GV Brooke

Irish actor & manager. Né Gustavus Vaughan Brooke. Born 25 April 1818, Dublin, Ireland. Married (1) Marianne Elizabeth Woolcott Bray (de facto), 1851, Birmingham, England, (2) Avonia Jones (actress), 1863, Liverpool, England. Died 11 January 1866, at sea.

On stage in England and Australia. Performing in Australia, 1855-1861. Business partner of George Coppin.

Riley/Hailes Scrapbook, pages 21, 32, 165, 168, 285.

Rich’s Glory or his Triumphant Entry into Covent-Garden by William Hogarth, 1732. British Museum, London.

The word ‘cartoon’ was originallyused to describe the outline sketches made by artists in the preparation of large pictorial works. In the mid-nineteenth century, the term was adopted by London Punch in relation to their comic black and white illustrations. Today it is used to describe not only satirical drawings, but animated films, such as those created by Loony Tunes and Disney.

Whereas cartoons generally evoke a humorous scene or event, caricatures are generally satirical portraits of individuals, usually famous people. Caricatures may gently mock their subjects or be out and out insulting. By exaggerating a single feature, be it face, figure or dress, at the same time retaining the identity of the subject, the artist is able to capture their personality, often with only a few deft stokes of the pen.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the term ‘black and white artist’ was used to describe those who used a pen rather than a paintbrush, with many of these artists associated more often than not with newspapers rather than the Royal Academy.

While politics and politicians are the most widely mocked, actors and members of the theatrical profession have not escaped the attention of the graphic satirist.

In Britain, William Hogarth (1697-1764) pioneered the satirical cartoon, lampooning the political and social conventions of the day. Hogarth made a few theatrical drawings, such as Rich’s Glory or his Triumphant Entry into Covent-Garden (c.1732), a satire on John Rich and company arriving at the newly constucted Covent Garden theatre. John Gay, the playwright, is being carried on a porter’s back, while Rich, dressed as harlequin, is driving an open carriage.

During the Regency period, James Gillray (c.1756-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) continued the satirical tradition.

Gillray’s 1801 depiction of the celebrated opera singer Elizabeth Billington gently mocks that lady’s large frame and stagey gestures. As Mandane in Thomas Arne’s opera Artaxerxes, she thumps her bosom and throws out her left hand, most probably while singing the virtuosic aria “The Soldier, Tir’d of War’s Alarms”.

In 1811, Rowlandson produced a close-up view of one of the ‘pigeon holes’ which flanked the upper gallery at Covent Garden, illustrating the cramped conditions experienced by the audience.

A Bravura Air: Mundane, caricature of Elizabeth Billington by James Gillray, 1801

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Pidgeon hole: A Convent [sic] Garden contrivance to coop up the gods by Thomas Rowlandson, 1811

British Museum, London

George Cruikshank (1792-1878) emerged as one of the leading satirists of the early nineteenth century. He took on a number of theatrical subjects, notably Edmund Kean. His 1814 print The Theatrical Atlas shows the great actor-manager, dressed as Richard III, supporting Drury Lane Theatre on his back; a satirical comment on the financial support received by the theatre’s owner Mr Whitbread through Kean’s performances of Shakespeare.

Seventy years later Horace Morehen (1841-1905), signing himself “H.M.”, depicted Henry Irving about to take on the perils of management. Irving is shown standing outside the Lyceum Theatre, a banner across the building’s facade announcing: “To be opened shortly with an entirely new management”. Morehen was a nephew of Alfred Bryan (see below) and had studied under his uncle. He enjoyed a modest career as a theatrical caricaturist.

The Theatrical Atlas [Edmund Kean] by George Cruikshank, 7 May 1814

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Henry Irving by “H.M.”[Henry Morehen], 1883, prior to the opening of London’s Lyceum Theatre

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

During the nineteenth century black and white artist came into their own. One artist who deserves to be better known is Frederick Waddy (1848-1901). His work featured in Once a Week and other illustrated magazines from the 1860s. In 1873 a large selection of his drawings was published in Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day. Of the fifty men depicted many are from the theatrical profession including Dion Boucicault, J.L. Toole, Henry Irving and Lionel Brough. His portrait of Toole, originally published in Once a Week, shows the actor dressed as Paul Pry, captioned with that character’s favourite catchphrase, “I hope I don’t intrude”.

A contemporary of Waddy, Alfred Bryan (1852-1899) also specialised in theatrical caricatures. Born Charles Grineau in London, he was a regular contributor to Entr’Acte magazine and its almanack. In 1881 he supplied fifty portraits of actors and actresses to Charles H. Ross’s Stage Whispers and Shouts Without: a book for players, playgoers, and the public generally. A rare copy of this book, disassembled, is included in the Coppin Collection at the State Library Victoria. Bryan’s 1876 portrait of J.L. Toole shows the actor in his street clothes holding a bag bearing his name. The three examples from Stage Whispers and Shouts Without are of the playwright/novelists Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade and the actor Charles Coghlan.

“I hope I don’t intrude” [J.L. Toole] by Frederick Waddy, Once a Week, 9 March 1872

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Mr J.L. Toole by Alfred Bryan, Entr’Acte Almanack, 1876

Yesterday’s Papers

A page from Charles H. Ross’s Stage Whispers and Shouts Without, published by “Judy” Offices, Shoe Lane, London, 1881, with fifty illustrations of actors and actresses by Alfred Bryan

Coppin collection, State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Another artist specialising in theatrical portrait was Lewis John Binns (1871-1931). This British-born artist is largely forgotten today, however, the New York Public Library holds over 100 original watercolours in their collection depicting English actors and actresses. One such drawing is of the actress Fanny Brough in her role of Dorcas Gentle in the 1892 sporting drama The Prodigal Daughter. Though Binns’ artistic skill was widely admired, after 1900 he was involved in a series of thefts and other misdemeanours for which he served a number of prison sentences, and he fell out of favour.

The late 1880s saw the emergence of the theatrical souvenir. One of the first was prepared for George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre in London to commemorate, in April 1887, the 100th performance of the burlesque Monte Cristo Jr. This was followed in late 1889 by one for Ruy Blas. It comprised a small folio containing ten chromolithograph colour prints of the principals in the burlesque, including Nellie Farren, Fred Leslie, Sylvia Grey and Fred Storey. The prints are not signed but are very probably by the noted designer Percy Anderson (1851-1928) who created the costumes for both productions.

Miss Fanny Brough: Prodigal Daughter by L.J. Binns, c.1892

New York Public Library, New York

Chromolithograph of Fred Storey in the burlesque Ruy Blas at the Gaiety Theatre, London, 1889. The drawing is not signed, but is most probably by Percy Anderson who designed the costumes for the production.

Elisabeth Kumm collection

The most influential of the satirical magazines of the nineteenth century was undoubtedly Punch. First published in London in 1841, it employed some of the greatest black and white artists of the day, including John Leech, John Tenniel, George du Maurier, Linley Sambourne, Bernard Partridge, Phil May and Edward Tennyson Reed.

One of the finest satirical illustrators on Punch was Linley Sambourne (1844-1910). Associated with the newspaper from the 1860s, he reached his peak as a cartoonist in the 1880s, when, for example, he took aim at Oscar Wilde and the aesthetic movement. His pictures are filled with detail and he amassed a huge photographic collection that helped him to attain this level of accuracy, especially in relation to his caricatures of famous people, whose expressions he perfectly captures.

In 1898, Punch artist Edward Tennyson Reed (1860-1933) published a curious volume titled Mr Punch’s Animal Land. Comprising fifty-two likenesses of leading figures, the portraits are presented as though the subjects were newly discovered species, bearing a classification and brief explanation. The only actor included was Henry Irving, given the genus ‘Stagynite’ (presumably the ‘nite’ referred to Irving’s 1895 knighthood) with the following description:

This funny creature gets up things very nicely. When people go to see it it makes the queerest noises and stamps on the floor and drags itself about. I expect he says it all night but you can’t tell.¹

Linley Sambourne, Punch’s Fancy Portrait—No. 37 “O.W.”, Punch, 25 June 1881

Published in Great Drawings and Illustrations from Punch, p. 117

Edward Tennyson Reed, ‘The Stagynite’, 1898

From Mr Punch’s Animal Land, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., London, 1898

As the nineteenth century wore on, illustrated magazines were in profusion, from The Illustrated London News and The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News to Once a Week and Vanity Fair.

When Vanity Fair launched in January 1869, it caused a stir by introducing the first chromolithographic caricatures. These coloured drawings of ‘prominent men of the day’ were printed on stiff card and ideal for framing. Sitters no longer sported large heads or exaggerated features, but instead exuded a casual and easy going air. Each week new portraits were released and for the first couple of years politicians and peers predominated, but soon novelists, artists, architects and actors joined their number.

Vanity Fair’s principal artist was the Italian-born Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), who signed himself “Ape”, producing over 2,000 portraits between 1869 and 1889. The theatrical profession is represented by Henry Irving (1874), Tommaso Salvini (1875), W.S. Gilbert (1881), Dion Boucicault (1882), and Oscar Wilde (1884), this last named pictured as the consummate dandy with curled locks and a button hole.

Pellegrini’s successor was Leslie Ward (1851-1922), who worked under the pseudonym “Spy”. He continued the tradition of producing beautiful colour prints that were more akin to actual portraits than comic caricatures. Over the course of four decades he drew over 1,300 ‘characteristic portraits’ of leading men of the day. His 1889 portrait of Arthur Cecil does not betray the actor’s profession. With his brief case, cane and top hat in hand he could easily be mistaken for a stockbroker or a solicitor.

Oscar [Oscar Wilde] by Carlo Pellegrini (“Ape”), published in Vanity Fair, 24 May 1884

National Portrait Gallery, London

Mr Arthur Cecil by Leslie Ward (“Spy”), published in Vanity Fair, 28 December 1889

National Portrait Gallery, London

Cartoons and caricatures featured in many Australian newspapers and magazines. Melbourne Punch, founded in 1855, was closely modelled on the London publication. Though politicians were constantly lampooned, the theatre was also the butt of many a satirical cartoon. Noteworthy artists who contributed to the early success of Melbourne Punch, included Nicholas Chevalier, Samuel Calvert and S.T. Gill.

