Sacred Concert, which featured The Royal Hawaiians.

The next evening West’s Pictures returned. Over the following months they screened films in two venues, the Palace and the Glaciarium, though in June, the pictures moved from the open air Glaciarium to the newly-opened Princess Theatre in George Street, opposite Central Station, and from 4 August, they used just the Princess, and the Palace returned to live entertainment.

Sheet music cover for ‘Why Does My Heart Beat So?’, sung in the pantomime The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, by Dorothea Liddle.

National Library of Australia, Canberra.

Roy Redgrave. Photo by Johnstone, O'Shannessy & Falk.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne.

On 5 August 1911, William Anderson took over the lease of the Palace, opening with the first Sydney appearance of Tom Liddiard’s Lilliputians. This ‘Great company of Little Artists’ had been formed in 1907 and since that time had been touring throughout India and the East. Since returning to Australia in April 1910, the company undertook several regional tours and had joined forces with William Anderson’s management to present the pantomime The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. The show received its first Australian outing at Christmas 1910 at the King’s Theatre in Melbourne. Prior to their arrival in Sydney, the pantomime had been seen in Adelaide, Broken Hill, Ballarat and Bendigo.

Reviews were quick to point out that it was a risky move presenting pantomime outside of the festive season, but nevertheless, Anderson seemed to know what he was doing. The Lilliputians proved a big drawcard. The pantomime by F. Major drew on a whole bevy of characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales, headed by Jack Dauntless played by Lily Clarke, whose ‘graceful and effective’ singing and dancing proved a drawcard. Her song ‘Hello, Little Girl’ was particularly effective. Another song, ‘Why Does My Heart Beat So?’ was introduced by another youngster, Dorothea Liddle, in the role of Jill.¹²

From 26 August, with the arrival of William Anderson’s Dramatic Company, the pantomime played selected matinees only, touring to nearby theatres at other times. The Anderson Co. had been performing at the Criterion Theatre since 12 August, but was forced to vacate the theatre to make way for British actress Ethel Irving, who was opening her Sydney debut season on 26 August.

The new show was The Man from Outback, a melodrama in four acts by Albert Edmunds (the pen name of Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan). An Australian-themed melodrama set on a cattle station—involving the capture of cattle rustlers by the owner’s feisty daughter with the help of a mysterious stranger—the play, which capitalised on the success of The Squatter’s Daughter, had first been produced in 1909 at the King’s Theatre in Melbourne, and had recently been revived at the King’s in July/August 1911. This was its first Sydney representation. The title character, Dave Goulburn, was played by Roy Redgrave (he created the role in 1909), supported by Olive Wilton as Mona Maitland, with Bert Bailey in the comic role of Joe Lachlan, and Edmund Duggan and Rutland Beckett as the chief villains. The play was well received, with the Sydney Morning Herald (7 August 1911, p.6) noting:

From the opening scene to the final curtain it gripped the audience, and clearly, ‘The Man from Outback’ has come for a prolonged stay. Its joint authors, Mr Bert Bailey and Mr Edmund Duggan, in this second effort have improved upon ‘The Squatter’s Daughter’. The plot is good, its unfolding moves briskly forward, the dialogue is to the point, and the whole environment is that of the Australian bush.

Of the cast, Roy Redgrave is probably one of the more interesting actors. He had been in Australia on and off since 1904 and prior to joining William Anderson’s company in 1909, he had returned to England, where he met and married his second wife, the actress Daisy (Margaret) Scudamore. In mid-1909, six months after the birth of their son Michael, the family travelled to Australia, under contact to William Anderson’s company, opening in Melbourne in August 1909 in The Bushwoman. Daisy played the heroine, Kate, with Roy as her lover Jack Dunstan. Off stage relations between Daisy and Roy were fractious, and when Daisy’s contract with Anderson expired in August 1910, she returned to London with her son. Michael Redgrave would go on to achieve accolades as an actor on both stage and screen (receiving a knighthood in 1959), with Roy becoming the patriarch of an acting family that spawned three generations.¹³

On 3 September, The Man from Outback gave way to The Christian. This was a revised version of a play by Hall Caine, based partly on his 1896 novel of the same name. It told the story of a young Manx woman, Glory Quayle, who, against the advice of John Storm, a crusading Anglican priest, leaves the Isle of Man to become a successful music hall artiste. Storm goes after her and in a rage is determined to kill her if she won’t repent her life of sin, and recognising that they love one another, Glory agrees to become his wife and help him with his work among the poor.

