Author: Heathcote Pursuit

Baby Lorna Volare (1911-1998) – the child actor from Benalla

Six year old Lorna Volare in 1917, at the time she appeared as a supporting player in Norma Talmadge’s The Moth [1]Film Fun, December 1917. via Lantern, Digital Media Library
The Five Second Version
Who today would know of the child stars of the silent film era – that is, before Shirley Temple? Baby Ivy Ward, Rosheen Glenister, Miriam Battista and Baby Lorna Volare are names unknown to us now and yet in the 1910s and 1920s they were much in demand by producers, popular with audiences – and their parents were well paid. Lorna Volare was a child from Australia whose parents had moved to the US in 1915. Lorna appeared in her first film at age four and a half, only a few months after the family settled in New Jersey.
“Baby” Lorna Volare in 1917, aged 6 [2]Motion Picture News, 27 Jan 1917, P577, via Lantern Digital Media Library

Lorna Volare was born in Benalla, a country town about 200 kilometres north east of Melbourne, Victoria on 10 October, 1911.[3]Victoria, Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 1911/25784. It appears her mother Helen was visiting family or friends in the town to give birth, because the Volare home was in South … Continue reading However, there is little likelihood that Lorna ever had much memory of Benalla, or of Melbourne, as she left Australia before she turned four.

Fred Volare and the pianolas

Lorna’s father Fred Volare was a piano tuner, salesman and musician from England. He was born George Frederick Voller in London, and arrived in Australia in the first years of the twentieth century.[4]The 1901 English census lists George F Voller, a 19 year old piano tuner living with his parents and siblings in Wandsworth Perhaps the new spelling of his surname as Volare helped create an exotic musical persona or maybe the change of name helped him start a completely new life,[5]Years later, Fred Volare would visit and stay with his older sibling Alice Voller at 34 Quinton St, Earlsfield, London either way he quickly made a name for himself in Australia.

Fred travelled the length and breadth of Victoria tuning pianos and selling the new and very popular invention – the pianola. Four months before the birth of Lorna, in June 1911, he had married Helen McIntrye, a nurse – who came from a very large farming family of Port Campbell, in Victoria’s west.[6]Victoria, Births Deaths & Marriages, Marriage Certificate 1911/5150 A son, Erling Frederick, was also born of the marriage in June 1914.[7]Victoria, Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 1914/16894

Above: Fred Volare at work in regional Victoria. [8]Left – The Horsham Times (Vic) 9 Feb 1912, P5. Right – Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser (Vic.) 21 Oct 1914, P3. Both via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In early 1915, Fred and Helen made the dramatic decision to move to the US. This appears not to have been a whim, because they sold up all their belongings and their large home at 245 Williams Road Toorak with an announcement they were soon moving to the US.[9]The Age (Melb) 20 Feb, 1915, P2, via National Library of Australia’s Trove The advertisements listed their worldly goods for sale, confirming they were living a comfortable middle class life – apparently all thanks to Fred’s work selling pianolas. They sailed on the RMS Niagara, arriving in Vancouver on April 10, 1915, in transit for New York.

By 1920, US records show the family were living on Lake Avenue, Scotch Plains near Westfield in New Jersey. Fred, who was now described in documents as a “factory manager” and “piano expert”, worked at the Aeolian Piano and Pianola Company factory in nearby Garwood, New Jersey, only a few miles from their home.[10]Fred’s World War One US registration card lists Aeolian as his employer.

Lorna the “three year old”

The earliest film appearance by Lorna seems to have been in Ransom, a film starring Julia Dean, made in late 1915.[11]It is listed by the AFI as released in January 1916 Unfortunately, the film is now considered lost, as are most of Lorna’s 14 other films.[12]Part of The Moth (1917), a Norma Talmadge film, survives in the collections of the Library of Congress

The only account of how four year old Lorna from Australia ended up in films [13]all of which were made on the US East Coast survives in the pages of The Green Book Magazine.[14]The Green Book Magazine Vol 20, 1918, P968-969 via the HathiTrust Digital Library The story given here was that a group of actors on the Niagara saw Lorna playing on the decks and suggested (to her parents) that she should try acting. Perhaps this is true, but it is so very similar to every other “actor discovery” story that the modern reader would be wise to treat it with caution. It is worth remembering that the decision for four year old Lorna to act was made by Fred and Helen, who must have approved of and organised her performing. The typical story of a child being “discovered” by someone else meant parents could claim they were harnessing a child’s natural ability – rather than exploiting them by pushing them onto the stage.

Another photo of Lorna in 1917.[15]Moving Picture World, 27 Jan 1917, P526. Via Lantern, Digital Media Library

Contemporary newspapers made much of Lorna’s youth. Until late 1916, US reports inaccurately gave her age as three, while some also made a point of mentioning her film salary as $100 per week, a significant sum – which was mentioned so often it may be true. If she earned this, it was her parents who collected.[16]Hartford Courant (Connecticut) 3 May 1916, P6 via newspapers.com

At this time, the Gerry Society (New York’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) was very active in campaigning against child actors, something Fred and Helen must have been aware of. However, it appears the society had much more of a concern about the morality of children being on the stage, than they did about children appearing in film. On one occasion Lorna Volare and other juvenile actors were the subject of legal action during a Chicago run of Daddies in November 1919, because the play violated Illinois State law,[17]The New York Clipper, 19 Nov 1919, P5. Billboard magazine described the Gerry Society as a “self styled reform agency.” Billboard, 26 March 1921, P23. Via Lantern Digital Media Library but otherwise her childhood acting career seems to have been remarkably unhindered by the Gerry Society. Also see Note 1 below.

Lorna the actor

Some of Lorna’s appearances were in quality film productions. For example, she appeared in supporting roles in three films made in New York by the hugely successful actress-producer Norma Talmadge in 1917. These included The Law of Compensation and two of her “Select Pictures,” The Moth and The Secret of the Storm Country. Clearly Talmadge had confidence in Lorna’s abilities as she personally cast some roles. In the same year Lorna also appeared in A Man and the Woman, directed by pioneer director Alice Guy and her husband Herbert Blaché, almost certainly made at their Solax Studios at nearby Fort Lee in New Jersey.

As with so many reviews of child performers, reports of Lorna’s acting in films tended to be effusive. Motion picture directories also contributed to the stereotype of the time by describing her physical attributes – “golden brown hair, large blue eyes.”[18]Motion Picture Studio Directories 1919-1921, P249 Via Ancestry.com More considered were commentaries on her theatre performances. In October 1917 she appeared in a short run of the play The Claim, at New York’s Fulton theatre, “a drama of Western life.” One newspaper ran a large photo and reported on “Youthful Lorna Volare, whose years number barely five, but whose histrionic and emotional ability amazed first night audiences on Broadway last week.”[19]The Sun (New York) 13 Oct 1917, P5 via newspapers.com But Lorna’s big breakthrough came in September 1918 when she appeared on stage in David Belasco’s production of Daddies.

Lorna and John Cope in the comedy Daddies [20]New-York Tribune, Oct 6, 1918 · P36, via newspapers.com

Daddies was a great success – it ran for 340 performances in New York.[21]The Internet Broadway Database reports it ran from September 1918 to June 1919 The comedy was about four bachelors who are induced to adopt war orphans, and 7 year old Lorna played one of them. Theatre magazine noted her “accent betrays no locale proving her diction is faultless.”[22]Ada Patterson, Theatre Magazine, Vol 27-28, 1918, P350 via The Hathi Trust The Billboard labelled Lorna “the star of the cast,”[23]The Billboard, 9 Nov 1918, P17, via Lantern Digital Media Library while a reviewer for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote that Lorna performed “with a skill and sense of values that is remarkable in a child.” [24]The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York) 6 Sep 1918, P6 via newspapers.com

David Belasco thought Lorna was a “marvellous child actor... “I have only known one child who equalled her. That was little Maude Adams. Maude had the same charm, the same bright mind, the same odd little ways that were all her own.” A happy home environment was vital to her continuing success, he thought. However Belasco was less confident that a married woman could be a success on stage. Firmly channeling his own nineteenth century upbringing, he warned, a woman “cannot serve two masters.”[25]ie – a husband AND the stage. Ada Patterson, Theatre Magazine Vol 27-28, 1918. P350 via The Hathi Trust

10 year old Lorna in her last film in 1921 [26]The Galena Evening Times, (Kansas)10 May 1921, P4 via newspapers.com

Lorna continued to appear on stage, including in a tour of Daddies. She also appeared in one final film made in 1921- His Greatest Sacrifice, with popular player William Farnum. She was now ten years old and hardly able to still be presented as “baby Lorna” by this time and therein lay the problem for all child actors – what to do once they started to grow up.

Lorna in Alias Jimmy Valentine in 1921 [27]New-York Tribune
18 Dec 1921, P45, via newspapers.com

In Lorna’s case, almost as quickly as she had arrived on the screen, by the end of 1923, she was gone.

Lorna in later life

From 1924, Lorna attended secondary school at Westfield High School, near her home. We know a little of Lorna’s school years because her High School yearbook has been digitized – a project of the Ancestry genealogical organisation. Her 1929 entry indicates she was involved in drama at school, had a “charming accent” (doubtless the result of parenting and elocution) and had an amazing biography. It appears she then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.[28]The Courier News (New Jersey) 2 Dec 1937, P18, via newspaper.com

Lorna in the Westfield High School Yearbook, 1929 [29]Via Ancestry.com – US School Yearbooks 1900-2016 . The scan has been edited slightly to maintain the page title

Lorna was associated with several New Jersey theatre groups in the 1930s, as a performer and director. In December 1937 she married W Kenneth Ostrander, a journalist. They married at the family home, while the talented Fred Volare played the Wedding March. The couple remained in New Jersey and raised two children, living near Fred and Helen, for the next twenty years. Lorna also shared her parents’ interests – after the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, she joined their efforts with the local branch of the British War Relief Society. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, she joined the war industry, working at an engineering firm and encouraging other women to do the same.[30]The Courier News (New Jersey) 23 Nov 1942, P9 via newspapers.com Her wartime efforts were impressive – fund-raising, civil defence activities and even encouraging the collection of scrap metal.

Lorna Ostrander died in Arizona in 1998. She was never interviewed about the experience of being a child star of the silent era, and had long since been forgotten by Australians.

Note 1: The Gerry Society

That the Gerry Society served a reforming function seems without doubt. However, the eccentricities of the society at the start of the twentieth century can be gauged from Elbridge T Gerry‘s own commentary in 1890, when he asserted there were three classes of theatres – 1) reputable – “Where legitimate drama is exhibited,” 2) semi-reputable, which were still often vulgar, and 3) disreputable, with their audiences composed of the “lowest and most degraded class of society.” Despite this, Cullen, Hackman and McNeilly note how inconsistent the society was in applying their rules in relation to individual acts. For example, they were apparently not concerned about a young Fred Astaire dancing, but hounded Buster Keaton’s family.[31]Cullen, Hackman and McNeilly 2007 P436 The Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company, comprising children from Lorna’s home town of Melbourne, never performed on the US east coast because of the Society’s presence.

The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children exists today, with a very contemporary child protection mission. See https://nyspcc.org/

Left: Lorna in Daddies in 1918. [32]The Green Book Magazine Vol 20, 1918, P968 via the HathiTrust Digital Library

Nick Murphy
February 2023

References

Web

Text

  • Laura Bauer (Ed)(2019) Hollywood Heroines. The most influential women in film history. Greenwood
  • Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly (2007)Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America. Psychology Press
  • Elbridge T Gerry (1890) “Children of the Stage” The North American Review, Vol 151, No 404, July 1890 P14-21 via jstor.
This site has been selected for preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Film Fun, December 1917. via Lantern, Digital Media Library
↑2 Motion Picture News, 27 Jan 1917, P577, via Lantern Digital Media Library
↑3 Victoria, Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 1911/25784. It appears her mother Helen was visiting family or friends in the town to give birth, because the Volare home was in South Yarra, a suburb of Melbourne, as the birth certificate states.
↑4 The 1901 English census lists George F Voller, a 19 year old piano tuner living with his parents and siblings in Wandsworth
↑5 Years later, Fred Volare would visit and stay with his older sibling Alice Voller at 34 Quinton St, Earlsfield, London
↑6 Victoria, Births Deaths & Marriages, Marriage Certificate 1911/5150
↑7 Victoria, Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 1914/16894
↑8 Left – The Horsham Times (Vic) 9 Feb 1912, P5. Right – Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser (Vic.) 21 Oct 1914, P3. Both via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑9 The Age (Melb) 20 Feb, 1915, P2, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑10 Fred’s World War One US registration card lists Aeolian as his employer.
↑11 It is listed by the AFI as released in January 1916
↑12 Part of The Moth (1917), a Norma Talmadge film, survives in the collections of the Library of Congress
↑13 all of which were made on the US East Coast
↑14 The Green Book Magazine Vol 20, 1918, P968-969 via the HathiTrust Digital Library
↑15 Moving Picture World, 27 Jan 1917, P526. Via Lantern, Digital Media Library
↑16 Hartford Courant (Connecticut) 3 May 1916, P6 via newspapers.com
↑17 The New York Clipper, 19 Nov 1919, P5. Billboard magazine described the Gerry Society as a “self styled reform agency.” Billboard, 26 March 1921, P23. Via Lantern Digital Media Library
↑18 Motion Picture Studio Directories 1919-1921, P249 Via Ancestry.com
↑19 The Sun (New York) 13 Oct 1917, P5 via newspapers.com
↑20 New-York Tribune, Oct 6, 1918 · P36, via newspapers.com
↑21 The Internet Broadway Database reports it ran from September 1918 to June 1919
↑22 Ada Patterson, Theatre Magazine, Vol 27-28, 1918, P350 via The Hathi Trust
↑23 The Billboard, 9 Nov 1918, P17, via Lantern Digital Media Library
↑24 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York) 6 Sep 1918, P6 via newspapers.com
↑25 ie – a husband AND the stage. Ada Patterson, Theatre Magazine Vol 27-28, 1918. P350 via The Hathi Trust
↑26 The Galena Evening Times, (Kansas)10 May 1921, P4 via newspapers.com
↑27 New-York Tribune
18 Dec 1921, P45, via newspapers.com
↑28 The Courier News (New Jersey) 2 Dec 1937, P18, via newspaper.com
↑29 Via Ancestry.com – US School Yearbooks 1900-2016 . The scan has been edited slightly to maintain the page title
↑30 The Courier News (New Jersey) 23 Nov 1942, P9 via newspapers.com
↑31 Cullen, Hackman and McNeilly 2007 P436
↑32 The Green Book Magazine Vol 20, 1918, P968 via the HathiTrust Digital Library

The short, fabulous career of Ivy Schilling (1892-1972)

Ivy Schilling in early 1913. Photo by May and Mina Moore, Sydney. The Stage Pictorial, April 1913. Via State Library of Victoria

The 5 second version
Born in Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne Australia in 1892, Ivy Schilling (spelled Shilling after 1914) became a hugely popular dancer on the Australian and British stage. Vibrant, good looking and energetic, her acrobatic and audacious style of dance was enthusiastically received. Her reputation as a typical “Australian girl” was also fed by clever publicity, including claims of her outstanding athletic prowess. She was photographed numerous times, won various competitions and often provided commentary on a wide range of topics. From 1914 she worked in Britain, then making a triumphant return to Australia in 1921. She commenced a tour of the US in the 1922, however a serious injury appears to have brought her dancing to an end almost immediately. By the mid 1920s she was living in Hollywood, associating with some leading figures including actor Enid Bennett and Producer Charles Christie. After a private visit to Australia in 1928 she returned to England for good. In 1932 she married an Australian-born surgeon, retiring from public life. She died in England in 1972.

Ivy growing up

Ivy May Schilling was born in George St, Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne, on August 4, 1892, the third of four children of Julius Schilling and Louisa nee Baldrock.[1]Victoria, Births, Deaths and Marriages. Birth certificate 26916/1892 Her father was described as a baker on her birth certificate, but by the 1910s he was listed in directories and electoral roles as a carrier. Ivy’s German grandfather had arrived in Melbourne at the end of the goldrush era on the ship Persian, in March 1862. The family had prospered, and by 1915, the Schillings lived at a comfortable home at 5 Raglan St, Saint Kilda East.[2]Julius and Louisa and Ivy’s brother Royal occupied the home for many years. It was later converted to apartments, and continues as this today

As was usual for working class children of the era, Ivy left school at about age 13, at the end of 1905, already with a reputation for giving entertaining performances.[3]She attended South Yarra State School. See Prahran Chronicle (Vic) 14 Dec 1901, P3 and Prahran Chronicle (Vic) 16 Dec 1905 P3, via National Library of Australia’s Trove The National Library of Australia’s Michelle Potter notes the contemporary newspaper story that Ivy had pleaded with her mother to be allowed to learn to dance, although there are numerous examples of other talented working class children being encouraged to try the stage by their parents, as an alternative to the inevitable factory work or an apprenticeship.[4]Michelle Potter (2005). A variant childhood story was that her mother was keen for her to take up piano. See West Bridgeford Advertiser 27 April 1918, P4 via British Library Newspaper Archive

Ivy quickly became one of the leading students at Jennie Brenan’s dance school.[5]The Bendigo Independent (Vic.) 16 May 1906, P1, via National Library of Australia’s Trove As Historian Janet McCalman has pointed out, Jennie Brenan was to develop a close association with JC Williamson’s, the Australian theatre monopoly, which soon meant exciting opportunities for young dancers like Ivy.[6]Potter states her first stage appearance was in a Mother Goose panto

Ivy Schilling, in an undated photo taken sometime before 1914. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Ivy dances with JC Williamson’s

By 1910, 18 year old Ivy was a prominent dancer in the JC Williamson’s Pantomime company, performing throughout cities in Australia and New Zealand – in various pantomimes including Jack and Jill and Aladdin.[7]See for example The Darling Downs Gazette (Qld.), 29 Jun 1909, P8 via Trove and Takanaki Herald 26 August 1909 P3 via National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past

Ivy’s breakthrough appearance appears to have been in the comic opera Our Miss Gibbs, in Sydney in September, 1910. Teamed with Fred Leslie (1882-1965), she appeared in La Danse du Vaurien -a combination of Apache and acrobatic dancing. The couple evoked “thunders of applause” from the audience and great reviews from newspapers.[8]See for example Evening News (Syd), 26 Sep 1910, P2 via National Library of Australia’s Trove Fred Leslie remained her partner, off and on, for at least seven years.