As actor-manager, property developer and politician, George Coppin was popular with cartoonists. During the mid-1850s his Olympic Theatre and Cremorne Gardens amusement park were depicted numerous times within Melbourne Punch. Generally the cartoons are unsigned, but the one of Coppin standing outside the rotunda at Cremorne Gardens is probably by Samuel Calvert (1828-1913), and the one depicting the audience at one of Anna Bishop’s recitals has been identified as by Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902).

An Elegy. Written in Coppin’s Olympic by an unnamed artist, Melbourne Punch, 2 August 1855. This caricature of G.V. Brooke and Fanny Cathcart in Othello accompanied a satirical poem.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Punch’s Illustrations to the Poets,attributed to Samuel Calvert, Melbourne Punch, 26 February 1857, showing Coppin standing outside the rotunda at his Cremorne Gardens amusement park in Richmond

Trove

Cartoon by Nicholas Chevalier showing a segment of the dress circle at the Olympic Theatre with its occupants dissolved in tears on hearing Anna Bishop singing ‘Home Sweet Home’, published in Melbourne Punch, 22 May 1856

Trove

In 1863, Melbourne Punch enjoyed much merriment with a theatrical incident that was to become known as the Melbourne Shakespeare War. When George Coppin engaged the renowned English tragedians Charles and Ellen Kean to play a season of Shakespeare at the Haymarket Theatre in Melbourne, he was not prepared for the response elicited by Barry Sullivan, a young Irish tragedian, performing at the nearby Theatre Royal.

In a move to undermine his rivals, Sullivan sought to match the Keans’ repertoire by presenting Richard III on the same night and staging his production of The Merchant of Venice one night before them. The situation was further inflamed with the newspapers taking sides. The Argus sided with the Keans, while the Age rooted for Sullivan. Meanwhile, Melbourne Punch took full advantage of the situation by offering a humorous commentary. A cartoon published on 15 October 1863 shows Kean and Sullivan playing a card game to determine who is the better actor, with Mr Punch as referee. Two weeks later, on 29 October, in response to Sullivan pasting posters all over town, Punch suggested that Kean should do the same with copies of the Argus reviews.

The Rival “Gamesters”: Kean & Sullivan playing for fame in the southern hemisphere by an uncredited artist, possibly Montague Scott, Melbourne Punch, 15 October 1863

Trove

One Good Turn Deserves Another by “M.S.” [Montague Scott?], Melbourne Punch, 29 October 1863

Trove

Best known for his vivid watercolour sketches of life on the Victorian gold fields, S.T. Gill (1818-1880) also painted scenes of urban Melbourne. His pictures are often comic in tone and include portraits of character types rather than identifiable individuals, such as his c.1880 depiction of the dress circle boxes at Melbourne’s Queen’s Theatre in 1853. However, he did tackle actual people, notably with his ‘Heads of the People’ series. The first series, published in 1849, comprised five portraits, including an early caricature of George Coppin.

Dress circle boxes, Queen’s Theatre, Melbourne, 1853, painted by S.T. Gill, c.1880

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Acting Purveyor General [George Coppin] by S.T. Gill, Heads of the People, 1849

State Library of South Australia, Adelaide

In Australia, visiting musician and opera singer, Charles Lascelles (1835-1883) was also an accomplished caricaturist. Born Charles Gray in England, he was a cousin of the novelist Wilkie Collins. Twelve surviving portraits by him in the National Library of Australia depict members of W.S. Lyster’s opera company. Drawn around 1870, they include Fannie Simonsen (as Maritana), Mariano Neri, Enrico Dondi (as Mephistopheles) and conductor Martin Simonsen.

Though clearly labelled ‘Lucy Escott as Maritana’, this caricature by Charles Lascelles has been identified by Harold Love to be of Fannie Simonsen, 1870

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Caricature of conductor Martin Simonsen by Charles Lascelles, 1870

National Library of Australia, Canberra

In the 1870s, Melbourne-born artist Tom Durkin (1853-1902) contributed 36 caricatures of prominent men (and one woman) to the Weekly Times. The series titled ‘Masks and Faces’ (an illusion to Charles Reade’s play of the same name) was published between 1873 and 1875. Durkin also drew cartoons for other newspapers and periodicals including Bull-Ant, Queensland Punch and Australian Graphic. From 1889, he was a regular contributor to the Sydney Bulletin, and from 1893 he was responsible for the Melbourne page.

No. 8—A Theatrical Manager [George Coppin] by Tom Durkin, Weekly Times, 3 January 1874

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

No. 25—Opera [W.S. Lyster] by Tom Durkin, Weekly Times, 12 September 1874

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

From its establishment in 1880 the Bulletin took the art of caricature and cartooning to a new level of sophistication. Though they principally dealt with topical political issues, leading figures of the theatre were also represented, such as the portrait of George Coppin by Phil May (1864-1903) which graced the cover of the paper in December 1888. The caption “I hope I don’t intrude” references Paul Pry’s catchphrase. Like Toole in England, Paul Pry was one of Coppin’s favourite characters. British-born May spent three years in Australia, 1886 to 1888, during which time he produced over 800 drawings for the Bulletin. On his return to England he worked for Punch and also produced numerous annuals and anthologies of his work. He was one of the most popular illustrators of his day. In 1895 he received the honour of being included in Vanity Fair’s anthology of ‘men of the day’ when “Ape” drew his likeness.

A Victorian Musical Critic: Alfred Plumpton by Phil May, Bulletin, 8 June 1888

Trove

George Coppin, comedian and legislator: “I Hope I don’t Intrude” by Phil May, Bulletin, 29 December 1888

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Henry Irving by Phil May, c.1889

National Portrait Gallery, London

Phil May by Leslie Ward (“Spy”), published in Vanity Fair, 21 February 1895

National Library of Australia, Canberra

To be continued

Principal Sources

John Adcock, Alfred Bryan (1852-1899), Yesterday’s Papers, john-adcock.blogspot.com/2011/10/alfred-bryan-1852-1899

Stanley Applebaum, Great Drawings and Illustrations from Punch, 1841-1901, Dover Publications, New York, 1981

British theatrical caricatures from Hogarth to Cruikshank in the Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard Theatre Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006

Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day: the drawings by Frederick Waddy, Tinsley Brothers, London, 1873

William Feaver, Masters of Caricature: from Hogarth and Gillroy to Scarfe and Levine, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981

Kate Flaherty & Edel Lamb, ‘The 1863 Melbourne Shakespeare War: Barry Sullivan, Charles and Ellen Kean, and the play of cultural usurpation on the Australian stage’, Australian Studies, vol. 4, 2012

Marguerite Mahood, ‘Melbourne Punch and its Early Artists’, La Trobe Library Journal, vol. 1, no. 4, October 1969

Edward Tennyson Reed, Mr Punch’s Animal Land, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., London, 1898

R. Smith, ‘Cartoonists of Australia’, Australian Left Review, Feb-March 1968

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Bob Ferris, Mimi Colligan, Judy Leech

Tragedian G.V. Brooke (1818–1866), regarded as the generational successor to Edmund Kean (1787–1833), began a ‘farewell season’ at the New Theatre in Birmingham on Monday 24 July 1854. The Birmingham Journal (22 July 1854) announced his appearance as Sir Giles Overreach in Philip Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts ‘previous to sailing for California and Australia’. He was supported by members of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane stock company, including George Bennett, Alfred Rayner and his young charge Fanny Cathcart (1833–1880). During the first week they also gave The Hunchback,Romeo and Juliet,The Merchant of Venice,The Lady of Lyons and Richelieu; with Othello,¹ The Wife, Hamlet, Macbeth and The Stranger were scheduled to follow. The season closed on Saturday 19 August.

During the same week, George Coppin (1819–1906), the Australian comedian and entrepreneur, had occupied the nearby Theatre Royal (taking his benefit on Friday 18 August with ‘a tolerably good house’). At some point during the week Coppin met by chance with Brooke’s agent, John Hall Wilton² (1820–1862) at a Birmingham hotel. Coppin and Brooke, both mid-thirties, were subsequently reacquainted. Coppin had been a member of the Sheffield Theatre stock company when Brooke gave his Hamlet in November 1837.³ Within twenty-four hours a deal was struck: Brooke had already intended a tour to America, but was easily persuaded by the terms offered by Coppin to go to Australia first, en routeto California.

On 3 September 1854, The Erarevealed that G.V. Brooke had made an engagement with George Coppin to tour the colonies and to give 200 nights; the fee would be £10,000 and, in addition, Coppin would cover expenses for ‘himself and four’ others to go. Fanny Cathcart was one, announced to play his leading female characters. Her father signed her contract on 14 September: she would be away for two years, and accepted a fee of £20 per week, plus board and lodgings.

Fanny and Robert Heir, c.1860. Photo by Davies & Co., Melbourne

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

G.V. Brooke, 1860s. Photo by Melbourne & Sydney Photographic Co.

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Frances (Fanny) Cathcart, the daughter of actor and theatre manager James Leander Cathcart (1800–1865), made her stage debut aged 12 at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1845 appearing in the last scene of Romeo and Juliet (with her brother J.F. (James) Cathcart (1827–1902)) at her father’s benefit; by 1850 she had progressed, and played Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice at the same house alongside Miss Cuttriss’s Portia and the Shylock of Mr Paumier. In May 1852, Fanny and her father, were engaged as a stock players at W.R. Copeland’s Royal Amphitheatre in Liverpool.

Having concluded his first tour to America, Brooke arrived home from Boston to Liverpool on 20 June 1853. Had he attended the Royal Amphitheatre that evening he would have seen James Anderson’s Hamlet with Fanny playing Ophelia. Four months’ later he returned to Liverpool and played a short season at the Royal Amphitheatre. Brooke and Fanny Cathcart appeared together for the first time in The Hunchback (he giving Master Walter, she Julia) on 25 October. By the end of the week, Miss Baker (who had played Desdemona on the previous Monday) appears to have been supplanted and Fanny played Ophelia to Brooke’s Hamlet (for his Benefit) on Friday 28 October. While the Liverpool Mercury (1 November 1853) only found her performance ‘interesting’, Brooke was more impressed and offered Fanny her big break: she made her first London appearance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (alongside Brooke) on 30 January 1854, as Tarquinia in John Howard Payne’s Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquin (1818). She had only just turned 21 (on 3 August) and, still considered under age, was then living under the guardianship of Brooke and his wife Marianne.