The play had originally been staged in 1897, when a copyright performance was given at the Grand Theatre in Douglas on the Isle of Man on 7 August, with the actors drawn from Caine’s own family (with Caine as John Storm).¹⁴ The first professional production was given in America the following year with Viola Allen as Glory Quayle and Edward J. Morgan as Storm. Evelyn Millard created the role of Glory in England in 1899, with Herbert Waring as the preacher. In Australia, a new adaptation of the novel was made by Wilson Barrett and Bernard Espinaise, and first staged in 1900 with Edith Crane and Tyrone Power in the lead roles. This version was subsequently revived in 1903–1904 (with Cuyler Hastings and May Chevalier) and 1906–1907 (with Charles Waldron and Ola Humphrey). In 1907, Hall Caine devised a new version of the play, given its first performance at the Lyceum Theatre in London, with Alice Crawford and Matheson Lang as the principals. It was this play that was staged in Australia in 1911.

The play saw the return of Eugenie Duggan (wife of William Anderson), who played the role of Glory Quayle, with Roy Redgrave as John Storm, a role he was said to have played ‘over 200 nights in England’. The run was limited to a fortnight pending the arrival of the Plimmer–Denniston company. It seems the success of The Christian lead to the making of a film version featuring the same cast. It was directed by Franklyn Barrett. Sadly, the film is considered lost.¹⁵

Scene from Nobody’s Daughter: Mrs Brough and Harry Plimmer as Mr and Mrs Frampton, with Reynolds Denniston and Valentine Sidney as Colonel and Mrs Torrens. In Sydney, Beatrice Day played the role of Mrs Torrens. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.

Saturday, 16 September 1911, saw the return of the Plimmer–Denniston company, under the direction of Allan Hamilton, with the first Sydney production of Nobody’s Daughter. Heralded as “The Best English Play of the Year”, the four-act drama by George Paston (the nom-de-theatre of Miss E.M. Symonds), had already been performed with noted success in Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and throughout New Zealand.

The story concerns a young girl (Honora May) who, born out of wedlock, is bought up by foster parents in the country. On her nineteenth birthday, her real parents, Colonel Torrens and Mrs Frampton, come to visit, and Mrs Frampton is persuaded to adopt Honoria as her ‘ward’. The Framptons and the Torrens are good friends and Mrs Torrens and Mr Frampton both become suspicious as to the young girl’s real parents. Honoria has a suitor from the country and on learning the truth fears that her sweetheart will reject her. However, he is made of stronger stuff, and the two young people elope. Likewise, after much discussion and tears, Mrs Torrens and then Mr Frampton forgive their spouses for the folly of their youth.

The play had first been introduced tPoster for Allan Hamilton’s Australasian tour of Beauty and the Barge. The images used on the poster come from the original 1904 London production. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.o the London stage in September 1910, playing at Wyndham’s Theatre for 185 performances. The key roles were played by Gerald du Maurier and Lilian Braithwaite as Mr and Mrs Frampton, Sydney Valentine and Henrietta Watson as Colonel and Mrs Torrens, and Rosalie Toller as Honora May. In Sydney these same roles were taken by Harry Plimmer and Mrs Brough, Reynolds Denniston and Beatrice Day, with Lizette Parkes as the title character. When the Plimmer–Denniston company first performed the play, Valentine Sidney had taken the role of Mrs Torrens.

The drama enjoyed a highly successful season in Sydney, playing until Wednesday, 1 November.

The final two nights of the season, 2 and 3 November, saw a revival of A.W. Pinero’s drama The Second Mrs Tanqueray, with Florence Brough as Paula, so her legions of fans were given an opportunity to see her in her most famous role. She had created the part in the first Australian production in 1894 when it was staged under the auspices of the Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company. Supporting roles in the current production were played by Harry Plimmer (Aubrey Tanqueray), Reynolds Denniston (Captain Ardale), Lizette Parkes (Ellean) and Beatrice Day (Mrs Cortelyon).

When Plimmer and Denniston and the Nobody’s Daughter company departed for Queensland, Allan Hamilton stayed on, introducing a new dramatic combination. This new company comprised many old favourites including Beatrice Holloway (making her reappearance in Sydney after her illness), Charles Brown, Robert Greig, and Katie Towers, along with two newcomers, Kenneth Brampton and Lilian Lloyd. The former would go on to have a long career in Australia.