Ivy featuring as premier danseur for JC Williamson’s. Left – with Leslie Holland (1874-1952), in The Quaker Girl in Melbourne in July 1912 [9]Table Talk, 18 July 1912, P19 via State Library of Victoria Right – with Fred Leslie in Puss in Boots in early 1913[10]Table Talk, 23 Jan 1913, P23 via State Library of Victoria

Ivy saves a drowning surfer

Towards the end of Our Miss Gibb’s Sydney run, Melbourne’s Punch could tell its readers that audiences had “gone mad” over Ivy. “She is the best girl dancer yet found in Australia… who belongs to the athletic cult and practices assiduously with the heavy dumbbells and the parallel bars…”[11]Punch (Melb) 2 March 1911. P24 via National Library of Australia’s Trove And indeed she quickly developed a reputation as a health-conscious, outdoorsy, sports-loving Australian girl.

At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, Australians were sometimes represented in literature as superior variations of the “British type.” For example, a character in E W Hornung’s 1890 book A Bride from the Bush speaks of “the typical Australian…[as] one of the very highest if not the highest development of our species.”[12]E W Hornung (1890) A Bride from the Bush via Project Gutenburg, P107 Emerging actors were sometimes popularised because they appeared to fit this representation – and being physically active and loving the outdoors were key elements of the stereotype.

Ivy Schilling modelling her prowess in physical culture in 1911. Sydney’s Sun newspaper was a strong supporters of her career.[13]The Sun (Syd) 17 March 1911, P12, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In March 1911, newspapers reported that Ivy, then performing in Sydney, had saved Tommy Walker, a well known surfer, who had been “seized by cramp” while swimming at Manly beach. “Taking the 10 stone lad under her arm… [Ivy] brought him back to the sands and safety… Miss Schilling, after her fine performance, resumed her dip in the surf as if nothing had happened,” reported Sydney’s Sun [14]Sun (Syd) 23 March 1911, P1 via National Library of Australia’s Trove It was a good story, but suspiciously it coincided with newspaper articles showing Ivy’s modelling physical culture (as above) and with her success in the West Pictures’ Sirens of the Surf – a competition and short film. Shown as part of a mixed theatre program, the short film profiled a number of female Australian swimmers and was directed by Franklyn Barrett.[15]See Eric Reade, P47 Theatre audiences could then vote for their favourite siren, and not surprisingly, Ivy won.[16]The Sydney Morning Herald 13 Mar 1911, P11 and National Advocate (NSW) 31 Mar 1911 P2 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Left: Ivy, the winner, posed with the third place getter, in the Sirens of Surf competition.[17]Table Talk, 6 April, 1911 P1, via State Library of Victoria. Right: Ivy featured prominently in West’s Pictures advertising in April 1911 [18]The Bendigo Advertiser, 10 April 1911, P1 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

The story of Ivy in the surf was revisited in 1912, when the ever-helpful Sydney Sun reported she had bumped into a shark while swimming at Manley.[19]It transpired the shark was dead. The Sun (Syd) 21 Feb 1912, P6 via National Library of Australia’s Trove Clearly keen to keep up public interest in her, a week later she contributed the (then revolutionary) view that Australian girls should be allowed to play football.[20]National Advocate (NSW) 21 Feb 1912, P4 via National Library of Australia’s Trove If she really believed this, she was a century ahead of her time, as women’s football did not begin in Australia until the 21st century.

Above: Poses by Ivy Shilling in Australian Stage Pictorial, April 1913. These have been cropped and rearranged to fit on the screen.[21]Australian Stage Pictorial, April 1913, P56, Via State Library of Victoria

Ivy Schilling, the genius?

In 1913, the Sun’s theatre critic, “Playgoer,” gave voice to the extraordinary enthusiasm some felt about 21 year old Ivy, and the need to find suitable roles in Australia for such a talent, lest she disappear overseas. Under the heading “Is Ivy Schilling a genius?” the following appeared;

As a dancer Miss Schilling has a genius, a temperament remarkably her own and remarkably vivid. Whenever she has had the proper opportunity… she has been – electrical, unique…. I have not seen a dramatic power like hers in any other recent Australian dancer. I saw Miss Schilling in some production (heaven knows which, of them) in a “Danse du Vaurien” … and the splendid expressiveness of that dance is not to be forgotten. I saw her again, revealed by Mr. Fred Leslie, in a dance which he called’ the ‘Juno Kata,’ placed more or less incongruously in… musical comedy. Here she was once more superb… What we want for Australian dancers, when rare temperaments like that of Miss Schilling… is opportunity — opportunity for their own development, and opportunity to make themselves understood by the public…. They need -sympathy, appreciation, comprehension; and, above all, a chance..[22]The Sun (Syd) 25 May, 1913, P15 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In June 1913, Ivy gained another sort of publicity when she was named as one of the co-respondents in the “society divorce” of Walter Oswald Watt and Muriel Maud Watt. While the case attracted much press attention, it appears to have had no negative impact at all on Ivy’s career.[23]Watt was a well known society figure and had been aide-de-camp to the state governor. For reporting see numerous articles on National Library of Australia’s Trove, including Australasian (Melb) … Continue reading

Ivy as the butterfly, in the “Spider’s Web” dance, from the revue Come Over Here, 1914. Fred Leslie played the spider. [24]Theatre, 1 Jan 1914, P23 Via State Library of Victoria

Newspaper reports aside, the most convincing evidence of Ivy’s booming popularity at this time can be found in her surviving JC Williamson’s contracts, now held in the Australian Performing Arts Collection in Melbourne. In April 1911, Ivy was contracted at £7 a week, with a guaranteed 45 weeks work. In April 1912 this was boosted to £9 per week and in April 1913 it was boosted again to £12 a week. In her final JC Williamson’s contract of 1914, she was offered £17 per week for the part year she was to work. By comparison, in 1907 the Australian “basic wage” was set at £2 and 2 shillings.[25]Known as the “Harvester Judgement,” the basic wage was intended to set the living wage an unskilled labourer and dependent family would need Thus Ivy was extremely well paid for a 19 year old.

Ivy also owed at least some of her success to having teamed with Fred Leslie, an experienced dancer and choreographer, ten years her senior. Several of her highly successful turns are known to have been choreographed by him, although given their success as a partnership over a long period of time, a degree of collaboration also seems likely.

In 1913, JC Williamson’s launched a major revue that opened in December 1913 – called Come Over Here.[26]For more on this, see Veronica Kelly (2013) Not all reviewers were enthusiastic about this piece of “overcrowded entertainment” – but Ivy and Fred Leslie’s turn in “the Spider Web dance” was universally well received.[27]Referee (Syd) 24 Dec 1913, P15 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove A very young Robert Helpmann (1909-1986) saw the show in Adelaide, and was enthralled by the dance.[28]Anna Bemrose (2006) P50

After a paired-down version opened for a season in Melbourne, and despite the very generous rate of pay she was on, Ivy Schilling did what so many hopeful Australian performers did. She packed up and headed to London, departing on the Otranto in late June 1914.

She provided one final interview for the Australian press that expressed her high hopes. Perth’s Daily News reported: “Ivy Schilling is a tonic. She is so full of optimism, She sat on her bunk on the R.M.S Otranto this morning, and talked more than hopefully of her prospective tour of England. ‘I have been wanting to see the outer world for a long time… I was born in Melbourne— never been outside of Australasia’ “[29]The Daily News (Perth) 30 Jun 1914, P6 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Ivy in England, 1914-1921

Despite not having a pre-arranged contract in London, and arriving only a few days before the outbreak of war, Ivy found work quite quickly in the patriotic themed vaudeville show Europe, that opened at the Empire. Fred Leslie had arrived only a few weeks after Ivy, and the couple introduced the popular “Ju-jitsu” dance they had performed in Australia. By December 1914 the couple were appearing in Birmingham, where the dance was described as “the most astonishing piece of dancing likely to be witnessed…for some time.”[30]Birmingham Daily Gazette, 28 December 1914, P6, via British Library Newspaper Archive Compared to the experiences of so many, Ivy’s transition to working in London was remarkably smooth.

Ivy dropped the spelling of her surname “Schilling” for the more British sounding “Shilling” on arrival – of course she was not the only Australian of German origins to do this at the time. The family of Australia’s leading General of the First World War, John Monash, had done the same.[31]Some went further than a name change. Ivy’s father maintained the pretence he was Irish-born all his life. See Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria. Death Certificate, 1943, Julius Schilling … Continue reading

Ivy and Fred Leslie performing the Ju-jistu dance. Photo by Bassano Ltd,
1914, National Portrait Gallery, UK, Creative Commons Licence.

Ivy’s success on the British stage is well documented. She appeared in British producer Alfred Butt’s production of Irving Berlin’s first musical – Watch Your Step, at the Empire Theatre in 1915, followed by a long run in the musical Betty at Daly’s Theatre. Looking back several years later, she complained that much of 1915 was spent “playing parts and singing” and it was not until 1916 that she was given dancing parts again in Three Cheers. Dancing in this revue was again choreographed by Fred Leslie and he also featured as Ivy’s partner.[32]Theatre,(Sydney) 1 Jan 1921, P1, via State Library of Victoria Variety reported that her dances with Fred Leslie became “the talk of London.”[33]Variety 1 May 1917, P5, via the Internet Archive

She appeared in a short film in 1919 – one of the Around the Town series that now appears to be lost.[34]Kinematograph Weekly (UK) 30 October 1919, P112. Via British Library Newspaper Archive

Ivy Shilling and Fred Leslie in one of their acrobatic dances for Three Cheers, early 1917.[35]The Sketch 21 Feb 1917, P156. Copyright held by Illustrated London News Group. Via British Newspaper Archive

She continued to provide public commentary and posed for endless photos. In 1920 her comment that Jazz was “stupid and vulgar” gained her some attention.[36]Sunday Times (Perth) 4 Jan 1920, P5 via More importantly however, by 1920 she commented on the growing popularity of picture shows. She observed that during the war, audiences of soldiers on leave helped to fill live theatre shows. British theatre historian J P Wearing notes that during London performances of Shanghai in 1918, which was headlined by the newly arrived Australian Dorothy Brunton (1890-1977), in addition to featuring Ivy, Australian soldiers on leave shouted the greeting “Coo-ee” from the stalls.[37]J.P. Wearing (1982), P484, citing The Stage newspaper However, by 1920 tastes had changed. Since the war’s end, Ivy thought London people had “gone crazy over picture shows… so much so that a number of well known theatres had been sold and turned into picture houses.”[38]Daily Telegraph (Syd) 20 Sept 1920, P6, via National Library of Australia’s Trove Of course, it was an observation many performers were making at the time.

In September 1920, Ivy arrived back in Australia on the SS Orsova, with a contract to perform for the Tivoli circuit. As Michelle Potter notes, the contract covered her passage from England and allowed for an extraordinary salary of £100 per week [39]Also on board was Dorothy Brunton, contracted to perform for JC Williamson’s. She received a grand welcome home and journalists clamoured to interview her: “Australia always admired her ability and England has endorsed that opinion” announced Table Talk, approvingly. [40]Table Talk (Melb) 16 Sep 1920 P23 via National Library of Australia’s Trove She appeared with Vera Pearce in Robert Greig’s production of the musical Maggie, followed by a tour in the operetta The Lilac Domino, followed by some variety at the Tivoli.[41]The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 23 May 1921, P3 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In 1921 she teamed with Harold or Leon Kellaway (1897-1990) [42]later known as Leon Jankowsky or simply Jan Koswka, he was the brother of Alec and Cecil Kellaway who would later join her in the US.

Ivy in Australia in 1921. Left – on the cover of Table Talk.[43]Table Talk (Melb) 11 August 1921, P7 via State Library of Victoria Right, advertised dancing with “Harold Kellaway” in 1921 (aka Leon Kellaway) [44]Table Talk (Melb) 25 August 1921, P16, via State Library of Victoria

Also while in Australia, she took a cameo role as a dancer in Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell’s feature The Blue Mountains Mystery. [45]Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1977) P145 When the film was released in the UK, Ivy’s name was prominently listed – she was the best known of the cast for British audiences. Unfortunately, this “society drama” is another lost Australian film.

Ivy arrived back in Britain in November 1921, Kellaway arrived on another ship at about the same time.

Ivy in the US, 1922-1928

After some work in England, in August 1922, Ivy travelled to New York. She had been contracted by producer George Choos (1879-1961) for his new revue The Realm of Fantasy.[46]also known as The Land of Fantasy After an awkward moment with her visa,[47]the Australian quota for entry to the US in August had been filled and Ivy claimed she was unaware of visa requirements. See The Standard Union (New York) 19 Aug 1922, P2 and New York Tribune, 19 Aug … Continue reading Ivy started performing in the show with her partner Leon Kellaway – first in Connecticut and then, very briefly, in New York. But, after only a few days she left the show and was replaced.[48]The Billboard, 23 Sept 1922, P17, via Lantern Digital Media Project US papers gave no indication as to why.

It sounded good, but just didn’t happen. Ivy and Leon “Jenkowski” (fellow Australian Leon Kellaway) advertised in August 1922. [49]Hartford Courant (Connecticut) 27 Aug 1922, P36 via newspapers.com

However, soon after this, Australian newspapers reported rumours of Ivy as having suffered some serious but unspecified injury.[50]The Sporting Globe (Melb) 28 Feb 1923, P9 and The Sun (Syd) 17 Apr 1923, P11 via National Library of Australia’s Trove and finally, a correspondent for Melbourne’s Table Talk saw her in New York, in early 1923. This paper reported that although Ivy was “much thinner… she was expecting to start work again, as her leg was nearly right.” [51]Table Talk (Melb) 22 March 1923, P32 For someone who knew how to generate publicity for good effect, Ivy’s silence about the dance injury she sustained suggests it was much more serious than ever acknowledged.

Most significantly, there does not appear to be any evidence she danced professionally again.

After a brief return to England in 1923, Ivy went back to the US, but this time, it was reportedly to pursue a film career in Hollywood.

Ivy in late 1923. Off to be filmed in Hollywood, according to British and US newspapers.[52]Left – Sunday Illustrated, 21 Oct 1923, P10, via British Newspaper Archive. Right – Billboard, 23 Nov 1923, via Lantern Digital Media Project

Ivy ended up staying in Hollywood for about five years, although there is no evidence she appeared in any films. This is also no indication how she supported herself in the comfortable bungalow she lived in at 1424 Orange Grove Avenue. Reports show she mixed in with the large British film colony, and with Australians – becoming a close friend of Enid Bennett, and her sisters Marjorie and Catherine. By 1925, she was also associated romantically with Canadian-born producer Charles Christie (1882-1955). In April 1925, Photoplay reported that a wedding announcement for the couple was expected “any day.”[53]Photoplay, Vol XXVII, April 1925, P17, via Lantern Digital Media project It would be easy to dismiss these stories as the usual creative Hollywood gossip, however shipping manifests show Ivy and Charles travelling back to the US on the SS Paris in October 1925, after a holiday in Europe together, including a visit to London’s Piccadilly Hotel. This seems to confirm a close personal association.[54]Ship’s manifest SS Paris, 7-14 October 1925, US National Archives via Ancestry.com

Ivy (second from right) in California in early 1928, surrounded by Hollywood celebrities [55]Daily News (New York) 26 Feb 1928, P375

Ivy retires from the stage

However, Charles Christie and Ivy did not marry. In mid 1928 she left California for a trip to Australia, accompanying Enid Bennett’s mother on the voyage. Ivy explained later that her trip was a personal one to see family, although there was considerable speculation she would perform again.[56]Everyone’s (Aust) 25 July 1928, P48. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove She returned to London on the Otranto in late 1928 and from then on, made England her home.

In January 1932, Ivy married Australian-born Harley Street surgeon, John Ryan, in London. She announced she was retiring, although she had not been active on stage for ten years. What she really meant was that she was retiring from public life. She died in London on April 8, 1972, following a stroke.[57]UK General Register Office, Death Certificate, Ivy May Ryan, 8 April 1972.

