On 12 january 1918, the comedy Turn to the Right replaced The New Henrietta. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest hits at the Palace during 1917, it notched up a further five weeks on its revival. On Tuesday 29 January, to mark the 100th performance of the play in Australia, a pictorial souvenir was handed to all attendees. It was also noted in the press that with the close of the play actress Francee Anderson would be departing for America, with the intention of ‘working her way to New York’.1
With the withdrawal of Turn to the Right, the Taits’ other major success, Peg o’ My Heart, was remounted. A large and enthusiastic audience welcomed back Sara Allgood, who ‘continued her remarkable success as Peg’, along with Gerald Henson as Jerry, Cecil Brooking as Alaric and Beatrice Yaldwyn as Ethel, and Gerald Kay Souper and Cyril Mackay as Montgomery Hawkes and Christian Brent. With the Easter pantomime season looming, Peg could only be played for two weeks.
Winifred La France in Aladdin
From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1918, cover. Theatre Heritage Australia.
Bert Bailey as the Dame in Aladdin, as seen by the cartoonist Pas.
National Library of Australia, Canberra
On Saturday 9 March 1918, by arrangement with Bailey and Grant, the ‘Gorgeous Pantomime Extravaganza’ of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp opened as the Easter attraction. Written by George Barry and George Slater, this production had premiered in Melbourne at the King’s Theatre in December. The show featured a strong line-up of talent, including Barry Lupino as Abanazar, Bert Bailey as the Dame, with Winifred La France (making her reappearance in Australia after several years abroad) as the principal boy and Olive Godwin as the principal girl. Other characters were played by Andrew Higginson, Fayette Perry and Zola Ferrell, the last-named the principal danseuse, specially engaged by Charles Tait in New York.
The opening night review in the Sydney Morning Herald (11 March 1918) provided the following observation:
Barry Lupino, as the comically disreputable Abanazar, and Bert Baily, as an elderly well-dressed village dame whose broad humour was held in check by a convincing assumption of feminine refinement successfully carried on the gaiety of “Aladdin” at the Palace Theatre on Saturday night. Their duologues, their dancing and their characterisations were star efforts on the best old-time panto lines.
The review went on to say:
Three hours and a half of strenuous movement and constant scenic and costume changes on the little stage accentuated the tropical heat of the summer’s evening. None the less, the crowded audience applauded the many strong features of the piece with energy, showed a tolerant approval of the few weak passage, and still has strength enough to bear up under the protracted enthusiasm of the floral reception at the end.
Of the female cast members, the same reviewer noted:
The character of the scapegrace introduces a new and dashing principal boy from America, Winifred La France, whose graceful figure is backed by an immense voice, which would fill Drury Lane Theatre, and proved somewhat overwhelming at the Palace. … Olive Godwin, who returned after a considerable absence in beautiful voice as the Princess Badroulbadour, sumptuously attired and not less rich in song.
Aladdin played to packed houses until 25 April 1918.
On the warfront, the battle continued to rage with no sign of easing. The previous year, 1917, had proved a devastating one for the country with some 22,000 men losing their lives—the heaviest death toll since the commencement of hostilities. On the homefront, the Taits along with the other key providers of entertainment, continued to play their part in ensuring that the people at home could keep their sanity by forgetting the war for a bit.
Emelie Polini
National Library of Australia, Canberra
The next attraction at the Palace was the ‘brilliant English actress’ Emelie Polini, who opened her first season in Australia with the ‘thrilling mystery comedy drama’ De Luxe Annie. A three-act play by Edward Clark, it was adapted from a short story by Scammon Lockwood. Following try-out performances in Atlantic City, De Luxe Annie opened in New York, initially at the Booth Theatre on 4 September 1917, playing over 100 performances. The play conserns a female swindler who is being pursued by the police, played on Broadway by Jane Grey, who would also go on to star in a film version. The story is told in flashback, with the first act taking place in a pullman car, where a doctor is telling a fellow passenger about an interesting case. As the story progresses, the police discover that Annie is the wife of a respected citizen and that having contracted amnesia as the result of a head injury, had been taken advantage of by a notorious crook, Jimmie Fitzpatrick, created by Vincent Serrano.
