Billie Sim (1900-1980) – beauty, acting & Mercolized wax

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Billie Sim in one of her many appearances to advertise beauty products, 1927, Mason Leighton photo.^[1]The Home (Aust) 1 December 1927, P54

The Five Second Version
New Zealand-born Billie Sim (sometimes Sims) spent only ten years in Australia before heading to the US to seek acting work. She appeared in four films in Australia (possibly) – presenting as an enthusiastic, sporty, outdoors loving girl, which aligned so well with a popular stereotype of the modern Australian woman: “In addition to possessing a screen face, which is remarkable in its resemblance to Pola Negri, she swims like a fish and delights in ‘stepping on the gas’ whenever she strikes a tempting stretch of good road.“^[2]Daily News (Perth) 27 Feb, 1925, p6 But it seems that by the time she was settled in Hollywood, the attraction of being an actor had passed. Instead she married and left the business behind. But for almost ten years she was one of the faces used by Dearborn Limited to sell beauty products in Australia, regularly appearing on advertisements for their “Mercolized Wax”, a skin lightening product, long after her last film.

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Lillie Vincent Sim from New Zealand

Billie Sim was not an Australian by birth, although press reports of the 1920s often suggested she was. She was born Lillie Vincent Sim in Whanganui, New Zealand on January 25, 1900, the first child of Robert David Sim, a tailor, originally from England, and Lillie Alice nee Mulinder, a woman from Patangata. Unusually, even for the time, the Sims did not register Lillie’s birth or that of her two sisters Thelma and Beatrice, until 1919.^[4]New Zealand Marriage Birth Lillie Vincent Sim, certificate 1919/4687 There may be many reasons for this anomaly. A possible reason is that her parents did not marry until 1915, which was just before Robert joined the New Zealand Army. The birth of brother George had been registered however.

Billie Sim moved to Sydney Australia sometime in the early 1920s. It is not clear when she adopted “Billie” as a preferred or stage name, or what her adolescent interests were. One New Zealand report later claimed she had gained early stage experience with the Wanganui Amateurs.^[5]Sun (Auckland) 22 June 1927, p13 However, this writer has found no evidence that Billie had any significant stage experience at all.

Breaking into films

Interviewed in early 1925, Billie Sim told journalists that motion picture acting had always been her “one ambition.” In this ambition, she was hardly alone. Hollywood’s studio system and all that it entailed had become a dominant force in feeding Australian cinemas, and the phenomenon of the movie actor as a celebrity was well established. Kirsten McKenzie has demonstrated how trade and fan magazines – including Australian ones – helped create and feed the illusion that a career in movies was achievable. As Mckenzie also notes, in 1920 alone, Australia’s population of 5 million attended cinemas 68 million times. ^[6]McKenzie (2010)

In the 1925 interview, it was explained that Billie, “in order to get acquainted with stars and their methods… applied for a staff position with a leading Sydney theatre, and got it.” Presumably this meant working as an usher, a job so many other hopefuls took.^[7]See for example, Judy Kelly (1913-1991) “Then came Louise Lovely’s screen testing season, and Billie emerged with flying colors.”^[8]Daily News (Perth) 27 Feb, 1925, p6 Andrée Wright’s 1986 account of women in Australian cinema confirms that Billie came to public notice courtesy of returned Hollywood star Louise Lovely’s(1895-1980) A Day in the Studio, a live performance act where members of an audience were invited on stage and filmed – at her direction.^[9]Wright (1986) p26-7

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Billie later claimed she had roles in the Australian films Hullo Marmaduke (directed by Beaumont Smith and released in November 1924), a silly-ass comedy starring Claude Dampier and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (directed by Arthur Shirley and released in February 1925). The second of these was a drama based on the popular novel by Fergus Hume. Unfortunately neither film survives today, but historians Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper confirm her involvement in the latter film.^[11]Pike & Cooper (1980) p161 She must have appeared as an extra or supporting artist in these films, as surviving reviews do not mention her.