Map of London—1855

Based on his agreement with Coppin, The Eraalso suggested that Brooke ‘intended to add to the party a gentleman to act seconds’ and that ‘a lady for high comedy’ was also contemplated.

Coppin and Brooke then performed together for a short season (11–23 September) at Brooke’s home theatre, the Queen’s Royal Theatre,⁴ Dublin. Brooke had made his staged debut at the same house in 1833, taking over from an indisposed Edmund Kean as William Tell. It was here, Bagot reports, that the men renegotiated their contract: instead of a fixed fee, Brooke was to receive for each night’s performance a guaranteed minimum of twenty-five pounds sterling, in addition to one-half of the net receipts’. Then crossing back to Southampton, Coppin sailed home to Australia on the steamship Argo (‘a very efficient German band … enlivened the departure) on 4 October. Brooke, meanwhile, returned to London and gave a farewell season at Drury Lane (2–11 October) followed by a week at The Theatre in Cambridge (12–15 October).

On 5 October The Timesreported that Mr Robert Heir⁵ (1832–1868) had been added to the entourage (his agreed fee was £10 per week).⁶ Previous to her departure from England, Fanny, with the approval of her father, made it known to Brooke that she and Heir were engaged to be married. Heir’s inclusion in the touring party to play second gentleman (notwithstanding his limited experience) may have been to appease his leading lady. In the meantime, however, Heir was contracted to T.C. King’s company and at this time performing at the Theatre Royal in Dublin: on 23 October he played Cassio to King’s Othello and Mr J.H. Rickards’ Iago; in the same week Heir played Iago (his debut in the role) to Rickards’ Othello. Consequently, Heir was unavailable to join the company for their planned departure from Plymouth to the Australian colonies on 25 November.

In Heir’s stead, in the first instance to cover the second gentleman roles but also to act as stage manager, Richard William Younge (1821–1887) was included in the announcement that appeared in both The Liverpool Mercury (6 October) and The Era (15 October); an actress for ‘high comedy’ was not engaged.

Younge, three years younger than Brooke, was currently a member of the stock company at Messrs Johnson and Nelson Lee’s City of London Theatre in Bishopsgate Street. Ironically, on 8 October, the company presented the first of a week-long program of The Slaves of London; or, The By-road to Transportation to close the season.

Brooke had resolved to take a short tour on the Continent previous to embarking for Australia and initially declined an offer from Messrs Johnson and Nelson Lee for yet another valedictory engagement for twelve nights at the City of London Theatre. But after a ‘numerously signed requisition of reputable and influential residents in the district’⁷ and ‘in deference to this highly flattering expression of public opinion,’ Brooke gave up his holiday and made his first appearance at Younge’s home theatre in the east end on Monday 16 October, and attracted capacity houses for the entire twelve nights in The Lady of Lyons,Othello,The Hunchback,Virginius,A New Way to Pay Old Debts,Richard III,The Wife and The Stranger. He was supported by Fanny Cathcart, and his second man was Alfred Rayner; Younge is not mentioned in the notices.

Now complete, Coppin’s iron theatre—constructed by Fox and Henderson, the builders of the Crystal Palace—sailed for Melbourne on Monday 23 October.

Brooke then played a farewell season for, and with, Fanny Cathcart (6–21 November) at her home theatre, The Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool. Richelieu was an addition to their current repertoire. His second men for these final appearances were Mr B. Baker and Mr Loraine; again, Richard Younge is missing from despatches.

Richard Younge, nonetheless, was amongst the cohort that gathered at Millay Pier at Plymouth on Saturday 25 November 1854. His party, that comprised Mr and Mrs Brooke, their dog and two servants, Fanny Cathcart and John Hall Wilton, embarked on the new steamship Pacific that departed at 4pm, bound for Melbourne, via the Cape of Good Hope, anticipating the passage to take 60 days (or less).

*****

Richard Younge’s selection is curious; Brooke had not worked with him, nor is there any evidence that Brooke had seen the 33-year-old actor on the stage, notwithstanding that he had been highly regarded as ‘the talented leading actor of Mr [W.R.] Copeland’s establishment’⁸ (The Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool) for three years. The actors shared much of the same repertoire; a heavy emphasis on Shakespeare, but also more contemporary works favouring plays by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and fellow Irishman—and cousin of R.B. Sheridan—James Sheridan Knowles. There is no evidence of Younge’s experience as a stage manager, although accumulating new repertoire under Copeland must have been enlightening.

Otherwise Brooke could have chosen from the best and most reliable support in the United Kingdom: his recent Iagos, for example, included (in the provinces) Mr Loraine (Theatre Royal, Liverpool); Mr Powrie (Theatre Royal, Glasgow); Mr G. Melville (Theatre Royal, Bristol); Mr Swinbourne (Theatre Royal, Leicester); or (in London) Alfred Rayner (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) or Thomas Mead (who made his house debut at Drury Lane in the same month as Fanny Cathcart, and appeared with them both in the performance given on 6 February). Brooke also had the choice of two outstanding actor/stage mangers in E Stirling (Drury Lane) or W. Searle (City of London Theatre).

Richard William Younge was born on 8 July 1821 in Liverpool, Lancashire to actors Richard Younge (1793–1846) and his wife Sarah Elizabeth (née Lee), both of whom were members of the stock company at the new Theatre Royal, Liverpool.

Younge Snr made his London debut at the Theatre Royal, Dury Lane, opposite Edmund Kean, in Richard III in January 1823. During his thirteen-year tenure in London he also played Iago to Kean’s Othello, and Edmund to the great tragedian’s Lear (at the noteworthy production in late 1836 that restored Shakespeare’s tragic ending).

Richard, Younge’s first son, was baptised in 1827 with his brother Frederick George Younge (1825–1870) at St James' Church, in the then upwardly mobile residential parish of Islington in north London; a third son, Frances (Frank) Rusden Younge (1829–1871) arrived two years later.

Over the next decade, the three boys were schooled in cosmopolitan city life and the theatre. Richard Jnr made his stage debut on 6 July 1837—two days before his 16th birthday—at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle playing Albert in William Tell,alongside his father on a tour of the provinces.

Younge Senior was also a friend and professional colleague of James Cathcart; he played Cassius to Cathcart’s Brutus in Julius Caesar (at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield) in 1841; at the same house, they also appeared together in Cymbeline,Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor.Younge Snr was back at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, and played the Ghost, when 24-year-old G.V. Brooke, ‘a young man of great promise … on the eve now of sterling abilities’, made his debut as Hamlet on 31 January 1842; Julia Bennett played Ophelia.

Richard’s younger brother Frederick (known as Fred) made his stage debut aged 19 as Sir Richard Ratcliffe in Rowe’s play of Jane Shore; or, the Unhappy Favourite at Mr Holmes’s Theatre Royal, Taunton in April 1844. Over the next five years he was engaged at the City of London Theatre (under Mr R. Honner), the City Theatre, Manchester (where he played Richard III) and, in 1848, gained the reputation as ‘the favourite comedian’ at the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool (under Mr H. Coleman). Fred appeared alongside James Cathcart at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1850 immediately prior to taking up a three year engagement with Messrs Phelps and Greenwood at the Theatre Royal, Sadler’s Wells; he made his debut as the Gravedigger to Phelps’s Hamlet in August 1850, and over his time with the company made a distinguished contribution as a comedian in productions of Macbeth,The Winter’s Tale,Cymbeline,The Merchant of Venice,Henry VIII and Timon of Athens.

Richard Younge Snr died on 17 November 1846. His legacy to his sons came in the form of an address, entitled ‘The Defence of the Drama’, delivered following a performance at Lincolnshire (of Cumberland’s comedy The Wheel of Fortune):

The aim and object of dramatic representation is merely to give that originality of thought and quickness of perception to our universal intelligences that can only be acquired by a knowledge of ourselves, and of the varied feelings, wishes, emotions, and inclinations, with which when you leave this area all present will be more or less actuated; here human nature is but cast in a fresh mould, aided by art, and reproduced in more captivating lineaments that the moral may have more effect. The drama is to the feelings and affectations the same as history to the events of society or philosophy to the laws of nature. The parent, the brother, the sister, the child, the friend, and the lover, are the proud and endearing names that link society with all that is holy in love, and revered in affection upon this earth; they therefore form the material elements of dramatic power and influence, and some of these relations have been brought before your notice in the representation of this evening. … (The Era, 9 June 1850)

At the time, his eldest son Richard, now 25, had gained a positive reputation as a reliable ‘jobbing’ actor on the provincial theatre circuit, having scored significant appearances at the Richmond Theatre, Surrey; the Theatre Royal, Whithaven; the City Theatre, Manchester; The Theatre, Scarborough; and the Adelphi Theatre in Edinburgh, where it was reported in The Caledonian Mercury of his appearance in Peake’s comedy The Climbing Boy (4 September 1848) that ‘Mr R. Younge was, as always, the gentleman in whatever he has to do’. Richard then joined Mr and Mrs Pollock at the Theatre Royal, Aberdeen where he was ‘leading man’ from early 1849, opening the season as Fabian in The Black Doctor. Richard gave ‘truthfulness and vigour’ to his debut appearance as ‘the melancholy Dane’ (The Era,11 November 1849) at North Shields; on the same program, he was ‘very effective and picturesque’ as the Maniac in Wilks’s drama Michael Earl; or, The Maniac Lover.

The following year, Richard and his younger brother Frank (also now an actor) were living together in ‘digs’ and working in Scarborough (July–October). On his departure, ‘a magnificent sword was presented to Mr R. Younge, tragedian … by the admirers of his talent’. (The Era, 5 January 1851). Richard then joined Messrs Powrie, Wyndham and Charles Romer in the stock company at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh presenting, over the following three months, a repertoire that included The Honeymoon,Lavater,The Rivals,Speed the Plough and Rob Roy.