The season commenced, on Saturday, 4 November 1911, with a revival of Beauty and the Barge. This piece, a comedy by W.W. Jacobs and Louis N. Parker, was another play from the repertoire of the Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company, having first been performed by them in Australia in 1905. The heartfelt story of a young woman who seeks the assistance of an old bargee in her quest to run away from her domineering father and an arranged marriage, the play had originally been seen in London in 1904 with Jessie Bateman as Ethel Smedley and Cyril Maude as Captain Barley. In Australia, the roles were created by Winifred Fraser and Robert Brough. For the current production, Beatrice Holloway played Ethel Smedley with Charles Brown as Captain Barley. Advertisements also announced that ‘The ORIGINAL BARGE, specially built at the Haymarket Theatre, London, for the late Mr Robert Brough, will be used in this production’. However, resident scenic artist, Harry Whaite, provided entirely new scenery.

A fortnight later a change of bill saw the reprisal of Why Men Love Women open on 18 November. It was last seen at the Palace in October 1910 when it was performed by the Hamilton–Maxwell company. Katie Towers and Muriel Dale revived their original roles of Matilda Figgins and Baby, while the leads were now played by Kenneth Brampton (Gerald Fielding), Beatrice Holloway (Violet Livingston), with Lilian Lloyd as Muriel Zoluski. With the final performance on 1 December, the Allan Hamilton season came to an end.

With Christmas fast approaching, something of a magical nature was in store for patrons of the Palace.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. This play also formed the basis of the musical See You Later by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, with music by Jean Schwartz and William F. Peters, produced at the Academy of Music, Baltimore, April 1918

2. Fisher & Hardison, p.273

3. The Age (Melbourne), 30 April 1910, p.16

4. Titles included: The Girl from Paris (1896), … from Maxim’s (1899), … from Kay’s (1902), … from Up There (1902); and there would be more over the years: … from Brazil, … from Home, … from Montmartre, … from Utah.

5. The Sun (Sydney), 20 January 1900, p.3

6. The Sun (Sydney), 28 January 1911, p. 10

7. Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 25 February 1911, p.2

8. The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 1911, p.2 (ad) and 27 March 1911, p. 4 (review)

9. The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 April 1911, p.5

10. The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 April 1911, p.12

11. For more information see Pike & Cooper, p.21

12. For more information, see Tom Liddiard/Liddiard’s Lilliputians, Australian Variety Theatre Archive (ozvta), 2018

13. Both Ancestry and Wikipedia erroneously state that Roy Redgrave deserted his wife, Daisy Scudamore, in England in 1909.

14. Allen, p.256

15. For more information see Pike & Cooper, pp.39–40

References

Vivien Allen, Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian romancer, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997

James Fisher & Felicia Hardison Londré, Historical Dictionary of American Theatre: Modernism, 2nd edition, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017

Thomas Hischak, Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and essential facts of more than 14,000 shows through 2007, McFarland & Co. Inc., 2009

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

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

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

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

Newspapers

TheAge (Melbourne), The Bulletin (Sydney), The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), The Sun (Sydney), The Sydney Morning Herald

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

Pictures

Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections

National Library of Australia, Canberra

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

With thanks to

Rob Morrison

Photograph of framed original poster created by Falk for the Melbourne Cup films, November 1896. Note that the costume resembles those seen in the drama Trilby which had recently been seen in Sydney.

The year 1896was a turning point in the life and career of top Australian photographer, Henry Walter Barnett (1862-1934). In April his dear friend and mentor Tom Roberts married; ¹ in May, Barnett completed his series of theatrical portraits of Mrs Brown-Potter and Kyrle Bellew on their second tour of Australia; ² he permanently split with long time business partner and financial backer Aaron Blashki ³; on the 8 September the remaining contents of his Sydney home were up for auction completing the move to Melbourne; ⁴ and, on 29 September ⁵ it became known he was involved in the operation and dissemination of ‘the marvel of the century’, ⁶ the Cinématographe Lumière, a machine which projected moving pictures. Not only was he regarded as Australia’s most enigmatic and most accomplished photographer but Henry Walter Barnett would become the first Australian to be a successful filmmaker when the first Australian films to be made were then subsequently screened in October and November 1896.

