‘I essentially belong to the people: I am of the people, for the people’.
Kate Howarde—Warwick Argus, 9 June 1896
Kate Howarde—Australian Women’s Mirror, 15 January 1929
News of the death of veteran actress, playwright and producer Catherine Clarissa Jones—known internationally as Kate Howarde—was reported widely across Australian and New Zealand. She died from cerebral thrombosis on Saturday 18 February 1939 at the home of her only daughter, Lesley Adrienne (Mrs Rodway Gainford)1 in Kensington, Sydney.
Kate Howarde had been a leading personality in the entertainment industry for over fifty years but was respected particularly in the bush where her penchant for touring country centres—what she referred to as ‘bushwacking’—made her a household name. Her greatest ambition, however, was to lift the Australian theatre to the top of the theatrical world.
Kate’s age was given as 70, but in reality, she was 75 having turned back the clock five years when she crossed the Tasman from New Zealand to Australia in 1886.
Her funeral service was held at Kinsella’s Chapel at Taylor Square, Sydney, and she was buried at the Church of England Cemetery at Randwick. The chief mourners were her family: her son-in-law and daughter; her brothers Louis (Lou) and Albert (Bert) Howarde; her niece Poppy Howarde; and, an indicator of her enduring legacy, Frank Tait represented J.C. Williamson Ltd.
Early Life and Marriage
Kate Howarde was born Catherine Clarissa Jones in Greenwich, England on 28 July 1864, to parents Edward George Jones (labourer) and Harriet Hannah [Anna] (née Payne), four years into their marriage. By the birth of their second daughter Isabel Jessie (April 1867), the family had moved to the picturesque village of Steyning, in the Horsham district of West Sussex, where Edward is listed as ‘innkeeper’. A third daughter, Minnie Evelyn, arrived three years later (January 1870).
Following Edward’s death in September 1873, Harriet appears to have remarried a ‘Mr Howarde’, and the reconstituted family immigrated at some time during the subsequent five years to New Zealand, where they settled in Wellington. Harriet Jones and Howarde’s first son Albert (Bert) Llewellyn Howarde was born in 1877; another son, Louis (Lou) Lloyd Howarde, arrived the following year.
Little is known of Catherine’s childhood and education, apart from her own recollection that she had early aspirations to be a writer, and that her first short prose fiction was published in the Wellington Dominion Post when she was only nine years old. All five children, however, developed an aptitude for performance.
While still in their teens, Catherine and Isabel were offered contracts with the newly established Frank M. Wilmott Combination. Adopting their step-father’s surnamed they were billed as Kate Howarde (just turned 18) and Jessie Howarde (16), and the siblings made their professional debut on 7 December 1882 at the Public Hall in Greymouth (on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island), and over the following 18 months performed in a repertoire that ranged across burlesque, melodrama and Shakespeare (including Lost in London, Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, London Assurance, The Nymph of the Lurleyburg and Hamlet (the sisters played Rosencrantz and Guildenstern opposite Louise Crawford as Hamlet)). Kate and Jessie toured provincial New Zealand with Frank Wilmott until September 1883, at which time they joined the Comedy Company on a short regional tour of the South Island. They were in the company of seasoned professionals Mrs Brandon and Messrs C. Hall, McAlexander, Maurice and J. Marter. By late October the sisters’ reputation had enhanced sufficiently to be listed amongst the ‘9 Star Artists’ in Fisher & Perrin’s Great American and Australian Combination Company. Kate was billed as ‘The Charming Actress Jessie’, ‘The Premier Danseuse and Vocalist’. The Wanganui Chronicle (25 October 1883) observed that ‘the Misses Jessie and Kate Howard [sic] were as bright and sparkling in music and dance as could be wished’.
Their musical director is listed a ‘W. Cowan’. William Henry Cowan was the stage name of Australian musician William Henry de Saxe, born 10 October 1859 in Melbourne. He was the third of eight children to well-known Sandhurst dentist George de Saxe and wife Mary Anna (née Fox). Cowan arrived in New Zealand in August 1882 (aged 22), and had been working as a freelance pianist prior to accepting the contract with Fisher & Perrin.
In March 1884, Fisher & Perrin joined with the American sharpshooter Professor W. Payne under the banner of the Unique Speciality Company. Kate ‘the favourite contralto’, Jessie ‘the inimitable song and dance artiste’, as well as ‘the talented instrumentalist’ William Cowan, remained with the combination. Cowan, in addition to his responsibilities as musical director, assumed the role of Payne’s Business Manager.
During the tour, after what appeared to be a whirlwind romance, Kate Howarde and William de Saxe [Cowan] married in the Christchurch Registrar’s Office on 28 April 1884. Eight months later, on 5 December, their daughter Florence Adrienne (named for William’s sister) de Saxe was born.
While Jessie continued to tour with the Fisher Comedy and Burlesque Company for the remainder of the year, Kate and William established their own touring company—Howarde’s Comedy and Burlesque Company. When they gave their inaugural performance at the Oddfellows’ Hall, Akaroa, on 12 February 1885 (The Young Widow and the burlesque of Byron’s Aladdin) both Jessie and their younger sister Minnie were included in the cast list.