Ivy married surgeon John Ryan in 1932. [58]Daily Mirror, 21 Jan 1932. P24. Via British Newspaper Acrhive

Nick Murphy
February 2023

References

Special Thanks

  • Claudia Funder, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne

National Library of Australia, Canberra -The Papers of Ivy Shilling 1904-1930

State Library of New South Wales, Sydney – The Papers of Fred Leslie 1882-1965

  • The Mitchell Library has Fred Leslie’s papers. At the time of writing these had not been consulted.
    J.A Wells account of Leslie’s life makes reference to this collection – MLMSS 7077/Boxes 1, 2X-8X

Text

  • Bemrose, Anna (2006) Australasian Drama Studies, Apr 2006; “The Boy from Mount Gambier: Robert Helpmann’s Early Career in Australia (1917-1932)” Via Proquest.
  • Paul Cliff (2000) The Endless Playground: Celebrating Australian Childhood. National Library of Australia.
  • Veronica Kelly (2013) Popular Entertainment Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 24-49. “Come Over Here! The Local Hybridisation of International ‘Ragtime Revues’ in Australia.” School of Drama, Fine Art and Music, Faculty of Education & Arts, The University of Newcastle, Australia.
  • Hal Porter (1965) Stars of Australian Stage and Screen. Rigby Ltd.
  • Michelle Potter (2005) National Library of Australia News, “The Papers of Ivy Schilling” 1 Feb 2005, P12-14. Via Informit.
  • Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1977) Australian Film 1900-1977, A Guide to Feature Film Production. Oxford University Press.
  • Eric Reade (1975) The Australian Screen. Lansdowne Press.
  • J.P. Wearing (1982) The London Stage, 1910-1919 : A Calendar of Plays and Players. Scarecrow Press 1982

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

Web

This site has been selected for archiving and preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Victoria, Births, Deaths and Marriages. Birth certificate 26916/1892
↑2 Julius and Louisa and Ivy’s brother Royal occupied the home for many years. It was later converted to apartments, and continues as this today
↑3 She attended South Yarra State School. See Prahran Chronicle (Vic) 14 Dec 1901, P3 and Prahran Chronicle (Vic) 16 Dec 1905 P3, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑4 Michelle Potter (2005). A variant childhood story was that her mother was keen for her to take up piano. See West Bridgeford Advertiser 27 April 1918, P4 via British Library Newspaper Archive
↑5 The Bendigo Independent (Vic.) 16 May 1906, P1, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑6 Potter states her first stage appearance was in a Mother Goose panto
↑7 See for example The Darling Downs Gazette (Qld.), 29 Jun 1909, P8 via Trove and Takanaki Herald 26 August 1909 P3 via National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past
↑8 See for example Evening News (Syd), 26 Sep 1910, P2 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑9 Table Talk, 18 July 1912, P19 via State Library of Victoria
↑10 Table Talk, 23 Jan 1913, P23 via State Library of Victoria
↑11 Punch (Melb) 2 March 1911. P24 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑12 E W Hornung (1890) A Bride from the Bush via Project Gutenburg, P107
↑13 The Sun (Syd) 17 March 1911, P12, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑14 Sun (Syd) 23 March 1911, P1 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑15 See Eric Reade, P47
↑16 The Sydney Morning Herald 13 Mar 1911, P11 and National Advocate (NSW) 31 Mar 1911 P2 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑17 Table Talk, 6 April, 1911 P1, via State Library of Victoria.
↑18 The Bendigo Advertiser, 10 April 1911, P1 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑19 It transpired the shark was dead. The Sun (Syd) 21 Feb 1912, P6 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑20 National Advocate (NSW) 21 Feb 1912, P4 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑21 Australian Stage Pictorial, April 1913, P56, Via State Library of Victoria
↑22 The Sun (Syd) 25 May, 1913, P15 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑23 Watt was a well known society figure and had been aide-de-camp to the state governor. For reporting see numerous articles on National Library of Australia’s Trove, including Australasian (Melb) 21 June, 1913, P34
↑24 Theatre, 1 Jan 1914, P23 Via State Library of Victoria
↑25 Known as the “Harvester Judgement,” the basic wage was intended to set the living wage an unskilled labourer and dependent family would need
↑26 For more on this, see Veronica Kelly (2013)
↑27 Referee (Syd) 24 Dec 1913, P15 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑28 Anna Bemrose (2006) P50
↑29 The Daily News (Perth) 30 Jun 1914, P6 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑30 Birmingham Daily Gazette, 28 December 1914, P6, via British Library Newspaper Archive
↑31 Some went further than a name change. Ivy’s father maintained the pretence he was Irish-born all his life. See Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria. Death Certificate, 1943, Julius Schilling 10555 / 1943
↑32 Theatre,(Sydney) 1 Jan 1921, P1, via State Library of Victoria
↑33 Variety 1 May 1917, P5, via the Internet Archive
↑34 Kinematograph Weekly (UK) 30 October 1919, P112. Via British Library Newspaper Archive
↑35 The Sketch 21 Feb 1917, P156. Copyright held by Illustrated London News Group. Via British Newspaper Archive
↑36 Sunday Times (Perth) 4 Jan 1920, P5 via
↑37 J.P. Wearing (1982), P484, citing The Stage newspaper
↑38 Daily Telegraph (Syd) 20 Sept 1920, P6, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑39 Also on board was Dorothy Brunton, contracted to perform for JC Williamson’s.
↑40 Table Talk (Melb) 16 Sep 1920 P23 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑41 The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 23 May 1921, P3 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑42 later known as Leon Jankowsky or simply Jan Koswka, he was the brother of Alec and Cecil Kellaway
↑43 Table Talk (Melb) 11 August 1921, P7 via State Library of Victoria
↑44 Table Talk (Melb) 25 August 1921, P16, via State Library of Victoria
↑45 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1977) P145
↑46 also known as The Land of Fantasy
↑47 the Australian quota for entry to the US in August had been filled and Ivy claimed she was unaware of visa requirements. See The Standard Union (New York) 19 Aug 1922, P2 and New York Tribune, 19 Aug 1922, P4
↑48 The Billboard, 23 Sept 1922, P17, via Lantern Digital Media Project
↑49 Hartford Courant (Connecticut) 27 Aug 1922, P36 via newspapers.com
↑50 The Sporting Globe (Melb) 28 Feb 1923, P9 and The Sun (Syd) 17 Apr 1923, P11 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑51 Table Talk (Melb) 22 March 1923, P32
↑52 Left – Sunday Illustrated, 21 Oct 1923, P10, via British Newspaper Archive. Right – Billboard, 23 Nov 1923, via Lantern Digital Media Project
↑53 Photoplay, Vol XXVII, April 1925, P17, via Lantern Digital Media project
↑54 Ship’s manifest SS Paris, 7-14 October 1925, US National Archives via Ancestry.com
↑55 Daily News (New York) 26 Feb 1928, P375
↑56 Everyone’s (Aust) 25 July 1928, P48. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑57 UK General Register Office, Death Certificate, Ivy May Ryan, 8 April 1972.
↑58 Daily Mirror, 21 Jan 1932. P24. Via British Newspaper Acrhive

Snub Pollard, the jobbing extra, writes to his family

Above: Snub Pollard in 1937. He made over 600 film and TV appearances between 1915 and 1962. Many of those made after the coming of sound were as an uncredited player. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Snub Pollard with two unnamed female friends in San Francisco, 1937. He sent this photo to his nephew in Australia. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Snub Pollard, born Harold Fraser in North Melbourne, Australia, in 1889, enjoyed a very long career on stage and in the US cinema.(See more about his professional life here) At the height of his success as a film comedian, he returned to Australia on a two month visit in 1923. He was well established at the Hal Roach studio, and told an Australian newspaper that he had a contract with Roach until 1927. Everything seemed to be going well. He was newly married, financially secure – to such an extent he could spend £2000 on a new house in Carlton for his mother.[1]He also paid for her to visit California the following year

Most of his letters home, surviving at the Australian Performing Arts Collection in Melbourne, are addressed to his brother George or to his nephew, also named Harold, who lived in Portarlington, a pretty seaside town south of Melbourne. The collection of letters mostly date from after this visit home, from the 1930s -1950s, by which time he was appearing in supporting or uncredited roles. His letters give no hints about his change in fortunes – the transition from being a major silent screen comedian of the early 1920s to jobbing extra [2]an actor who is taking any work to maintain their career is never mentioned. The correspondence is too late to cover the mid 1920s when Snub left Roach and set up his own production company, which then failed. However, there are other insights to be had from reading his correspondence.

Snub Pollard returns to Australia. At left is Snub and his new wife meeting the head of Amalgamated Pictures in Melbourne. At right, Snub greeted on arrival by his large extended family.[3]Table Talk, 22 March 1923, via State Library of Victoria

This writer has often wondered how strongly expat Australians working in Hollywood and Britain identified with their new cultural contexts and whether they maintained any sort of Australian identity. The evidence in the correspondence is that although Snub became a US citizen, he still regarded himself as an Australian and Australia as “home”. When he watched US newsreel footage showing the catastrophic 1939 bushfires near Melbourne, he said he felt homesick,[4]Australian Performing Arts Collection, Pollard collection, Letter 24 March 1939 when he went swimming or enjoyed the hot weather [5]APAC, Letter 25 May 1939 he thought it was because he was Australian. He said he read Australian newspapers at the RKO studios to keep up with the news.[6]APAC, Letter 25 May 1939

Snub’s trip home in 1923 remained a powerful memory. The very joyful time spent with brother George and his family at Portarlington seems to stayed with him for the rest of his life.“…Portarlington has a warm spot in my heart” he wrote.[7]APAC, Letter 18 September 1939 Even as late as 1949, he expressed his desire to visit again, “then we will all go swimming together” [8]APAC, Letter 17 February 1949 but soon after he complained that there were now no longer direct ships between California and Australia, “so that’s that” – meaning it was too much effort to travel to Vancouver to catch one.[9]APAC, Letter 14 March 1949

Snub posted a number of film publicity photos home to his nephew, including this one showing him in drag and without his trademark mustache. Unfortunately there is no notation as to what this film is. Australian Performing Arts Collection.

As might be expected, the topics covered in his letters include the mundane, like the weather in Los Angeles and how the seasons in California are the opposite to Australia’s, the opening of the baseball season, and comments about horse racing – a shared family interest that went back to Snub’s father. He also loved receiving family photos and regularly asked for more. He often listed the other family members he had just written to – it’s clear he took his family correspondence seriously.

Only sometimes does professional news feature in Snub’s letters, but several observations can be made from what he wrote. Westerns seem to have given him greatest pleasure; he mentions appearing in films with cowboy stars like Bob Steele and Tex Ritter and occasionally he mentioned the film titles by name. However, he worried that these Westerns might not be shown in Australian cinemas and therefore his family may not see them. Although he did not say so, these Westerns were second features, made quickly and on small budgets, usually with a running time of 60 minutes.

A photo sent home to Snub’s nephew in Australia. Tex Ritter with sometime sidekick Snub aka Peewee Pollard, cowboy stars of the late 1930s. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Interviewed in 1973, Tex Ritter seemed to suggest he had a role in Snub’s appearance as his sidekick in a dozen of his westerns made between 1936 and 1938. “I had seen Snub in his own little comedies when I was a kid. He was always one of my favourite comedians when I was growing up…I convinced them to put the old mustache back on him because a lot of people my age would remember him.”[10]John Booker (2017) The Happiest Trails. P142-3. Ent Books. The interview was conducted by Grant Lockhart during Tex Ritter’s last UK tour in May 1973

The film Snub mentioned most often in letters sent during the period 1943-44 is the Pete Smith film Self Defence, one of a string of 10 minute comedy shorts made at MGM.[11]APAC postcards, 12 June 1943, 26 May 1944, 21 June 1944, 4 Nov 1944 Unfortunately, it appears to be lost, although other Smith shorts have survived. Snub makes the point in one letter that as an extra, he didn’t really know how good his part would be until he started work on the picture.[12]APAC Letter 14 March 1949 This may explain why he appears to have little awareness of the significance of some of the films he appeared in – such as the now classic sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still, in 1951 or the musical Singin’ in the Rain in 1952. In May 1948, he wrote of working on a Bing Crosby film for two weeks in San Francisco, although what this was seems difficult to identify now – possibly it was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. [13]APAC Letter 15 May 1948

Snub Pollard without makeup. c1940s. Australian Performing Arts Collection

One of the most significant matters alluded to by Snub was his involvement in the Screen Extras Guild, an association he joined in the later 1940s. [14]APAC Letter 23 March 1949 He was on the board of directors of the Guild by March 1949 and remained so for at least ten years, in company with another Australian actor, perennial Hollywood butler William H O’Brien.[15]Valley Times (CA) 14 Jul 1952, P4 via newspapers.com While there is no evidence his politics were as radical as those of another famous Australian-born unionist in the US, Harry Bridges of the International Longshoremen’s Association, the activities of the SEG were designed to protect the rights of worker members who might otherwise easily be exploited. SEG’s efforts included demanding health and welfare benefits for extras [16]Los Angeles Times, 1 June 1955, P16. via newspapers.com and refusing compromising conditions to employment.[17]The Fresno Bee (CA) 24 March 1949 via newspapers.com Snub’s first travel in a commercial aircraft was on SEG business in 1949. He wrote about the experience at some length and posted the United Airlines information packet home to his nephew.

The technology Snub often wrote about in the later 1940s was television – as he was beginning to be employed in TV shows and started to see his old comedies replayed. He seemed to have lived in hope that the new medium might see him making comedies again in his old makeup, and he wrote that he had some good proposals. Television in Australia was still being planned when he wrote to his nephew to explain how the exciting new medium worked: “you sure will like it. After dinner you go in your front room, turn on the television set and see all the pictures you want to, even Snub Pollard comedies.” [18]APAC letter 4 Jan, 1952 “Yes television over here is great I see a lot of my old comedies…”[19]APAC Letter 15 (possibly) July 1952 Television began in Australia in late 1956, when to fill screen time, Australian TV stations no doubt turned to the readily available work of silent comedians like Snub.

A photo sent to Australia in the early 1950s. On the back Snub wrote “this is… from a television picture I was in recently. What do you think of the girl?” What the TV program was, remains unknown. Australian Performing Arts Collection.

Of Snub’s personal life, the surviving letters tell us only a little. After the Second World War he lodged with old friends, including a director of some of his old comedies.[20]But he does not say who the ex director was. APAC Letter 13 May 1949 He spent Christmas and festive occasions with friends and still received fan mail. He had married three times, but by 1944 could assure his family he was no longer married and by 1946 had apparently decided he wanted to stay single.[21]APAC Postcards 30 Sept 1944 and 30 April 1946

Occasionally Snub sent small gifts home in a parcel – combs and pens. He also sometimes posted the comic sections of US newspapers to his nephew, and forwarded on postcards he had been sent by fans, that tickled his fancy. Several of these were fairly risqué for the time, and might tell us something about Snub’s own sense of humour.

A 1948 postcard that had been sent to Snub by a US fan with the annotation “Im wondering about your trip here last year” and sent on to his Australian nephew. “Sure is a funny one” Snub added. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Snub Pollard did not return again to see his family, but stayed in California.[22]Several Australian newspapers announced he had returned for a performance tour in 1931, however, there is no other evidence of this Although he never stated it directly, there is a sense of regret about this in his letters. However, he had spent most of his life at a remove from his family – first travelling the world with the Pollard child performers, then with older ex-pollard players, and then in Hollywood, which had more than a sprinkling of former Australian vaudevillians amongst them. Snub worked almost to the time of his death in 1962.

Snub Pollard on a holiday, late in life. c1950s. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne

NOTE 1

The collection consist of postcards, photos, Christmas cards and letters, the majority are dated between 1939 and 1953. Correspondence from the war years are all postcards. The recipient of most is Harold Fraser, the son of Snub’s older brother George. The Australian Performing Arts Collection purchased this collection in the early 1990s. As noted, Snub wrote to all his family, and we must assume this is only a partial record.

Thanks

  • Claudia Funder, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne, who convinced me to leaf through their Snub Pollard Collection.
  • Kevin Summers and Geoffrey Wright, whose patient persistence demonstrated that I was wrong and Snub Pollard did indeed appear as a taxi driver in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Further Reading

  • John Booker (2017) The Happiest Trails. P142-3. Ent Books.
  • Kevin Brownlow (1968) The Parade’s Gone By… University of California Press.
  • Ted Holland (1989) B western actors encyclopedia; Facts, photos and filmographies for more than 250 familiar faces. McFarland & Co
  • Kalton C Lahue and Sam Gill (1970) Clown princes and court jesters. Some great comics of the silent screen. A S Barnes
  • Brent Walker (2013) “Mack Sennett’s Fun Factory: A History and Filmography of his Studio and His Keystone and Mack Sennett Comedies, with Biographies of Players and Personnel” McFarland & Co
  • Matthew Ross. Lost Laugh Magazine, Number 13.

