A directory of the Pollards & their Lilliputian Opera Companies

Above: Children of Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company with US soldiers in Manila, c1903. Pollard Opera Companies Collection, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne. Courtesy The Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre, Melbourne.

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The extraordinarily creative family of James Joseph Pollard and his various children (he had eighteen children by two wives born between 1854 and 1882) operated numerous juvenile theatre troupes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company or variations of that name, became a trademark for touring musical comedy entertainment performed by children or juvenile players. As a few family members indicated in the occasional, unguarded moment, it was a profitable business for the Pollards.

While most of the child performers returned to ordinary lives, a few went on to very successful careers as adults – including Daphne Pollard (Trott), Alf Goulding, Ted MacNamara, Snub Pollard (Harold Fraser), W S Percy and Maud Beatty.

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Family patriarch – James Joseph Pollard (1833-1884)

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James Pollard established the first Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company in 1880, performing HMS Pinafore in Launceston, Tasmania and then taking juvenile opera throughout Australasia, involving many of his sixteen (living) children by two wives (also sisters) Mary nee Weippert (1831-1874) and Corunna nee Weippert (1845-1906). A successful business model established, the Pollards then travelled through South East Asia and to Calcutta, expanding their repertoire but accompanied by considerable controversy (for travelling overseas without the approval of other parents). James died soon after the troupe’s return to Australia in 1884. For the next 18 months Charles Pollard and Tom Pollard ran the company successfully, until it wrapped up in early 1886.

See also:
* Peter Downes (2002) The Pollards. Steele Roberts, New Zealand

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Tom Pollard (1857-1922)

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Tasmanian-born, Thomas John O’Sullivan adopted the surname Pollard and married JJ Pollard’s tenth child, Emily Albertina “Teny” Pollard (1865-1937) in 1884. Tom began as a violinist with Pollards, but quickly showed an aptitude for direction and management, taking over management of the Pollards with Charles Pollard, as James’ health failed. In 1891 he established another Juvenile company, with support of JC Williamson’s.

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Over the next 14 years, Tom Pollard’s company toured musical comedy through Australia and New Zealand, and to South Africa between March 1903 and February 1904. In June 1896 he gave up use of the word “Lilliputians” – as his performers were obviously young adults. Finally, in August 1905 Tom Pollard wrapped up this juvenile company – Peter Downes suggests a variety of reasons for this. However twenty months later, in May 1907, he returned again to the idea of touring Juvenile Opera, and set up a new Pollards Opera company, with new performers. He continued to tour this company until April 1910. Peter Downes’ book The Pollards (2002) deals at length with Tom Pollard’s troupes and is highly recommended. Tom Pollards enterprises were mostly associated in the public mind with New Zealand (although many of the performers were Australians) perhaps because both Tom Pollard and Teny had moved there in the late 1890s. Tom Pollard died in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1922.

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See also:
* Peter Downes (1993) Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Entry for Tom Pollard.
* Peter Downes (2002) The Pollards. Steel Roberts, New Zealand
* Kate Rice (2021) Performing the Past podcast; Episode 4: So and So and Such and Such. Arts Centre, Melbourne

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Charles Pollard (1858-1942) & Nellie Chester nee Pollard(1861-1944)

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Also born in Tasmania, Charles and Nellie were the fifth and seventh child respectively, of James Pollard and his first wife Mary. Ten years after having wrapping up what had been their father’s troupe, they returned to the business of running juvenile troupes – in 1896. Working as a partnership, they enlisted children – mostly from inner Melbourne, for performance tours that ran variously for twelve to thirty-two months, outside Australasia and most famously in North America, usually after a test run of shows in Queensland. The Australasian scene was left to troupes organised by Tom Pollard.

Details of the first three tours are sketchy but appear to include

• I. Sept 1896 – c.Sept 1897, Tour to India and the “Far East.” 
• II August 1898 – c.1900, Tour to South Africa and the “Far East.” 
• III. July 1900-April 1901, Tour to Singapore, Penang, Hong Kong and Manila.