Barnett was perfectly placed to become involved with the moving image. His two Falk studios, in Sydney and Melbourne, with well set up printing and processing rooms, would adapt to processing moving image film. He also had expert darkroom and processing staff who would, no doubt, welcome the challenge. His photographic career had brought him into the limelight in the Australian theatrical world with his brilliant photographs of amongst others, Sarah Bernhardt, Cora Brown-Potter, the Broughs, and their companies. The public would respond to Barnett’s involvement as they understood he was a person of integrity. They also recognised him as a man who took opportunities. ⁷

Without doubt, Barnett’s intention was to bring to the films the same that he had brought to the public through his photography—the popular theatrical star. The difference is that in the films the celebrity is walking, talking, smiling and laughing, in other words animated. It was a tantalising opportunity and it worked. Across the country reviewers noted that the audience took great delight in recognising the famous faces. Indeed, the films were a veritable who’s who and, unsurprisingly, the presence of Barnett was also noted:

‘Well-known figures pass and re-pass in living semblance to their very selves, prominent amongst them being the ubiquitous Mr Barnett himself, to whose enterprise is due this triumph of up-to-date living pictures.’ ⁸

‘Mr Barnett who seems to be manipulating the crowd after the manner of a great general, is not without its effect on those amongst the audience who recognise him.’ ⁹

Frame enlargement from Arrival of H.E. Brassey and Suite(Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). In the bottom righthand corner is Lord Brassey staring blatantly towards the camera.

Frame enlargement from Arrival of H.E. Brassey and Suite(Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). Although aware that the scene was being filmed, J.C. Williamson has stepped out on front of it and finds himself staring straight into the lens.

Theatre entrepreneur J.C. Williamson featured heavily in Barnett’s work as Barnett had an arrangement to photograph the theatrical stars who performed for Williamson & Musgrove and retail the resulting photographs. ¹⁰ It was Williamson who linked Barnett with the French married couple, Marius Sestier (1861-1928) and Marie-Rose Puech (1873-1957), who arrived, unannounced, in Sydney on the 16 September 1896. ¹¹ The Sestiers were the official representatives of the frères Lumière, and the couple had come direct from the Indian city of Bombay after a very successful season of the Cinématographe Lumière, ‘the marvel of the century’, the crème de la crème of contemporary moving image projection apparatus.

Marius Sestier and Marie-Rose Sestier had left their home in Lyon, France in June 1896 to take the Cinématographe Lumière to Bombay (now Mumbai) in India and then on to Australia. Marius was a local pharmacist with his pharmacy on the Ave de Saxe in Lyon’s 3rd arrondissement. Marie-Rose had been a shop assistant and manager in her parents’ drapery store in the town of Beaucaire. She now managed her home in Lyon, the pharmacy and the Cinématographe Lumière.

Shortly after they arrived in Sydney the Sestiers found themselves with a promoter in Williamson & Musgrove, and two managers Charles Babbington Westmacott and Henry Walter Barnett. ¹² It was this arrangement which put Barnett on the screen, literally. As promoter for the Sydney and Melbourne seasons of the Cinématographe Lumière, Williamson had been wanting a cinematographe to incorporate into his shows. But in correspondence with his business partner, George Musgrove, in August 1896, Musgrove advised that “the cinematographe has not developed sufficiently to do what you propose in the pantomime”. ¹³ In the meantime the projection of moving images advanced and the timing of the Sestiers’ arrival and Williamson’s plans for the annual Christmas pantomime, a revival of the 1895 pantomime, Djin Djin, the Japanese Bogie Man, ideally suited him.

Also ideal was the relationship between Sestier, the scientist, and Barnett, the photographer artist. Although their sense of aesthetics may have been different, both professions required the practise of rigorous precision to achieve their goals. They were well suited as working partners.

The first public screening, the premiere to the Sydney public of the Cinématographe Lumière was on 28 September at the Salon Lumière at 237 Pitt Street. ¹⁴ Recently used as an auction house the space was large enough to fit the 12ft ornate screen, the Cinématographe Lumière, and a large seated audience. It also had electricity, the vital element to make it all work.

The Salon Lumière operated every day except Sunday with around eight sessions daily. The program of between 12 and 30 films would change regularly. Certainly, the Sestiers would be present at the sessions but it’s not clear if Barnett was as well. Given that Marius had little English, and although Marie-Rose was quite proficient, it may be that Barnett attended every session. However, we do know that he was present when the Australian-made films were screened and indeed when they were produced.