This site has been selected for preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 He also paid for her to visit California the following year
↑2 an actor who is taking any work to maintain their career
↑3 Table Talk, 22 March 1923, via State Library of Victoria
↑4 Australian Performing Arts Collection, Pollard collection, Letter 24 March 1939
↑5, ↑6 APAC, Letter 25 May 1939
↑7 APAC, Letter 18 September 1939
↑8 APAC, Letter 17 February 1949
↑9 APAC, Letter 14 March 1949
↑10 John Booker (2017) The Happiest Trails. P142-3. Ent Books. The interview was conducted by Grant Lockhart during Tex Ritter’s last UK tour in May 1973
↑11 APAC postcards, 12 June 1943, 26 May 1944, 21 June 1944, 4 Nov 1944
↑12 APAC Letter 14 March 1949
↑13 APAC Letter 15 May 1948
↑14 APAC Letter 23 March 1949
↑15 Valley Times (CA) 14 Jul 1952, P4 via newspapers.com
↑16 Los Angeles Times, 1 June 1955, P16. via newspapers.com
↑17 The Fresno Bee (CA) 24 March 1949 via newspapers.com
↑18 APAC letter 4 Jan, 1952
↑19 APAC Letter 15 (possibly) July 1952
↑20 But he does not say who the ex director was. APAC Letter 13 May 1949
↑21 APAC Postcards 30 Sept 1944 and 30 April 1946
↑22 Several Australian newspapers announced he had returned for a performance tour in 1931, however, there is no other evidence of this

Tempe Pigott (1867-1962)-the busy Hollywood character actor

Above: Tempe Pigott playing a charwoman, in the early technicolor film Becky Sharpe, 1935. She was 68 years old and well and truly typecast.
The 5 second version.
Florence Edith Tempe Pigott was aged almost 50 when she arrived in the US in mid 1916, an unusually late start in life for an Australian actor interested in working overseas. She was born on a remote Queensland pastoral station in 1867 but had lived most of her early life comfortably in Brisbane. A teacher of elocution and long active in amateur theatre, she started professional work in about 1907. (See Note 1 below regarding her birth)

Tempe went on to be one of the busiest Australian actor exports of her generation. But when she died in California in 1962, her death certificate recorded very few details accurately. It listed her birthplace as England and gave her date of birth as 2 February 1884. Without family to correct details the real story of her remarkable career – with more than 70 film credits and numerous stage appearances, has been obscured. She was to be typecast for her entire Hollywood career. Speaking disparagingly of film producers, she once said ‘When they want a drunken fishwife, they know where to apply.‘[1]The Wireless Weekly, 2 Oct 1936, P11, Via National Library of Australia’s Trove


Above: Tempe Pigott, while performing in Melbourne in 1912.[2]Table Talk, 18 July 1912. Via State Library of Victoria

Tempe’s remote Australian birth

Florence Edith Tempe Pigott was born at Auburn station, about 450 kms north-west of Brisbane,[3]in Australia, a station means a large pastoral lease running livestock – like a ranch in North America in the Burnett district in Queensland, on 2 February 1867. Tempe was therefore 84 years old when she appeared in her last recorded film in 1951 and about 95 when she died in 1962. (See Note 1 below regarding her birth)

Tempe’s father was pastoralist[4]in Australia the word “Squatter” is also used Peter J Pigott, her mother was Lydia nee Clarke, the daughter of well known Queensland architect Francis Clarke. While working life on pastoral leases like Auburn was hard, the profits to be made were significant. Pigott could afford to go on an extended trip to England and Ireland in the mid 1860s, but when his business partner J M Murphy died in an accident, he hurried home.[5]Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld) 28 Apr 1863, P3 and Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld)1 Mar 1865, P2 Via National Library of Australia’s … Continue reading The frontier of Tempe’s birth was also notoriously violent. Records of catastrophic clashes with Indigenous Australians do not mention Pigott or Auburn station, but they are found in nearby localities at this time. Another significant feature of life on properties like Auburn was its remoteness. Today, the nearest town is Chinchilla – comprising 6,500 people and about 100 kms to the south. However, when Pigott took up his lease at Auburn, Chinchilla did not exist, and Maryborough, 300 kms to the east was the nearest big town.

Photos of Auburn station are elusive. This shows the main homestead sometime in the 1920s. State Library of Queensland.[6]Auburn Station homestead. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Life in Brisbane

Peter J Pigott died in November 1870 aged only 49, and soon after Lydia took her children back to Brisbane.[7]Like Tempe’s birth certificate, Peter Pigott’s death certificate remains elusive. However, his death notice appeared in The Brisbane Courier (Qld), 14 Nov 1870, P 2. Via National Library … Continue reading In 1874 Lydia married William Horsley, a merchant and Brisbane broker. Brisbane was a growing city but in 1900 its population of 120,000 was still only a quarter the size of the other major east coast cities – Melbourne and Sydney. Consequently its theatre scene was smaller and opportunities for those keen to pursue the stage were limited. Tempe’s first recorded appearance in amateur theatre was in a charity performance of the comedy New Men and Old Acres, in June 1885.

Tempe was 18 when she appeared in this Brisbane charity performance in 1885.[8]The Brisbane Courier,(Qld) 9 June 1885, P1. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In later interviews with journalists, Tempe revealed other aspects of her Brisbane life as a young adult. She said she was an accomplished tennis player, having become amateur women’s champion of Queensland. She was also a recreational rifle shooter, and had taken up women’s rowing. She also painted watercolours in her spare time.[9]Australian Town and Country Journal (Syd) 20 May 1914, P26 via National Library of Australia’s Trove While electoral rolls for the early 1900s listed her as a typist, we also know she taught elocution in Brisbane, advertising her services in local papers in 1904 and 1905 – a 14 week course cost 25 shillings. By this time she was living at a rather grand, gothic style, private hotel called Riversleigh on Brisbane’s North Quay, although her mother and step-father lived only a few streets away.

Tempe, not in character in a photo possibly taken when she was aged in her 30s.[10]Melbourne Punch, 11 July 1912 State Library of Victoria

Elocution and the theatre

In addition to making her own income, as the daughter of a successful pastoralist and step-daughter of a wealthy businessman, she would also have had a healthy degree of financial freedom and she certainly enjoyed connections with Brisbane’s elite. When 29 year old Tempe attended the Governor’s Ball in 1896, her attendance and attire was duly noted, [11]The Brisbane Courier (Qld.) 12 Sep 1896 P6 via National Library of Australia’s Trove and when she visited friends in Warwick or Gympie, the newspapers reported her “holidaying” in their social pages. Even when she returned to Australia in 1936 after 20 years in the US, she was still well enough connected to be invited to society events where “anecdotes of Hollywood were very much in demand”[12]The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Sept 1936, P7 via National Library of Australia’s Trove – these included afternoon tea with Sydney’s Lady Mayoress and friends.[13]The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 15 Sept 1936, P9, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In his study of selected character actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Axel Nissan respectfully describes Tempe as ‘the Eternal Landlady’ [14]See Axel Nissen: Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland & Co, 2016 and that is indeed, the way we see her in many of her surviving films.[15]Although the available film role databases also list her by less flattering titles – such as ‘Old woman/Old Hag/Old Crone/Charwoman/Flower seller etc It appears she began to appear in these types of roles while performing in Australia.

Tempe playing a maid in the farce, A Dead Shot, a fundraiser for the Roma School of Arts in 1888.[16]Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Qld.) 2 June 1888
P3 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

At some stage in 1907, Tempe started to appear in professional performances. The first was probably with the Lillian Meyers Company – touring Australian cities and towns with a variety of drama and comedies. Thanks to her skill in elocution, she increasingly took on important character roles. For example, in Hobart in January 1908, in a new play about the ever popular Kelly Gang, she took the supporting role of Ned Kelly’s Irish mother, Ellen. Ellen Kelly was still alive at the time, and the Kelly story still resonated so strongly with Australians that it had been made into a feature film only a few years before.[17]Mercury (Tas) 2 Jan 1908, P7, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Tempe’s character roles on the Australian stage included (left) Cora the maid in the comedy The Man on the Box, and (right) Scottish nurse Christine Grant in Nobody’s Daughter.[18]Melbourne Punch (Vic), 28 Aug 1913, P21 and Telegraph (Qld) 11 Nov 1911, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

By 1911, she was now touring with the Hamilton-Plimmer-Denniston Company, in the comedy-drama Nobody’s Daughter, alternating with the comedy Lover’s Lane. In the latter, Tempe formed part of a “splendid gallery of portraiture” – which, after all, was the task of a character actor.[19]Table Talk (Vic) 13 Jul 1911, P21 via National Library of Australia’s Trove Tempe’s role as the old Scottish nurse Christine Grant in Nobody’s Daughter received very good reviews.

By 1912 Tempe was in regular work on the Australian stage, often performing for Sydney’s Little Theatre, between longer seasons at larger east coast theatres. However we gain some sense of why better paid overseas work may have been attractive from her surviving JC Williamson’s contract for the patriotic play The Man Who Stayed at Home. Her July 1915 contract was for the very modest sum of £6 per week, the equivalent perhaps of $600 in 2021 money.[20]Tempe Pigott, JC Williamson Ltd Contract, 23 July 1915, courtesy Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne

In late April 1916, the Sydney Little Theatre farewelled her after a final performance in Hindle Wakes.[21]Sydney Morning Herald, 29 April 1916, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

As the nasty gossip Mrs Candour, in School for Scandal, at Sydney’s Little Theatre in 1914. [22]The Sydney Mail (Syd) 17 Jun 1914, P15 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Work in the US

In May 1916, Tempe boarded the SS Sierra for the US. Her travelling companion was Marie Irvine, a Brisbane journalist. Although it was now wartime and the usual reporting about an Australian actor travelling overseas to take on the world was muted, her hometown paper, the Brisbane Courier reported “Miss Pigott ranks with the best artists the Australian stage possesses…This esteemed artist cannot possibly fail to make a name in America…”[23]Brisbane Courier 13 May, 1916, P12, via National Library of Australia’s Trove.

The passenger manifest makes it clear her destination was New York and she seems to have succeeded in finding work soon after arrival. From late 1916 Tempe can be found in the cast lists of several plays touring US cities. The first of these was Peg O’ My Heart – where she took the role of the English Mrs Chichester, who educates a young New York girl to be a lady, in return for a large portion of an inheritance – a Pygmalion style story. The next four years of effort on the US stage, including a short season of Perkins in New York in 1918, finally saw her in Los Angeles, performing at the Writer’s Club.

Like so many of her contemporaries, the actual reasoning for Tempe’s move to the US had been a career and financial decision. And of Hollywood she said; “It was quite natural that I should gravitate towards Hollywood… More money may be made in a day in pictures than in a week on the stage; so, naturally, everyone is attracted to film work.”[24]The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 1936, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove All the same, as this writer has indicated, there is some likelihood Tempe had inherited some additional financial security.

Her first film was apparently the Famous Players Lasky’s The Great Impersonation, released in 1921, probably a lost film, although in interviews she nominated other films as her first, including Behold My Wife (1920).

58 year old Tempe Pigott, listed as a female character actor, in the Standard Casting Directory of 1925.[25]Standard Casting Directory, Feb 1925, via Lantern Digital Media Archive and the Internet Archive

Alex Nissan, who seems to have gone to the effort of finding and watching much of her work, writes: “in films there has to be someone to open the door and say so and so is calling, or make a drunken spectacle of themselves in a pub… Such an actress was Tempe Pigott.“[26]Nissan, 2016, Chapter 25 All the same, definitive commentary about her thirty years of work in film is difficult, insofar as she sometimes played such minor character roles and her appearance is fleeting.

Tempe in one of her fleeting roles – as Mrs Hudson, Sherlock Holmes’ landlady, in A Study in Scarlett (1933)[27]screengrab from a copy on youtube

There is also the problem of mis-identification of Tempe, given that she was undoubtedly made up to look as aged and careworn as possible in many of her films. For example, the current version of the IMDB illustrates her profile with a photo that is arguably Dorothy Phillips made-up as an older woman.[28]See Photoplay July-Dec 1925. Via Lantern Digital Media Library & The Internet Archive

An unusually well-lit Tempe, as McTeague’s mother in Erich von Stroheim’s Greed (1924)[29]Screengrab from copy at the Internet Archive
Tempe as the maid to Princess Isobel (Billie Dove), in The Black Pirate , a two colour Technicolour action film featuring Douglas Fairbanks(1926)[30]Screengrab from copy at the Internet Archive

Some available examples of Tempe’s film work are linked in the references section below. Nissan notes that the earlier 1930s were a busy time for her,[31]she appeared in at least 35 films in 1930-36 and she made the transition to sound films successfully, when so many did not. Commenting on this herself on her return to Australia in 1936-7, Tempe suggested this was partly thanks to her expertise in elocution. “So much depends not only on the voice but on the pronunciation.” The journalist reported that Tempe ” had a beautiful speaking voice, fine diction and an easy manner…”[32]Telegraph, (Qld) 2 March 1937. P6. via National Library of Australia’s Trove “Talkies came upon us so suddenly…and it was pathetic to watch the falling of so many of the stars. Many of the women, and the men, too, merely had beautiful faces; often they could not speak English at all. If they did, it was sometimes harsh English, which could never be corrected.”[33]The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 1936, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove She had gone to some effort to avoid picking up an American accent, she said.[34]Wireless Weekly (Aust) 2 Oct, 1936, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove As her surviving sound films illustrate, her voice skills were particularly notable in a variety of British accents.

Tempe as Mrs Haggerty in the home front film Seven Days Leave (1930) [35]Screengrab from copy at the Internet Archive

Not all of her screen appearances were fleeting. Her extended supporting role as one of the working class London women in the Gary Cooper vehicle Seven Days Leave (1930), gained positive reviews – the film is based on J.M. Barrie’s bitter-sweet play The Old Lady Shows Her Medals. Some of her shorter appearances are still of characters important in film narratives – such as nurse Mrs Corney, who steals the ring from Oliver’s mother in Oliver Twist (1933), thus setting in train the series of events that make the story.

Tempe, with the castor oil bottle and Douglas Scott as Oscar in Night Work (1930).[36]Screengrab from copy at the Internet Archive

Tempe’s voice can be heard in this example from Night Work (1930), where she plays Clara the nurse, determined to give young Oscar his castor oil, enlisting Mr Musher (Eddie Quillan) to help.[37]Source – copy at the Internet Archive

Tempe also appeared in a role of substance in the very successful 1933 Fox film Cavalcade, based on a play by Noël Coward. A film in the style of the Forsyte Saga and Upstairs Downstairs, it was one of a string of Hollywood films that romanticized all things English, while also celebrating the challenges and successes of family life. It won several Academy Awards – for best Picture, best Director (Frank Lloyd) and best Art Direction. Alongside Tempe was fellow Australian Billy Bevan, also playing a role that required a working class English accent – something Hollywood studios often called upon Australians to perform.

A posed still of the main cast of the hugely successful Cavalcade (1933). A smiling Tempe (as Mrs Snapper) is standing at left rear.[38]Cinemundial, June 1933, P331, Via Lantern Digital Medial Library & the Internet Archive

Tempe returned to Australia for a visit in August 1936. She stayed on for about seven months, living with her cousins (on her mother’s side) at their comfortable home at Sydney’s Darling Point. She was widely interviewed for radio and newspapers, and gave talks at society events. She gave at least one radio performance as Sairey Gamp (a character from Charles Dicken’s Martin Chuzzlewit) for ABC radio. She even expressed a hope that she might appear in an Australian film. But she didn’t. She returned to Hollywood in March 1937. Unfortunately, given her age, she was stopped on return to the US. She was an alien (a non-US citizen), and was given a class “B” medical certificate, probably because her age (stated to be 68 but really 70) might normally suggest she would be unable to earn a living. However, in the end, the US accepted her, perhaps after some assurances from her agent or a studio.

Tempe in The White Angel (1936) – a creative telling of the Florence Nightingale.[39]Truth (Syd) 16 Aug 1936, P35, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Did she lose her “currency” in the time she was away from Hollywood? It is difficult to be certain, but her film ouput seems to have slowed on her return to Hollywood. Her 30 year film career finally came to a close with a tiny role in the 1951 Douglas Sirk crime drama Thunder on the Hill, when she was aged 84, and again playing an “old crone,” according to the cast list at the IMDB.

Two key documents we might expect would help cast some light on Tempe’s later life are at least partly erroneous. As Alex Nissan notes, the 1940 US census shows Tempe was a lodger in a house in the heart of Hollywood by this time, and had only earned $500 in the year before the census.[40]Nissan, 2016, Chapter 25 But the document also gives her place of birth as England, and her age as 56. Her 1962 death certificate also stated she was an Englishwoman, born on 2 Feb 1884. In fact, she was 95 years old when she died. The certificate also reveals that she had broken her hip in a fall not long before her death.

Tempe (as a beggar) with fellow Australian C Montague Shaw in costume for The Pilgrimage Play (1950).[41]Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, 15 July 1950, P3, via Newspapers.com

We might view Tempe Pigott as another victim of Hollywood casting practices, however she also appears to have been quite conscious of what the studios required and was a willing participant in the transaction – and after all, she had returned to the US to do more of it in 1937. During her visit home to Australia she repeatedly said that Hollywood had a policy of “typing” actors. She alluded to an unnamed acquaintance [42]possibly fellow Australian William H O’Brien who was only ever offered butler roles. Because of this practice of typecasting she would never be offered “a grand dame to play”[43]Daily Telegraph (Syd) 4 Aug 1913, P12 via National Library of Australia’s Trove. But this appears not to have concerned her, as such grand dame parts were “very thankless… You just sail about” she observed.[44]Wireless Weekly (Aust) 2 Oct, 1936, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

To the best of this writer’s knowledge Tempe did not marry[45]her death certificate states she was a widow, but no record of a marriage has come to light and she had no children. US papers reported her death in California in 1962, but remarkable though her very long career was, her passing was completely overlooked in Australia. She really should not have been so easily forgotten in her country of birth.