In Sydney, Emelie Polini proved a sensation as Annie, with the drama playing to record business for over two months. With a solid supporting cast including Cyril Mackay as Jimmie Fitzpatrick, Gerald Kay Souper as Doctor Niblo, Clarence Blakiston as Hal H. Kendal, along with newcomers, Harmon Lee and Georgia Harvey, making their first appearances in Australia.
De Luxe Annie closed on Monday 24 June with two performance, including a special holiday matinee to commemorate the birthday of the Prince of Wales. Annie was withdrawn at the height of its success, but it needed to make way for Guy Bates Post whose season had already been booked. With the departure of Emelie Polini, the Palace remained closed as preparations were made for the arrival of the Taits’ next big attraction.
Mrs T.H. Kelly (Ethel Knight Mollison) as The Marchesa di Brignole Sala
Mrs Leslie Walford as the Madonna
Miss Langtree, Helen Laidly and Janet Knox
Matinee in aid of Italian Red Cross Day Fund at the Palace Theatre, 20 June 1918. Photographs by Glen Broughton Studios.
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
Meanwhile, Friday 28 June 1918 was designated as Italian Red Cross Day, and across Sydney (and elsewhere), a myriad of events, from balls to pageants, took place to raise funds for war casualties and their families. In anticipation, a special fund-raising matinee was held at the Palace Theatre on 20 June, organised by Mrs T.H. Kelly [Ethel Knight Mollison], the wife of one of the key organisers. The event at the Palace was described as one of Art and Diction. It comprised a series of living pictures or tableaux vivants based on pictures by the old masters, including Mrs Kelly and her little son as the Vandyck portrait of the Marchesa di Brignola Sala and child. The program also included dramatic recitations from Shakespeare’s Italian plays and numerous songs presented by society ladies and gentlemen with the assistance of Cyril Mackay, Signor Cappelli and Philip Wilson. The afternoon was described as ‘long and very slow-moving’, with an auction of art objects conducted by Barry Lupino during one of the intervals providing some welcome relief.
Guy Bates Post with his dog Huskie
From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 July 1918, Theatre Heritage Australia
Scene from the New York production of The Masquerader with Guy Bates Post and Thais Lawton. Photo by White, New York.
Smithsonian, Washington, DC
On Saturday 29 June, Guy Bates Post, a well-regarded dramatic and character actor, made his Sydney debut. On stage since 1894, he first gained recognition in 1914 with the play Omar, the Tentmaker, which played an eight-month run in New York before heading on the road for three seasons. With his current play, The Masquerader, which enjoyed a long run on Broadway, his position as ‘America’s Irving’ was assured. He arrived in Australia fresh from this success, bringing with him key players from his company, including Thais Lawton, Adele Ritchie (his wife), Ruby Gordon, Lionel Belmore, Milane Tilden—and “Huskie” his trained German Shepherd dog. Post’s Australian visit was limited to just seventeen weeks, which meant that he would only be seen at the Taits’ two theatres in Melbourne and Sydney, opening his first season at the King’s on 27 April 1918.
The Masquerader was a three-act play by John Hunter Booth, adapted from the 1904 novel by Katherine Cecil Thurston. In England in 1905, a play from the same source, John Chilcote, MP, by E. Temple Thurston, was produced with George Alexander as the lead.
The story concerns a British politician, John Chilcote, a hopeless drug addict, who following a chance meeting with his cousin, who happens to be his double, seizes the opportunity to swap identities. The cousin, John Loader, a poor but gifted writer, achieves success as John Chilcote, MP, while the real Chilcote succumbs to his addiction and is buried as Loader.