In November 1850, soon after his thirtieth birthday, Richard returned home to Liverpool and was engaged by the influential W.R. Copeland at the Royal Amphitheatre. His first appearance was opposite Messrs Wyndham and Murray in The Vicar of Wakefield. Tutored by Copeland, Richard took on leading roles: Macbeth; Othello and Iago (to Henry Farren’s Othello); the Ghost (to Farren’s Hamlet); Rolla (Pizarro); Ford (The Merry Wife’s of Windsor; to Harker’s Falstaff); The Corsican Brothers; Faulkland (The Rivals) and supporting roles for Farren and Louisa Howard in William Tell,Katherine and Petruchio,The Hunchback,The Devil and Doctor Faustus and, the rarely seen, Antony and Cleopatra.

The Royal Amphitheatre, cnr Great Charlotte Street and Queen’s Square, Liverpool was built by Andrew Ducrow in 1825 and opened the following year; it had a capacity for 3,000 patrons. The venue was erected for both equestrian and dramatic exhibitions. The building was purchased by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1884. The building was destroyed by fire in 1933 and replaced by the Royal Court Theatre in 1938.

So it was that Richard Younge Junior was already an accomplished and senior house-player at the Royal Amphitheatre, Liverpool when Fanny Cathcart and her father joined the company. On 10 May 1852, James Cathcart played Iago to E.L. Davenport’s Othello; Richard Younge ‘gave a correct and interesting representation of Cassius. This gentleman is a true Shakespearean actor’. The Era(16 May 1852) also suggested that the W.R. Copeland’s company had ‘been considerably strengthened by the addition of Mr Cathcart and his daughter, Miss Fanny Cathcart … who are deserved favourites here’. Six weeks later, on 31 June, Fanny played Ophelia to Barry Sullivan’s Hamlet, James Cathcart played the Ghost, Richard Younge played Laertes, and, adding to the familiarity, Younge’s brother Frederick played—at a stretch at 27 years of age—Polonius.⁹

Fanny and Richard appeared regularly together over the next six months in both Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice,Richard III,Othello) and other popular pieces (Pizarro,Jane Shore) until Younge took up a contract in January 1853 to play for a season at Liverpool’s new Royal Park Theatre (under Mr R. Edgar)¹⁰ in leading roles (Fazio, Sir Giles Overreach, Richelieu and Lavater). Six months later, Younge then progressed to the east end of the metropolis and the stock company at the City of London Theatre (Lessees Messrs Johnson and Nelson Lee). He made his debut at the Bishopsgate Street house, coached by stage manager—the ‘keeper of the book’ William Searle—in Wildfire Dick,The Gipsy Horse Stealer; or, The Murder at the Old Chateau in July 1853. He remained with the company until the close of the winter season in October 1854.

So, perhaps a more likely scenario for Richard Younge’s inclusion in Brooke’s tour down-under was yet more intense pressure from his leading lady to secure a familiar face as chaperone when she was so far from home and waiting for her fiancé to arrive.

Left: The City of London Theatre (architect Samuel Beazley)—Mr Cockerton was the lessee when the venue opened in March 1837 with Edward Sterling’s adaptation of Charles Dicken’s Pickwick Club. John Johnson and Nelson Lee took over the lease in 1848 (following a major refit four years earlier). Right: Richard William Younge, 1860s. Original photo from Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne, cropped and enhanced by John Senczuk using AI.

The steamer Pacific,transporting its theatrical exports and 88 other souls, made good time and arrived at the Port of Cape Town on 29 November. After some pressure by those in authority the actors gave impromptu ‘readings’ of Othello,The Lady of Lyons and The Stranger at a small garrison theatre in the barrack, with the inclusion of a number of gentlemen amateurs who volunteered their services. Of the three plays, Younge had no previous experience of one—Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s romantic melodrama The Lady of Lyons (1838)—but the readiness of the presentation suggests that he, Brooke and Fanny Cathcart had already begun preparing their Melbourne repertoire.

The progress across the Indian Ocean, however, was delayed when, only fourteen kilometres from port, a defective paddle and a shortness of coal necessitated their return to Cape Town harbour for twenty-four hours. Their onward journey to King George Sound was further hampered by poor weather. This was particularly galling for Coppin in Australia, who had already begun major marketing campaigns in both Melbourne and Sydney anticipating Brooke’s arrival in mid-January. The setback added twenty-five days to the journey and the entourage arrived into Hobson’s Bay at 10 in the morning of Thursday 22 February 1855.¹¹

Queen’s Theatre, c.1880s— illustration by Albert Charles Cooke (1836–1902). The Queen’s Theatre (originally the Queen’s Theatre Royal) was opened on 21 April 1845 under the management of Francis Nesbitt; George Coppin made his Australian debut in the venue in 1845 in The Lady of Lyons. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.

Coppin, with members of the Queen’s Theatre company, greeted the party when they disembarked at the government jetty at Sandridge, after which they were carried by coach the six kilometres to the Prince of Wales Hotel in Flinders Lane.

Their arrival in the colony coincided with a big news day: the first appearance of Timothy Hayes, Raffaello Carboni, with eleven other ‘rebel prisoners’, before His Honour the Chief Justice, all charged with high treason for their involvement in the Eureka skirmish the previous November.

The following evening the new arrivals attended Coppin’s benefit, giving Richard Younge the opportunity to experience both the venue and the assembled stock company, headed by Charles F. Young (1819–1874) and J.P. Hydes (co-lessees and principal actors). Described by Coppin as ‘a very versatile actor’, Charles Young arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Yorkshire in 1843. He married his Tasmanian wife Jane (Eliza) (néeThomson) in 1845, and in the same year commenced his association with Coppin, playing Claude Melnotte in The Lady of Lyons at the Queen’s Theatre Royal, Melbourne. While waiting for the tardy imported artistes to arrive, Charles and Eliza led the ensemble at the Queen’s in hastily arranged productions of the burlesque Rolla of Ours; or, The Shameful Goings on of the Spaniards in Peru; 102!; or, the Veteran and His Progeny;The School for Scandal and A Thirst for Gold; or, Sea of Ice,the latter providing Coppin’s benefit (announced to be under the patronage of G.V. Brooke) on Friday 23 February.

The company rehearsed all day Saturday and, in a remarkable gesture of welcome, Jeeve Brooke led his orchestra from the Queen’s Theatre in a candlelit procession, down Queen Street to the Prince of Wales Hotel in Flinders Lane, to serenade the international guests at 9 pm. To the strains of Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’, Locke’s music from Macbeth,and airs from The Tempest, Brooke was called to the balcony of his suite to acknowledge the ‘many respectable citizens with their ladies’, the crowd, estimated by The Argus (26 February 1855) to number 1,000 (Brooke wrote to his mother that the crowd was 2,000). Fanny Cathcart and Richard Younge were also encouraged to appear.

In reality, in the absence of any pre-publicity advertising his arrival, no one knew who Richard Younge was, his name only appeared alongside Brooke’s in that morning’s edition of The Argus announcing his debut as Iago. In the advertisement in the same paper, Younge is mistakenly referred to as being ‘from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane’.

As was traditional for Brooke, he opened the season at the ten-year-old Queen’s Theatre with Shakespeare’s Othello on Monday 26 February. The following Wednesday, The Argusreview (28 February 1855) believed that the cast ‘was almost as strong as could have been the case in any theatre outof London.’ [My emphasis.] They praised Younge as ‘an actor of considerable reputation in the English provinces’, and concluded that

Mr R. Younge is decidedly a great acquisition to the colonial stage; his Iago is an exceedingly clever conception, and although somewhat deficient in physique, he is evidently a competent and practised actor.

His appearance, judging by later reviews, was regarded as limiting and hampered his progress. It was addressed in blunt terms some years later when the Ballarat Star(19 September 1860) agreed that ‘Mr Richard Younge is an excellent actor, a finished dramatist in every way’, but clarified that ‘he cannot look a hero, dress as he may, and especially, he cannot speak the language of a hero in true stage style’.

Others in the company—included Mr Burford (Cassio), Mr J.P. Hydes (Rodrigo), Mr Rogers (Brabantio), Miss Fanny Cathcart, ‘a favourite English actress’ (Desdemona) and Eliza Young (Emilia)—were registered by the paper as the major players in support. Mr Hooper, Mrs J.P. Hydes, Mrs Thom and Charles Young were additional unlisted members of  the ensemble.

Over the next four weeks in Melbourne the company played Monday to Friday evenings, Saturdays given over to rehearsals. Younge played second to Brooke in productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Younge took the part of Laertes), Richard III (Henry, Earl of Richmond) and Macbeth (McDuff); Brooke’s more contemporary repertoire included drama and comedy: there were dramatic performances in Sheridan Knowles’ Wife: A Tale of Mantua (Younge gave Leonardo) and Virginius (1820) (Icilius); August von Kotzebue’s The Stranger (Baron Steinfort); George Soane’s Rob Roy, the Gregarach (1818) (The Dougal Creature); Calcraft’s The Bride of Lammermoor(1824) (Hayston of Bucklaw), but some comic relief was provided in Sheridan Knowles’s The Hunchback (1832) (Sir Thomas Clifford) and Massinger’s A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Wellborn). The Stranger,Virginius and The Bride of Lammermoor were new repertoire for Younge, of the remainder all—apart from Laertes and McDuff—were his debut performances in the roles.

The critical responses from The Argusto Younge’s characters were tepid: his ‘very clever reading’ of Iago … is not quite up to our idea of the character’; he fell ‘lamentably short of our idea of Macduff, and gave no notion of the stalwart and true-hearted soldier Shakespeare made the character’. They thought his ‘Baron Steinfort was as gentlemanly as it ought to be’, but acknowledged that his ‘Leonardo was … a very clever performance’, and that his interpretation of Icilius was ‘easy and graceful, and merited the applause bestowed upon it’. His comic turns, unfortunately, were perceived as more uninspiring: while he was ‘an excellent Wellborn’, he ‘did at any rate ample justice to that mysterious being Sir Thomas Clifford’.

For a young, middle-career actor with an upward trajectory in London and highly regarded in the provinces, the antipodean response from the press must have been dispiriting. Fortunately, he was more generously received by the consistently packed houses.