‘We need hardly say’, wrote The Akaroa Mail (13 February 1885), ‘that the Misses Howarde’s merry little troupe met with a real hearty welcome, and the curtain fell to prolonged applause’. Founded on Facts, The Little Sentinel, The Limerick Boy, The Happy Fair and the musical bureletta The Waterman were subsequent additions to the repertoire. Over the remainder of the year, they progressed north, to conclude a season at the Theatre Royal in Auckland at Christmas.
In October, however, Jessie made the decision to move to Australia. She quickly found work as a member of the Olympic Burlesque Company in Melbourne.
Move to Australia (1886)
Kate and William, with their daughter, followed suit and they too crossed the Tasman and arrived in Sydney on 30 March 1886.
The couple made their Australia debut with Bella Sutherland’s Vital Spark Combination at the Olympic Theatre (York Street, Sydney). Kate impressed in a range of new roles across the repertoire: Wilhemenia (The Rival Lovers), Julian (Turn Him Out), Ko Ket (The Happy Man) and the eponymous role in Fra Diavolo. She developed a reputation as an adept male impersonator. Kate then appeared with the Cunard & Pollock management, before making her first NSW regional tour with Clara Stephenson’s Company (launching in the role of Skeromene in The Great Pink Pearl).
Jessie Howarde, meanwhile, was engaged by MacMahon & Leitch for their tour of The Silver King and Lights o’ London. During the season at the Theatre Royal in Brisbane she married fellow cast member Robert Alexander Lett-Vernon (1852–1983) (known professionally as Robert Vernon).2
Kate and William, meanwhile, built on their repertoire when offered roles in the Hayman & Knight Dramatic Company’s production of Crime; or, Life in Two Hemispheres touring the Riverina area of NSW. While the enterprising Cowan took on an acting role, he was also soon credited as Hayman’s Business Manager. By November, it was Hayman & Cowan who launched a tour of regional Victoria, providing Kate with her breakout role as Lizzie Stofel (the role made famous by Maggie Moore, playing opposite her husband J.C. Williamson) in Struck Oil; or, the Pennsylvanian Dutchman that opened at the Mechanics’ Institute, Mount Alexander on 9 November. ‘Miss Kate Howarde as Lizzie Stofel’, the Portland Guardian (7 January 1887) wrote, well into the season,
was very successful in her part. She played with all the verve required in the character, and whether as the quaint little Dutch maiden with her mischievous ways and broken English speech, or in supposed later years the cultured and refined lady was equally charming. Her singing also was good and gave additional spirit to the piece.
Concurrently, Robert Vernon was manager of The Silver King Company on its tour through New Zealand; his wife Jessie Howarde, as well as her 16-year-old sister Minnie Howarde, were members of the company. They were resident at Abbott’s Opera House, Auckland, throughout January 1887.
Kate Howarde was twenty-three at this time, but on arrival in Australian she inexplicably reduced her age by five years and presented herself as a precocious ingénue of eighteen! She maintained the ruse for the rest of her life.
By July of 1887, the Cowans confidently launched their own enterprise, W.H. Cowan’s Grand Provincial Comedy & Burlesque Company, with Kate Howarde as the leading player, and began a major six-month tour of the New England and Northern Rivers regions of New South Wales. Their progress continued into 1888 to include the Darling Downs and North Queensland.
Touring a company of twelve actors (as well as a properties man and a scenic artist), Cowan’s company built an extensive repertoire while travelling: Current Cash, True to the Last, Our Boys, The Miner’s Daughter, Mad Marriage, East Lynne, Written in Sand, The Road to Ruin, His Natural Life and The Rough Diamond, as well as Dion Boucicault’s The Shaughraun, Arrah-Na-Pogue; or, the Wicklow Wedding and The Colleen Bawn.
A most remarkable season emerged, however, when Cowan’s Dramatic Company presented their new production of Waldauer’s domestic drama Fanchon, the Cricket during their Northern Rivers circuit in August 1888: Cowan produced (and played Didier), with the remainder of the cast featuring Kate Howarde (Mother Barbiaud), Minnie Howarde (Madeline), Robert Vernon (Father Barbiaud) and Jessie [Howarde] Vernon in the eponymous role.
Kate made her marquee metropolitan debut in Brisbane in February 1890. The W.H. Cowan Dramatic Company played for two weeks at the Gaiety Theatre (situated between Edward and Albert Street). Kate headlined in Struck Oil, The Colleen Bawn and The Miner’s Daughter. Despite the wet weather, the audiences were large and the performances were received ‘with a good deal of favour’.
English born theatre manager and playwright, S.F. Travers Vale (1865–1927) had made a name for himself in Australia with the stage adaptation of Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1888). On the tail of this success, he established his own theatre group—The Travers Vale Dramatic Company—and took the lease on the Theatre Royal, Adelaide in 1889. In 1890, he planned an extensive tour of New Zealand and offered both Kate and William contracts. With rumours of an impending financial crisis, they accepted, believing no doubt it prudent to be working for someone and not risking their own money at this time. Apart from anything, it was a chance for Kate to go home and see her mother and two young half-brothers.
