The chorus was always a special feature of J.C. Williamson’s musical comedies and often the honours of a performance fell to the chorus, with their excellence often highlighted in reviews. Much was expected of these talented and well-trained performers, and while important in its own right, the chorus was sometimes called upon to invigorate a performance which was going through a dull patch or to give support to ineffective principals. Additionally, a few of the chorus members had a ‘principal’ performer to understudy. So important was the chorus wrote Russell, that ‘the worse trouble that meets the playgoer is that the star actors will get in the way and hide their (the chorus girls) multitudinous charms’.1 The chorus was indispensable to the character and charm of musical comedies.
A chorus line, Lone Hand (Sydney), 1 July 1909, p.241
Ruby Elsie Armfield was born on 23 October 1885 in Majorca, central Victoria, her father Edward a railway worker, and her mother, Jane concerned with home duties. Little is known about Ruby’s early years, although some newspaper snippets refer to a Miss Ruby Armfield having made amateur appearances at the Wodonga Children’s Festival in September 1885 and at the Wesleyan Sunday School concert in Wodonga the following year.2 Ruby’s number at the Festival was praised by the local press: the talent and self possession of this little performer are remarkable, more especially as she is of very tender years. It seems most likely that the performer who showed promise as a child was Ruby Elsie. Mrs Armfield, presumably Ruby’s mother, had tutored the young concert artistes.
Little is also known about Ruby’s off-stage, early adult years. Although contrary to the glamour, and extrovert behaviour expected of a chorus girl, she appears to have been a very private person, a 'home-body', and even in her twenties at the height of her career she was living at home in Albert Park with her parents.
Sadly, Ruby died when only 42 on 26 February 1928 at the Greenvale Sanatorium, Broadmeadows of pulmonary tuberculosis. Her death certificate reveals that her usual address was Albert Park and that she was married in Sydney when 35 (this would be in 1920) to Frederick Bennett. She was survived by her daughter, Jean aged 5. Her husband had pre-deceased her. Records of Ruby’s marriage, Bennett’s death and Jean’s birth cannot be sourced.
The Early Years 1901–1904
The chorus girls were mainly Australian performers and like so many hopeful young actresses of her generation, Ruby Armfield’s entrée to the stage was as a member of the chorus. It appears Ruby had the attributes that Williamson and his stage managers expected of a chorus girl—she had a good singing voice, was vivacious and stylish and above all, had musical awareness and insight, qualities which often saw Ruby playing minor ‘named’ roles and sometimes being called upon, as an ‘understudy’, to substitute for a principal.
Ruby’s emerging stage career is first noted in late August 1901, when in her late teens she is named as a member of Williamson’s Comic Opera Company in an advertisement for Florodora and The Belle of New York, which were playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre Kalgoorlie. She is also named in an advertisement the following October for The Belle of New York which was staged at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal.
On 26 April 1902, Williamson’s Musical Comedy Co. opened its season at the Theatre Royal Perth with San Toy, with Ruby a member of a strong, talented chorus. The following May the company staged Florodora, in which Ruby played a minor character, Mamie Rowe, one of the English lady friends of Angela Gilfain (played by Lilian Digges) who were on a visit to the flower farm. Ruby and other ‘lady friends’, together with Cyrus Gilfain’s (proprietor of the Florodora perfume recipe) clerks had two concerted numbers, with the audience favourite, ‘Tell me, pretty maiden’, well rendered and deservedly encored.3
Ruby is named in the part of Mary Lambkin, an English lady of the Consulate staff, when San Toy was performed for the first time in Kalgoorlie at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 26 May.4 Florodora followed on 4 June with Ruby again cast as Mamie Rowe and on 6 June in The Belle of New York, Ruby played Myrtle Mince, one of Cora Angelique’s (the off-divorced Queen of Comic Opera) bridesmaids, a role she maintained when the ’Belle’ was staged in Perth a few days later and in the return season at Adelaide’s Theatre Royal in early July. The return season also included San Toy with Ruby, on this occasion, cast as the Hon. A. Stachpole.