Frame enlargement from The Lawn near the Bandstand(Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). In centre frame are actors George Titheradge and Florence Brough captured by the Cinématographe Lumière as the crowd swirls around them.

Frame enlargement from The Lawn near the Bandstand(Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). From centre left to right are actors George Titheradge, Florence Brough, Lily Titheradge accompanied by Walter Barnett.

Part of the responsibility of the Cinématographe Lumière representatives was to shoot films in the countries they visited and return them to France where they would be added to the Lumière catalogue and subsequently shipped out to other countries. The Sestiers had attempted this in India but had been defeated by the monsoon and the postal system. 15 They had greater success in Australia with 17 films completed and screened by the time they left in May 1897.

Recognition of Barnett’s role in the making of the films has been mentioned in Australia’s film history mainly due to his presence in three of the remaining nine films. ¹⁶ Those films in which he appeared are perhaps graceless, unlike those in which he does not appear, because his motive is transparent—to bring celebrities past the camera. However, on examining all the remaining films it’s possible to discern a much greater role than previously supposed as Barnett’s photographer’s eye for scene composition is clearly in play.

Below is a list of the films made in Australia in 1896. Those in bold are the only ones that are known to remain and those marked with an asterisk are the ones in which Barnett makes an appearance:

1. Passengers Leaving s.s. Brighton, at Manly, Sunday Afternoon (4 October, Manly, Australia).
2. Derby Day (The Betting Ring) (31 October, Melbourne, Australia)
3. Lady Brassey Placing the Blue Ribbon on “Newhaven” aka Decoration of Newhaven Derby Winner (31 October, Melbourne, Australia)
4. Arrival of the Train at Hill Station (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
5. The Lawn Near the Bandstand (3 November, Melbourne, Australia) *
6. Arrival of H.E. Brassey and Suite (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
7. The Saddling Paddock (3 November, Melbourne, Australia) *
8. Finish of Hurdle Race, Cup Day (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
9. Finish of the Race (3 November, Melbourne, Australia) *
10. Weighing Out for the Cup (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
11. Near the Grandstand (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
12. Afternoon Tea Under the Awning (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
13. “Newhaven” his Trainer (W. Hickenbotham), Jockey Gardiner (3 November, Melbourne, Australia)
14. The Post-Office Near George Street (24 November - 19 December, Sydney, Australia)
15. NSW Horse Artillery at Drill, Victoria Barracks, Sydney, (By permission of Lieut-Col. H.P. Airey) (16 September – 24 November)
16. NSW Horse Artillery at Drill, Charge of Guns and Gunners, Victoria Barracks, Sydney, (By permission of Lieut-Col. H.P. Airey) (16 September – 24 November)
17. Patineur Grotesque (16 September - 23 December 1896)
    

The Melbourne Cup films were necessarily filmed and screened in chronological order providing the audience with an accurate account of the day. As far as is known this was the first time in the world that an event was filmed creating a series, a linear narrative of an event. It’s fair to say that the Cup Carnival films provided the template for all future Melbourne Cup film coverages.

The first film on the program was Arrival of the Train at Hill Station. Unlike other train films of the time, which were mostly filmed on the platform at eye level, Hill Station was filmed from above the platform from the stationmaster’s rostum ¹⁷ providing a more expansive view of the train, the platform and most importantly the large crowd disembarking the train. Reports from the first screening indicate that the audience enjoyed picking out the famous faces in the crowds, as they would for the other films. While it’s impossible to know why Sestier and Barnett decided to break with common practice, it may have been to obviate the curiosity caused by their presence on the platform and keep faces away from the lens. However, they could still be seen by the crowd with only a few glancing upwards, most wanting to get to the Cup as soon as possible. Or, perhaps it was Barnett understanding that a more spectacular view could be had from a higher vantage point.

Frame enlargement from The Saddling Paddock (Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). In centre frame on the right is Barnett escorting a man and a teenage girl, possibly Maie Saqui. The three of them have emerged from the throng of horses and people.

Frame enlargement from The Saddling Paddock (Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). Tom Fitzgerald, the co-owner of Fitzgerald’s Circus, stands centre frame. He has been negotiating his way through the crowd and the horses only to find himself directly in front of the Cinématographe Lumière.