The season concluded in Melbourne on Friday 23 March (with Virginius, for Brooke’s benefit). The company then progressed to the Theatre Royal in Geelong for a week, where J.P. Hydes had taken out the lease. Brooke opened with Othello on Monday 26 March. The plays selected were remounts of those presented in Melbourne—supplemented by the inclusion of George Coppin in minor roles—but introducing for the first time The Lady of Lyons (Younge ‘well represented’ the villain, Beauseant) on Tuesday 3 April. Younge, inexplicably, chose not to appear when the principals were called at the conclusion of the performance; according to The Argus, (4 April 1855) he either ‘did not hear his name, or declined to come before the curtain’. In the Hamlet performed the following evening—where Coppin gave his Polonius—Younge surrendered Laertes to Mr Chapman and, instead, assumed the less demanding role of the Ghost. My suspicion is that it was at this point, he assumed the greater responsibility as the Stage Manager for the company, and in order to provide him sufficient time to prepare the texts, the burden of the larger roles were reduced; another new addition to the repertoire, William Tell,was just announced to launch their return season in Melbourne. Meanwhile, the local critic was kinder to Younge, noting that as the Earl of Richmond he was ‘much applauded, and played his part in a masterly manner’.

After nine nights in Geelong, the stock company travelled back to the metropolis and presented the antipodean premiere of William Tell (a translation of the 1804 play by Friedrich Schiller, much curtailed, presumably by Younge; Younge played Michael) on Easter Monday, 9 April, at the Queen’s Theatre.

Coinciding with the company’s return to Melbourne, was the arrival of Coppin’s ‘iron theatre’ by the George Marshall.Press reports suggested that, as the site had been selected (on the southeast corner of Stephen [later Exhibition] and Lonsdale Streets), the building would be ‘erected within a month’.

Also newly disembarked was Robert Heir, reunited with his fiancé Fanny Cathcart after four months’ separation. He made his Melbourne debut, under contract to Brooke, as Icilius (previously Younge’s role, who now played Dentatus) in Virginius on Wednesday 11 April. Heir’s particular fachwas juvenile tragedy, ‘a role’, advised The Argus (9 April 1855), ‘which has hitherto had no representative in the colonies’. Presumably this was referring to Heir’s youth: at 23 he was ten years Younge’s junior, and, contractually, replaced him as second gentleman (earning £2 more a week).

But Younge’s preoccupation was now diverted, more gainfully occupied with dramaturgy and logistics rather than his own acting ambitions. Over the next three weeks Younge stage-managed the introduction of additional repertoire: Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Younge played Antonio) and Romeo and Juliet (Friar Lawrence); Bulwer-Lytton’s Richelieu; or, The Conspiracy (Baradas); and R.B. Sheridan’s adaptation of von Kotzebue’s tragedy Pizarro in Peru; or, The death of Rolla(Pizzaro); there were also revivals of The Lady of Lyons (Beauseant);Richard III (Henry Earl of Richmond) and Macbeth (McDuff); along with The Stranger (Baron Steinfort). Younge staged, but did not appear in Douglas Jerrold’s The Rent Day (1832) and The Honeymoonand the revival of A New Way to Pay Old Debts (Heir taking over as Wellborn). Younge also rehearsed Coppin into a range of roles: Gobbo, Sieur de Beringhen, the First Witch, and Jacques (in The Honeymoon).When he did perform the critic from The Argusappeared to have softened: ‘Mr R. Younge’s Antonio [in Merchant of Venice] was a neat and highly satisfactory performance;’ in Richelieu,‘he was, on the whole, an excellent Baradas, although we have some objection to his making the villainy of the character so very transparent’; while he only did ‘ample justice to the language and action’ as Pizarro; as Friar Lawrence, a character role for Younge, he ‘spoke the noble language which the author has put into the mouth of the character with correct emphasis and well-ordered judgement’.

The Company attended on site when Brooke laid the foundation stone of Coppin’s New Olympic Theatre on 18 April 1855.

The Melbourne run concluded on Friday 4 May. All up 19 productions were introduced to local audiences over ten weeks; and three other productions (including John Howard Payne’s The Tragedy of Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquin (1818)) were in active preparation. Throughout the season, The Argusbegan to acknowledge Younge’s ‘careful attention to details which has so eminently distinguished the preparation of the pieces in which Mr Brooke has appeared’.

Map of Melbourne, 1855, engraved by David Tulloch. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.

Coppin, Younge, Cathcart and Heir, and Brooke’s entourage, travelled together heading north on the steamer City of Sydneyon Saturday 5 May. They arrived at Pyrmont Wharves on Tuesday 8 May and were all accommodated  at Petty’s Family Hotel.

As was tradition, Othello launched the season at the Royal Victoria Theatre on Thursday 10 May. Younge had Wednesday to get acquainted with Mr Torning’s stock company and venue. For the first time, the commentary in the press alluded to Younge’s credentials and his heritage:

Iago will be represented by Mr Richard Younge, the son of an old and talented member of Drury Lane Theatre; the contemporary of, and fellow-labourer with Edmund Kean, Macready, Charles Young, Charles Kemble, Warde, Wallack, and other distinguished actors of his day. To the son, many old friends of the father will give a cordial greeting.—The Sydney Morning Herald (10 May 1855)

Younge’s performance as Iago was, according to The People’s Advocate(12 May 1855),

Elaborate, definite, and Shakespearean—it formed the dark colouring of the dramatic picture—free from violence and exaggeration—effective and truthful. It was worthy of his talented Sire—further praise we could not give.

Petty’s Hotel, on the corner of York, Clarence and Jamieson Streets, Sydney. State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, PIC/11548/34 LOC PIC Album 42.

The ten-week season Coppin offered Sydney audiences included all of the repertoire seen in Melbourne, each remount now advertised as ‘under the direction of R. Younge’. While he continued to appear is subsidiary roles, his performance as Coliatinus at the premiere of Brutus; or, The Fall of Tarquirwas noted:

This admirable actor, it would appear, does not object to the delineation of a minor part. The example he modestly sets, is a good one, and we trust will be a lesson to less talented artistes.—The People’s Advocate (16 June 1855)

Otherwise, as explained by The Sydney Morning Herald (2 June 1855), ‘Mr Younge has been confided the duty of directing the getting up of the plays selected by Mr Brooke, and his long and intimate acquaintance with the details of stage business is fully demonstrated’.

Of the six new works Younge produced for Brooke at the Royal Victoria Theatre, three were Shakespeare. Henry IV Part One was introduced on Tuesday 29 May. Brooke played Hotspur, Heir the Prince of Wales and Younge gave Henry IV. The Australian premiere of King John followed on Monday the following week, with Brooke as Philip the Bastard and Younge—seemingly in his preferred role—as the vain and cruel villain John. Younge staged Brooke’s King Learon Monday 9 July; Heir played Edgar, Younge gave Edmund. In the final week of the tour, however, most attention was focussed on Coppin’s re-appearance in the farce of the Wandering Minstrelsthat concluded the program! Indeed, Coppin would appear all week, and took his benefit on the final night of the season on Friday 13 July, with the introduction of The Irish Attorney; or, Galway Practice in 1777.This piece was also staged by Younge, as were the other new repertoire pieces: Thomas Morton’s The Angel in the Attic (1843) (Younge played Michael Magnus) and Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs (1829), the comic play by Douglas Jerrold (Blue Peter). This brought Younge’s repertoire responsibility up to a total of 26 major plays (not counting the ancillary short farces that complemented the lineup).

There was, however, no escaping the poor results of a season that had mixed critical and poor financial returns. Both the press and audiences in the harbour city appeared frustrated by not only the marketing hype undertaken by Coppin since January, but also the delay in Brooke’s arrival in Sydney. Both attendance and a positive critical response were less than expected. After some heat generated in The Sydney Morning Herald,courtesy of a Letter to the Editor—by one signed ‘Z’—a few weeks into the season, Coppin himself responded:

I attribute the want of enthusiasm on the part of the public, to an unnecessary excitement created before Mr Brooke’s arrival—the general depression of the times, and the great neglect he has received at the hands of the daily journals, who have certainly not done their duty to the public, or to Mr Brooke’s great ‘histrionic fame.’—The Sydney Morning Herald(24 May 1855)

Brooke subsequently ‘declared war against the daily press’. The Heraldfelt the need to respond ‘that we attribute the popular disaffection towards Mr Brooke, less to the indifference of the Sydney daily press, than to the singularly injudicious course adopted by Mr Torning [and Coppin]; firstly in upholding that gentleman to public ridicule, by the sickening adulatory announcements of, and preparations for, his advent; and secondly, by increasing the prices of admission to the theatre’. (As reported in Bell’s Life in Sydney, 26 May 1855.)

While Brooke’s public appeal was on the wane in Sydney, Younge’s appeared to be on the rise. After The Stranger was advertised for Fanny Cathcart’s benefit, and King Lear for Brooke’s, both in the last week of the season, Bell’s Life in Sydney (7 July 1855) noticed some neglect on Coppin’s part:

Whilst on the subject of benefits, we cannot avoid expressing a hope that Mr Younge will not be forgotten by the public. We have not heard that it is intended for him to have a complimentary night, but it ought to be so, and we trust it will. He labours hard both on the boards and behind the curtain, and we are much indebted to his taste and stage knowledge for the excellent arrangements made at this theatre during Mr Brooke’s engagement.

Someone signing himself ‘Q’ wrote to The Herald(10 July 1855):

… The termination of Mr Brooke’s engagement in Sydney is announced, and with it sundry benefits, among which, however, one does not see the name of Mr Richard Younge. … He unquestionably deserves some public recognition of his arduous services, and a hint to the management should and, it may be hoped, with suffice.

But when the final night came, it was Coppin took his benefit on Friday 13 July, in The Irish Attorney; or, Galway Practice in 1770;Younge was responsible for the production. Following the curtain, Coppin spoke and expressed ‘his self-gratulations at being associated with so distinguished an actor as Mr Brooke; and he adverted in warm terms to the manner in which the cast of the various dramas produced since Mr Brooke’s arrival had been filled by Miss Cathcart, Mr Heir, and above all to Mr R. Younge, under whose able direction all the pieces in which Mr Brooke had appeared were put upon the stage’.