Arriving in Auckland by the SS Wairarapa, the Travers Vale Dramatic Company opened at Her Majesty’s Opera House with the ‘sensational drama’ The Cannon’s Mouth—another original work by Travers Vale—on 9 August. The play had proved
a great success wherever played, and staged ... with fine mechanical effects, picturesque Egyptian and Irish scenery, and magnificent costumes, it alone should ensure the Company crowded houses during the season. The pyrotechnic and lime light effects are said to be admirable.—Auckland Star, 29 July 1890
The season also featured Golden Hearts (yet another original work by Vale), Strolling Players, Under the British Flag, Spider’s Web, the sporting drama The Flying Scud (Boucicault) and the military spectacular Current Cash. Notwithstanding that the Company was ‘everywhere spoken of in terms of the highest praise’, by late August the tour floundered leaving many of the cast, including Kate and William, stranded.
S.F. Travers Vale—Lorgnette (left), and Auckland Opera House—Auckland Museum (right)
Availing themselves of an opportunity, the Cowan’s partnered with the Arthur Vivian Company—who had been touring New Zealand since April—and took the lease on the available dates at the Opera House to present two performances (2–3 September) of Boucicault’s After Dark!, and ‘an amusing concert’ in which ‘Miss Kate Howarde appears in her serio-comic act’ and ‘Arthur Vivian in his famed specialities’.
After a week there were also ‘energetic’ arrangements in progress for a benefit concert specifically for Kate Howarde. Accordingly, Written in Sand was presented at the City Hall (16 September). During the evening, Kate gave a curtain speech where she told the following story:
I was once playing at a place called Toowoomba ... and the piece was Written in Sand, the same as we played here the other night. Well, in my lines occurs the sentence, ‘My fortune’s my tongue and he shall have it’ ‘God help him, then’, exclaimed an old fellow away in the back, and you can believe me when I say the people laughed, and I guess I laughed a bit too.—Auckland Star, 20 September 1890
William then managed to secure a role with the Baby Ogden Dramatic Company in the ‘realistic and moral drama’ Lost and Won for its season in Wanganui. Kate was added to the playbill some weeks later for Snow Vision—by local Wanganui playwright Miss E. Montgomery.
On 23 October, the Wanganui Herald announced that
an entirely new departure in catering for public amusement has been made by the Cowan Comedy and Burlesque Company [made up of ‘16 Metropolitan Artists’], who have just completed arrangements for a tour with an original musical comedy entitled Zig-Zag. … The Company is complete in every particular and includes that excellent burlesque artiste and comedienne, Miss Kate Howarde, also Mr W.H. Cowan, the popular Australian comedian, besides other versatile and efficient members.
The repertoire included a number of new pieces: the burlesque extravaganza of Monte Christo, Camaralzaman, The Colonel and Robert Macaire. They launched the season at Waverley on Saturday 25 October, and then journeyed by train to Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Stratford, Inglewood and Blenheim before Marlborough and Wellington (at the Exchange Hall) on 16 December. The Herald reported ‘a thoroughly successful and lucrative tour’.
Money, however, still appeared to be an issue: on departure from Wellington, Samuel Parkes, licensee of the Oriental Hotel applied to the magistrate for an immediate judgement against Cowan on the grounds ‘that the defendant was about to leave for Greymouth [without payment] of £8 alleged to be owing for the board and lodging of four members of the company. The defendant did not answer his summons, and judgment accordingly went against him by default, together with 11s costs’. (Evening Post, 16 December 1890)
The company’s final performances for the year were given at Ewart’s Hall in Marlborough, with three nights of Hugh Conway’s Called Back, opening on Boxing Night.
William then found work with the Collett Dobson–J.J. Kennedy combination with roles in both Watts Phillips’ Lost in London and BB; or, the Benicia Boy, playing from 5 January 1891; they progressed to Reefton, at which time William was cast in The Shanghraun and The Colleen Bawn, but it was playing Melter Moss in Tom Taylor’s The Ticket of Leave Man that provided ‘the opportunity to shew himself in an entirely new light to any of his previous performances, and his representation of the rascally old Jew was a grand piece of acting’. (Inagnahua Times, 14 January 1891)
As there was no offer forthcoming for Kate, she returned to Australia and was back on stage in Sydney on 2 March at ‘the cosy little Gaiety Theatre’, part of the extensive line up for a farewell benefit to Harry Rickards (who had been playing at intervals for the past three years with his popular company). She was also available to attend her younger sister Minnie’s wedding.
Minnie’s career was progressing apace: she had just turned twenty when she was offered an eight-week season with the Australian Dramatic Company resident at the Haymarket Theatre, but her breakout opportunity came when she accepted a two-month engagement with the Brough-Boucicault Comedy Company at the Criterion Theatre (Sydney), playing Johnson in A Fool’s Paradise. Also in the cast was a young actor Robert F. Henry (the stage name of Glebe-born Robert Henry Nichols). He was six years older than Minnie, and the actors married in early 1891.3
Meanwhile, the law in New Zealand caught up with William Cowan and the court ordered him to pay the total sum of £9 for the board and lodging owed to the Oriental Hotel; he offered to pay 10s a week, but this offer was declined by the plaintiff. His Worship ordered the defendant to pay £4 10s by 11 May, and the balance a month later, in default a week’s imprisonment. (New Zealand Times, 4 May 1891)
Soon after he settled his account, Cowan returned to Sydney to reunite with his wife and daughter and, by July, the Cowan Comedy Company had reconstituted and performed in a season of The Colonel and Barbara at the Nowra Public Hall in the Shoalhaven region on the south coast of New South Wales (opening on 16 July). They then progressed to their old stomping ground in the Northern Rivers.