Note 1. The mystery of Tempe’s birth

There is no surviving Queensland birth certificate for Florence Edith Tempe Pigott, or if one exists, it has been mis-identified. While that was unusual in the Australian colonies, it is not unknown. But we know the details of her birth with a high degree of certainty from several other sources:
1. When she was born on 2 February 1867, her parents announced the birth of their (as yet unnamed) daughter in a prominent position in a number of major Australian newspapers, in New South Wales and Queensland, in February 1867.[46]The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Feb 1867, P1 and The Brisbane Courier, 15 Feb, 1867, P2. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

2. And on Tempe’s mother Lydia’s death certificate from 1912 (by now Lydia Horsley), her three surviving children from her first marriage to Peter J Pigott were clearly named, with their ages. This again confirms Tempe as the child born in 1867.

Enlargement of part of Lydia Horsley’s 1912 death certificate showing her 3 surviving adult children, including Tempe.

3. Also of interest, Tempe’s younger sibling Madaline, born in October 1868, did not have a birth certificate issued until 1871, confirming that the family were not very observant of obligations to complete official paperwork – but perhaps their isolation was also to blame.(On Madaline’s birth certificate Tempe is listed as a 3 year old) And as noted, there is no death certificate for Tempe’s father, Peter J Pigott, who died on 2 November 1870, while seeking treatment for an unspecified ailment. The absence of a death certificate is unusual.

Nick Murphy
December 2022

References

Primary Sources

  • Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne.
  • National Archives of Australia
  • Ancestry.com
  • Queensland; Births, Deaths & Marriages
  • California, Department of Public Health
  • Lantern, Digital Media Project at the Internet Archive
  • National Library of Australia, Trove.
  • Newspapers.com

Text

  • Queensland Government Intelligence & Tourist Bureau. Hotel And Boarding House Directory, 1912 (via Internet Archive)
  • William Brooks. The Central and Upper Burnett River District of Queensland centenary souvenir, 1848-1948, embracing the districts of Gayndah, Mundubbera, Eidsvold and Monto. 1948
  • Paul Michael (Ed) The American Movies. Garland Books, 1974.
  • Axel Nissen. Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland & Co, 2016
  • Rosebud T Solis-Cohen. The Exclusion of Aliens from the United States for Physical Defects. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Jan-Feb 1947, Vol 21, No 1, 33-50. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Films

Web: Ausstage Database

Web: The Files of Jerry Blake

This site has been selected for preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 The Wireless Weekly, 2 Oct 1936, P11, Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑2 Table Talk, 18 July 1912. Via State Library of Victoria
↑3 in Australia, a station means a large pastoral lease running livestock – like a ranch in North America
↑4 in Australia the word “Squatter” is also used
↑5 Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld) 28 Apr 1863, P3 and Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld)1 Mar 1865, P2 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑6 Auburn Station homestead. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
↑7 Like Tempe’s birth certificate, Peter Pigott’s death certificate remains elusive. However, his death notice appeared in The Brisbane Courier (Qld), 14 Nov 1870, P 2. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑8 The Brisbane Courier,(Qld) 9 June 1885, P1. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑9 Australian Town and Country Journal (Syd) 20 May 1914, P26 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑10 Melbourne Punch, 11 July 1912 State Library of Victoria
↑11 The Brisbane Courier (Qld.) 12 Sep 1896 P6 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑12 The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Sept 1936, P7 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑13 The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 15 Sept 1936, P9, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑14 See Axel Nissen: Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood. McFarland & Co, 2016
↑15 Although the available film role databases also list her by less flattering titles – such as ‘Old woman/Old Hag/Old Crone/Charwoman/Flower seller etc
↑16 Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Qld.) 2 June 1888
P3 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑17 Mercury (Tas) 2 Jan 1908, P7, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑18 Melbourne Punch (Vic), 28 Aug 1913, P21 and Telegraph (Qld) 11 Nov 1911, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑19 Table Talk (Vic) 13 Jul 1911, P21 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑20 Tempe Pigott, JC Williamson Ltd Contract, 23 July 1915, courtesy Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne
↑21 Sydney Morning Herald, 29 April 1916, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑22 The Sydney Mail (Syd) 17 Jun 1914, P15 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑23 Brisbane Courier 13 May, 1916, P12, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑24 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 1936, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑25 Standard Casting Directory, Feb 1925, via Lantern Digital Media Archive and the Internet Archive
↑26, ↑40 Nissan, 2016, Chapter 25
↑27 screengrab from a copy on youtube
↑28 See Photoplay July-Dec 1925. Via Lantern Digital Media Library & The Internet Archive
↑29, ↑30, ↑35, ↑36 Screengrab from copy at the Internet Archive
↑31 she appeared in at least 35 films in 1930-36
↑32 Telegraph, (Qld) 2 March 1937. P6. via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑33 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 1936, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑34, ↑44 Wireless Weekly (Aust) 2 Oct, 1936, P18, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑37 Source – copy at the Internet Archive
↑38 Cinemundial, June 1933, P331, Via Lantern Digital Medial Library & the Internet Archive
↑39 Truth (Syd) 16 Aug 1936, P35, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑41 Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, 15 July 1950, P3, via Newspapers.com
↑42 possibly fellow Australian William H O’Brien
↑43 Daily Telegraph (Syd) 4 Aug 1913, P12 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑45 her death certificate states she was a widow, but no record of a marriage has come to light
↑46 The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Feb 1867, P1 and The Brisbane Courier, 15 Feb, 1867, P2. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Lloyd Lamble (1914-2008)-“The strutting & the fretting”*

Above and below: Lloyd Lamble in the first of many authority roles – shown here as the RAF Meteorological Officer in the British Lion film Appointment in London, or Raiders in the Sky 1953. Courtesy Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne.
The 5 second version
Lloyd Lamble (born Melbourne, Australia in 1914) is not a forgotten Australian actor. There are a number of biographies on line and in print, and several fulsome obituaries appeared when he died. Yet most make little mention of his 18 year career on the Australian stage and in radio before he moved to the UK in 1951, and there are also confusing claims about key events in his life. His British career saw him become what Brian McFarlane describes as a “sturdy, reliable character player.”[1]Brian McFarlane (2003) The Encyclopedia of British Film, P376, BFI/Methuen His first film was a 1943 propaganda short. While the IMDB lists over 160 TV and film appearances – usually as an authority figure in a supporting role – it transpires that by the end of his life he was deeply dissatisfied with his career. He married three times and died at his home in Cornwall in 2008.

* The first draft of his unpublished autobiography was entitled The Strutting and the fretting – which is a quotation adapted from Macbeth: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.” 

Lamble in Melbourne

Lloyd Nelson Lamble was born in Melbourne, Australia on February 8, 1914, the youngest of four boys born to William Henry Lamble, a musician and secretary of the Musicians Union of Australia and Frances nee Potter. A promising soloist in his church choir, Lloyd won a scholarship to nearby Wesley College in Prahran, and on leaving school he found work as a “Junior Announcer” at Melbourne radio station 3DB, followed by a longer stint at 3KZ and then at 3AW, broken up by some work as a Dance Band singer.[2]He would later claim that he suffered periods of unemployment at this time which may well have heightened his political senses – see also The Daily News (Syd) 12 Feb 1940, P2 Via Trove Bob Walker, 3KZ’s biographer, described the young Lloyd Lamble as “tall, good looking, with blond hair and rich of voice.”[3]RR Walker(1984) Dial 1179, The 3KZ Story. P.22 Lloyd O’Neil While at 3AW he moved into radio acting with the Lee Murray Radio Players, and not surprisingly, then found his way to the stage.[4]Richard Lane (1994) The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama. P185-6, Melbourne University Press[5]Newspapers had noted his success on the amateur stage as early as 1933 – see The Argus (Melb) 13 May 1933 via Trove

His accent was described by one radio listener as “jammy,”[6]Walker P23 – which is archaic Australian slang for “posh”, a comment audiences regularly made of radio announcers of the era. Surviving examples of his accent illustrate a very well spoken, or “refined” Australian accent. An episode of popular Australian comedian Mo’s (Roy Rene) short nightly program from late 1936 – with straight roles played by Lloyd (as Willie) and Sadie Gale (as Mrs Mo) – can be heard here at the Australian Old Time Radio website.

“Tall, good looking, with blond hair and rich of voice“. Photo by Athol Shmith of Lamble c1935 [7]Note: Damage on the print emulsion has been covered up Courtesy the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Lamble commented on Australian accents in his autobiography and his own “oxford accent.” This is interesting given he said some of his family and fellow students at school had broad accents.[8]Lloyd Lamble (c1990) The Strutting & the Fretting, unpublished autobiography, P60. Private collection. Other titles considered apparently include Hi Diddle Dee Dee: An Actor’s Life For Me and … Continue reading However, it is likely his accent developed with the aid of elocution or “speech” lessons at Wesley. In 1937 Lamble started his own acting and radio school, which included elocution lessons for aspiring radio artists.[9]Lamble, p93 Also see Note 1 below.

Lamble’s radio school advertising in Melbourne’s Argus in November 1938.[10]The Argus (Melb) 19 Nov 1938, P25. Via Trove

Breakthrough role

As Richard Lane has noted, 22 year old Lloyd Lamble’s breakthrough role on stage was in Emlyn Williams’ “exciting throat-gripping thriller”– Night Must Fall, directed by Gregan McMahon.[11]The Argus (Melb) 17 Feb 1936 P5 Via Trove His leading role as “Baby-face Dan” was a triumph, the Age newspaper reporting that “Lamble exhibited once more a talent which should be nurtured with great care. His scene with Elaine Hamill (Olivia Grayne) in the second act was wholly brilliant…”[12]The Age (Melb) 17 Feb 1936, P12, Via Trove The play toured cities of east coast Australia and in New Zealand, to great acclaim. “It would be a difficult matter to find an actor, even in London or New York, who could handle this remarkable character as masterly as Lloyd Lamble” reported Dunedin’s Evening Star in August 1936.[13]A nice compliment from the paper, but Emlyn Williams was performing the role himself at the time on Broadway, to similar acclaim. Evening Star,(NZ) 3 Aug 1936, P6. Via National Library of New … Continue reading Before the tour of New Zealand, Lloyd became engaged to an old friend, Marjorie Barrett, a secretarial clerk from South Yarra. The couple married in Melbourne on March 18th 1937, Lloyd reputedly being required back on stage that same night.[14]Victoria BDM, marriage certificate 998/1937 18 March 1937

Another photo of Lamble in the mid 1930s, by Athol Shmith. Courtesy the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

By 1940 Lloyd Lamble was widely recognised as one of the county’s leading radio actors.[15]See for example, the breathy interview with him in Wireless Weekly, 7 Sept 1940, P9.”…Worships at the shrine of a radio actor” Via Trove From 1939 he took roles in a string of productions at Sydney’s new Minerva Theatre, for entrepreneur David N Martin.[16]The Wireless Weekly, Sept 14, 1940, Vol. 35 No. 37, P5 Via Trove Fellow performers included a long list of others who were making their name, or had already done so – the likes of John Wood, Ron Randell, Fifi Banvard, Claude Flemming, Trilby Clark, Marjorie Gordon and Muriel Steinbeck. A reviewer for The Bulletin in May 1940 wrote “Lamble is acting so well these days…that it is becoming worthwhile to go to any Minerva production just to watch his development.”[17]The Bulletin May 8, 1940, P31 Via Trove, also cited in Richard Lane (1994) P186

Left: Lamble as Denys in Quiet Wedding, Jan 1940. Right: Lamble as Lennie in Of Mice and Men, with Ron Randell, April 1940. Courtesy the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Marriages, children & communism

Several important developments occurred in the first years of the Second World War. Despite his success, Lamble’s political views had become more pronounced with his own experience of the theatre and radio scene, and in particular, he saw first hand the challenge of actors being exploited and living on a pittance.[18]See for example The West Australian, 18 Jul 1941, P3 and The West Australian, 22 Apr 1942, P3, Via Trove In his memoirs, Lamble indicates he had also faced periods of unemployment – “I’ve lived on the smell of an oil rag” he told a Sydney paper in 1940.[19]Daily News, 12 Feb 1940, P2, Via Trove Increasingly active in his union and determined to protect the rights of performers in the small industrial world of the Australian theatre, in 1942 he was elected President of Actor’s Equity, a position he held for much of the 1940s.

Another change related to his personal circumstances. On his return to Sydney he met actress Barbara Smith (a younger sister of actress Nancy O’Neil). Barbara Smith had studied at London’s RADA before returning to Australia in 1935 and was forging her own career on stage and radio at the time.[20]The Australian Women’s Weekly, 8 May 1937, P54, Via Trove The couple’s affair began while they were performing together in Dinner at Eight at the Minerva Theatre in 1939. In his autobiography, Lamble describes the resulting confrontation with Marjorie, who on hearing of the affair, had rushed up from Melbourne. “Poor darling! She was shattered and it was an awful, traumatic time.“[21]Lamble p101 Their divorce was finally granted in May 1943. [22]Herald (Melb) 27 May 1943, page 3 via Trove

Lloyd Lamble and Barbara Smith in 1941. Private Collection.

In his autobiography, Lamble described the war years in Sydney as an exciting time and a glance at the holdings of the NFSA (here) and the Ausstage database (which is incomplete) shows he continued to be busy on stage and in radio.[23]The most complete list of his work is in Richard Lane P278-9 He appeared in several popular radio serials – Big Sister, Crossroads of Life and in numerous roles for the Lux and Macquarie Radio Theatres.[24]Richard Lane, P185-7 and Lamble: P141 A 1946 episode of the popular radio series The Shadow featuring Lloyd, can be heard (here) at the NFSA website. It also featured Peter Finch.

A grainy but significant photo – showing Lamble involved in war work. Standing centre left, he is about to address workers to encourage subscriptions in a New Zealand War loan, in August 1944. [25]The Press newspaper, 25 August, 1944. Via Papers Past

The official war work often attributed to Lamble comprised propaganda pieces for radio as well as newsreel narration. Fox Movietone (Australia) newsreels regularly made use of his voice – the NFSA database (click here) lists a number of episodes he voiced.[26]See also the entry for Movietone newsreel, “sinking of the hospital ship Centaur” at the Australian War Memorial Several accounts of Lamble’s fundraising for war loans also exist.[27]Tribune (Syd) 31 Aug 1944, P3 via Trove And he appeared in at least one Department of Information short propaganda film – The Grumblens in 1943, with Muriel Steinbeck – his first film.[28]Smith’s Weekly (Syd), 7 Aug 1943, P19 via Trove

In 1942, Lamble fathered a child by Barbara in 1942, although – most unusually for the time – the couple had yet to formalise their relationship through marriage. However in a further complication to his life, while on a 1944 performance tour of New Zealand (without Barbara) he met Lesley Jackson, a 29 year old actress from Wellington, and again, began an intense affair.[29]In Lamble’s autobiography he also uses the spelling Leslie He returned to Australia in late 1944, Barbara then being pregnant in Sydney with their second child.

Screengrab from Lamble’s first film The Grumblens (1943) Click on the image to watch this propaganda short at the Australian War Memorial site.
Lamble’s first feature film was the ill-fated Strong is the Seed (1947-9). Unfortunately, the film was about wheat farming. It was only briefly released.[30]The Australian Women’s Weekly. 8 May 1948. P26. Via Trove. See also Pike and Cooper(1980) P272

Of his children, Lamble has nothing to say in his autobiography, but the end of the relationship with Barbara was another traumatic experience, he records, and it divided his friends and acquaintances,[31]Lamble p171 and in time, deeply embarrassed his own family. Reading his memoirs now, it is actually extremely difficult to follow the 1940s period of his life sequentially, and this writer assumes it is because Lamble found the events of the decade difficult to acknowledge, even fifty years later. An important coda is that the Smith family insisted Lloyd “do the right thing” by Barbara and their two children, and marry her. The couple married in Sydney on September 20, 1945, but Lloyd left Barbara immediately after the wedding. A divorce was finalised in March 1949.[32]The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 12 Sep 1948, P16 via Trove

Notes from Lamble’s ASIO file indicate that in 1948 he was living with Lesley Jackson in an apartment in Pott’s Point, about 2 kilometres from Barbara and their two children, whom he never saw. Lloyd Lamble finally married Lesley Jackson in April 1949. Barbara and her family clearly thought he would provide ongoing financial support, but this remained a cause of constant tension and ill feeling.[33]Barbara Lamble gave up the stage, and became a secretary to support her two children

Above: Lesley Jackson about the time she became Lamble’s third wife in 1949 [34]Cover of ABC Weekly, December 17, 1949 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Leaving Australia

While the 1940s appears to have been a busy time professionally for Lamble – he had acted and directed in almost every radio and theatrical style, it is clear that by 1950, there was suddenly less work. This was largely related to accusations of his being a communist (although some colleagues also did not approve of his abandoning his family either) formalised by the 1950 Victorian Royal Commission into Communism, when he was publicly identified as a communist.

1950 Victorian Royal Commission into Communism, P83.[35]Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

As Stephen Alomes writes, in the new cold war era, accusations of communist sympathies became the means and the justification for theatre managements to marginalise politically active figures like Lamble. He was effectively, blacklisted as a result.[36]Stephen Alomes (1999) When London Calls. The expatriation of Australian creative artists to Britain.P36. Cambridge University See Note 2 below.

Above: Lloyd Lamble and visiting British actor Robert Morley in Edward, My Son in 1949. Courtesy the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

While only months before he had been on stage with visiting British actor Robert Morley (1908-1992), Lamble recalled that in 1950 he had to resort to door to door sales to make ends meet. [37]Lamble p219-221

Not surprisingly therefore, in late 1950, Lloyd and Lesley decided to leave Australia. Despite the claim that he left Australia on a false passport, the couple departed Adelaide in early January 1951 under their own names, on the Norwegian Cargo-Passenger ship, MS Torrens. There was however, a degree of secrecy – Lloyd had hoped to slip out of the country because he did not wish to be caught up in another dispute with Barbara about support payments.