Although Barnett does not appear in the sixth film on the program, Arrival of H.E. Brassey and Suite, the clearly visible glance which Lord Brassey gives as he walks towards the camera may well be directed towards him. Perhaps Barnett was the only face Brassey recognised. Admittedly this is conjecture, but it is possible that Barnett was standing in that direction close to the camera. Brassey’s discomfort did not go unnoticed:

‘Falk’s plans for cinematographing Gov. Brassey and party in the act of marching up the Lawn at Flemington were ingeniously laid. Escape was impossible for the noble baron, so when he found himself roped into taking a certain course, with the eye of the apparatus gazing straight at him, he accepted the situation and walked along somewhat like a cat upon hot bricks, as shown in the picture.’ ¹⁸

Whether or not Barnett can be seen does not diminish the significance of this film. It is elegantly orchestrated given that it is filmed in real time with no cuts or other edits and no opportunity for rehearsal. With only 60 seconds in which to capture the whole Vice Regal contingent from the moment the carriage arrives and they disembark, walk along the cordoned path, past the crowd and then come face to face with the camera and on towards their enclosure the audience sees almost all those present.

There are four notable moments:

1. The attending policeman aware of the camera and undertaking control to protect both the Brassey entourage and the camera and its crew. There is a clear but silent call “To stay back”.

2. Brassey’s glance as noted above.

3. Lady Magheramorne giving a lovely smile towards to camera.

4. At the end when the Vice Regal party has passed by and the crowd begins to disperse a tall rotund man wearing a bowler hat and sporting a fob watch chain on his waist coat steps out and looks towards the camera. He gives a turn as if disoriented and steps back into the crowd. This man is J.C. Williamson.

In terms of the Melbourne Cup itinerary the arrival of the Vice Regal party signified the formal beginning of the day’s racing and proceedings, the most anticipated being the running of the Melbourne Cup. The film, Weighing Out for the Cup is immediately after the running of the Cup and is of a large continuous swell of people watching the proceedings as horses and jockeys are brought up to be weighed. At first glance all we see is an image of a crowd so dense we can’t make out what’s going on. This was the case for the Bulletin’s “Sundry Shows” reviewer who described it as ‘a stream of people drifting by, and consist mainly of hats and umbrellas. ¹⁹

Frame enlargement from Weighing in for the Cup(Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). One of the more serene scenes from this film where the structure of the image can be seen.

Frame enlargement from Finish of the Race (Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). Barnett, centre frame with back to camera, raises his elbow to manoeuvre the man who continues to stare at the Cinématographe Lumière.

However, a closer look enables us to make greater sense of the film and we can see an impressive structure of three levels of activity. Could this be Barnett’s photographer’s eye at work or a simple accident of positioning?

At the bottom of the screen there is a frantic throng of punters rushing to the right, some notice the camera, and a man stares into it, but most don’t even acknowledge it. As this film was screened after the Finish of the Race, most people are rushing to the Betting Ring to collect their winnings.

In the middle of the screen things are a little more subdued as the crowd watches the weighing-in process and to see Newhaven come in from the field. These punters want to make sure Newhaven is the winner before they go to collect their winnings or need to deal with having lost.

At the top of the screen there is calm as the VRC officials watch and usher in the jockeys to the weighing room. They observe the crowd calmly and usher the jockeys into the weighing room.

The film that closed the series, “Newhaven” his Trainer (W. Hickenbotham), Jockey Gardiner, is a postscript to the day. It is so very different in style and content to the other films. It’s not busy, there are no crowds, there are no celebrities to be paraded past the camera. The only celebrity here is Newhaven post his Cup win. The role of the camera is to offer an opportunity to admire this horse who won two consecutive Melbourne Cups. It’s simple and deliberate, particularly as there is a noticeable scene direction when Hickenbotham looks to the camera for instruction.

Frame enlargement from Finish of the Race (Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). Using his handkerchief Barnett, centre left, lifts his hat and wipes his brow after his energetic attempt to rouse excitement in the crowd. Also of note is his brother, photographer Charles Barnett in a white suit on the far right.

Frame enlargement from “Newhaven” his Trainer (W. Hickenbotham), Jockey Gardiner(Sestier and Barnett, Australia, 1896). Hickenbotham has paused Newhaven’s parade past the camera and looks directly at it waiting for instruction.

