Julie Day

T
the thingsone can find on the side of a road. Out and about driving through Malvern one day around thirty years ago, dancer-actress-writer Julie Day saw an old steamer trunk on the side of a road. Julie was Australia’s first Liesl in The Sound of Music at The Princess Theatre in 1961 with June Bronhill, and performed in countless shows including My Fair Lady,The Boy Friend,West Side Story,The Merchant of Venice,Macbeth,A School for Scandal and as Guest Artist with The Australian Ballet as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. 

She decided to investigate the old, battered trunk as it was quite an unusual sight, just sitting there clearly unwanted and waiting for pickup. On approaching, she was absolutely amazed to see carefully painted on the side of it, “G. JOFFE.  J.C.W. THEATRES”. Having been one of “Williamson’s young ladies”, as members of the chorus were known back then, she recognised the name as being that of leading J.C. Williamson Musical Director, Gabriel Joffe!

As large as it was, she arranged to have it picked up and taken to her home, rather than see it get picked up and end up as landfill. This was a treasure and part of the JCW history that she had been part of. Covered in paint and scratches, the trunk was largely intact, including the fabric-covered interior which included hanging space for jackets and trousers, and drawers for shirts, underwear and socks and toiletries and a separate drawer for shoes.

Gabriel Joffe—program photo

Author’s collection

The trunk—before restoration

Julie Day as Liesl in The Sound of Music, Princess Theatre, 1961, with Tony Jenkins as Rolf

Julie Day collection

Born in Latvia in 1907, Joffe studied to become a lawyer and worked as an accompanist for singers to help pay for his studies. He moved to Australia with his young wife and daughter, became a naturalised Australian, and obtained his first position with the J.C. Williamson orchestra in 1934 as a pit musician on the musical Blue Mountain Melody.

His first job as conductor in the pit of Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne was for the 1941 musical revue Funny Side Up. He was also the first conductor to conduct the ballets for the newly formed Borovansky Australian Ballet in April of 1943, also at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne.

One of the ballets for the company for which he would arrange music, was Borovansky’s original ballet, Journey to the Moon in 1959 using the melodies of Donizetti with a story based on Jules Verne’s book.

Gabriel conducting the men’s chorus of Paint Your Wagon in 1954 with Gwendo Paul at the piano

Author’s collection

The trunk—during restoration

“Joffie”, as he was know, would conduct a Gilbert and Sullivan season for Williamsons and the original productions of major shows which included South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate, Oklahoma, Song of Norway, Brigadoon, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam, Damn Yankees, Can-Can, Paint Your Wagon, The Pajama Game and My Fair Lady, ending his career with Camelot in 1963. Loved and respected by everyone who knew him, Gabriel died on January 24, 1967 aged 60.

As treasured as it had become to Julie, the time had come to decide whether to keep the large trunk or get rid of it. Ultimately none of the family would want it due to its size. Knowing my passion for anything JCW related, she asked me if I would like it, but after consideration, I had to decline. “It’s just SO big!”, I said. “Well, it will have to go down the tip”, came the reply. That was it. I just couldn’t see that happen, so I made plans of exactly where I would put it in my office, which has somehow become a JCW museum, albeit, orderly!

The trunk—fully restored

Trunk with new labels

My main concern about some restorations is going too far with it and removing all signs of its lifetime of being moved around and knocked about over the years. I removed all the spilt paint, which was all over it, with a screwdriver and then carefully washed the dirt off it to see just what I had to work with. Sadly the brass and metal stud-nails and locks and strappings were all very rusted and there was no way of getting them back to the way they were, so I decided to simply add some dull gold paint to these in patches and then brush it off so it looked like the original brass, but still with some age. For the main body of the trunk I matched a blue-black paint which was very close to how the original colour had aged. I painted and brushed some of the paint off, painted some more and rubbed some off, leaving some sections totally unpainted to leave behind some scratches and the remains of old stickers which had once adorned it. Some time ago I was given some original 1930s JCW trunk stickers with various capital city names on them which are in mint condition and I had these photocopied and then aged them slightly with tea, made fold marks on some and tears on others to look like time damage. I glued some of these onto the trunk using a very weak glue solution so they can be removed at any time, leaving no trace of the glue on the trunk at all.

Trunk interior—before restoration

Fabric detail—after restoration

The inside of the trunk and its drawers are covered in a blue floral fabric. Constant opening and closing of the drawers over time, has left the edges of them frayed quite severely but I was lucky to have found some intact fabric on the underside of one of the drawers which I carefully removed to cut and glued over the damaged and missing sections of fabric, matching the pattern as I went.

All in all, I am very happy with how Maestro Joffe’s old battered steamer trunk came up and it’s made a nice addition to my office. What a fascinating and lovely journey it’s had, travelling across Australia and New Zealand by road and rail and sea during the 40s and 50s and early 60s as the property of Musical Director on some of the biggest shows The Firm produced, to a close call on someone’s nature-strip, then thirty years in the care of Miss Julie Day, and then a trip to my garage for a bit of a makeover and new lease on life. And while I was working on its restoration... a recording which was given to me of the opening night of My Fair Lady at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, conducted by Maestro Joffe himself. That only seemed fitting!