The following day, on Saturday 14 July, Coppin announced a return season for Brooke in Sydney and that he wouldprovide a complimentary benefit for Richard Younge and that ‘with the permission of G.V. Brooke, Fanny Cathcart and Robert Heir would ‘prolong their stay for the express purpose of assisting Mr Young by their talent’. The People’s Advocate appreciated the gesture ‘with feelings of infinite gratification’.

Accompanied by Brooke and his wife, Coppin then embarked the City of Sydneyheading south. On the same day, Fanny Cathcart and Robert Heir were married at St James’ Church, Sydney.

Their marriage was made public after Younge’s benefit performance of As You Like It at the Royal Victoria on Monday 16 July. Fittingly, Heir played Orlando, Cathcart gave Rosalind …

Wedding is great Juno’s crown;
O blessed bond of board and bed! …
As You Like It5.4

Younge played the melancholic Jacques. He was honoured, moreover, when J.G. Griffiths¹²—a longtime friend and colleague of his father—agreed to make a guest appearance to conclude the program as Jock Howison in the musical comic drama Cramond Brig; or, The Gud Man of Ballangeich.Younge appeared alongside him as ‘the Gud Man’.

On the following evening, Mrs Heir appeared at the theatre to enable a committee of gentlemen to present her with a testimonial (in the form of a handsome diamond ring). Following the presentation, Younge sang a Patriotic Song—that he’d also written—to salute the departure of the British Guards from London for the Crimea.

Richard Younge, with the Heirs, left for Melbourne aboard the Telegraph on Wednesday 18 July. He would have, no doubt, contemplated the headwind of his experience over the previous six months in the antipodes, and inflated by the expectation of the prospects of his new position: Stage Manager at George Coppin’s new iron theatre, The Olympic, due to open on Monday 6 August 1855.

To be continued

Endnotes

1. It was during this season, on 5 August, that Brooke gave his first performance as Iago, to George Bennett’s Othello.

2. Wilton began his career in the military before turning to the theatre where he was highly regarded and known as ‘the Napoleon of agents’ and had a reputation as ‘a most skilful tactician in this peculiar line’. He was an agent for P.T. Barnum, he represented Jenny Lind and General Tom Thumb in England and America; as well as Brooke, Wilton introduced Jacobs the Wizard, the Wallers, Sir William and Lady Don and Barry Sullivan to the Colonies. He died aged 42 at Tattersall’s Hotel in Pitt Street, Sydney—‘in embarrassed circumstances’—a few days before Christmas in 1862. Notwithstanding his disagreement with Brooke, Wilton was much respected, ‘not alone for his genuine good humour and good feeling, but for his scrupulous attention and fidelity to all engagements into which he entered’. (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December 1862, p.13)

3. Coppin played Barnardo and Osric.

4. The season opened with Brooke giving his Richard III, Fanny played Queen Elizabeth; Coppin appeared in The Turnpike Gate, as Crack the Cobbler.

5. Robert James Heir was born in Westmorland, in North West England, the second of four children to labourer/comedian James Heir and his wife Jane, a launderess.

6. Interestingly, The London Weekly Chronicle (16 September 1854) had announced that ‘among the English artists who will visit the United States during the winter are … Miss Cathcart … and Robert Heir’.

7. A copy of the Requisition, including the full list of signatories, was printed in The Times, 12 October 1854.

8. William Robert Copeland (1810–1867), late manager of the Bolton and Ulverstone Theatres, Theatre Royal, Lancaster, and acting manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arrived in Liverpool, Merseyside in November 1842 to manage the Royal Liver Theatre. His wife performed in the stock company that included Mr and Mrs F. Conway, Mr T. Lee and Mr C. Marshall. Copeland became the sole lessee and manager of the Royal Amphitheatre in November 1843. From 1851 he simultaneously managed Liverpool’s Theatre Royal.

9. Frederick Younge married Emma Jane Corri at St Mark’s, Dublin on 19 December 1852

10. The Royal Park Theatre, in Parliament Street was opened Monday 27 September 1852; the lessee was Mr R. Edgar, of the Wigan and Preston theatres, and the last lessee of the Liver Theatre, Liverpool (on this site). Tragedian Charles Pitt was engaged to inaugurate the venue.

11. Bagot (p.188) gives the date of arrival as 23 February 1855; Brooke himself, writing to his mother, confirms the arrival as Thursday 22 February 1855.

12. Griffiths had been the General Manager of the Royal Victoria from January 1850, until his retirement on 26 June 1854. At this time, however, he was General Manager of the Prince of Wales Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

My love of theatres commenced at an early age. When I was a small child, I got myself into trouble for using my bed clothes in the erection of a theatre tent in our back yard. At that period in England, it was the practice in most towns to hold an Annual Fair, which found employment for a large number of people as public entertainers, who travelled from town to town in caravans, in which they lived. There were theatres, circuses, wild beast shows, peep shows, monstrosities (such as dwarfs, giants and a tow-headed lady, who no doubt was a fake), merry-go-rounds, swing boats, shooting galleries, boxing tents and a host of others. After one fair a theatrical company remained in town to give performances. I was keen on visiting the show and risked a castigation for being out late without leave; also, my dread of ghosts, as I had to pass through a churchyard filled with graves, and as I passed through, I imagined ghosts were glaring at me from behind the tombstones.

View of Melbourne looking down Bourke Street from Parliament House, c.1860, by Hamel & Co., lithographers. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.

The first genuine theatre to which I was taken was the Royal, Southampton, to see the play of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, by Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe from a book which did a lot to bring about the abolition of slavery in America, culminating in the American Civil War.

When I arrived in Victoria [February 1855 at 13 years old], the only theatre in Melbourne was “The Queen’s”, in Queen-street, in which the diggers showed their appreciation of the performers by throwing golden nuggets at them. The theatre in later years became a carriage factory. Next door to the theatre was a tavern, known as St John’s, kept by Mr John Thomas Smith (the Whittington Mayor of Melbourne), who also presided at the Police Court; and was a terror of offenders. A son of his in later years became Crown Prosecutor. The Police Court, at the time I refer to, was a commodious bluestone building at the junction of Little Collins and Swanston-streets—the site is now occupied by a portion of the Town Hall.

Old Melbourne: the Salle de Valentino. Wood engraving published in The Australasian Sketcher, 15 April 1876. State Library Victoria, Melbourne.

At the top of Bourke-street, where now stands the Imperial Hotel, was a wood and canvas erection, known as the “Salle de Valentino”, where music and dancing were carried on. The first part was a concert, in which Billie Barlow, a wonderful musical genius, performed. He could extract music from almost anything but specially favoured kitchen utensils. He had a great song named “The Blue-tailed Fly”, which he sang with banjo accompaniment; the refrain was the buzzing of a blowfly, which was most natural.

Lower down Bourke-street was “Mooney’s Concert Hall and Hotel”, on the site of the present Palace Theatre [now Le Meridien]. Admission was free; but all drinks were a shilling and if you were not sufficiently rapid in the consumption of your liquor, a waiter would give you a hint it was about time to order another drink. The entertainment was good and the class of performers the best to be had. Later on, down the street, and opposite Buckley and Nunn’s drapery store, a well-built and suitable edifice was erected for dining rooms and a music hall, which was known as “Tilke’s”. You could be certain there at any hour of getting a good meal. In the music hall the best available talent was engaged, and drinks were supplied to visitors at a reasonable cost. Some time afterwards, a judge and jury were started in the hall. The stage was converted to represent the interior of a courthouse; the judge and counsel were robed in wig and gown, and a man was made up to represent a female witness. The evidence produced was amusing but not always of a too modest character.

G.V. Brooke, 1861. Photo by Jeffrey Hawkins.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Charles Mathews, 1870. Photo by W.J. Norman, [Melbourne].

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Of all the actors I have seen and heard, G.V. Brooke was my special favourite. He had been a well-known and popular tragedian in England and sailed for Australia in 1855. In appearance, he was handsome and dignified; he had a wonderfully resonant voice, which could be heard clearly in every part of the theatre. Such was my admiration of him that I witnessed every piece in which he took a part, sometimes more than once. Of the plays at which I was present I may mention—“Shylock”, “Macbeth”, “Virginius”, “Richelieu”, “Othello”, “Louis the Eleventh”, “Sir Giles Overreach” and “Matthew Elmore.” In spite of his great skill as a tragedian he could descend to lighter parts, the principal of which was “O’Callaghan on his Last Legs”, in which he was inimitable. He should have become a rich man but owing to his good nature and kind heart it was otherwise. After some years he returned to England with a hope of renewing his former glories there; but fortune was against him and he determined to return to Australia, but alas! never reached here. He sailed in the passenger steamer “London”, which foundered in the Bay of Biscay, a few days after leaving England. While hope lasted, he doffed his coat and vest and worked like a trojan at the pumps. When no longer hope existed he stood up, like a Roman hero, and went down with the ship. This information I had from one of the survivors who had escaped in a boat. Another of England’s great notable actors who honoured our shores with a visit, was Charles Mathews, who arrived here in April 1870. He was then 66 years of age and naturally some of his former sparkle had been dimmed; nevertheless, he became a good draw. He opened in the Theatre Royal on 9th April. Amongst his favourite plays were: “Used Up”, “Patter versus Chatter” and “The Critic.” His tour in Australia was most successful and a great pleasure to the large audiences that witnessed his performances. Another of my favourites was Mr Robert Brough, who came here with his talented wife from the Old Country, where they were well-known. He was a gentlemanly and talented actor; his wife had equal merit and was a strong support for her husband, for all they produced was of a refined character. Mr Brough became associated with Mr Dion Boucicault (the talented son of a talented father), in the management of the Bijou and Princess Theatres and their efforts in each were strongly supported by the public.

G.S. Titheradge, 1890. Photo by Falk, Sydney.

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Charles Warner, 1876. Photo by Lock and Whitfield, London.