The Masquerader held the stage until Saturday 10 August 1918. On the following Monday, 12 August 1918, Post staged The Nigger, a three-act drama by Edward Sheldon.2 As noted by some historians, rather than use the play’s original title of Philip Morrow, Sheldon chose to adopt the more ‘explosive title’ to ‘make clear the attitudes of his white characters about the black ones in the play’.3 Press advertisements announced it as ‘The play that created a furore in Melbourne’, and also quoted the Argus review saying, ‘It aroused the great audience to a state of excitement seldom seen or heard in a theatre, and the appreciation was as whole-hearted as the acting’. It is not clear why Post chose to present this play in Australia, given his time was limited to just two appearances. When he introduced it at New York’s progressive New Theatre, it divided audiences, playing in repertory with other plays for two months.4 The play had also been adapted into a film in 1915 by the Fox Film Corporation, with William Farnum in the lead, and this had been screen in Sydney for one week during March 1916.
The Nigger played for two weeks, and for the final two days of Post’s engagement, 26 and 27 August, The Masquerader was repeated, with matinee and evening performances both days. This marked the final appearance of Guy Bates Post in Australia. As the Taits advised in their advertisements, ‘These performances bring to a conclusion the most triumphant season ever given in Australia’.5 The following day, the company set sail for America.
Bert Bailey as Gran’dad Rudd. Photo by May and Mina Moore.
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Next, from Wednesday 28 August 1918 to Thursday 19 September 1918, the Palace was sub-let to Bert Bailey and Julius Grant, who presented the Bert Bailey Comedy Company in a brand-new play, Gran’dad Rudd, for the first time in Sydney, having already played seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and the regions. Written by Steele Rudd, this play may have been new, but many of the characters were not. This was the much-anticipated sequel to On Our Selection. The play also saw the return of many old favourites, including Bert Bailey as Gran’dad Rudd, Fred Macdonald as Dave, Lilias Adeson as Lily, and Alfreda Bevan as Mrs Joe Rudd; along with Edmund Duggan and Queenie Sefton in the new characters of Denis Regan and Mrs Banks; and introducing Leslie Woods as Henry Cook, Louis Machilton as Dan Rudd, and Grace Dorran as Nell.
The new play received an enthusiastic welccome, as the Sydney Morning Herald (29 August 1918) observed:
Roars of laughter attended the doings of the family on gran’dad’s selection at the Palace Theatre last night, as the audience settled happily down to the joyous realisation that the old farm was just as homely and “out-back” as ever, and that Steele Rudd’s new piece, under the genial handling of Mr. Bert Bailey, was just as crowded with humorous characters as the old one.
The play is set twenty years after the first one, and as such, the key characters are aged. Most notably, Bert Bailey as Dad, had lost some of his former energy:
... so naturally does Mr. Bailey play the part that one feels quite sad to see the once vigorous pioneer so aged. However, there is a world of unsuspected vigour left in the enfeebled frame and palsied head of that bent old fellow who leans on his stout oak stick, but it flares out only in the vitriolic sarcasms by which the patriarch keeps his troublesome team more or less in subjection. ... In fact, Mr. Bailey has achieved a masterly study of old age in the character throughout a whole series of homely, comic situations, and playgoers will be especially grateful to him for the art with which he sustains the recognisable individuality of the first Rudd in the impersonation of the character which dominates the new story.
The Bert Bailey season was limited to just three week. Over the following years, Gran’dad Rudd would play throughout the country, but would not return to Sydney until 1923.
Georgia Harvey & Emelie Polini in a scene from The Invisible Foe (left), and Emelie with her new husband, Lieutenant Harold Ellis, ‘a Sydney solicitor of independent mean’ (right). From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1918, Theatre Heritage Australia.
Characters from The Invisible Foe (1 to r): Harmon Lee as Richard Bransby, Olive Wilton as Mrs Hilary, Cyril Mackay and Gerald Kay Souper as Stephen Pryde & Dr. Lathan, Una Jan as Barkis, and John Fernside as Hugh Pride. From The Theatre (Sydney), 1 October 1918, Theatre Heritage Australia.