Back in Sydney by October, the couple made their first appearance at the new Bondi Aquarium Pleasure Grounds in The Colonel. On 7 November, they gave a special presentation of the same play to inmates and staff at the Hospital for the Insane, Parramatta. They concluded the year in the Southern Highlands, before spending the first quarter of 1892 touring the Riverina and regional centres in northern Victoria. Neither William nor Kate were conscious that this would be the final independent season of the WH Cowan Comedy & Musical Combination. Circumstances began to conspire against the longstanding professional and personal relationship of seven years.
Bondi Aquarium and Pleasure Grounds (opened in 1887) (aka Wonderland City after 1906), 1891—Bondi banter
While Kate undertook a three-month contract to tour towns in western NSW and the Riverina with the Berkeley-Barrett Dramatic Company, William accepted an invitation by his brother-in-law to join the Vernon Dramatic Company for a November season of The Stolen Goddess at the Alexandra Theatre (Melbourne). Kate joined the combined Vernon & Cowan Dramatic Company as their marquee name when they progressed through regional Victoria, the Riverina to Penola, and Mount Gambier in South Australia until March 1893. Kate added Hook and Eye, The Windsor Murder, La Cigale and East Lynne to her repertoire.
Unfortunately, the bank collapse, and subsequent national financial crisis, forced the Company to close. Kate found short term work with Alf Hazlewood’s Burlesque Company in residence at the Royal Standard Theatre (Sydney) but then secured a longer engagement with the Princess Theatre Opera Company, who offered seasons at the both the Gaiety Theatre (Sydney) and a regional NSW tour; through July and August Kate played in Faust, Maritana and The Grand Duchess.
Cowan, meanwhile, was amongst the cast of fourteen that made up J.S. Lyle’s Dramatic Company when they opened the ‘entirely new and sensational drama’ Bail Up—especially written for Mrs Keightley—at the Royal Princess Theatre in Bendigo on 8 August. As the detective Tom Middleton, Cowan was highly praised for his ‘meritorious performance’. (Bendigo Advertiser, 8 August 1893). The domestic drama Living or Dead played in the program change. Lyle also provided Cowan with the title role of the Rev. Mr Spalding in the comedy The Private Secretary that premiered on 10 August (in which he was seen ‘to excel’ (Bendigo Advertiser, 11 August 1893). The Company toured through the Victorian provinces for the remainder of the month.
By late September, Cowan returned to the ‘well-organised’ Collett-Dobson Company when they performed Snared; or, a Woman’s Devotion at the Kadina Town Hall in South Australia.
As Horatio Spifkins, a London sharper, Mr Cowan was in his element. With a mincing gait and the display of great courage when all danger was over … and irresistibly comical facial expression, Spifkins had the whole house in laughter, particularly in those scenes where he makes love to Norah and she repels him with Hibernian vigour. (The Kadina and Wallaroo Times, 23 September 1893)
The Company toured provincial South Australia throughout October, Cowan adding Father Dolan, in The Shaughraun, to his expanding portfolio. He also provided his services as Business Manager.
The family were shocked and saddened by the premature death of Robert Vernon on 23 October, leaving Jessie a widow with a six-year-old child.
Kate Howarde ‘the prettiest girl in the Alhamabra Company’—Observer, 24 February 1894
Actress Jessie Howarde [Mrs William Freeman Nott, marrried 1895]—Genealogy.com
In November 1893 it was announced that Kate Howarde had joined the Collett-Dobson Dramatic Company when they inaugurated their season of comedy and drama at the Bijou Theatre in Adelaide; they opened with Dion Boucicault’s ‘favourite comedy-drama’ The Shaughraun. ‘Great preparations have been made for the first appearance of the Company … and the piece will be produced with new and appropriate scenery, original songs and dances being introduced into the well known wake scene’. J.P. O’Neill was cast as Conn, the Shaughraun, Irene Thornton as Moya Dolan and Kate Howarde as Arte O’Neale, with other members of the troupe including Cowan, C. Mead and L. Parker with Dora Moulden and May Hesford. The change of program introduced Pettitt and Conquest’s Queen’s Evidence; Howarde ‘was bright and acceptable as Laura Sydney’. The repertoire for the remainder of the year included The Colleen Bawn, Pygmalion and Galatea, The Silence of Dean Maitland and The Lady of Lyons.
From Adelaide, the Collett-Dobson Dramatic Company crossed back into NSW and played a short season at the Theatre Royal in Broken Hill (from 27 November), in residence until 15 December, when they farewelled the city with the first production of The Sea of Ice.
Cowan continued acting as Business Manager for Collett-Dobson’s Grand Dramatic Company into 1894 when they progressed through western NSW circling back to Sydney. They played in Dubbo on 12 and 13 February, giving Our Boys.