A snapshot of his British career

Lloyd Lamble’s unpublished autobiography could reasonably be expected to deal in detail with his successful 35 year career in Britain after 1951. Unfortunately, it does not. Late in life he became convinced he was “a failed actor”[38]Lamble p361 and elsewhere. The book is also dedicated “To all those thousands of actors who never quite made it” Lamble p2 and much of what he wrote for posterity is framed in this way. Of his many British TV roles, he had almost nothing to say. Perhaps the issue was that having enjoyed such success in the small theatrical world of Australia and New Zealand, he suddenly found himself consigned to being a character actor in the very large theatrical world of post-war Britain. There seems little doubt that he compared himself to his Australian contemporaries like Peter Finch, and felt he had been less successful.

Lamble was lucky when he arrived. Although he and Lesley had little money, within a few weeks Al Parker (1885-1974), then the leading London agent,[39]and husband of Australian Margaret Johnston (1914-2002) was representing him – a huge advantage professionally.[40]Lamble p250 By April Lamble was onstage in The Martin’s Nest at the Westminster Theatre. After a three week run – he felt the play was not a success – he moved on to productions at West London’s Q Theatre for a year.

Above: In his first London play – The Martin’s Nest (April-May 1951) with Yvonne Mitchell(1915-1979) at the Westminster Theatre. Courtesy the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Al Parker was also responsible for introducing Lamble to television – which was live television at the time. Lamble described his experience on The Passing Show (1951) as “agony”, due to the technical challenges. In fact, he joked that “an actor who has led a bad life will…be condemned to do live television for all eternity.”[41]Lamble p246-7 Not surprisingly, at this time he preferred film to TV – and his early film performances demonstrated his versatility. These included leading roles as “Jacko” the stage manager in Curtain Up (1952), a comedy about a rep company preparing a play, and as Inspector Freddie Frisnay in Terence Fisher’s mystery Mantrap (1953). Watched today, his beautiful speaking voice is a feature – reminding us of his extensive experience as a radio actor.

Above: Left – As Inspector Frisnay with Paul Henreid in Mantrap (1953). Right – as “Jacko” the stage manager in Curtain Up (1952). Courtesy the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Amongst his best known film roles were his cameos in the St Trinian’s films – commencing with The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954), the story of a riotous girls’ school. Lamble played local Police Superintendent Sammy Kemp-Bird, with Joyce Grenfell (1910-1979) as his too wholesome girlfriend Sgt Ruby Gates. The running joke was that Kemp-Bird had once promised marriage to Sgt Gates but now didn’t wish to go through with it, and sought any excuse to avoid commitment. The cameo was repeated in two sequels in 1957 and 1960 and is a highlight of the films. Lamble recalled her fondly – in real life he thought she was exactly like the character she portrayed.[42]Lamble p270

Screengrab from Pure Hell of St Trinian’s (1960) with Joyce Grenfell. Author’s collection.

He was often typecast as a Police Inspector. As early as 1957, he said ” I suppose that by now directors are so used to seeing me in police roles, that I’m the first person they think of when casting.”[43]Leicester Evening Mail, 21 Dec 1957, P4, via Newspapers.com

At some point, Lamble fell out with Al Parker rather spectacularly, although the reason why is unknown. Lamble acknowledged in his autobiography that it was a foolish decision to leave Parker and that, in turn, Parker wrote a vitriolic letter claiming he had established Lamble in “all mediums, despite the fact that… [he was] a communist.”[44]Lamble p275 So Lamble’s reputation, whether gained unfairly or not, had travelled with him to the UK.

Lamble’s connections with Australia seem to have remained strong. In 1953, he chaired a meeting of British-based Australian playwrights at Australia House,[45]The Stage,12 March 1953, P10, via British Newspaper Archive and he was still active with an association of Australian performing Artists in the late 1970s. He knew and sometimes mixed with many of the Australians who had left post-war and were now working in the UK – Dick Bentley (1907-1995), Fenella Maguire (1935-2001), Bill Kerr (1922-2014) and John Sherman (1911-1966) were all friends mentioned in his autobiography. BBC records show he appeared in radio programs with others, including Vincent Ball, and Allan Cuthbertson in Lasseter’s Reef in 1953, and others in radio episodes of The Flying Doctor in the late 1950s. However, he complained that the national connection counted for little in the way of actual employment offers – there were only two occasions where expat Australian directors gave him work.[46]Lamble p267 This is not all that surprising, as the same phenomenon was experienced by other Australian actors in the UK and US. Australians like to believe they will help each other out without question, but perhaps internationally, the business is just too competitive for that to be a reality.

His political activities did not disappear overnight. In 1952, he felt a need to explain to British Actor’s Equity that there was no Australian Equity ban on visiting actors, rather, the field of local employment was so narrow that Australian Equity had to take “some precautions” such as refusing to work with travelling chorus performers – where Australians could be employed.[47]The Stage, 11 September 1952, P11, via British Newspaper Archive

It is notable that the stage remained his passion and his public commentary usually emphasized this. “Definitely one prefers the stage…Filming I love… But the field is wide and I will do anything that is interesting financially or artistically,” he told The Stage in 1991. Lamble had a significant body of theatre work to his credit, often in provincial theatre, that has tended to be overshadowed by his better documented screen work. Aged even in his 70s, he appeared in touring performances of Marriage Rites, On Golden Pond and A Month of Sundays – and was regularly picked out for positive reviews. Amongst his last stage performances was a run in Me and My Girl at the Adelphi Theatre.[48]The Stage, 4 July 1991, P6, via British Newspaper Archive

Above: Lamble touring in A Christmas Carol in late 1976. Program in the author’s Collection.[49]See The Stage, 18 Nov 1976, P1. Via British Newspaper Archive

With a very long list of stage and TV appearances, it was inevitable that Lamble would often be recognised in public. His autobiography provides one anecdote told against himself, when he was approached by a man who said “we’ve met…” “Oh you’ve probably seen me on the Telly” answered Lamble. “Don’t be a clot” was the man’s reply. “We worked together last week.”[50]Lamble p244-245 The anecdote also serves to remind the reader of the mundane and often underwhelming nature of so much TV work.

There were hits and misses in his career of course. He featured – briefly – in two tiresome soft-core porn films in the 1970s, Sex through the Ages (1974) and Eskimo Nell (1975) – but claimed he was misled into appearing in these. Perhaps. But rewarding roles were also a feature of his screen work – he took supporting roles in The Invisible Man (1958), Emergency Ward 10 (1966), The Kids from 47A (1973), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), The Boys (1962) and The Naked Civil Servant (1975).

Australians Mavis Villiers (1909-1976) and Lloyd Lamble playing American tourists in London in a cameo in No Sex Please We’re British (1973). Screengrab from copy on youtube.

Determined not to be dependent on acting for his livelihood, at various times, Lamble invested and speculated in property in England – with mixed results. He also invested in commercial video technology when it first appeared, an enterprise that had limited success.

Lloyd Lamble with his daughter in 1998. Private collection

Lloyd Lamble stayed married to Lesley Jackson for the rest of his life. He adopted two children with Lesley and finally, he met and built a relationship with his two children by Barbara. Late in life, he also met Barbara while she was travelling in Britain, in an effort to make amends.

Undoubtedly his own worst critic, Lamble’s draft autobiography screams out for a ghost writer. His remarkable 50+ year career on radio, TV, the stage and film, his political idealism, blacklisting and subsequent journey to Britain as one of the great group of post-war Australian actors, was a story worth telling.

Lloyd Lamble died in Cornwall, in March 2008.

Lloyd Lamble with Lesley Jackson, 2004. Private collection.

Note 1: Lamble on accents

In a 1942 article he wrote for ABC Weekly, Lamble seemed to suggest a warm climate was responsible for the Australian accent – which was an easy-going “lazy” accent. His comments reflected contemporary thinking about accents – the desirability of an actor or announcer developing a refined accent and the value of training or elocution.[51]ABC Weekly, 31 October 1942, P22 via Trove Interviewed by students from the University of Wellington in 1944, Lamble was noted as speaking with “a pleasing voice… his accent conforms to standard English.” Asked whether New Zealand or Australian accents were acceptable on the stage, Lamble indicated they were not. He suggested “the pronounced Australian accent was only used on the stage in… low comedy, e.g. Dad and Dave.”[52]See The Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion, Victoria College, University of Wellington, Vol 7, No 6, July 12, 1944

Lamble’s natural accent can be heard in this interview with Phil Charley in 1994.

Note 2: Lloyd Lamble the Communist?

As Stephen Alomes notes, it has never been demonstrated that Lamble was a Communist party member.[53]Stephen Alomes (1999) When London Calls. The expatriation of Australian creative artists to Britain.P37. Cambridge University Press. The National Archives of Australia holds Lloyd Lamble’s 56 page ASIO file.[54]The Australian Security & Intelligence Organisation was established in 1949. It is generally regarded as the equivalent of MI5 in the UK or the FBI in the USA. ASIO’s predecessor was the … Continue reading Today the file makes for fairly unremarkable reading and one can only conclude that it says as much about Australia at the time as it does about Lamble. It was clearly his leadership of Actor’s Equity in the 1940s that first attracted official attention, and his support for causes like the Spanish Republican movement added to suspicion. Other acts, such as his letter of protest regarding the treatment of the Hollywood Ten in the USA were noted. Communist Party of Australia (CPA) meeting minutes collected by ASIO show occasional mention of him – sometimes promising to read workers poetry at Union meetings or promising to be involved in fundraising events. Yet the list of the people he associated and corresponded with [55]presumably his mail was intercepted was much more mundane – it included a wide circle of friends and acquaintances – including actors like Elsie Mackay (Montesole), Allan Cuthbertson and his brother Henry (“Bruzz”) Cuthbertson, Queenie Ashton and Carrie Moore – none of them remotely communists.

It was never illegal to be a communist in Australia. In 1950 the High Court ruled a new law to ban the Communist Party to be unconstitutional.[56]The Communist Party Dissolution Act A referendum to change Australia’s Constitution so that the party could be banned also failed. All the same, the accusation of being a communist marginalised some and stalled the careers of others. Alomes notes that Chips Rafferty, Michael Pate and Peter Finch were also listed at times as being possible Communists.[57]Alomes, P36 In a long investigative article written in 1990, David McKnight and Greg Pemberton suggested that “puritanical, anti-intellectual Australia clearly viewed Finch, Rafferty and many others as radicals because they belonged to the arts world and were strong trade unionists…” Michael Pate, who was interviewed by McKnight and Pemberton, said “In no way would we have thought to be subversive to Australia. We were radical thinkers in that we didn’t agree with all the opinions of the establishment.” [58]David McKnight and Greg Pemberton, “Seeing Reds” The Age (Melb), Good Weekend Magazine (insert) P35+ via Newspapers.com

Nick Murphy
October 2022

Special Thanks

  • To Libby White. For our long conversations, her suggestions and permission to read her father’s unpublished autobiography.
  • To Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne.

References

  • Primary Sources
    • Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne.
    • National Archives of Australia
    • Ancestry.com
    • Victoria; Births, Deaths & Marriages
    • New South Wales; Births, Deaths & Marriages
    • National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, Papers Past.
    • National Library of Australia, Trove.
    • British Newspaper Archive.
  • Text
    • Stephen Alomes (1999) When London Calls. The expatriation of Australian creative artists to Britain. Cambridge University Press.
    • Lloyd Lamble (c 1990) The Strutting and the Fretting. Unpublished first draft of autobiography. Private collection.
    • Richard Lane (1994) The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama. Melbourne University Press.
    • Brian McFarlane (Ed) (2003) The Encyclopedia of British Film. BFI-Methuen
    • David McKnight and Greg Pemberton, “Seeing Reds” The Age (Melb), Good Weekend Magazine (insert) P35+
    • Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper(1980) Australian Film 1900-1977. Oxford Uni Press
    • Eric Porter (1965) Stars of Australian Stage and Screen. Rigby Ltd
This site has been selected for preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Brian McFarlane (2003) The Encyclopedia of British Film, P376, BFI/Methuen
↑2 He would later claim that he suffered periods of unemployment at this time which may well have heightened his political senses – see also The Daily News (Syd) 12 Feb 1940, P2 Via Trove
↑3 RR Walker(1984) Dial 1179, The 3KZ Story. P.22 Lloyd O’Neil
↑4 Richard Lane (1994) The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama. P185-6, Melbourne University Press
↑5 Newspapers had noted his success on the amateur stage as early as 1933 – see The Argus (Melb) 13 May 1933 via Trove
↑6 Walker P23
↑7 Note: Damage on the print emulsion has been covered up
↑8 Lloyd Lamble (c1990) The Strutting & the Fretting, unpublished autobiography, P60. Private collection. Other titles considered apparently include Hi Diddle Dee Dee: An Actor’s Life For Me and Who the hell is Lloyd Lamble? A later draft is held by the National Library of Australia
↑9 Lamble, p93
↑10 The Argus (Melb) 19 Nov 1938, P25. Via Trove
↑11 The Argus (Melb) 17 Feb 1936 P5 Via Trove
↑12 The Age (Melb) 17 Feb 1936, P12, Via Trove
↑13 A nice compliment from the paper, but Emlyn Williams was performing the role himself at the time on Broadway, to similar acclaim. Evening Star,(NZ) 3 Aug 1936, P6. Via National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, Papers Past
↑14 Victoria BDM, marriage certificate 998/1937 18 March 1937
↑15 See for example, the breathy interview with him in Wireless Weekly, 7 Sept 1940, P9.”…Worships at the shrine of a radio actor” Via Trove
↑16 The Wireless Weekly, Sept 14, 1940, Vol. 35 No. 37, P5 Via Trove
↑17 The Bulletin May 8, 1940, P31 Via Trove, also cited in Richard Lane (1994) P186
↑18 See for example The West Australian, 18 Jul 1941, P3 and The West Australian, 22 Apr 1942, P3, Via Trove
↑19 Daily News, 12 Feb 1940, P2, Via Trove
↑20 The Australian Women’s Weekly, 8 May 1937, P54, Via Trove
↑21 Lamble p101
↑22 Herald (Melb) 27 May 1943, page 3 via Trove
↑23 The most complete list of his work is in Richard Lane P278-9
↑24 Richard Lane, P185-7 and Lamble: P141
↑25 The Press newspaper, 25 August, 1944. Via Papers Past
↑26 See also the entry for Movietone newsreel, “sinking of the hospital ship Centaur” at the Australian War Memorial
↑27 Tribune (Syd) 31 Aug 1944, P3 via Trove
↑28 Smith’s Weekly (Syd), 7 Aug 1943, P19 via Trove
↑29 In Lamble’s autobiography he also uses the spelling Leslie
↑30 The Australian Women’s Weekly. 8 May 1948. P26. Via Trove. See also Pike and Cooper(1980) P272
↑31 Lamble p171
↑32 The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 12 Sep 1948, P16 via Trove
↑33 Barbara Lamble gave up the stage, and became a secretary to support her two children
↑34 Cover of ABC Weekly, December 17, 1949 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑35 Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑36 Stephen Alomes (1999) When London Calls. The expatriation of Australian creative artists to Britain.P36. Cambridge University
↑37 Lamble p219-221
↑38 Lamble p361 and elsewhere. The book is also dedicated “To all those thousands of actors who never quite made it” Lamble p2
↑39 and husband of Australian Margaret Johnston (1914-2002)
↑40 Lamble p250
↑41 Lamble p246-7
↑42 Lamble p270
↑43 Leicester Evening Mail, 21 Dec 1957, P4, via Newspapers.com
↑44 Lamble p275
↑45 The Stage,12 March 1953, P10, via British Newspaper Archive
↑46 Lamble p267
↑47 The Stage, 11 September 1952, P11, via British Newspaper Archive
↑48 The Stage, 4 July 1991, P6, via British Newspaper Archive
↑49 See The Stage, 18 Nov 1976, P1. Via British Newspaper Archive
↑50 Lamble p244-245
↑51 ABC Weekly, 31 October 1942, P22 via Trove
↑52 See The Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion, Victoria College, University of Wellington, Vol 7, No 6, July 12, 1944
↑53 Stephen Alomes (1999) When London Calls. The expatriation of Australian creative artists to Britain.P37. Cambridge University Press.
↑54 The Australian Security & Intelligence Organisation was established in 1949. It is generally regarded as the equivalent of MI5 in the UK or the FBI in the USA. ASIO’s predecessor was the Commonwealth Investigation Service
↑55 presumably his mail was intercepted
↑56 The Communist Party Dissolution Act
↑57 Alomes, P36
↑58 David McKnight and Greg Pemberton, “Seeing Reds” The Age (Melb), Good Weekend Magazine (insert) P35+ via Newspapers.com

Elsie Jane Wilson (1885-1965) actor and Hollywood director

Above and below; Sydney-born actor and director Elsie Jane Wilson in a spread in Photoplay magazine in late 1917. She had been working in the US for 6 years. [1]Photoplay magazine Oct 1917-March 1918, via Lantern, Digital Library

How could a successful Australian actress, who directed her first film in Hollywood in 1917, at the age of about 32, be so quickly forgotten? Unfortunately, even in her lifetime, press accounts tended to assume Elsie Jane Wilson was, like her husband Rupert Julian, New Zealand born, or perhaps English, and since then, even homegrown accounts have overlooked her. It is only in the last few decades that Elsie has finally attracted some of the interest she deserves. Recent writers include Mark Garrett Cooper at the Women Film Pioneers Project (here), Karen Ward Mahar and Robert Catto at his specialist website devoted to Rupert Julian (here).