The three films in which Barnett does appear are not only different because he is in them but because they are celebrity-based. The celebrities include the theatrical, and the race track bookies, all of whom are captured by the camera.

The three films are very different to each other. The first, and most celebrity-filled, is The Lawn Near the Bandstand. This film covers the great melange of those who inhabited the social, political and theatrical realms. The second film is The Saddling Paddock, a film that is about the horses. And, the third is Finish of the Cup Race, which is about the excitement of the race, the crowds at the fences, and the Melbourne Cup bookmakers.

In The Lawn Near the Bandstand, the Cinématographe Lumière is centred in the frame and draws much attention from the public. The crowd is constantly moving in all directions and the audience is trying to take in all this activity. The film begins with the crowd swelling around the camera and people looking into it as they stroll past, or in some cases making a bee-line for it. From the top left-hand side come two people walking closely together past the camera and the contemporary audience immediately recognised the actors George Titheradge and Florence Brough whose theatrical company was performing in Melbourne during the Cup Carnival. ²⁰ Barnett is seen a few times in the crowd, and very close to the camera as he escorts other members of the Brough company. ²¹ Stealing this film though is Barnett as he circles the crowd near the camera as if searching for prey.

Regardless of the fact that Barnett was recognisable, his actions and those of the celebrities are out of kilter with the rest of the Cup Day crowd. The crowd, mostly, amble along, their only purpose is to parade their Cup Day finery, to see and be seen. Barnett’s actions are so purposeful—to create something extraordinary for the audience, that his and their self-awareness is quite distracting.

The Saddling Paddock, where the horses are prepared for their race, was a favourite place for punters and others to gather. A visit to the Saddling Paddock was a prestigious event as it was somewhat exclusive due to the expensive entrance fee keeping out none but the serious punter or the well-to-do. This made it a good location for the Cinématographe Lumière to film and the camera was set up in front of the stables and close to the tree-lined avenue where the horses would be led to the track.

The opening of the film is quite serene compared to the scenes from the Lawn. There is a gathering of men watching the horses or glancing at the Cinématographe Lumière both of which are off screen. To the left of the screen are men seated on the benches under the trees. A young woman in a light-coloured dress is seen walking just as the horses are beginning to be led past the camera. Then suddenly there are people walking into the scene rather absurdly as if someone has shouted “Fire!”. Soon afterwards, from the centre of the screen, Barnett has walked in beside the young woman in the light-coloured dress and the fellow who has accompanied her only to be confronted by an upset horse. By Barnett’s attention to the young woman an assumption can be made that she is probably a theatrical star. ²²

Once again, as in The Lawn Near the Bandstand, Barnett is unmissable in this film and it is just as awkward. In an attempt to create “action” in what was a quiet but interesting scene, the Cinématographe Lumière, Barnett and his associates have distracted from the normal events in the Saddling Paddock, the very events they went in to film and they have created mayhem.

However, caught up in the scene is Tom Fitzgerald, one of the Fitzgerald brothers who owned and ran the Fitzgerald Circus. Tom was a renowned horseman and when the film opened in Adelaide he was easily recognised. ²³

The major event of the Melbourne Cup program was Finish of the Race and it is an exciting and extraordinary film because it is the very first time the Melbourne Cup was filmed. Although it’s obvious that Barnett was not intending to be caught on film the fact that someone was spoiling the scene made him act.

The Cinématographe Lumière is pointed towards the Finishing Post which we can see just above the heads of the crowd. Standing almost centre frame was a “fielder”, a bookie who worked the field rather than the Betting Ring. He’s staring directly into the camera and he doesn’t know what it is he’s looking at. He distracts from the running of the race and so Barnett runs into shot with his left elbow crooked and raised which he uses to manoeuvre the chap away. Simultaneously, Barnett raises his hat in an attempt to animate the crowd into a state of excitement, although he is only partially successful.

A few seconds later the race is over and Newhaven has won and immediately the crowd is animated and moving off to collect winnings or pay debts. The parade of people past the camera includes the “fielders” and a few of these can be identified: Abe Kurts, Maurice Quinlan, Charlie Westbrook, Jacobs, and Barney Allen. Barnett has already walked off screen, mopping his brow, due to the heat of the afternoon.

Barnett and Sestier meet up years later in one of Sestier’s home locations, Lyon (Rhône) or Sauzet (Drôme).