Kate, meanwhile, made the crossing back to New Zealand in mid-February as part of Frank M. Clark’s Alhambra Company—a combination of variety and minstrel talent. The Company opened at the Opera House in Auckland, then toured the North Island until May. For the remainder of the year, her name does not appear in any theatre listings in Australia nor New Zealand. According to an article Kate gave to The Adelaide Advertiser (24 October 1899) she spent six months travelling in South Africa, India and the northern colonies. Whatever the case, it appeared that both Kate and William’s professional relationship, as well as their marriage, was over; for the remainder of their careers, the couple were estranged.
In September 1894, Cowan was at the Alexandra Theatre in Melbourne working with the Inigo Tyrrell Company (in The Life We Live and The Czar’s Decree). Meanwhile, Kate resurfaced in February 1895 when it was announced that Messrs Gilbert J. Smith and J.A. Carroll were organising a company to be called The Princess Comic Opera Company for a four month tour to visit the north coast and New England regions of NSW; they had made arrangements with Williamson and Musgrove to produce their operas and would also present the Living Pictures [tableau vivant]. Kate was invited to join an excellent cast comprising Percy Channon, Kate Freeman, Mary Cullen, Blanch Leslie, Percy Stewart, James Royal and the young baritone Harry Craig (1864–1945).
Meeting Craig came at a turning point in Kate’s life and their meeting was crucial to her entrepreneurial career; they were the same age (notionally) and complemented each other; the introduction developed into a long and fruitful professional collaboration. Craig arrived in Australia courtesy of Martin Simonsen’s Royal Italian Opera Company in 1888; he gave numerous leading performances at the Opera Houses in Sydney and Brisbane; and was a member of the Montague Turner Opera Company. His most recent engagements included regular concerts at the Coogee Palace Aquarium. The Comic Opera repertoire included The Jolly Dutchman, The Mikado—Kate played Katisha—Boccaccio, La Mascotte and a further seven operas.
During the year, the Howarde family celebrated the news of Jessie’s second marriage to Melbourne banker William Freeman Nott (1884–1921).
The Criterion Comedy Burlesque Company (Sole Management)
In the second half of 1895, Kate went into business with the well-known actor-manager Irve Hayman, assuming for the first time the title as co-manager of the Criterion Comedy Burlesque Company. They launched a south coast tour with the burlesque opera Little Jack Sheppard at the Wollongong Town Hall on 17 June. The season not only reunited Kate with her sister Minnie Howarde, but also an introduction to Bert Bailey (1868–1953), ‘one of the best comic singers ever heard in Wollongong ... his facial contortions convulsed all present’. Kate also invited Harry Craig to join the combination. After the Ball and Written in Sand were added to the program in Yass, as was Aladdin, the Wonderful Scamp (with Bailey giving his Widow Twankey, and ‘brought down the house’).
Bailey recalled his time with Kate Howarde in an interview he gave to Melbourne Punch (12 June 1913):
… [Bailey] came back to Sydney and joined Kate Howarde in a weird tour of the back-blocks. It was a burlesque company, and Bailey was ‘the star’. He had a big reputation in the bush, and his name was the head-line on all the bills. He played Jonathan Wild in Jack Sheppard, and lead in all the old stock of H.J. Byron burlesques. ‘The travelling record of the company would make the hair of a modern manager stand on end’. Away in the back country they did every town in NSW and Queensland as far north as Croydon. One coach trip was 1800 miles long. They started out from Bourke and coached it up to Hughenden—playing in every hamlet en route. ‘Kate Howarde was a clever woman, and ridiculous though it sounds, she made money out of that tour, and made a lot of it’.
Indeed, Kate had taken sole management of The Criterion Burlesque Company following the Bourke season. Kate wrote to the Sydney Truth (published 12 April 1896):
Our old company has just finished a highly successful season at Normanton and Croydon (goldfields). We have played eight nights on [Thursday] Island, and are now just leaving by the SS Quirang for Cooktown, then on to Charters Towers, Rockhampton, Brisbane; thence overland for Sydney. We’ve done a big trip—been constantly going since 14 June 1895 playing NSW interior—then Queensland ditto. We’re all longing for a peep at home and ‘our beautiful’. … The company is almost the same as left Sydney, including as it does. Harry Craig, Bert Bailey, Fred Davies, Harry Douglas and Ada June, Alice Bertram, Blanche Young , Lillian Devere and self.
Bert Bailey—Punch, 7 July 1898 [AI enhanced]The Company presented Little Fra Diavolo, with A Morning’s Surprise, for a week at the Theatre Royal in Rockhampton (from 29 March). The orchestra was led by Harold Douglas. Sinbad, the Sailor!, Little Jack Sheppard, Robert Macaire, Cinder-Ellen and Aladdin, the Wonderful Scamp! and Arthur Shirley’s greatest comedy The New Woman! extended the season in the north until 2 May.
For perseverance pluck and sterling ability. It would be hard to beat Miss Kate Howarde manageress of the clever Criterion Burlesque Company. After a successful Sydney season. The company started south last June and beginning at Pambula worked back way up to Bourke then through Queensland and right onto Thursday Island. There they astonished the Navy by their clever performances and left on the third instant of April for Sydney. We are glad to hear the trip was a big success in every way and Miss Howarde managed to turn up trumps at this her first essay at management. All the company are in the best of buckle and in all probability the adventurous next date will be to the North Pole. She believes in seeing life and a few thousand miles are nothing now to her either one way or the other.—Truth (Sydney) 12 April 1896
Irve Hayman rejoined the Comedy and Burlesque Company for their three-night season at the Royal Assembly Rooms in Toowoomba on 6 May, leading a tour of towns on the Darling Downs.