Following successful seasons in Western Australia and Adelaide, Williamson’s company commenced their Brisbane season at His Majesty’s Theatre, opening with San Toy on 17 July where Ruby again played the Hon. A. Stachpole. After a short run, San Toy gave way to The Runaway Girl on 26 July with Ruby in another minor part as the Hon. Cicily Hake (the daughter of Sir William Hake, a tourist with the Cook Company). This was a character she sustained with success, wrote the Brisbane Courier.5
In early August 1902, Williamson’s new Musical Comedy Company performed for the first time at the Palace Theatre Sydney with San Toy, their first appearance at one of the more renowned venues. In their review the Daily Telegraph wrote that the splendid energy and newness of the company were undoubted factors in the success of the performance.6 A revival of The Belle of New York followed on 13 August with Rose Musgrove as the Belle and Fred H. Graham as Ichabod Bronson. Ruby again played Myrtle Mince.
An eighty-strong Musical Comedy Company left for New Zealand the next day. Williamson had assembled a very impressive touring party which included Lilian Digges, Rose Musgrove, Blanche Wallace, Fred H. Graham, Claude Bantock and Fred Leslie. Ruby was also in the touring party, it was her first, of several tours to New Zealand.
The season began at the Opera House, Wellington on 7 November 1902, with successful performances of A Runaway Girl and San Toy, both which later played in other New Zealand cities. The Belle of New York and A Circus Girl were also part of the tour repertoire.
Ruby Armfield and Hazel Melvin of the San Toy production in canoes on the Avon River, Hagley Park, November 1902
Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand
Ruby Armfield and Miss Siefed and Mr Rice of the San Toy company, November 1902
Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand
The company was In Auckland in January 1903 with performances of The Belle of New York and A Circus Girl at His Majesty’s Theatre. Ruby played her familiar role of Myrtle Mince in The Belle, and in the latter, produced by the company for the first time on tour, she was cast as Mdlle. Guilbert. Ruby continued to play these roles throughout the rest of the tour.
Ruby’s name also appears in the New Zealand press when she is named as a member of the ‘Runaway Girl’ side which played against the ‘San Toy’ side in a ladies Costume Cricket Match and Garden Party organised by Williamson’s company in aid of the Elingamite Wreck Fund. Ten days prior to the cricket match, on 9 November 1902, the SS Elingamite en-route from Sydney to Auckland struck rocks off the north coast of New Zealand with a loss of 45 lives.
Arena-Sun (Melbourne), 6 April 1903, p.13. Ruby front row, far right.
In June 1903, Williamson’s Musical Comedy Company staged two musical comedies in a six night season at the Theatre Royal Hobart. The company opened with A Runaway Girl where Ruby again played the Hon. Cecily Hake and the season finished with San Toy. Plans to perform in Launceston were abandoned due to an outbreak of small pox, and as a precaution the season in Hobart concluded after the second performance of San Toy. The members of the company were vaccinated before leaving for Victoria.
Ruby’s next performance was in Williamson’s Christmas Pantomime, The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast or Mother Goose and the Seven Champions which opened at Sydney’s Theatre Royal on Boxing Night 1903. Ruby made two appearances in the pantomime, firstly as one of the seven sisters of the Commonwealth and also as St. David of Wales, one of the seven champions of Christendom. The Adelaide Critic noted that the ladies displayed their magnificent proportions to great effect. Indeed the fine limbs of these bodies presented many a weary one from deeming the price of admission completely thrown away.7 The Pantomime finished on 29 January. See Aggie Thorn (Part 1) for program.
Also in January, Williamson staged a series of revivals of the most popular musical comedies, with the program starting on 30 January with the ever popular The Belle of New York at Sydney’s Theatre Royal. The cast was essentially new, including May Beatty, Elsie Moore, Minnie Hooper, Sara Hyman and Vinia de Loitte in the role of Fifi Fricot, which was her first stage appearance. Ruby was named in her well-versed role as Myrtle Mince.
Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 25 January 1904, p.2
The next revival was Florodora which opened on 13 February. Reviews of the show made special mention of the good work done by the English lady friends of Angela Gilfain, (which included Ruby as Mimie Rowe) and clerks in contributing to the success of the revival, noting in particular the piece, ‘Tell me pretty maiden’.8
In mid-May 1904 George Edwardes’ Gaiety Company commenced an 18-week season at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre, with later performances in Adelaide and Sydney. The season opened with Three Little Maids, and after a successful run of three weeks was replaced with The Girl from Kay’s, with Ruby cast as Rhonda Castaur, one of the bridesmaids. Kitty Grey was the third and final novelty of the Gaiety Season, opening on 25 June. In this piece Ruby played Florence a member of the Frivolity Theatre. It will be recalled that Clara Clifton as Mrs Bright (Brightie) made her first stage appearance in Australia in Kitty Grey.9
As part of their Gilbert and Sullivan season, Williamson’s Repertoire Company ran a revival of The Pirates of Penzance at Her Majesty’s Theatre Sydney on Saturday night, 28 January 1905. Most reviews noted that the trio of Vinia de Loitte (as Edith), Sara Hyman (as Kate) and Ruby (as Isabel) were well cast as the daughters of Major-General Stanley, although The Player magazine wrote that the three daughters did not reflect too much credit on him.10 As Isabel, Ruby had replaced Aggie Thorn who had been seconded to the Royal Comic Opera Company to play Yvonne in Paul Jones.11
A revival of Iolanthe followed at Her Majesty’s on 11 February. Other than Howard Vernon, Charles Kenningham and Frank Wilson who were members of the 1900 production, the principals were new. Ruby was cast as Celia, who together with Belle Gross and Sara Hyman had small parts as the three leading fairies.
The Pirate King (Frank Wilson), Frederick (Walter Whyte) and Ruth (Celia Ghiloni) in The Pirates of Penzance. From The Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Co. souvenir, 1905.
The Productive Years 1905–1910
By now Ruby had established herself as an accomplished performer and she joined Williamson’s Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Company 1905 tour of New Zealand. Her touring fellows included Dolly Castles, Celia Ghiloni, Vinia de Loitte, Aggie Thorn, Howard Vernon, Frank Wilson and Charles Kenningham. The tour was eagerly anticipated by theatregoers, their interest aroused by the theatre critic ‘Lorgnette’, who, writing for the New Zealand Mail said that Williamson’s Repertoire Company was the finest combination to visit New Zealand for some years.12
The season saw a repertoire of six Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and opened with Patience at the Wellington Opera House on 9 March. Ruby played the part of Lady Saphir, alongside Aggie Thorn as Lady Angela and Vinia de Loitte as Lady Ella, parts which they continued to perform throughout the tour. On their performance at Christchurch the Press newspaper wrote that these young ladies sang excellently in the concerted music, particularly in the sextette, ‘I Hear the Soft Note’, and the quintette, ‘I Shall Have to be Contented.’13
While on tour, Ruby played other minor roles, including Celia in Iolanthe and Isabel in The Pirates of Penzance. As Isabel the Wanganui reviewer commented that Ruby looked charming, acted well and sang sweetly.14
During the tour, members of Williamson’s company gave a concert in the social hall of the Wellington Men’s Club and Literary Institute in aid of the club’s hospital fund. Songs were contributed by Ruby, Blanche Farey, Vera Buttell and others.15
After their extended New Zealand tour, Williamson’s Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Company was back in Sydney for a three-week season at the Theatre Royal, opening on 24 June 1905 with The Yeomen of the Guard. The Gondoliers followed the next week with Dolly Castles as Gianetta, Aggie Thorn as Tessa, Vinia de Loitte as Casilda and Celia Ghiloni as the Duchess of Plaza-Torro. Ruby played Fiametta a leading Contadina.