In early 1925, Billie began work on Australasian films’ Painted Daughters. Director F. Stuart-Whyte deliberately selected “types from the general public who will be suitable for the screen,” including several from Louise Lovely’s tests.^[12]Pike & Cooper (1980) p164 Stuart-Whyte’s intention was “to construct bright, snappy amusing productions, such as find favour all over the world,”^[13]Stuart-Whyte cited in Pike & Cooper (1980) p163 moving beyond the filmmaking that so often revelled in “Australian atmosphere.” Contemporary reviews were mixed. Historian Garry Gillard has characterized Painted Daughters “as a romantic melodrama about high society and the ‘flapper’ generation.”^[14]Gillard, 2018-2019

In addition to Billie and Marie Lorraine (1899-1982), in the cast were up and coming actors Fernande Butler (1897-1972), Phyllis Du Barry (1908-1954) and Lucille Lisle (1908-2004), who later went on to successful careers in the US and Britain.

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Late in 1925, Billie took a leading role in Tall Timber, another Australasian production, directed by actor Dunstan Webb. Again, this film has long since disappeared, but newspaper reviews of the time were generally positive about this melodrama of a young ne’er-do-well who redeems himself and wins the girl (Billie – now in a leading role) by honest work in a timber town. The film was released in Australia in August 1926, and later in Britain.^[16]Pike & Cooper (1980) p174

Thus by late 1926, Billie’s reputation as a home-grown movie star was well established. “A keen lover of the outdoors, she can change a tyre quicker than …a [mechanic],” reported Sydney’s Truth.^[17]Truth (Syd), 22 Aug 1926, p6 Across the country in Western Australia, she was described as “one of Sydney’s most popular actresses, her work on the legitimate stage and before the camera having won her distinction… She is considered one of the smartest frockers…and sheer charm of personality and general graciousness have made her popular… “^[18]Sun (Kalgoorlie) 6 March 1927, p6

Billie’s movements as a performer remain somewhat unclear following Tall Timbers. In November 1926 newspapers reported Billie in a “stage turn” in support of singer Alfred O’Shea, part of a mixed program supporting the film Romola.^[19]Truth (Syd) 28 Nov 1926, p11 Over the next few years there were rumours of other film projects – claimed roles in an upcoming comedy with Compton Coutts, and in a French film made in New Caledonia. Unfortunately, none of these can be verified. However, Billie was in demand for other reasons – providing advice on cosmetics and beauty, and was associated with one product in particular.

Billie and the Mercolized Wax

In December 1924, Billie Sim made her first appearance extolling the virtues of Mercolized Wax. This was a skin-lightening product made and distributed by Dearborn Limited. As James Bennett has pointed out on his website devoted to cosmetics and skin, “Mercolized Wax” was a trademarked name, not a chemical term. Thus when today’s reader sees Billie with the product in numerous newspaper advertisements on the National Library of Australia’s Trove – it is not immediately clear she was advertising. As Bennett further explains, Mercolized Wax contained mercury compounds, which even in 1912 had been identified as poisonous.^[20]See for example, the American Medical Association report of 1912 cited by Bennett It is unlikely Billie had any awareness of this, and nor would the other Australian women advertising the product – Phyllis Gibbs, Fernande Butler, Gladys Moncrieff and Madge Elliot.

The reader at the time must have been confused about how this product was meant to beautify, as the claims seemed to vary so much. Did it help the skin “shed worn out tissue” (left above) or did it give “a weather proof coating to the skin”? (right above)

The concepts of screen beauty and stardom were already well established by the time Billie was seeking work in films. Advertisers, cinema chains and newspaper editors fed this fantasy with a constant stream of film star narratives and competitions, whilst manufacturers sold cosmetic products that would beautify the consumer. These also helped to maintain the fiction that film stardom was available to everyone – and “you” might be next – if only you tried.^[21]See McKenzie (2010)

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The 1927 Miss New Zealand Competition entrant

In June 1927 Billie returned to New Zealand to take part in a “Miss New Zealand” competition. Typical of popular competitions run by cinemas, magazines and newspapers of the era, the stated intention was to find “a screen type, not just a beauty, but a talented girl, who by application, may make make a name for herself…”^[23]Sun (Auckland) 1 April 1927, p1 Prizes included a return fare to Los Angeles and a “studio engagement” with MGM, all worth £900. The competition began in April 1927, with endless newspaper items, including photos of participants and reports of provincial voting for semifinalists.^[24]The voting coupons printed in papers would have left the competition wide open to being gamed In the end, despite Billie’s experience in Australian films, 17 year old Dale Austen won. The competition had taken six months. See Note 1 below regarding Dale Austen.