Elisabeth Kumm collection

Mr G.S. Titheradge came to us from India and from the start he jumped into popular favour. He was a gentleman and while on the stage never forgot it. Although he played many parts, including Shakespearian, the best of his characters were: “The Abbe Dubois”, “Wilfred Denver”, “Colonel Hawtrey”, “Henry Beauclerc” and about twenty others. As the Abbe, his words became a sermon, and his listeners could not have left the Bijou Theatre without feeling better in mind and Morals.

Mr Charles Warner came to Australia early in 1888 and appeared at the Theatre Royal. His style was what might be called “the tempestuous school of acting”. His greatest character was that of “Coupeau”, in the play of “Drink”, in which he delineated the various stages of a drunkard’s career, which constituted a most effectual temperance lecture. Stage by stage he proceeded until he was overcome by delirium tremens and ended a raving maniac. He was equally successful in his delineation of the character of “Hamlet”, and from his interpretation showed that he had carefully studied the character.

The Majeronis in Marie Antoinette, 1880s. Poster by Richard Wendel, published by Troedel & Co., Melbourne.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Mr and Mrs Bland Holt, 1907

Elisabeth Kumm collection

Signor and Signora Majeroni visited us in 1883. Both had sufficiently mastered the language to play in English and became great favourites. Madame Ristori was the Signora’s aunt. The play in which I best remember them was “Fedora”, Signor Majeroni as “Louis Ipanoff” and the Signora as “Fedora”. Their delineations were wonderful and the “Fedora” of Signora Majeroni was probably her greatest achievement.

Bland Holt, as a manager and comedian, is one that well deserves remembrance. He had possession of the Theatre Royal, and he and his company deserve the name of a happy family, for all worked well together. His wife was an able and talented seconder to her husband’s efforts. Whatever he put on the stage was most complete in every detail. We have them still with us; they are delightful people to meet and are living privately in Cotham-road, Kew.

George C. Miln as Richard III. Photo by Brewster & Co., Melbourne.

Elisabeth Kumm collection

Louise Jordan, 1888, by unknown photographer

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Mr George Miln, an American, visited us in 1889 (he left the church for the stage), and was accompanied by his wife, who appeared under the name of Miss Louise Jordan. They appeared in the old Opera House, which was afterwards pulled down. Their opening piece was Cibber’s “patchwork” version of “Richard the Third.” Mr Milne was a Shakespearean student. In “Antony and Cleopatra“ he showed that he possessed elocutionary gifts of no ordinary kind.

J.L. Toole as Chawles in A Fool and His Money, 1890. Photo by Falk, Sydney.

Falk Album, Theatre Heritage Australia

Mrs Brown Potter as Camille, 1890. Photo by Falk, Sydney.

Falk Album, Theatre Heritage Australia

In 1890 we had a visit from Mr Kyrle Bellew and Mrs Brown Potter, both of whom had gained attention as “professional beauties.” They opened in the Princess Theatre in “Camille”.

Mr J. L. Toole came to Australia rather late in life and appeared at the Princess Theatre as “Chawles” in the comic drama thus named. Mr Toole had a natural gift of humour; the expression of his features consorted with the character he was acting.

L.L. Smith, 1858. Photo by Mayall, Melbourne.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Sir William Don with George Coppin, c.1862, by unknown photographer

From The Cyclopedia of Victoria, vol. 2, 1903

We had a small building known as the “Novelty”, which was occupied by a French Comedy Company in 1880; it was formerly Dr L.L. Smith’s Anatomical Museum, in which were exhibited wax models showing various stages of the special diseases on which the Doctor was a specialist. The site is now occupied by a building owned by the Salvation Army.

One of the strangest performers with whom we were honoured was a visit from Sir William Don, Bart.; he was a man who troubled not with the cares of the world; light-hearted and volatile, he had run through two fortunes. He was a man of unusual stature, being over 6ft 6in in height. He had been an officer in a crack regiment, but his commission had to go with his fortune. He was specially fitted by Nature for light comedy and burlesque and his appearance never failed to raise a laugh. His delineation of two characters, “Cousin Joe” and “Toodles”, may be specially mentioned.

Joseph Jefferson, 1860s. Photo by Davies & Co., Melbourne.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle. Photo by Sarony, New York.

National Portrait Gallery, London

One of the greatest comedians who honoured us with a visit was Joseph Jefferson, who played continuously in the Princess Theatre for over six months. In spite of his great talents, he was more modest in his efforts; it might even be said he was shy and retiring. His audience forgot that they were witnessing acting and could well believe they were looking on real life; at the same time, he was full of humour. His great Character was that of “Rip Van Winkle”, in which he displayed such great diversity of character, from that of the poor drunkard in his cups to that in the last act, when as an old man he returns to his village after his hundred years’ sleep, to find himself forgotten and mocked at. He was a man who, taking him all in all, “we shall ne’er look upon his like again”.

David Martin. Photo by T. Humphrey & Co., Melbourne.

Courtesy of Margaret Knight

To be continued

First published The Justice of the Peace Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 119, 7 February 1926, pp.2-3

Thank you to Margaret Knight, great grand daughter of David Martin, for providing a transcript of this article and also for supplying photographs of her great grandfather.

For more information on the career of David Martin, refer https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/martin-david-7502

The comedy’slong but broken entertainment history can be dated from 29 June 1852 when Joseph A. Rowe opened Rowe’s American Circus on this prominent corner. Arriving from California just as the first bounties of the gold-rush were flooding into Melbourne, Rowe is said to have made a fortune in the two years his circus stood here. Reputedly laden with cash and treasure, he returned to California in February 1854 and an advertisement in The Melbourne Morning Herald on the following 14 October by his wife Eliza, announced the closure of the circus and the auction of the buildings, horses and theatrical properties.

Joseph Andrew Rowe

Museum of Performance & Design, San Francisco

Andrew Rowe with one of his performing horses

From California’s Pioneer Circus by Joseph Andrew Rowe, edited by Albert Dressler, 1926, p.29

The circus was housed in a permanent wooden amphitheatre with seating in a dress circle, boxes and pit. After Rowe’s departure the building was occasionally used by concert artistes or minstrel troupes such as Rainer’s Ethiopian Serenaders. Shortly after this, the foundation stone for the first ‘legitimate’ theatre to be built here was laid on the corner of Lonsdale and Stephen (now Exhibition) Streets.

This theatre was made up almost entirely of cast iron. prefabricated in England and shipped out in individually numbered pieces for assembly on site. It was built for George Coppin, the energetic English born actor and entrepreneur who, when touring his homeland in 1854, had commissioned its design from Fox & Henderson of Birmingham and its fabrication from E. & T. Bellhouse of Manchester. Coppin had signed up the Irish tragedian Gustavus Vaughan Brooke to tour Australia and, according to Alec Bagot’s biography, Coppin the Great, although he considered Sydney’s theatres adequate for such an important engagement, he thought the Queen’s—at that time Melbourne’s only existing playhouse—‘a wretched hole’.

Coppin’s Olympic Theatre – ‘The Iron Pot’- 1855

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

The foundation stone for the as yet unnamed theatre, which was laid by Brooke, with Coppin and other members of his company and the press in attendance on 18 April 1855, recorded that the architect for the building was C.H. Ohlfsen Bagge and the builders George Cornwell and Company. The theatre was eventually christened the Olympic in honour of Brooke who had had his first success as Othello at London’s Olympic theatre. Coppin’s competitors immediately derided it as ‘the Iron Pot’, however, the name by which it was soon popularly known.

Some six weeks after the cast iron components had arrived on site the Olympic was close enough to completion to be opened for the first public performance on 11 June 1855. This was by the Wizard Jacobs, ‘conjurer, ventriloquist, acrobat, rated as the world’s best one man entertainer’.

The Olympic, whose entrance faced into Lonsdale Street, was described thus in The Argus of 11 June 1855: ‘The iron walls are for the most part cased with brick …’ while the interior presented a ‘light and exceedingly elegant appearance … The arch of the proscenium is broad and flattened; it has a span of thirty-three feet … surmounting the proscenium is an elegant casting in papier mâché of the royal arms, and the arch is supported by six Corinthian pillars, the flutings and capitals of which, being gilded, have an exceedingly rich effect. The ceiling... has been judiciously painted a blue white and spangled with gold stars.’

Coppin’s Olympic Theatre. Photo by Walter Bentley Woodbury.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The decorations by William Pitt Sr (whose son later became the foremost Australian theatre architect of his day) were in green, pink and French white. Seating capacity was variously estimated at between 1150 and 1500 in pit, stalls, dress circle and a variety of boxes. What seems to be the sole surviving photograph of the Olympic’s exterior was taken by visiting English photographer Walter Woodbury about 1855 or 1856.

An ‘Old Playgoer’, reminiscing in The Australasian of 14 August 1886, recalled the Olympic as ‘hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Internally it resembled a chapel, with a rectangular gallery for a dress circle; and the adjacent bar was nearly half as large as the theatre itself. But it was the custom in those days for the greater portion of the male part of the audience to rush out for “refreshment” at the end of each act, and a nobbler of brandy was regarded as the cement of friendship.’

The official opening of the Olympic took place on 30 July 1855 when a proper stage had been installed for the first dramatic season. Despite torrential rain and the streets being ‘ankle-deep in mud’ the house was ‘crowded in every part’, according to The Age of 31 July. After a much applauded prologue declaimed by Brooke, there was a ‘renewal of the applause, and to vociferous calls for “Coppin”, who, however, did not make his appearance’, The Argus of the same date reported. Without further delay, the first act of the opening play, Bulwer Lytton’s The Lady of Lyons proceeded.

Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, c.1861

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Fanny Cathcart with her husband Robert Heir, c.1860

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Brooke’s leading lady was 22-year-old Fanny Cathcart, who later became one of the most popular and versatile local players. She had signed an onerous two-year contract with Brooke in England, and her fiancé, English actor Robert Heir, was also a member of Brooke's company. Heir soon became dissatisfied with the secondary roles he was given, however, and persuaded his wife to beak her contract so that they could star together under the rival management of John Black at the Theatre Royal. Although a court case ensued which Cathcart lost, Brooke eventually agreed to alter her contract to more favourable terms and the couple returned to his company in October 1855.  