Directing was “man’s work” Elsie suggested to interviewer Frances Denton in the Photoplay interview. But the posed photograph used in the article presents Elsie as a woman of ability and authority.[2]Photoplay magazine Oct 1917-March 1918, via Lantern, Digital Library

One of a group of women who directed at Universal Studios in the 1910s, Elsie had enjoyed a successful Australian stage career before appearing on stage in the US and acting in 40 films. She is known to have directed at least 10 films and also wrote several screenplays – all this before 1920. Her working life after 1920 remains obscure, although there is evidence suggesting she kept working in partnership with Rupert.

The Wilson family

Elsie Jane Wilson was born in Sydney on November 7, 1885[3]NSW Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 3700/1885 to James Wilson, a 51 year old Scottish immigrant and his 37 year old English wife Jane nee Jordan. By the time of her marriage to New Zealand actor, Percival Hayes (stage name Rupert Julian) in 1906,[4]Victoria Births Deaths & Marriages Marriage Certificate 6213/1906 Elsie was able to describe her father as “a gentleman”, which – in the language of the time – suggested a person of independent means. Records show however, that most of his life he was a bootmaker[5]or “clicker” – a skilled tradesperson who cut boot leather and the family lived for many years in Riley Street, in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo.[6]A City of Sydney Archive photo of nineteenth century houses in Riley Street can be seen here

The Wilson family and their neighbours in the 1889 Sands Sydney directory.[7]Sands 1889 Directory, City of Sydney Archives & History Resources

James and Jane Wilson were typical of immigrant couples who had arrived in Australia in the mid 19th century, attracted by the goldrushes, or by the government bounties designed to address skilled labour shortages. The couple had married in Adelaide, South Australia in 1866, but ten years later they were living in Sydney. In addition to Elsie, two other daughters – Nellie (born Catherine Eleanor Wilson in 1877) and Marie (born Marion Wilson in 1889) had stage careers. Undoubtedly encouraged by James and Jane to see the stage as a pathway to success and financial freedom (secondary schooling and university education was not usually an option for working class families), the three girls all appeared on the stage from an early age.

Success of sister Nellie Wilson

Nellie Wilson was born Catherine Eleanor (or sometimes Helen) Wilson in Sydney in 1877.[8]NSW Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 2389/1877 She is important in this story because she enjoyed great success on the stage – and Elsie would have grown up as an observer to that success. Elsie was just seven years old when Nellie was touring Australia and New Zealand, notably with Tom Pollard’s Lilliputians, and in company with the likes of Wilmot Karkeek, Harry Quealy, Will Percy and Maud and Mae Beatty – all of whom Elsie is likely to have met, and – significantly, all of whom ended up pursuing careers overseas.[9]See Auckland Star, 28 Nov 1901, P2 Via National Library of New Zealand Papers Past

Elsie’s older sister Nellie Wilson in 1910 [10]Sunday Sun (Syd) 20 Nov 1910, P12, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Nellie continued on stage in Australia and New Zealand through the 1900s, taking only a little time off for a marriage in 1902 to George Irish, a flamboyant Melbourne motor salesman.[11]Victoria Births Deaths & Marriages Marriage certificate 3786/1902 The marriage did not stop her performing however, and she toured South Africa in 1904 and 1905. The theatrical firm of JC Williamson’s made use of her repeatedly in their Royal Comic Opera Company touring Australasia – which included consistently popular musicals like Florodora, The Belle of New York and The Mikado.

Elsie Wilson – the “promising Australian actress”

Elsie Wilson[12]not yet using her middle name appeared on the Australian stage – with the John F Sheridan touring company in 1904 – performing in the familiar repertoire of musical comedies that Australians liked – Naughty Nancy, The Lady Slavey, The Earl and the Girl and The Mikado, [13]The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People (Syd) 21 Jan 1905, P7 via National Library of Australia’s Trove later joining Julius Knight’s company. It was while performing in Melbourne in 1906 that she married fellow company member Rupert Julian.

Elsie Wilson, in costume, “one of the most promising of Australian actresses” on the cover of Adelaide’s Gadfly, in October 1907.[14]The Gadfly, 30 October 1907, Cover, Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

For the next five years, the couple worked in the same company and developed their stagecraft. A glance at contemporary newspaper advertisements suggests an exhausting schedule of touring regional and sometimes remote Australia and New Zealand. But the reviews of Elsie’s work became increasingly enthusiastic – by late 1907, Adelaide’s The Gadfly could profile Elsie on their front page and express great confidence in her future as an up and coming actor. The paper reported that it had “arrived at the opinion that the lady is a much finer artist than people think she is, for the obvious reason that most critics have ignored her.”[15]The Gadfly (Adel) 9 Oct 1907, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove In early 1909, her excellent voice and spirited dancing were being celebrated in Sydney[16]Sunday Times (Syd) 21 Mar 1909, P6 via National Library of Australia’s Trove while only a few months later, on the other side of Australia, Kalgoorlie’s Sun predicted she had all the makings of “a star emotional actress.”[17]The Sun(WA) 6 June 1909, P7 via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In 1908, JC Williamson’s offered her a salary of £8 per week,[18]about $AU 1,100 today. Her contract survives in the Australian Performing Arts Collection a modest salary when compared to Julius Knight’s £50 per week, but acceptable for a 23 year old whose husband was also earning. The very successful Julius Knight tours included a repertoire of costume dramas such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, A Royal Divorce, The Prisoner of Zenda and The Sign of the Cross, and plays by George Bernard Shaw.[19]See Veronica Kelly (2003) “Julius Knight, Australian Matinee Idol: Costume Drama as Historical Re-presentation” in Australasian Victorian Studies Journal, Vol 9, No 1, 2003

Above Left: Elsie’s husband Rupert Julian in costume, c1917.[20]Motion Picture Magazine, April 1917, P18 via Lantern Digital Library Right: One of Elsie’s mentors, Julius Knight, in costume as Napoleon, c1900 [21]Enlarged from a Talma Photo, State Library of Victoria collections

Elsie Jane Wilson appears in the US

Elsie in Everywoman in 1913.[22]Marysville Appeal(CA), 22 Jul 1913, P3 via Newspapers.com

There was no publicity accompanying Elsie and Rupert’s decision to leave Australia or their departure – rather, it was all done on the quiet – a not uncommon strategy by Australian actors in case things did not go to plan and they had to come home. The couple arrived in Vancouver on 26 July 1911, on the SS Zealandia. Officials recorded her height as 5’7″ (170 cms), almost the same as her husband. Elsie now launched herself in the US using her full and more distinctive name, although at various times she also called herself Elsie Hayes or Elsie Julian. The couple made their way to New York, and they both found work – but not together. Elsie was on stage touring in A Fool There Was in 1912, followed by Everywoman in California. She progressed to Little Theatre performances, but by the end of 1913 had joined Rupert Julian and immersed herself in the booming film industry. Attracted by Elsie’s success in the US, older sister Nellie joined them in California in mid 1913. See Note 1 below.

Elsie’s pathway from the stage to film was likely identical to her husband’s. In a 1916 interview, Rupert Julian claimed he had been “induced… against his will to try… the screen… (and) contrary to his expectation… found it fascinating.”[23]Moving Picture Weekly, 11 Nov 1916 via Lantern Digital Library The IMDB lists Elsie’s first film acting role in The Imp Abroad released in January 1914, followed by The Triumph of Mind, directed by pioneer female film director Lois Weber (1879-1939). The film also featured Rupert.

Elsie in 1914 [24]Motion Picture News, July-Oct 1914, P85. Via Lantern Digital Library

We do not know whether Elsie and Rupert became friends with Lois Weber and her husband Phillips Smalley (1875-1939) – or whether the newly arrived antipodeans were simply another of the professionals Weber famously mentored.[25]Perhaps the couple intrigued Lois Weber. Elsie and Rupert hailed from budding democracies – Australia and New Zealand – where Caucasian women could vote, in fact Elsie would already have … Continue reading Rupert Julian appeared in all of Lois Weber’s films in 1913 and it seems likely his “fascination” extended to developing his own skills as a director. Elsie also acted in several Lois Weber films in 1914, but throughout 1915 and 1916 she became a regular in films directed by Rupert – many of these being “shorts,” part of Universal’s policy of producing a “balanced program” of shorts and occasional features – Westerns, comedies and dramas.[26]Jeannette Delamoir “Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays and the Star System.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. … Continue reading Unfortunately, most of these films are lost.

Creative partnerships between husband and wife, collaborating together in actor-writer/director/producer roles, were a feature of filmmaking in the 1910s. Apart from Elsie Jane Wilson & Rupert Julian and Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley, other collaborative partnerships included JP McGowan & Helen Holmes, Ida May Park & Joseph de Grasse, and Ruth Stonehouse & Gilbert “Broncho Billy” Anderson. These partnerships sometimes saw scripts and scenarios formulated that the couple then performed in or directed. Elsie contributed to at least two scripts that were filmed, one – The Human Cactus(1915) – being directed by Rupert. In this case, the couple also acted together in it.

A Pygmalian-type story by Elsie Jane Wilson formed the basis of The Human Cactus. Elsie played Evangeline, the slum girl who is “cultivated”. [27]The Moving Picture Weekly, June 24, 1915, P31 via Lantern Digital Library
Elsie Jane Wilson acting. Left: Elsie with Rupert Julian in The Evil Women Do (1916) also directed by Julian.[28]Motion Picture News, Sept 23, 1916, via Lantern Digital Library Right: As Nancy in the Jesse Lasky version of Oliver Twist (1916), directed by James Young.[29]Photoplay, February 1917, via Lantern Digital Library

Elsie as a Director

Elsie’s first directing experience was as an uncredited assistant to Rupert Julian on The Circus of Life, another film she also starred in, released in mid 1917.[30]The Moving Picture Weekly Nov 3, 1917, P28 Via Lantern Digital Library Her first credited solo directing assignments were on four feature films featuring child star Zoe Rae (1910-2006), released in later 1917.

Advertisements for two of Elsie’s films featuring Zoe Rae.[31]Motion Picture News Aug 25, 1917, P1297 and The Moving Picture World Dec 8, 1917 P1410 via Lantern Digital Library

Regrettably, only one of her films is freely available today, making analysis of her work extremely difficult. The Dream Lady (1918) has been beautifully restored by the French Centre National de la Cinématographie – it can be seen (here). For an understanding of her other films, we are dependent on synopsises in trade journals and a few reviews – not enough for this writer to attempt any commentary. She acted in several serials in 1917-18, but again unfortunately these have not survived. Her last acting role is reported to have been in an Eddie Lyons comedy short, in 1920.

We know that many of Elsie and Rupert’s films were made under the Bluebird photoplay brand, one of Universal’s subsidiaries with an association for quality, as Jeannette Delamoir has explained.[32]For more on Universal Studio’s production strategy see Jeannette Delamoir “Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays and the Star System.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association … Continue reading However, Universal’s head Carl Laemmle made decisions entirely based on commercial principles – rather than any feminist sympathies. By the early 1920s, the studio system had become increasingly dominant. Anthony Slide and Karen Ward Mahar have both written of the post war changes in Hollywood and the consequences for the ten women directing for Universal, including Elsie.[33]See Karen Ward Mahar (2006) Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. Johns Hopkins University Press and Anthony Slide (1996) Lois Weber: the director who lost her way in history. Greenwood Press

What happened to Elsie’s career?

Elsie (at right) directing action, in a 1919 Photoplay article entitled “The Women Lend a hand” by Grace Kingsley.[34]Photoplay Magazine, March 1919, P78. Via Lantern Digital Media Library

Elsie’s last credit as a director was in early 1919, on The Game’s Up. But as Mark Garrett Cooper has noted, there is a problem of attribution for female directors of the era, including Elsie Jane Wilson. For example, Cooper notes actor Ruth Clifford (1900-1998) recalled that it was Elsie Jane Wilson who directed her on The Savage (1917), yet the film is traditionally credited to Rupert Julian.[35]See Mark Garrett Cooper (2013) “Elsie Jane Wilson.” In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University … Continue reading Contemporary reports also suggested Elsie helped Rupert direct Mother O’Mine (1917) although again, the film’s credits attribute it to Rupert Julian alone.[36]Motion Picture News, August 25, 1917 via Lantern Digital Library However, it is clear that Elsie continued working after her last credited directing assignment. While formal film credits do not exist, there is a body of evidence in the contemporary press indicating that she was regularly assisting her husband in film production – and keen to seek further work as a director.

The cast of Rupert Julian’s The Honey Bee (1920) on set. Elsie Jane Wilson is in the second row. There is no information regarding why Elsie was there.[37]Motion Picture News, Feb 28 1920, P2127 via Lantern Digital Library

On several occasions after 1919, Elsie was publicly announced in trade magazines and newspapers as the director for a forthcoming production. In February 1920 she was announced as director for Opened Shutters, an upcoming Edith Roberts film.[38]The Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb 1920, P23, via Newspapers.com However, in the end it was directed by William Worthington. In late 1922 The Los Angeles Times announced she was planning to direct again,[39]The Los Angeles Times 29 Nov 1922, P15, via Newspapers.com and in March 1923, she was announced as the director of a new series of Baby Peggy films for Universal, with Rupert Julian writing scripts.[40]Baby Peggy, born Peggy-Jean Montgomery (1918-2020) was a popular Hollywood child star Elsie said she was “elated” over her return to pictures and felt certain she had some new ideas to offer. But it was not to be, although Universal did make a Baby Peggy film in 1923, directed by King Baggot.[41]See Exhibitor’s Trade Review, April 7, 1923, P947 via Lantern, Digital Library. Also see The Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar 1923, P22 via Newspapers.com

However most telling, in June 1924, Universal Weekly, the studio’s own magazine, reported that on account of her work on Rupert Julian’s Love and Glory (1924), Elsie had been given “a letter of thanks and a substantial check” by Julius Bernheim, Universal Studio’s General Manager.[42]Universal Weekly, 14 June 1924, P26, via Lantern, Digital Library The article went on to explain that “although not employed by Universal” she was an active aide to her husband as director, handling his working script and assisting him in directing. It was an unusually fulsome public acknowledgement for someone who was not on the payroll. Some months later, several reports credited her with managing Mary Philbin’s makeup and costumes for Rupert Julian’s The Phantom of the Opera (1925).[43]See for example Oakland Tribune (CA)19 Oct 1924, P64 via Newspapers.com

Whether or not Elsie’s last contribution to film was really in 1925, or perhaps after that date, we know that Rupert Julian’s final films were only 5 years later, in 1930, at the beginning of the sound era.[44]See Robert Catto’s website on Rupert Julian for a synopsis of his career He died suddenly in 1943 as a result of a stroke. Elsie lived on in Los Angeles until her death, aged about 80, in early 1965.[45]The Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan 1965, P40 via Newspapers.com Both had become US citizens and there appear to have been no trips home to see extended family in Australia or New Zealand. Elsie and Rupert had no children. I can find no evidence Elsie was ever interviewed about her screen or stage work and sadly, she was completely forgotten in her country of birth until relatively recently.

Note 1 – Nellie Wilson in the USA

Nellie Wilson joined Elsie in the US between 1913 and 1918. Left: Nellie as Nella in So Long Letty (1915).[46]Los Angeles Evening Express,19 Jul 1915, P7, via Newspapers.com Right: Nellie, arrived home in Australia in 1918.[47]Table Talk, 26 Dec 1918, via State Library of Victoria

Nellie Wilson arrived in the US in mid 1913.[48]Variety, 25 July 1913, P25, Via Lantern Digital Library (Her marriage to George Irish had come to an unhappy end when he was admitted to Kew Asylum in May 1912.) But despite her enviable reputation on the Australian and New Zealand stage, Nellie appears to have struggled to establish herself in the US. It was not until 1915 that she found an ongoing role on the stage – in the musical So Long Letty, having renamed herself “Nella” Wilson in the meantime.[49]The San Francisco Examiner 19 Jul 1913,P3 and The Los Angeles Times 24 Jun 1915, P26 via Newspapers.com She returned to Australia in late 1918.[50]Table Talk, 26 Dec 1918, via State Library of Victoria Nellie visited Elsie in the US again in 1931.

Nellie Wilson’s later fate is unknown. One newspaper report suggested she ran a millinery shop in Sydney.[51]Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1934, P9, via National Library of Australia’s Trove Marie Wilson married bank officer Phillip John Madden in Melbourne in 1914 and also retired from the stage.

Note 2: Other Elsies and different Nellies

The English Nellie Wilson in 1895.[52]Music Hall and Theatre Review, 1 February, 1895 via British Library Newspaper Archive

There were several performers called Nellie Wilson – it was not an uncommon name. English performer Nellie Wilson visited Australia in the 1890s, and she can be found on the cover of the British paper Music Hall and Theatre Review, 1 February, 1895 (at left). In addition, a long interview with her after her Australian tour can be found in the same paper, May 26 1899, P331. She resembles our Nellie Wilson in appearance and the two are sometimes confused in collections.

This photo in the collection of the State Library of Victoria appears to show our Nellie Wilson (Click here), see also Peter Downes, The Pollards, P110. Confusingly, an additional photo in the collections of the State Library of Victoria appears to show the English Nellie Wilson.