What is intriguing about Barnett’s role with the Cinématographe Lumière is that it did nothing for his career as a photographer. In fact, and although short-lived, he became a figure of ridicule for his antics on screen. Perhaps, it was to understand better what he saw as a potential rival to photography, especially as the cinematographe was referred to as “the new photography”. ²⁴ Or, maybe the motive for his taking on the Cinématographe Lumière was financial rather than professional given that he was planning to leave Australia on 30 January 1897. ²⁵ As was reported, Williamson claimed that he and his partners enjoyed a £1000 profit within its first three weeks of screenings. ²⁶ For someone planning to leave Australia and set up in London as Barnett was, the prospect of greater financial gain must have been at least part of the attraction.

Barnett’s work as a photographer of the rich, famous and important, provided him with good connections across society. His successful business was founded upon the vanity of high society and the sales turnover of his theatrical cabinet card portraits which gave him an appreciation of the currency of celebrity. When Walter Barnett guided the famous past the Cinématographe Lumière he knew the resulting footage would appeal to press and audiences around the world. And he was not wrong:

‘Well known figures pass and re-pass in living semblance to their very selves...’ ²⁷

‘The audience found a vast fund of amusement in picking out well-known faces as they occurred in the throngs, and indeed, quite a society column of “those present” might be written if space permitted.’ ²⁸

Barnett’s exceptional photographic eye was inherent in everything he undertook. What these films confirm is that each time we see Barnett on the screen it is as The Photographer adjusting the pose of the sitter for the best result. Without him the Australian films included in the Catalogue général des vues positives in 1896 would have nothing to identify them as different to the hundreds of other films included. They are unique as Barnett was unique.

Endnotes

1. Registration Number 1876/1896, Marriage Certificate, Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria

2. Melbourne Punch, 4 June 1896. Two of Barnett’s most recent photographs of actors Mrs Brown-Potter and Kyrle Bellew and can be found in the Falk Album.

3. The Age (Melbourne), 11 February 1897

4. The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 September 1896

5. The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 1896

6. Bombay Gazette (India), 7 July 1896

7. Corille Fraser, Come to Dazzle, Sarah Bernhardt’s Australian tour, Currency Press, Strawberry Hills, NSW, Australia, 1998

8. The Sunday Times (Sydney), 6 December 1896

9. The Referee(Sydney), 25 November 1896

10. Barnett’s work in The Falk Album on the THA website.

11. The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 September 1896

12. The Daily Telegraph, (Sydney), 29 September 1896

13. George Musgrove. ‘Letter to J.C. Williamson’ 21 August 1896. National Library of Australia, MS5783, Folder 9/4b

14. The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September 1896

15. Sally Jackson, Almost the Greatest Scientific Invention of the Age, Screening the Past, Issue 41, April 2019. For more information about the Sestiers in India.

16. Chris Long, ‘Australia’s First Films, Part Three: Local production Begins’, Cinema Papers, No 93, May 1993. In this work by researcher and historian Chris Long, Barnett’s role in the making of the films is explored. Long gives Barnett credit for his participation particularly in his who’s who knowledge of the crowds.

17. According to the Australian Railway Historical Society, Victorian Division, the rostum was an open tower-like structure and was used by the Station Master or a Traffic Inspector to direct race crowds, to shout instructions to the station assistants and through the use of flags give instructions to the guards and other railway staff.

18. The Bulletin(Sydney), 26 December 1896

19. The Bulletin(Sydney), 5 December 1896

20. The Australasian (Melbourne), 31 October 1896

21. The identification process of potential candidates has been undertaken by matching names from the Brough Company against the names of those attending the 1896 Melbourne Cup. The social pages of the contemporary press list the Cup attendees as well as their outfits thus providing a methodology for identification.

22. The identity of this young woman, dressed in the fashion for adolescent females, that is, a white dress with a coloured waist band and a small purse slung over her shoulder is quite possibly Maie Saqui as Barnett had photographed her recently.

23. Chronicle (Adelaide), 2 January 1897

24 The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 21 December 1896

25. Barnett’s actions throughout 1896 indicate a big change was coming in his life as he packed up and sold off his home and ended his long-term business partnership.

26. The Advertiser (Adelaide), 8 December 1896

27. The Sydney Mail, 28 November 1896

28. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 25 November 1896