Following the departure of Bert Bailey and co., Emelie Polini returned with a new play, The Invisible Foe. Since she was last in Sydney, Emelie had tied the knot. It seems, on her way out to Australia she met a young Australian officer, Harold Ellis, on the boat and fell in love. Ellis had been with the Royal Field Artillery in England but had been gassed and wounded and was on leave. The two were quietly married in Melbourne in July 1918. According to one columnist, Emelie is ‘a very domesticated little lady, and when her contract with the Taits is finished she may slam the stage-door for ever’.6
The Invisible Foe opened on Saturday 21 September 1918. Once again, the advertisements said it all:
It’s English, written by an Englishman, concerning English Men and Women, and presented to you by English stars. Like all things English it’s good and powerful and will make a refreshing change in your theatrical diet after a long run of American productions in this city.7
The English drama played for just a month, closing on Thursday 10 October 1918. Polini’s next new play, Eyes of Youth, which opened on 12 October, proved a huge hit, running for nine weeks, until 13 December. It seems playgoers were more than happy with a diet of American plays!
Emelie Polini as Gina Ashling with Alfred Bristowe as the Yogi in Eyes of Youth
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Eyes of Youth was a runaway success in America and the UK, playing for over a year in New York and for eight months in London. It is the story of a young woman, Gina Ashling, who consults an Indian Yogi, and is given a glimpse into the future: will she become a school teacher, a famous opera singer, wed a millionaire, or marry the man she loves? Summarising the play’s success, The World’s News (19 October 1918) wrote:
‘Eyes of Youth’, at the Palace Theatre, is a success; a big success—a J. and N. Tait success. There is enterprise and daring in this young firm’s activities. They had no hesitation in bringing to Sydney-siders ‘Eyes of Youth’, although it is a drama along lines entirely without precedent in Australia. It is a spoken movie—a trick melodrama. It rushes forward with breathless speed. One momemnt you are depressed by its pathos, the next you are screaming with laughter ... You came to see on comedy-drama. You were given four. ... For Emelie Polini, it is, perhaps, the most perfect vehicle that could be built for her great talents and versatility. ... In this play she holds the centre of the stage from curtain rise to the final fall, and in the course of the evening gives five big characterisations.
Going on to say:
It is characteristic of the Taits that, whether they put on a gloomy play like ‘The Invisible Foe’, or a sparkling comedy-drama like ‘Eyes of Youth’ and ‘De Luxe Annie’, they get the perfection of gloom or the perfection of sparkle. They are thorough—and artistic.
On Monday 11 November 1918, after four years of hostilities, and over 60,000 Australian war-dead, peace was declared with the signing of an armistice between Germany and the Allies. The news reached Australia in the evening, just as theatregoers were taking their seats. At the Palace, before the curtain went up, Mr E.J. Gravestock, the manager for J. and N. Tait, steppeed onto the stage and made the joyous announcement. The audience rose to their feet cheering as the band played the national anthems of the Allied forces.8
Perhaps the decision to stage an issue-laden play such as The Nigger was not so strange after all. On 18 October, the Palace played host to an important public meeting, when E.J. Tait addressed the audience on the need for a Repertory Theatre in Sydney. Under Gregan McMahon’s leadership, the Repertory Theatre Movement had gained some momentum in Melbourne, when in 1911, he staged the second act of The Critic and The Two Mrs Wetherbys at the Turn Verin Hall. Between 1911 and 1916, the organisation, modelled on similar undertakings in the UK, staged three seasons a year, presenting dozens of works deemed too intellectual or racy for the average theatregoer. The Repertory Theatre Movement championed the theatre of ideas, which encompassed the plays of Bernard Shaw, St John Ervine, Harley Granville Baker and John Galsworthy, as well as Ibsen and Strindberg. Typically, the plays were made available to theatregoers on a subscription basis. In the UK, this method was adopted to avoid scrutiny by the Lord Chamberlain, as plays mounted by clubs or staged privately did not require licencing in the normal manner. This was a useful arrangement, as many of the plays, due to their subject matter, might not have been deemed fit for the commercial stage.
By 1916, the Melbourne Repertory Company was struggling, it was losing subscribers and the pool of competent actors was dwindling, notably the male actors who had left to join the war effort.
In 1917, McMahon relocated to Sydney, taking up a role with the Tait organisation as an actor and director. E.J. Tait was impressed by McMahon’s achievement in Melbourne and determined to support a new Repertory-style company in Sydney. It was decided to utilise the actors from Emilie Polini’s company. At first, they would perform matinees of selected ‘repertory’ plays alongside their own repertoire, and slowly as the ‘repertory’ plays gained traction, would present them in their own right.