The opening scene of the first act shows Fiametta, Vittoria, Giulia and the chorus of Contradine on the Venetian Piazetta, singing whilst collecting bunches of red and white roses to impress two Gondoliers, Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri who visit to choose brides from the group. The chorus sings ‘List and Learn ye Dainty Roses’ and Fiametta responds—
‘Two there are for whom, in duty,
Every maid in Venice sighs—
Two so peerless in their beauty
That they shame the summer skies.
We have hearts for them, in plenty,
We, alas are four and twenty!
They have hearts, but all too few,
They alas are only two!’
The singing, dancing and gaiety of the colourful opening scene, in which Ruby as Fiametta was front and centre, set the tone for what followed.
From Sydney the Company travelled to Brisbane for a hectic fourteen-night season at His Majesty’s Theatre with a new opera performed every second night, opening on 15 July with a revival of The Pirates of Penzance. Press reviews were particularly complimentary for the trio of Vinia de Loitte, Aggie Thorn and Ruby cast as the Major-General’s daughters—all these young actresses showed themselves clever and bright, wrote the Telegraph16 and the Courier commented, the three were worthy companions in artistic effort; have agreeable voices, sing tastefully, and they are refined and graceful in their acting.17
As Celia in the Brisbane season of Iolanthe, Ruby made the most of the small part and a review noted that the role gave the audience an opportunity of admiring the beautiful quality of her mezzo-soprano voice.18
As part of the review of the Brisbane season, the Brisbane Truth referred to Vinia de Loitte, Aggie Thorn and Ruby as ‘young artistes who each appear able to do perfect honour to themselves, and would not be misplaced even in a star part’.19 (This happened for Vinia and Aggie but not for Ruby.)
Left: The Pirates of Penzance, Melbourne, 12 August 1905. State Library Victoria, Melbourne. Left: The Sorcerer and Trial by Jury, Sydney, 18 November 1905. National Library of Australia, Canberra.
At the conclusion of the Brisbane season the Repertoire Company visited Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s for a three-week season. Typically, reviews carried scant comment on the performance of the ‘non-principal’ performers, although the Australasian review was most lyrical about the parts played by Ruby, Aggie and Vinia in The Pirates of Penzance, noting that they were a pleasing element in the operas general success, giving all the help which the brightness of girlish faces, the sweetness of girlish voices, and the suppleness of youthful figures can alone impart.20
After Melbourne, in late August, early September 1905, Ruby was at the Theatre Royal Adelaide for a revival of Pirates of Penzance, and received praise for excellent work. In Patience, Aggie Thorn, Vinia de Loitte and Ruby played their usual roles and were said to have exhibited much better voices than were usually heard in these parts.21
A sixteen night season at His Majesty’s Theatre Perth followed, and in October the company appeared in Kalgoorlie. In a review of the ‘Pirates’, Vinia, Aggie and Ruby were said to be ‘very acceptable’ as daughters of the Major-General and their singing, particularly in the trio in the first act, called for much applause.22
Punch (Melbourne), 17 August 1905, p.24
Mabel (Dolly Castles) and Frederick (Walter Whyte) in The Pirates of Penzance.
From The Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Co. souvenir, 1905.
Following the successful tour of Western Australia, Williamson’s Repertoire Opera Company returned to Sydney’s Criterion Theatre, and in a change from traditional offerings the company ran a double bill of two of the earliest Gilbert and Sullivan works, The Sorcerer and Trial by Jury, opening on 18 November, 1905. It had been many years since both pieces had played in Sydney, and given the lapse of years this was something novel for the majority of Sydney theatre goers, and the productions were also new for Ruby and gave her an opportunity to play roles, different to her regular ones—Mrs Partlet in The Sorcerer and the First Bridesmaid in Trial by Jury.
