Leslie Adrienne

The Sydney Stadiums (1911-1912)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The National Theatre, Balmain (1913)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First World War

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Pavilion Theatre (1916)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ben Fuller’s Majestic Theatre, Newtown (1917)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Post War (1918)

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

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

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

Leslie Adrienne (The White Slave)

Graphic, 15 December 1916

Jack Souter

Table Talk, 4 December 1919

Kate Howarde with Jack Souter, her secretary and  Business Manager

Table Talk, 3 November 1919

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

Endnotes

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

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

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

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

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