The first appearance of J. and N. Tait’s Repertory Company took place at a matinee on Thursday 31 October 1918 with George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, under the direction of Gregan McMahon. The play had first been performed by his Melbourne Repertory Company in March 1914. Key roles now were played by Gerald Kay Souper (Sir Colenso Ridgeon) and Olive Wilton (Jennifer Dubedat), with other characters by Gregan McMahon, Alfred Bristowe and Raymond Lawrence. It was repeated at the matinee on Thursday 7 and 21 November, the proposed matinee on 14 November being cancelled on account of Sydney’s ongoing peace celebrations.
At the matinee on Thursday 28 November 1918 a new program was given, comprising the one-act plays, How He Lied to Her Husband and The Pigeon, the first by George Bernard Shaw and the second by John Galsworthy. How He Lied to Her Husband had been previous been seen at the Palace in September 1909, when it received its first metropolitan Sydney performance by The Sydney Stage Society in aid of the Women’s Hospital.
A second matinee took place the following Thursday 5 December 1918.
The Court of Injustice, a charity event organsied by Commercial Travellers’ Association of NSW with assistance from the Actors’ Association. The Sydney Mail, 18 December 1918, p.7.
On Friday 13 December, the Palace was turned over to the Commercial Travellers’ Association of NSW for a special event that ran from 10am to 5pm. Described as a Court of Injustice, it comprised a series of trials, whereby prominent citizens were accused of ludicrous crimes and ordered to make payments to charity. The Sydney acting fraternity lent their support. Arthur Styan was the Chief Justice with Phil Smith as the Chief Constable. C.R. Bantock, C.H. Workman, Walter Baker, Frank Harvey, Roy Redgrave, Walter Bentley, Louis Kimball and others appeared as Justices, Judges, Prosecutors and Counsels, while Florence Young, Gladys Moncrieff, Muriel Starr, Ethel Morrison and other prominent female performers were the Ladies of the Jury. The event was deemed enormous fun and £1,000 was raised, with calls for a return-performance.
With the close of Eyes of Youth on 13 December, after a highly successful nine weeks, the Repertory Company commenced a short residence from 14 December, when George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma was revived for five nights and two matinees, followed by How He Lied to Her Husband and The Pigeon from 20 December for four nights and one matinee.
On Christmas night, a special concert, under the direction of Oswald Anderson, took place, with Peter Dawson, Philip Newbury and others performing songs, ballads and recitals. A proposed revival of De Luxe Annie was held over until Boxing Night.
To be continued
Endnotes
1. Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 1918, p.8
2. This was Sheldon’s second play, his first, Salvation Nell, achieving success at the hands of Mrs Fiske during 1908. Sheldon would go on to write many noteworthy plays, including The High Road (1912), Romance (1913) and The Czarina (1922).
3. The A to Z of American Theater, p.349
4. The New Theatre opened on 28 November 1909 as a repertory theatre with seats for 2,300. An ambitious project, it lasted just two seasons.
5. Advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 August 1918, p. 2
6. The Bulletin (Sydney), 25 July 1918, p.38
7. Advertisement, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September 1918, p.2
8. On 8 November 1918, 200,000 Sydneysiders prematurely gathered in Centennial Park to celebrate the end of the war. With the official annoucement four days later, jubilant crowds continued to flock into the city. Wednesday 13 November was declared a public holiday., when 250,000 people attended a service in the Domain, with 60,000 servicemen and women marching from Central Station. Scenes of merryment continued throughout the week with tens of thousands of people packing Martin Place.
References
Gerald Bordman, The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, Oxford University Press, 1984
James Fisher, The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, 20009
James Leve, American Musical Theater, Oxford University Press, 2016
Viola Tait, A Family of Brothers: The Taits and J.C. Williamson; a theatre history, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1971
Newspapers
Trove, trove.nla.gov.au
Pictures
National Library of Australia, Canberra
State Library of New South Wales, Sydney
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
Theatre Heritage Australia
With thanks to
Rob Morrison
