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Lola Russell, 28 June 1922–21 August 1924

lola 01aMy name is Susan Pierotti and I had the privilege of editing and managing the publication of Lola’s autobiographical book, City Kid.

When I first met Lola, I was intrigued by this frail-looking but imperious old lady. As I got to know her, I discovered a living Melbourne treasure whose memories of a forgotten world were as alive as if they had happened yesterday. However, she herself was not one to live in the past. Throughout her life, as I discovered in her memoirs, she was a courageous and forthright pioneer who knew her mind and what path she was on.

Lola Russell was born to George and Beatrice Russell on 25 July 1922. Her father’s family were descended from a miner from Jersey who had settled at Chewton near Castlemaine. Her mother’s family were descended from Melbourne’s (and possibly Australia’s) first Maltese settler. In 1899, her maternal grandfather, Valetta Azzopardi, bought a grocery business in a cottage on the corner of King and Latrobe streets, and here the family resided until Lola moved into care a few years ago. It is the oldest house in Melbourne’s CBD.

Lola was the only child of loving parents. She learnt to love poetry and the English language from hearing her father and grandfather recite Shakespeare and poetry. Although she had attended kindergarten and gone to Sunday School here at St James, at eight years of age, Lola began attending the Welsh Church in Latrobe St. She made her first public performance there at an Eisteddfod singing ‘All though the night’. She was a hit! She was advised to have singing and piano lessons. She was the first child in her school to go to secondary school, at University High, and the first one in her family’s generation to go to university. By then, she had had Italian lessons and had performed as a child actor on the radio.

She entered Melbourne University as a singing student at the Conservatorium. She seemed to take a long time to finish her music degree and towards the end of of it, she was told that her voice was not strong enough for a singing career. No matter – she had discovered theatre. She joined and was on the committee of the Melbourne University Dramatic Club, where she learnt her craft with leading actors and directors of the day, eventually playing the part of Kate in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and achieving recognition in the newspapers.

One rainy night when she was watching a production of Romeo and Juliet, a young man tripped over her umbrella. They got talking. He was a returned serviceman who was also studying at Melbourne University. The next day, he showed up at uni with a golden rose for Lola. From that moment, Lola and George Dixon were inseparable for over seventy years.

Lola soon realised that she needed wider acting experience, so she and George spent nine years in Europe, where she acquired a few acting engagements. Due to her parents’ ill health, they returned to help look after the shop. She performed with the Union Theatre (later the Melbourne Theatre Company) and for JC Williamsons and did a tour to New Zealand with Sir Robert Helpmann, but it wasn’t enough to pay the bills. She took up teaching. Her first permanent position was at Coburg Technical School. After missing several days due to theatre production rehearsals, she arrived one day to see her photo on the noticeboard and written underneath, ‘Try Missing Persons Bureau’!

Other teaching posts included St Margarets in Berwick and Coburg High School until her favourite teaching post at Williamstown Girls High. She loved it here. She taught English and drama, and there are women today who remember her flamboyant style and creativity that gave them hope that there was more to a woman’s life than housework and being a secretary.

By now, Lola had started Lola Russell Productions, a small actors' cooperative, formed to present worthwhile plays including avant-garde plays by Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and others not performed elsewhere. To bring in an audience and money, they also produced plays on the school syllabus. They were fortunate to be able to store their sets and props and rehearse free of charge at St James hall. She recalls many mishaps such as the time she was playing Titania in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. She went to the hairdresser early on the morning of opening night to have a strong pink wash put through her hair, wrapped it up in a scarf and went off to school to teach. She had, however, forgotten it was sports day. Out in the open, the wind sprang up and her scarf blew off, revealing a head of hair that was coloured deep beetroot.

Her acting life brought her into contact with such other luminaries as actors Frank Thring, George Fairfax, John Sumner, Sheila Florance, Irene Mitchell and Monica Maughan, psychiatrist and music therapist Dr Daniel Kahans, archaeologist Dr Alexander Gallus and writer and editor Hilary McPhee.

Lola Russell Productions gave opportunities to budding young actors and brought plays (and Lola and Georges’ prized good English diction!) to new outer suburban theatres such as the Alexander Theatre at Monash University and the Melton Complex. It also gave at least one girl a chance to get away from a home of domestic violence. According to one review in 1963, ‘if it were not for Lola Russell Productions, Melbourne would not see any good theatre’.

After teaching at Williamstown Girls High, she taught at her alma mater, University High and then at Brighton High. Here she worked with enthusiastic music staff to put on musicals and drama competitions for nine years, rushing home at lunchtime to sell to customers in the small cottage in King St.

Lola’s teaching experience was more than matched by her acting career. Lola Russell Productions was the first Australian company to put on a Samuel Beckett play. She was also interested in film and television. She appeared in commercials, the ABC serials, Bellbird and The Truckies, Consider Your Verdict, Homicide and Division Four. She and George appeared in the films of pioneer Giorgio Mangiamele, whose movie, Clay, which starred George, was the first Australian film to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. They also both appeared, though uncredited, in the movie, On the Beach. This was the film whose leading lady, Ava Gardner, unjustly said that Melbourne was a suitable place to make a movie about the end of the world. One of her last film roles was in Paul Cox’s Lonely Hearts which won an Australian Film Institute Best Film of the Year award.

After retiring, Lola and George continued to run the shop, by now a café. Who here remembers the kettle boiling on the 1925 Kooka Stove, the tables sitting under theatre lights, Lola sitting in her chair surveying King St as if she owned it? Over the next thirty years, she kept old friends and made new ones. She rescued dogs, went to plays and seminars and cared passionately about the decline of the English language and pronunciation.

When Melbourne’s City Loop tunnel was drilled, Flagstaff Station was right below where she lived. The cottage’s pre-gold rush mortar wasn’t up to the challenge of trains rattling beneath every few minutes and the house began to collapse. To raise funds to save it, she thought she would publish her story and make money. She wanted her story to be known because, as she said, she wanted people to love the city she lived in. The book project took thirty years to come to fruition, but we were able to give her a splendid book launch in November 2015. As the consummate actress that she was, she arrived last, dressed in black velvet, a fur stole and red high-heeled shoes to die for. She was gorgeous! We sold all 100 copies that night and so far, Lola’s story has been presented at over 20 Probus, U3A groups and historical societies.

It has been my immense privilege to have had a part in recording Lola’s wonderful life story. I would like to end with Lola’s words.

‘I have come a long way in my life. I can see that the world has changed dramatically, and I believe I have seen the best of it. I know troubles beset all of us engaged in creative work, but I also know we will continue the fight and we will win. The challenge is here: every day there are signs that audiences will always appreciate a good play well acted and presented. No matter how difficult the way ahead can be, I know that I go with help and love, and that all will be well.’

 

Copies of Lola’s autobiography, City Kid, are available at: https://www.creativetext.com.au/pages/book/lola-russell-city-kid