The Olympic was immediately thrown into direct competition with the Theatre Royal which had opened only two weeks earlier. When that management reduced admission prices Coppin was forced to do likewise, although he publicly admitted that by doing so he was running at a loss. Once, when Lola Montes was the rival attraction at the Royal, Coppin included a burlesque of her famous spider dance in his program: ‘after cavorting all over the stage in a ridiculous manner’, Coppin (according to Bagot), ‘withdrew from under an extremely scanty skirt an enormous animal resembling a spider’, and chased it across the boards. The people in the audience ‘literally rolled out of their seats with laughter... His imitation was a riot. saved from a charge of vulgarity only by the side-splitting roars of laughter it provoked.’

The partnership of Brooke, the brilliant tragedian, and Coppin, the popular comedian and shrewd showman, soon won over the majority of the audiences—even though the Royal was much bigger, more opulent and better placed. In spite of this hard won supremacy there was still unrelenting competition from too many theatres: the combined capacities of the Royal, the Olympic, Astley’s Amphitheatre and the Queen’s was close to 8000 people. In addition to these the Salle de Valentino, Cremorne Gardens, the Exhibition Building and numerous lesser halls and hotels all sapped a share of the potential audience from a population of only 70 000.

After tours of the goldfields and Tasmania, Brooke returned to the Olympic for a ‘farewell’ performance on 1 December 1855 and, prior to an announced departure for California, appeared before a crowded house. The departure was postponed however and Brooke was back for a fresh season on 28 January 1856 when he appeared as Brutus in Julius Caesar ‘for the first time in the colonies’. He also gave a first Australian performance of Henry V on 25 February. Brooke’s ‘most positively... last appearance’ was on 26 April and for once, as far as the Olympic was concerned, this was true.

Coppin and Brooke had become business partners and early in June 1856 they took control of the Theatre Royal, left in charge of the Official Receiver after the bankruptcy of its owner, John Black. From this time on the Olympic went into a sudden, irreversible decline, opening only sporadically for imported players and concert and vaudeville artistes of (mostly) the second rank.

Madame Anna Bishop, 1850s. Engraving by Daniel John Pound, after a photograph by John Jabez Edwin Mayall.

National Portrait Gallery, London

American actor James Stark, c.1850. Photographer unknown.

The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

There was nothing second rate about Madame Anna Bishop however; apart from being the estranged wife of the English composer Sir Henry Bishop, she was an internationally renowned soprano and probably the most widely travelled and adventurous opera singer of her day. Madame Bishop began a month long series of concerts at the Olympic on 13 May 1856. Mr. and Mrs. James Stark, ‘celebrated American artistes’, starred in a month-long season of drama, beginning on 18 June in Richelieu. By 20 October, however, with Coppin and Brooke now firmly established at the Royal, the Olympic was housing such attractions as ‘The Siege of Sebastopol’, a ‘Grand Exhibition of Mechanical figures, Model Scenes and Theatre of Arts… for one week only’.

Anna Bishop returned for ‘one night only’ on 8 January 1857 and four nights later came the actress Marie Duret in a season of plays. Duret had once been Brooke’s mistress and according to his biographer, W.J. Lawrence, ‘after feathering her nest for years... without a word of warning, she ran off to America…’ Duret was evidently a versatile actress with a penchant for male roles for she first appeared as the highwayman Jack Sheppard then as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. She also played ‘three different characters’ in A Duel in the Dark and The French Spy and essayed as many as eight parts in Winning a Husband. Appearing in two plays per night, on some nights Duret portrayed as many as eleven separate characters! Energy and versatility notwithstanding, her season, although originally announced for 24 nights, was terminated half way through and The Argus of 26 January noted that ‘Mademoiselle Duret has been playing … with very equivocal success...’

It soon became clear that the Olympic was no longer viable as a theatre and, after the closure of a short-lived ‘Polytechnic Exhibition’, it was reopened on 11 May 1857 as ‘The Argyle Assembly Rooms’ for ‘Terpsichorean pastimes’. The building remained a dance hall until 30 November 1857 when it was briefly reopened as ‘Coppin’s Olympic’ for a return season by the Wizard Jacobs. Another minstrel troupe began a season there on 1 February 1858 but by 22 May it had been converted back to the ‘Argyle Rooms’ where a ‘Full Dress Ball’ was held two nights later.

A fresh novelty was advertised in the Melbourne press in November 1858: ‘Great Pedestrian Feat. 1000 miles in 1000 hours. Alan McKean who so successfully accomplished this trial of strength, endurance and perseverance at Ballaarat, will walk his first mile in Melbourne on Tuesday 23 November at Seven O’clock in the evening at the Olympic Theatre and terminate the undertaking (D.V.) 3rd January 1859. Hours of walking, a quarter before and one minute after each even hour. Tickets for the 1000 hours £1.1s.’

In February 1859 Coppin and Brooke dissolved their partnership and sole ownership of the Olympic reverted to Coppin. Bagot reasons that Coppin retained the Olympic (which cost £200 per week to run and was mostly running at a loss) in favour of the profit-making Royal on sentimental grounds: ‘the building was so much his own conception that no thought of relinquishing it seems seriously to have entered his mind!’

An address delivered by Mr. Fred. Younge, on the occasion of the opening of the Olympic Theatre, Melbourne, June 20, 1859

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

George Coppin as Paul Pry, one of the many characters he played at the Olympic between 1856 and 1859. Hand coloured photograph, c.1870.

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Coppin had been elected an MLC in the Victorian parliament in 1858 and, preoccupied as he was with a political career, he leased the Olympic to Frederick and Richard Younge who reopened it on 30 June 1859 with a program of comic plays. Coppin himself returned to the Olympic’s stage for two short seasons of charity performances—the first from 23 to 30 July and again from 24 August to 3 September. In spite of his good intentions, Coppin attracted criticism for this from a conservative element who considered it unseemly for an MLC to appear on stage. Coppin retorted that if other MLCs could practice their professions, why couldn’t he?—and very sensibly continued to perform.

The last quasi-theatrical attraction at the Olympic was a ‘Female Pedestrian Feat’ beginning on 4 January 1860 in which a Miss Howard and a Mrs. Douglas were matched to walk 1500 miles in 1000 hours, After this the theatre was advertised as ‘to let or for sale’. As there were no takers, Coppin himself eventually converted part of the building into ‘Australia’s first Turkish Baths’. He reminisced in an Argus interview of 10 April 1899: ‘The green-room became the first hot room, the property-room the second and a dressing room the third. The ground under the stage was made into a swimming bath, and there was also a shallow bath in the space occupied by the pit. Tents were pitched in rows in the dress circle to serve as dressing rooms... But I could not make any money at it.’

Fire destroyed the baths and most of the old theatre building early in the morning of 29 November 1866. All that remained were ‘the bare walls and iron fittings’, according to The Age of 30 November. But as late as 10 June 1933 a correspondent to the same paper reports that a portion of the ‘Iron Pot’ was still ‘working out its destiny’ as a wharfside shed at Hokitika in the South Island of New Zealand.

Madame Fillis, c.1893. Photographer unknown.

Gordon Ireland Scrapbook, State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Professor Fillis, c.1893. Photographer unknown.

Gordon Ireland Scrapbook, State Library Victoria, Melbourne

The baths were rebuilt, but replaced by a furniture warehouse in 1873 and this remained until 1891. After standing vacant for several years the site came full circle when The Australian Hippodrome was built here in 1894. An Argus advertisement on opening day, 25 August announced: ‘£1000 spent on the property £500 spent on new canvas £250 spent on timber £100 spent on chairs £300 spent on new costumes and uniforms £200 spent on electric and gas lighting £100 spent on upholstery, carpets and decorations £300 spent on advertising.’ The Argusof 27 August 1894 reported: ‘The hippodrome is surrounded by a high wall, and was specially prepared for the circus. A large new tent has been erected inside and is comfortably seated.’ Fillis’s Circus and Menagerie was the opening attraction and remained here until 29 September 1894. Other circuses occasionally used the Hippodrome over the next few years but it seems never to have been very popular—possibly because of the relatively small size of the site—and by 1903 Sands and McDougall’s Melbourne Directory lists the address as vacant once more.

E.I. Cole

National Library of Australia, Canberra

Program cover for Cole’s Bohemian Dramatic Company at the Hippodrome, 1907

State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Edward I. Cole, a flamboyant tent showman who liked to dress up as famed American frontier scout, Buffalo Bill, with shoulder length hair, flowing moustache and wide sombrero, brought the site back to life in 1906. After successfully establishing a tent theatre in Sydney with a repertoire of melodramas that usually featured cowboys, Indians and horses as well as actors, Cole split his Bohemian Dramatic Company in two to set up a second base in Melbourne.

Cole had already commissioned plans for a ‘People’s Theatre and Circus Building’ from Sydney architects Parkes and Harrison which, while not specifically designed for the site, were at one stage submitted to the Melbourne City Council for approval. Now held in the council’s archives, and dated February 1905, these show a quite elaborately decorated iron roofed auditorium of brick and stucco with an arched and colonnaded facade enclosing both stage and circus ring. Unfortunately, no surviving detailed written or pictorial records of the site at this time have so far come to light but it seems unlikely that any part of this ‘People’s Theatre’ was ever built there. Cole probably renovated whatever remained of the earlier building and opened his season of ‘Drama Under Canvas’ at ‘The Hippodrome’ about 19 December 1906.

A four-act bushranger melodrama, King of the Road, was the first offering but on Christmas night a sacred concert and biograph entertainment replaced the cowboys and horses—this leading on, a year or so later, to a series of Sunday night charity concerts and film shows that became a regular fixture. Circus-melodrama remained the staple, however, and weekly change plays followed into the new year. Although the emphasis was on outdoor action, Cole’s repertoire also included such popular dramas as Boucicault’s The Octoroon and the perennial East Lynne and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The Bohemian Company’s first season closed in mid November 1907 and ‘Broncho George’s Team of Wild Australian Outlaws and Rough Riders’ was the attraction from 16 November until a fortnight before Cole’s return on 21 December. The Bohemians played several more Hippodrome seasons up to mid June 1909 although by now the company was appearing here only on Friday and Saturday nights and touring the suburbs the rest of the week.

To be continued