Back in Australia, Billie took an interest in watching the studio filming of For the Term of His Natural Life (1927) with its large budget and leading US players, but there were no more roles for her. She continued to appear in Dearborn’s advertising and it may have been at this time that she appeared on Sydney radio 2UE with beauty tips. In early 1928 it was announced she was engaged to a visiting US businessman, although this did not eventuate.^[25]Truth (Syd)18 Mar 1928, p11

Hollywood – much overrated

In early May 1931, Billie and her sister Beatrice departed for the US on the SS Sierra. After a two month stay in Hawaii, where Billie generated much attention as “Australia’s foremost film star,”^[26]Honolulu Star-Advertiser, June 8, 1931 p3 they arrived in Hollywood.

Billie wrote home of her impressions. She had previously given advice to acting hopefuls through the pages of Sydney’s own film fan magazine, Photoplayer. According to Billie, Hollywood was “much over-rated” – suggesting it looked much like any other city.^[27]Bailey’s Weekly (WA) 21 Nov 1931, p3 Her sister Beatrice provided a more detailed account, that mentions Billie was successfully tested by MGM, and that the girls spent much of their time with old Sydney friend Phyllis Du Barry.^[28]Du Barry had only recently arrived in Hollywood and had shortened her surname to Barry Beatrice’s report seems to infer Billie quickly lost interest in acting as a career. Instead, in July 1932, Billie married Charles E Leahy, a General Motors executive from New York, and promptly moved to the US east coast.

It would be wrong to assume that all those enthralled by movies in the 1920s and 30s, and who managed to get to Hollywood, ended up wanting to stay there. Dale Austen (see below) had returned home to New Zealand after six months. Only a few years later, Janet Johnson also left quickly, recalling that “Hollywood made me feel such a fish out of water” while Margaret Vyner also felt proud that she had the strength to turn down a studio contract.

Billie died in New York state in December 1980 as Lillie Miller, having married a second time in 1947. Her face continued to appear on Australian advertisements for Mercolized Wax until at least 1934. The fashion for skin-lightening cosmetic products continues to this day.

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Note 1. Dale Austen (1910 – 2005)

Dale Austen was born Beatrice Dale Austen in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1910. After winning the Miss New Zealand competition she travelled to the US via the SS Aorangi in January 1928.^[31]The Los Angeles Times, Jan 27, 1928 p29 She had one credited role in Hollywood – in the Tim McCoy film The Bushranger.^[32]The film was set in Australia, but filmed in Hollywood – very much in the Western movie style She returned to New Zealand in May 1928. Once home, she appeared as a celebrity guest at cinemas, as well as performing in Rudall Hayward’s (1900–1974) The Bush Cinderella – and in at least one “community short” – A Daughter of Dunedin. ^[33]Nga Taonga, The audiovisual archive of Aotearoa New Zealand has both these films preserved and available online. https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/ She had moved to Australia by 1933, where she married Robert Ivan Nicholson, a research Chemist. Before she died in 2005, she was interviewed several times about her experiences making films in Hollywood and with New Zealand pioneer filmmaker Rudall Hayward. She observed that Hollywood “seemed a frantic and wild merry-go-round; I wanted a more lasting and stable happiness.”^[34]Dale Austen, quoted by Diane Pivac, 2012 New Zealand International film festival program

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Nick Murphy
October 2024

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References

• James Bennett (2020-2024) Cosmetics & Skin. Mercolized Wax
• Garry Gillard (2018-2019) Australian Cinema. Painted Daughters
• McKenzie, Kirsten. Journal of Women’s History; Baltimore Vol. 22, Iss. 4, (Winter 2010): “Being Modern on a slender income: ‘Picture Show’ and ‘Photoplayer’ in early 1920s Sydney”. 114-136, 329.
• Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper (1980) Australian Film 1900-1977. Oxford University Press.
• Hal Porter (1965) Stars of Australian Stage and Screen. Rigby
• Andrée Wright (1986) Brilliant Careers. Women in Australian Cinema. Pan

Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University

• Ina Bertrand, ‘Lovely, Louise Nellie (1895–1980)’, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 21 October 2024.
• A. F. Pike, ‘Gibson, William Alfred (1869–1929)’, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 24 October 2024.

Film

• Painted Daughters (1925) @ the Administrator Channel on Youtube