Another Elsie Wilson was active in Australia in the late 1910s. Her JC Williamson’s contract from 1917 survives in the collections of the Australian Performing Arts Collection.

Elsie Wilson was also the name of the long time companion of Gladys Moncrieff.

Nick Murphy
September 2022

References

  • Newspaper & Magazine Sources
    • National Library of Australia’s Trove
    • Newspapers.com
    • State Library of Victoria
    • Hathitrust digital library
    • National Library of New Zealand’s Papers Past
    • Internet Archive Library via Lantern Digital Library
  • Primary Sources
    • Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.
    • Ancestry.com
    • Victoria, Births, Deaths and Marriages
    • New South Wales, Births, Deaths and Marriages

This site has been selected for preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1, ↑2 Photoplay magazine Oct 1917-March 1918, via Lantern, Digital Library
↑3 NSW Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 3700/1885
↑4 Victoria Births Deaths & Marriages Marriage Certificate 6213/1906
↑5 or “clicker” – a skilled tradesperson who cut boot leather
↑6 A City of Sydney Archive photo of nineteenth century houses in Riley Street can be seen here
↑7 Sands 1889 Directory, City of Sydney Archives & History Resources
↑8 NSW Births Deaths & Marriages, Birth Certificate 2389/1877
↑9 See Auckland Star, 28 Nov 1901, P2 Via National Library of New Zealand Papers Past
↑10 Sunday Sun (Syd) 20 Nov 1910, P12, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑11 Victoria Births Deaths & Marriages Marriage certificate 3786/1902
↑12 not yet using her middle name
↑13 The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People (Syd) 21 Jan 1905, P7 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑14 The Gadfly, 30 October 1907, Cover, Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑15 The Gadfly (Adel) 9 Oct 1907, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑16 Sunday Times (Syd) 21 Mar 1909, P6 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑17 The Sun(WA) 6 June 1909, P7 via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑18 about $AU 1,100 today. Her contract survives in the Australian Performing Arts Collection
↑19 See Veronica Kelly (2003) “Julius Knight, Australian Matinee Idol: Costume Drama as Historical Re-presentation” in Australasian Victorian Studies Journal, Vol 9, No 1, 2003
↑20 Motion Picture Magazine, April 1917, P18 via Lantern Digital Library
↑21 Enlarged from a Talma Photo, State Library of Victoria collections
↑22 Marysville Appeal(CA), 22 Jul 1913, P3 via Newspapers.com
↑23 Moving Picture Weekly, 11 Nov 1916 via Lantern Digital Library
↑24 Motion Picture News, July-Oct 1914, P85. Via Lantern Digital Library
↑25 Perhaps the couple intrigued Lois Weber. Elsie and Rupert hailed from budding democracies – Australia and New Zealand – where Caucasian women could vote, in fact Elsie would already have done so, in the 1910 Australian Federal elections. In the US, women’s suffrage was still 6 years away
↑26 Jeannette Delamoir “Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays and the Star System.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 64-85. University of Minnesota Press
↑27 The Moving Picture Weekly, June 24, 1915, P31 via Lantern Digital Library
↑28 Motion Picture News, Sept 23, 1916, via Lantern Digital Library
↑29 Photoplay, February 1917, via Lantern Digital Library
↑30 The Moving Picture Weekly Nov 3, 1917, P28 Via Lantern Digital Library
↑31 Motion Picture News Aug 25, 1917, P1297 and The Moving Picture World Dec 8, 1917 P1410 via Lantern Digital Library
↑32 For more on Universal Studio’s production strategy see Jeannette Delamoir “Louise Lovely, Bluebird Photoplays and the Star System.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 64-85. University of Minnesota Press
↑33 See Karen Ward Mahar (2006) Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. Johns Hopkins University Press and Anthony Slide (1996) Lois Weber: the director who lost her way in history. Greenwood Press
↑34 Photoplay Magazine, March 1919, P78. Via Lantern Digital Media Library
↑35 See Mark Garrett Cooper (2013) “Elsie Jane Wilson.” In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries.
↑36 Motion Picture News, August 25, 1917 via Lantern Digital Library
↑37 Motion Picture News, Feb 28 1920, P2127 via Lantern Digital Library
↑38 The Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb 1920, P23, via Newspapers.com
↑39 The Los Angeles Times 29 Nov 1922, P15, via Newspapers.com
↑40 Baby Peggy, born Peggy-Jean Montgomery (1918-2020) was a popular Hollywood child star
↑41 See Exhibitor’s Trade Review, April 7, 1923, P947 via Lantern, Digital Library. Also see The Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar 1923, P22 via Newspapers.com
↑42 Universal Weekly, 14 June 1924, P26, via Lantern, Digital Library
↑43 See for example Oakland Tribune (CA)19 Oct 1924, P64 via Newspapers.com
↑44 See Robert Catto’s website on Rupert Julian for a synopsis of his career
↑45 The Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan 1965, P40 via Newspapers.com
↑46 Los Angeles Evening Express,19 Jul 1915, P7, via Newspapers.com
↑47, ↑50 Table Talk, 26 Dec 1918, via State Library of Victoria
↑48 Variety, 25 July 1913, P25, Via Lantern Digital Library
↑49 The San Francisco Examiner 19 Jul 1913,P3 and The Los Angeles Times 24 Jun 1915, P26 via Newspapers.com
↑51 Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1934, P9, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
↑52 Music Hall and Theatre Review, 1 February, 1895 via British Library Newspaper Archive

Harry and Nellie Quealy ~ Life and death in variety

Above: Nellie and Harry Quealy in 1910, at the height of their popularity on the Australian stage.[1]The Theatre (Syd) 1 December 1910, P6, via State Library of Victoria
The Five Second version
Harry Quealy was another Australian variety performer who had started his career on the stage at a very young age. He worked for Tom Pollard for a decade, developed a reputation for clever comedy and was much liked by audiences. When he met an early death in Australia in 1927, there was widespread and genuine regret. He worked in the US for six years and had a leading role in the US film Madame Sherry in 1917. But he maintained that he always preferred the stage.
Nellie Quealy, nee Finlay, was his partner on stage – the couple working together with great success in Australia. She had also begun her career as a child performer in the early 1890s, appearing overseas with Pollards in 1898. She married Harry in 1904, and as well as pursuing her own career, took on the role of parenting her three performing siblings – Nattlie, Myra and Irene Finlay. She died in the US in 1936, after a long battle with TB.
A stage turn like Fun in the Kitchen (above and below) was only intended to last 15 minutes being part of a mixed variety program. “There is nothing in the sketch itself… it is all in the acting, swing and drollery of the situations.”[2]The Northern Miner (Qld) 25 April 1911, P7. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove
It is rare to have photos based on scenes from a variety turn. These are from the boxing scene in Fun in the Kitchen – taken for The Theatre magazine in 1910. [3]The Theatre (Syd) 1 December 1910, P5, via State Library of Victoria

Harry Quealy, born 1876

Harry was born Henry Joseph Quealy in Brisbane in July 1876 to Thomas, a shoemaker, and sometime mechanic at Brisbane’s Theatre Royal – and who was, according to Harry, also “the best dancer in Queensland”[4]The Theatre (Syd) on 1 December 1910, via the State Library of Victoria and his Irish born wife Margaret nee Byrne.[5]See State of Queensland, Births, Deaths and Marriages, Birth certificate Henry Joseph Quealy, 25 July 1876 Harry’s stories about being encouraged onto the stage at a young age are true. He recalled that he was on stage in a benefit concert as early as 1882, when he danced to much acclaim.[6]The Brisbane Courier (Qld) 21 Feb 1882, P1,via National Library of Australia’s Trove By 1891, 15 year old Harry was a part of Tom Pollard’s new juvenile troupe touring Australia. He continued to be associated with Tom Pollard’s troupes of players as they matured, until they finally broke up, about 1908.[7]See Peter Downes (2002) The Pollards, P80-81 Harry’s associates are not well remembered now but were very well known at the time and included – Maud Beatty(1878-1959) and May Beatty(1880-1945), William S Percy (1872-1946), Nellie Wilson(1877-) and Jack Ralston (1882-1933). See Note 1 below regarding various Pollard tours.

Harry Quealy in Tom Pollard’s The Gondoliers, the King of Barataria, The Princess Theatre, Melbourne Australia, October 15, 1892 [8]Program via State Library of Victoria

Harry developed to become a popular comedian for Tom Pollard’s comic operas, taking on numerous character roles –“a list too long for me to give it to you right off” he told The Theatre in 1910. In 1903 he joined Pollard’s “Royal Australian Comic Opera Company” for an extended tour of South Africa.[9]So named because the performers were now too old to be called Lilliputians It was here that Harry met Nellie Finlay, who was touring with Harry Hall’s Juvenile Australian Company at the same time.[10]It is hard to believe Tom Pollard and Harry Hall had not reached some type of agreement regarding itinerary and performances in South Africa

Both Harry and Nellie were short and slight – a physical profile famously preferred by juvenile companies. Harry was inclined to claim he was even shorter than his 162 cms (5’4″) inches while Nellie stood just 152 cms (5′) in height. But it was their skills as dancers, singers and comedians that made them so popular, even before they teamed up on stage. “We both revel in sketch work” Harry assured Theatre magazine.[11]The Theatre (Syd) December 1, 1910, P1-4. Via State Library of Victoria

Nellie Finlay, born c1885

Nellie Finlay was born c1885 in New Zealand.[12]The US census of 1920 lists Nellie’s birthplace as Port Chalmers, New Zealand Details of her childhood are obscure, almost certainly because her mother Millie Robins was unmarried.[13]While her birth certificate has yet to be found, Nellie is listed, aged 6, with sister Nattlie aged 4, on the Queensland birth certificate of her youngest sister Irene. See State of Queensland, … Continue reading Nellie and her sisters Nattlie and Irene adopted the surname Finlay when her mother married George Charles Finlay in 1893.

A photo of Nellie, presumably taken well before its publication in 1916.[14]The Sun (Syd) 9 July 1916, P18. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

According to Harry Quealy, Nellie’s performance career began when she was aged only 4 and a half – or in about 1890. She was documented onstage in 1892, dancing a sailor’s hornpipe in a program at the Exhibition Hall at 232-234 Brunswick Street Fitzroy and the Finlay family moved permanently to this area soon after.[15]Fitzroy City Press (Vic) 2 Dec 1892 P2, Via National Library of Australia’s Trove A few years later, this part of inner city Melbourne had become the main recruiting ground for Charles Pollard & Nellie Chester nee Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company troupes and it is not surprising that Nellie and her sisters would end up being associated with them.

By 1897, Nellie had a reputation for her dancing – which included a version of Bessie Clayton’s “back kick dance” – meaning she was flexible enough to kick backwards and touch her head. In late 1898, Nellie and Nattlie joined a Charles Pollard tour of South Africa – performing the usual repertoire of musical comedies – The Geisha, The Gaiety Girl and the like. A report written for Sydney’s Referee included interviews with Nellie and Nattlie: “Nellie Finlay, aged 12 years, who is a bright and clever girl, said: ‘I like South Africa, and travelling. I came to Cape Town from Australia on November 17, 1898. I like playing parts and dancing. My best part is Mamie Clancy in The Belle of New York.“[16]The Referee (Syd) 5 Jul 1899, P10, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

The Era reports on the success of Charles Pollard’s troupe in South Africa in August 1899.[17]The Era, London, 26 Aug 1899, P15, via British Library Newspaper Archive

In 1900, Nellie and Nattlie joined Harry Hall’s own troupe to perform in South Africa. [18]Charles Pollard & Nellie Chester nee Pollard attempted to stop Hall’s tour in the Victorian Supreme court but failed. Hall’s group was also made up of other adult members of the … Continue reading However, even by the permissive employment standards of the time, the choice of South Africa as a destination for a children’s troupe was unusual – the country was then in the midst of the Second Anglo-Boer war. See Note 2 below regarding Irene Finlay joining the Pollards.

Nellie Finlay remained connected with Hall’s company in South Africa for several years [19]Referee (Syd) 27 Feb 1901, P10 via National Library of Australia’s Trove – she travelled there again in early 1903, with other up and coming juveniles like Harold Fraser (later Snub Pollard) and Mae Dahlberg (later Mae Laurel). Hall died suddenly in South Africa in late October 1903,[20]Otago Daily Times (NZ) 2 Dec 1903 P6 Via Papers Past and his Australian Juveniles mostly returned to Australia. However, Nellie returned to Australia on the same ship as Harry Quealy, and the couple married in Western Australia in 1904.[21]See State of Western Australia, Births, Deaths and Marriages, Marriage certificate 1336/1904

Working together

Fun in the Kitchen included Nellie dancing on a table, humorous songs and concluded with the boxing match ~ shown here ~ between Cook (Nellie) and Buttons (Harry). Australian audiences loved it.

Following their marriage in Western Australia, Nellie and Harry both appeared on the Australian and New Zealand stages for Tom Pollard, with Nellie increasingly choreographing for productions.[22]Daily Post (Hob), 13 Jun 1908, P7, via National Library of Australia’s Trove Fun in the Kitchen was first performed in September 1908.[23]Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) 21 Sep 1908, P6, via National Library of Australia’s Trove It met with great approval and appeared in Australia on and off for six years, being entirely devised and regularly refreshed by Nellie and Harry.[24]The Sun (Syd) 27 Apr 1913, P10, via National Library of Australia’s Trove

In April 1909 Arthur Pollard asked Nellie and Harry to accompany his new Lilliputian tour of the “Far East,” India and North America – Nellie as Ballet Mistress and Harry as Stage Manager.(Charles Pollard had announced he was retiring from running his North American tours) [25]Truth (Bris)18 Apr 1909, P8 via National Library of Australia’s Trove About thirty young performers departed in July 1909 on the SS Gracchus, bound for Java and Singapore as first performance stops. However, as this writer has noted elsewhere, the tour of India was a disaster. Pollard was inexperienced as a manager and temperamentally quite unsuited to be a supervisor of children. The tour fell apart and the child performers returned home in early 1910, with considerable press attention. Harry went out of his way to protect the name of his mentor and friend Tom Pollard, but it didn’t help – the Pollard family reputation was ruined and new Federal legislation followed soon after to restrict the employment of children overseas. Harry also studiously avoided saying anything about his sister in law, Nellie’s youngest sister, Irene, who had disappeared with Arthur Pollard after the troupe broke up in Madras. This writer can find no evidence Nellie and Irene saw each other again. Perhaps the early death of their mother Millie Finlay in Melbourne in 1907 saw the family relationships fracture for good.

Above: Harry Quealy is one of the few who can be identified in this photo of the disastrous 1909 Pollard tour of India. He is standing, sixth from right, behind two seated girls in black. [26]The Leader 2 April, 1910. Via the National Library of Australia’s Trove

Back home, Harry and Nellie resumed their career in vaudeville. For six years, they toured far flung towns and cities in Australia and New Zealand, as part of varied variety lineups, almost without a break. Fun in the Kitchen made a regular return, but they also had new acts – Ragtime Musical Stores, On the Stage and Only a Dream – unfortunately only the titles survive. Fun in the Kitchen continued to tickle Australia audiences, in late 1912 the Kalgoorlie Miner reported that the huge audience “screamed with laughter, and wanted more.” [27]Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 15 Nov 1912, P7, via National Library of Australia’s Trove At the conclusion of a final, very long run on the Fuller circuit and shortly before they left Australia in September 1916, the Sunday Times of Sydney reported that Nellie “possesses all the accomplishments necessary for success in vaudeville, with a good voice, a good presence, and shapely figure she has all the essentials for success in the rapid-fire sketches she and her husband present.“[28]Sunday Times (Syd) 2 Apr 1916, P19,via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Harry, Nellie and their first daughter Maize in 1915.[29]The Theatre (Syd) 1 Feb 1915. Via State Library of Victoria

Working in the US

It was wartime, but the Quealys were able to catch a ship to South Africa, and in January 1917 they arrived in Boston – the shipping manifest for SS City of Lahore suggests they had work already arranged. Harry’s first few years in the US saw his enthusiastic self promotion at work again – but many of the claims he made at this time to boost his profile now appear to be without foundation.[30]For example – that he tried to enlist in the Australian Army 4 times, that he was Scottish singer Harry Lauder’s cousin, and that he had performed on every continent

In 1917 Nellie was pregnant with their second child, Aileen, born in that year in New York. Harry found work in a film in mid 1917 – just one – a version (silent of course) of the musical comedy Madame Sherry. Clear photos of Harry, credited as H J Quealy, can be seen at Kay Shakleton’s Silent Hollywood website.[31]Why just the one film? Perhaps the experience of friend and former Pollard colleague William S Percy, who had also dabbled in film in Australia and then on his arrival in the US, had some influence He then found work in Oh Boy, a successful New York musical comedy that had opened in August at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre.

Harry Quealy (as H J Quealy) at right, in Madame Sherry, released in September 1917 [32]Exhibitors Herald (Jun-Dec 1917 Reviews, via Lantern Media History Library

There is also evidence the Quealys were working together on tour at the end of 1920, in the “novelty” vehicle On Manilla Bay, but after this the couple did not work together again.[33]These so called “mechanical electrical” novelty shows were an effort by vaudeville to respond to the growing power of the moving picture. Married by Wireless, also produced by former … Continue reading

Harry and Nellie touring the US together, (and using their connections in a Pollard designed show), in late 1920.