In brief, The Sorcerer opens with a group of people all in love with their respective partners. Alexis (Charles Kenningham) is betrothed to Aline (Dolly Castles) and wanting everyone to be as happy as he is, engages a Sorcerer (Howard Vernon) to give all of them a potion which on awaking they will fall in love with the first person they meet. Things go astray! When they awake they are attracted to the wrong person—Sir Marmaduke (Arthur Crane) who is about to marry Lady Sangazure (Celia Ghiloni) sets eyes on Mrs Partlet, a pew-opener at a village church. Mrs Partlet who idolises the Vicar, shifts her affections to the Notary. And so on.
Ruby, received favourable comments on her performance, and though looking rather young for the part of Mrs Partlet, wrote one critic, showed marked ability in the role. This was supported in another review—Ruby, ‘in black side curls and old fashioned black silk played creditably as a genteel and rather young Mrs Partlet’.23
The supporting show, Trial by Jury, is a farcical portrayal of a breach of promise trial between Edwin the defendant and Angelina the Plaintiff. While there is a chorus of bridesmaids there are only two ‘named’ actresses in this one act operetta—the plaintiff, dressed in bridal attire, and the First Bridesmaid, the role Ruby played in both Sydney and Melbourne. But the part was of no real consequence, and Ruby was merely another voice in the chorus of bridesmaids. Vinia de Loitte and Aggie Thorn alternated as the plaintiff.
The Sydney season also included Iolanthe (Ruby as Celia), Princess Ida (Ruby as Sacharissa, one of the three leading girl graduates), Patience (Ruby as Lady Saphir) and Pirates of Penzance (Ruby as Isabel).
Celia Ghiloni (Little Buttercup) and Frank Wilson (Captain Corcoran) in HMS Pinafore. From The Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Co. souvenir, 1905.
After an absence of some five years, HMS Pinafore played at the Princess Theatre Melbourne on 23 December as the Christmas attraction. There is no record of a ‘name’ part for Ruby, but she was, no doubt, part of the chorus of Sisters, Cousins and Aunts.
The following January the company produced a successful revival of The Gondoliers, with the cast said to be one of the best seen; the singing was good throughout and the acting much above the average.24 A particularly notable feature of the show, wrote The Australasian, was Ruby’s performance as Casilda (the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro), when substituting for Vinia de Loitte. The critic commented: ‘Miss Armfield surprised and charmed the audience with the sweetness of her voice’.25
The Melbourne Age critic agreed, noting that when management lost the services of Vinia de Loitte at late notice, ‘her place was filled with quite remarkable success in the circumstances by Ruby Armfield, who may be encouraged to follow so auspicious a start’. The review continued—‘the character of Casilda gave Miss Florence Young her first big “lift” fifteen years ago, and it may do as much for Miss Armfield.26
But typical of the industry, despite praise for her performance Ruby returned to the lesser role of Fiametta and subordinate roles in other pieces in the repertoire. A situation one of Ruby’s contemporaries commented on when she announced her retirement from the stage—‘I think the most heart-rendering part of a girl’s life on the stage is to be brought out of the chorus to play a part and then be put back again. Oh, its terrible!.’27
The rest of the repertoire followed, with The Sorcerer in which Ruby was said to be thoroughly satisfactory as Mrs Partlet, by the Age critic, Trial by Jury, Utopia Ltd which had its Australian premiere on 20 January, in which Ruby, as Melene, did well as one of the leading Utopian maidens and The Yeomen of the Guards, a production in which Ruby had little to do as Kate, but was a valuable assistance in the charming madrigal in the 2nd act.28
The brief Melbourne season closed with Patience and The Mikado. The press were generally pleased with the revival of the satirical opera, Patience: the Herald thought Ruby was piquant as Lady Saphir,29 and the Argus wrote that ‘Bunthorne’s clinging admirers were charming in persons of Misses De Loitte, Thorne [sic], and Armfield.’30
The following February the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company performed in Hobart and Launceston. While espousing the excellent work of Dolly Castles as Giametta and Aggie Thorn as Tessa in The Gondoliers, the Daily Telegraph critic wrote: by no means far behind—both from the histrionic and musical point of view were Vinia de Loitte as Casilda, Celia Ghiloni as the Duchess and Ruby Armfield as Fiametta.31
The Company then toured the provincial cities of Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and Albury and in the April a two night run in Newcastle with performances of Veronique, in which Ruby played Eliza one of five florists.