Bert Bailey no doubt recalled his experience here as his first encounter with the world created so vividly in the short fiction of Dayton journalist Arthur Hoey Davis (1868–1935) who, as ‘Steele Rudd’, had only recently (14 December 1895) published his first rural sketch, ‘Starting the Selection’, in The Bulletin.
The Company, strengthened and enlarged, opened a Brisbane season at the Opera House on 23 May with Little Bob Macaire; Harry Craig took over as Business Manager at this time. Kate Howarde was advertised as ‘the charming and vivacious Burlesque actress, pre-eminently Australia’s First and Greatest Artiste, who will, for the first time in Brisbane enact her triumph of triumphs’, Little Bob. She shared the banner credits with the ‘clever Young Australian Comedian’ Bert Bailey, who made his Brisbane debut as Jaques Strop. They introduced Fra Diavolo on 27 May, and played for three performances before moving to the Town Hall in Maryborough (from Monday 1 June), then Bundaberg and back to the Darling Downs, presenting After the Ball, Little Jack Shepherd and The New Woman.
In Warwick, Kate gave a rare interview to a Brisbane reporter: ‘Presenting his card, Mr Lucas was ushered into the luxurious apartment [at the Gresham Hotel] ... and found the charming actress comfortably seated, surrounded by her pets—Fion, the Newfoundland, and Gipset, the retriever. Rising with that charm, which is so characteristic of her, and extending a delicately shaped hand, Mr Lucas at once felt at home and plunged into the interviewer’s business’. He began by asking her about a proposed tour to India:
HOWARDE. Yes, Mr Lucas. Such tempting offers have been held out to me that, much as I regret leaving my native land, I feel it would be ungrateful indeed to refuse. But I trust to be back in six months—back amongst those I so dearly love, who have shown so much kindness and consideration.
LUCAS. But there are other ties naturally dearer than those of the public?
HOWARDE. No. I essentially belong to the people: I am of the people, for the people.
LUCAS. And about your northern trip—successful, I hope?
HOWARDE. Success, success all along the line—Charters Towers packed every night, Croydon phenomenal business, and Townsville and Rockhampton money was turned away from the door; and so right on to Brisbane.
LUCAS. Then you have hit the popular taste with burlesque?
HOWARDE. Yes, most certainly. In these hurried times with the keenness of business, the people need recreation—something to divert their thoughts and brighten up life. The dreary drama does not do this. Burlesque, which is essentially comic opera, does. Bright music, serio-comic and comic songs, the very latest dances, together with a plot worked out from beginning to end. And then, the dresses. The public can always appreciate rich dresses—silks, satins, sparkling ornaments, and –
LUCAS. Excuse me, but might I suggest—and the show off of fine figures?
HOWARDE. I did not say that; but you as a man of the world know the public taste. We as artists cater for the public, and after all what is their objection in seeing a well-shaped woman in male attire? But we leave that to the public; it is sufficient that burlesque spells ‘money.’ Of course, I do not claim all the credit of our success. My company, of which I am justly proud, I can say, without egotism, includes the greatest burlesque artists south of the line. Mr Bert Bailey, recognised by his fellow professional as Australia’s greatest comedian, has certainly fallen into his happiest lines in burlesque, and in him Australia can claim to have filled the blank caused by the death of Mr Fred Leslie.
LUCAS. Excuse me, but is it a fact that Mr Bailey was educated for the Bar?
HOWARDE. Oh, yes, quite correct; and I may say the Stage gathers its male ornaments from the lions of the law. Then there is Mr Harry Craig, our baritone singer, who travelled many miles with poor Charlie Turner. Yes, we owe something of our success to Mr Craig’s magnificent voice, and we are strengthened by Mr Davies, Mr Ponsonby, &c.
LUCAS. And your ladies? I cannot help noticing that you mention the male members of your company first; no jealousy?
HOWARDE. No indeed, no jealousy with me. I am proud to have on my right and left such capable and distinguished artists as Misses Ada Juneen, Julianne Bertram and Blanche Young. ... The other members of my company are all good workers; but I should like to mention especially Mr Flohm, the leader of our orchestra.
LUCAS. And from your extensive repertoire, which of your pieces claim most money?
HOWARDE. I think the honours are equally divided between Little Jack Shepherd and The New Woman. And –
… But ding, ding, ding, dong of the great dinner gong at the Gresham gave out its sonorous tones, cutting short one of the pleasantest interviews, with certainly the most charming, graceful and sweetest burlesque artist of Australia—the dainty little business manager of the Criterion Burlesque Company.—Warwick Argus, 9 June 1896
For the next week the Company progressed through Warwick, Gympie and Tenterfield, arriving in Armidale for performances on 19 and 20 June at the New Town Hall.
It was also reported in the Armidale Chronicle (17 June 1896) that Kate and her company, after dates in Sydney, intended to leave for India for a season. Instead, however, The Criterion Burlesque Company—with the addition of Dorothy L’Estrange to the line up—went west, and played Sinbad the Sailor at the Academy of Music in Hay on Tuesday 21 July. Kate’s eighteen-year-old half-brother A.L. (Lou) Howarde joined the Company at this time, as Advance Agent; Harry Craig remained her Business Manager. The troupe were active in the Riverina District for the next two months.
The Criterion Burlesque Company (again under the sole management of Kate Howarde) then made a tour of the South Coast of NSW, appearing at the School of Arts, Nowra on 8 October reprising Sinbad the Sailor. By 10 November they were in Wagga Wagga at Oddfellows’ Hall for three nights, adding La Mascotte, Queen’s Evidence and The Miner’s Daughter to the program. By December they were back in the Hunter region, playing in Muswellbrook and Singleton, but then turned westward for the holiday season to open at the School of Arts in Bathurst on Boxing Night with Queen’s Evidence. ‘The performance was exceptionally good for a provincial Company’, wrote the National Advocate (28 December 1896),
the various players acting with a smoothness and brightness seldom seen out of the metropolis. The evenness of the organisation is its best feature: every man and woman is well capable of his or her part and there are no stop-gaps to spoil the efforts of the principals. The scenery and setting generally was remarkably good.
The paper also noted that ‘when Miss Howarde came before the curtain to make a managerial notification, her speech was charming, better than most men would have made’.
Kate’s other half-brother Albert (Bert) Howarde, just turned nineteen, joined the company at this time as both actor and scene painter; Lou Howarde continued to act as the Company’s representative.
In the final years of the century, Kate consolidated her ‘bushwacking’ touring circuit in the various regions in NSW: the West (as far as Bourke and Broken Hill); the Riverina (and regional Victoria on the Murray); the New England and Northern Rivers; the north and south coasts of NSW; as well as centres (such as Parramatta and Windsor) on the outskirts of Sydney. The Darling Downs and the far north Coast of Queensland were regular excursions from Brisbane. Kate also began regular tours to regional Tasmania and Hobart. These destinations accessed by steamship, mail train, only occasionally by coach. The size of her various combinations ranged between 8 and 20 cast members (as well as the inclusion of a scenic artist, mechanist and musical director) and up to seven tons of scenery and properties.
In order to adequately serve her expanding audience on a regular basis, Kate also began to expand the scope of her entertainments. She built the Kate Howarde Burlesque Company in February 1897 with much the same personnel (although Bert Bailey left to reconnect with former colleague Edmund Duggan—joining Her Majesty’s Dramatic Company—and was replaced by John F. Ellis). By the end of the year, another combination, the Kate Howarde Pantomime Company were resident at the Gaiety Theatre in Brisbane, opening on Boxing Night with Sinbad the Sailor (with up to date scenery by Elliott Johnston). Kate gave her Sinbad, with Harry Craig as the chief comedian; Stella Tracey and Jim Bain had joined the Company. Kate was given a grand complimentary testimonial benefit after the final Aladdin, the Wonderful Scamp performance that closed the season on 5 February. She was acknowledged as ‘Australia’s Youngest Manageress’ and Brisbane Alderman H.J. Nicol Robinson delivered a beautiful illuminated address and gift.
Kate Howarde—Queenslander, 29 January 1898
The Kate Howarde Comic Opera Company (1898)
In a brazen move, Kate then established a new opera company: Kate Howarde’s Comic Opera Company. She opened in Queenstown, Tasmania on 7 May 1898 with Giroflé Girofla. A reconstitued company of twelve singers included Percy Shannon, Arthur Hunter, Fred Dunraven, George Fredericks, Violet Bertram, Katie Potter, Myra James, Dorothy L’Estrange, Constance Charles and, of course, Harry Craig. New costumes were specially designed by ‘the well known costumier’ Madame Vera Bonne (under Kate’s ‘personal supervision’); David Cope Jnr was the musical director; the stage manager was Arthur Hunter; scenic artist Elliott Johnstone; and the mechanist was Will Cregan. She expanded the repertoire to include Mariana, Boccaccio, The Grand Duchess, The Bohemian Girl and (by arrangement with J.C. Williamson) Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Kate’s initiative raised some eyebrows when she reached Brisbane a few months later:
Miss Kate Howarde took a bold step when she decided to organise a company to produce comic opera before theatre goers were made familiar with it by managers having the means and methods of presenting it in its best and most complete form. For years Messrs Williamson and Musgrove may be said to have had the monopoly of this description of opera, and probably they will retain it for a considerable time. Miss Howarde is virtually the first to break in on ‘the Firm’. Possibly, if asked, she would admit that she has some distance to travel ere she reaches the perfection attained by them. However, this would by no means suggest that even others were incapable of presenting opera buffa in a highly acceptable form.—The Brisbane Courier, 11 August 1898
Kate made a surprising trip abroad at this time, and detailed her travels to Referee (published 17 August 1898):
Since writing you last I have fully sustained my reputation for getting over a ‘heap of ground.’ About this time last month I sent my Opera Company to Mudgee, and as I before informed you, gathered together a few folks and trotted off to New Caledonia. Many prophesied ‘I’d never come back’, but here I am, and believe me for the future here I mean to stay. If nothing else, Noumea taught me to fully appreciate my own country. I would strongly advise any intending visitor to that quarter to stay away. However, we’re home again, and none the worse for the trip. My stay in the land of French reform only lasted two weeks, for the first boat after our arrival brought us away. Immediately on return I rejoined my Opera Company at Toowoomba, where we have just finished a splendid season, said to be the biggest week’s business ever seen there. We play for a season at the Theatre Royal here, then return to Sydney via Lismore and Richmond River, where we play race week.