As soon as the Newcastle season finished, Williamson’s Comic Opera Company was in New Zealand for a three-month tour, performing their repertoire of Gilbert and Sullivan operas and Messager’s Veronique. The Company included Dolly Castles, Aggie Thorn, Vinia de Loitte, Celia Ghiloni, Frank Wilson, Charles Kenningham and Ruby.
As in Australia, Ruby played her regular minor roles, including Fiametta in The Gondoliers, Sacharissa in Princess Ida, Melene in Utopia Limited, the First Bridesmaid in Trial by Jury and Eliza in Veronique. In her role in The Gondoliers, staged at His Majesty’s Theatre Dunedin, Ruby was praised in reviews for her admirable singing of Fiametta’s solo in the splendid opening by the chorus.32
To be continued
Endnotes
1. Egbert T. Russell, ‘The Ladies of the Chorus’, Lone Hand, 1 July 1909. See also Florence Young, ‘The Australian Chorus Girl’, Lone Hand, June 1908.
2. Wodonga and Towong Sentinel, 6 September 1885, p.3. See also The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 20 November 1886, p.24.
3. The West Australian (Perth), 23 May 1902, p.9
4. Kalgoorlie Miner, 26 May 1902, p.7
5. The Brisbane Courier, 28 July 1902, p.9
6. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 11 August 1902, p.3
7. Critic (Adelaide), 20 January 1904, p.10
8. Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1904, p.4
9. See Bob Ferris, Clara Clifton: From England’s provincial theatres to the Australian stage (Part 1), On Stage, 1 September 2022
10. The Players (Sydney), 15 February 1905, p.13
11. Sunday Times (Sydney), 29 January 1905, p.2
12. New Zealand Mail, 15 March 1905, p.28
13. Press (Christchurch), 15 May 1905, p.7
14. Wanganui Herald, 11 April 1905, p.7
15. Evening Post, 27 March 1905, p.5
16. The Telegraph (Brisbane), 18 July 1905, p.7
17. The Brisbane Courier, 18 July 1905, p.5
18. The Brisbane Courier, 29 July, 1905, p.5
19. Truth (Brisbane), 23 July 1905, p.8
20. The Australasian (Melbourne), 19 August 1905, p. 26
21. The Register (Adelaide), 8 September 1905, p.8
22. Kalgoorlie Miner, 17 October 1905, p.8
23. Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November 1905, p.5
24. Table Talk, 4 January 1906, p.16
25. The Australasian (Melbourne), 6 January 1906, p.26
26. The Age (Melbourne), 4 January 1906, p.4
27. Gadfly (Adelaide), 21 November 1906, p.18. Aggie Thorn’s interview which announced her decision to leave the stage.
28. Leader (Melbourne), 27 January 1906, p.21
29. Herald (Melbourne) 12 February 1906, p.3
30. The Argus, 12 February 1906, p.7
31. Daily Telegraph (Launceston), 21 February 1906, p.8
32. Evening Star, 12 July 1906, p.6
References
The Gilbert and Sullivan Repertoire Co., Syd Day, Melbourne, [1905]
Revusical Ballets & Chorus, Australian Variety Theatre Archive Popular Culture Entertainment: 1859-1930, https://ozvta.com/revusical-ballets-chorus/
Vinia de Loitte, Gilbert & Sullivan Opera in Australia 1879–1933, Ninth Edition
Papers Past
Trove