After their performances in Lismore, Kate’s half-brother Lou decided to leave the Company and settled in the town, where he made himself available as a singing and piano teacher. His brother Bert Howarde, however, was back in the fold when the Kate Howard Dramatic Company returned to Grafton, and the Northern Rivers for Christmas—arriving by ferry on Christmas Day and commencing the season in Lismore on Boxing Night.4
Virtually the same group constituted the Kate Howard Burlesque and Comic Opera Companies that toured the Darling Downs and far north Queensland during the first six months of 1899; after which they took residence at the Bijou Theatre in Adelaide (from 24 October). Her repertoire consisted of Mariana, Rip Van Winkle, The Bohemian Girl, Les Manteaux Noirs and Boccaccio, with Lecocqu’s ‘charming opera bouffe’ Giroflé Girofla as the season opener. The Musical Director was Bert Rasche.
From Adelaide, the Company played in Broken Hill before doubling back to take the ferry from Adelaide to Fremantle, then express train to honour dates arranged for the Western Australian Goldfields (Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Bolder) and ultimately back to Perth’s Theatre Royal from Boxing Night (where they saw in the new century after the curtain fell on a performance of Sinbad the Sailor).
The Western Mail (6 January 1900) provided an insight:
At the commencement of the third act [of Giroflé Girofla] Miss Kate Howarde appeared and sang a new patriotic song, entitled ‘The English Speaking Race [Against the World]’, which was heartily applauded. She gave, in addition ‘The Absent Minded Beggar’ set to her own music. A similar demonstration of sympathy to that show in Queen’s Hall on Monday night took place at the conclusion of the song, the audience pelting the vocalist with coins. In a brief speech, Miss Howarde thanked her auditors for their generosity and sympathy with the cause and announced her intention of handing over the money collected to the funds in aid of those assisting in the Transvaal. A military tableau Heroes was then shown depicting two soldiers in the act of guarding a wounded comrade, and the curtain fell on a scene of enthusiasm, the orchestra meanwhile playing ‘Rule Britannia’. It may be added that nearly £5 in all was thrown onto the stage. Of this sum Miss Howarde handed The West Australian £3 to be added to the shilling fund, and £2 to the Nurses’ Fund.
The Company remained in the west for three months, leaving Fremantle by the SS Marloo on 11 March. They gave a concert on board with funds donated to the National Shipwreck Relief Society’s Fund.
The Company returned to Sydney briefly on Friday 23 March en route to Grafton (for Show week on 27 March), then back up to Longreach, Queensland. A second company of 16 artistes was assembled—Kate Howarde’s Australian Vaudeville Company—that toured western NSW concurrently, and managed by Harry Craig. However, during her season at the Theatre Royal in Brisbane (from 18 May) she made it clear that she would abandon opera in favour of ‘the variety business’, at least for the short term. She continued her progress south through the Darling Downs, Northern Rivers, then out to Western New South Wales until September, at which time she returned to Sydney. Kate then replenished the cast and repertoire and this time the Kate Howarde Dramatic Company sailed for Hobart, and a regional tour of Tasmania (beginning at the Gaiety Theatre, Zeehan on 27 October).
To be continued
Endnotes
1. Rodway Gainford had a stage career with J.C. Williamson’s and Hugh J. Ward as both actor and manager. With his ‘deep-toned voice’ he was popular as ‘Uncle Rod’ on radio; at the time of his mother-in-law’s death he was an announcer with 2UE in Sydney.
2. Jessie and Robert’s son Hector Howarde Vernon Lett was born the following year (15 March 1887)
3. Minnie and Robert’s son Albert Francis Hy Nichols was born in Melbourne the following year (1892)
4. On their July tour from Sydney to the Northern Rivers, the Company had an eventful trip on board the SS Kallatina: ‘The weather was rough from the start, but on Sunday it became worse and increased in violence on Monday. When the vessel made the Clarence, Captain Magee did not deem it prudent to enter, and the vessel was steered out to sea to get a safe offing. The gale on Monday was very violent, but the ship was under easy steam and kept head on to the seas and made good weather. The weather moderated somewhat on Tuesday, and Captain Magee made towards land and reported at the Solitary Island. On Wednesday he stood in for the Clarence and made the attempt to enter. When on the outer bar an immense roller, which seemed to tower as high as the masts, caught her on the quarter, slewing her, and then another struck the vessel forcing her on her beam ends, and her position was for a short time very critical. ... One passenger narrowly escaped being washed overboard, and another was thrown across the saloon table and sustained severe injuries about the head, and also broken ribs. ... The Ladies had a very unpleasant time. ... On Thursday the weather had moderated ... and the Kallatina was again taken to the bar, and crossed in successfully. Captain Magee was given three cheers by his passengers’.—Northern Star, 19 July 1899