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Details of the North American tours are confirmed by surviving shipping manifests

• IV. September 1901 – October 1902, Tour to North America: SS Sierra departed Sydney 3 Sept 1901, SS Aorangi arrived back in Australia on 17 Oct 1902.
• V. January 1903 – April 1904, Tour to North America. SS Changsa departed Sydney 18 Jan 1903, SS Miowera arrived back in Australia on 2 April 1904.
• VI. July 1904 – February 1907, Tour to the Far East and North America. Departed July 1904 for Queensland and then 27 September 1904 for Hong Kong. Arrived July 8 1905 in Vancouver. Arrived back in Australia 26 February 1907 on the SS Moana from Hawaii.
• VII. July 1907 – February 1909, to the Far East and North America. Departed July 1907 for Queensland before departing for the Far East. They arrived in the US on the SS Nippon Maru on 3 March, 1908. Arrived back in Australia on SS Moana in March, 1909.

In 1909 Charles Pollard announced he was retiring. He died in Sydney, Australia in 1942. Although Nellie Chester moved to the US at this time, she did not retire, as subsequent events show. [see below]

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Arthur Pollard (1873-1940)

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Also born in Tasmania, Arthur Hayden Pollard was the fifteenth child of James Pollard and his first wife. In 1893 he married Mary Hall in Charters Towers, Queensland. However by 1901 he had joined the Charles Pollard – Nellie Chester troupe and was on their international tours. He appears to have served in several roles – business manager and advance agent. In 1909, following Charles and Nellie’s departure, he took over running the Pollards, drawing again on some of the children who had previously performed. His troupe departed for the “Far East” in July 1909.

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The trip was a disaster. In India, Arthur Pollard was accused of mistreating the children in his care. His relationship with 18 year old Irene Finlay also became a central feature of the scandal. After the matter ended up in court in Madras in April 1910, Arthur Pollard and Irene abandoned the troupe and fled to England. The collapse of the tour has been well documented by Gillian Arrighi (2017) and in a creative retelling by Kirsty Murray (2010). It brought the Pollard name into disrepute, and saw Federal legislation designed to restrict Australian children performing overseas (The Australian Emigration Act of 1910). Arthur Pollard died in New Zealand in 1940.

See Also:
* Gillian Arrighi (2017) The Controversial “Case of the Opera Children in the East”: Political conflict between popular demand for child actors and modernizing cultural policy on the child”. Theatre Journal 69, (2017) Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Kirsty Murray (2010) India Dark. Allen and Unwin
* Kate Rice (2021) Performing the Past podcast; Episode 4: So and So and Such and Such. Arts Centre, Melbourne.

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Alice Landeshut nee Pollard (1863-1950)

Born in Tasmania in 1863, Alice Margaret Pollard was the eighth child of JJ Pollard and his first wife, Mary. Following a marriage and divorce, in 1900 she started a troupe with Harry Hall, to specialise in South African touring, – despite the fighting going on in that country. Alice previously had experience working with Tom Pollard (see 1901 photo above) and had been one of the supervising adults with Charles and Nellie’s troupes. On March 28, 1900, Alice Landeshut and Harry Hall’s troupe, aka Hall’s Australian Juvenile Company, departed on the SS Persic for Cape Town. Alice was also conductor, while Harry Hall was director. William Pollard (1871–1944 and 14^th child of the family) acted as machinist while May Pollard (1868–1970) and 12^th child of the family) was a wardrobe mistress, teacher and sometime stage manager. A second troupe wrapped up soon after Hall’s death in late 1903. Alice remarried while in South Africa, and died in Brighton, Victoria in 1950.

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Nellie Chester in North America after 1909

Nellie Chester, now based in the US, continued running a touring Pollards company in North America after 1909. It was a smaller troupe, the players aged in their mid teens to early twenties. Nellie’s 4 sons and daughter May were involved.

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While her troupe performed the usual Pollard repertoire of light opera, there were new challenges. Like all variety performers of the era, the Pollards were now competing against the rising popularity of cinema, while attractive opportunities drew performers away. In 1912, Nellie Chester returned to Australia, to replenish her troupe. Shorter pieces, usually as part of a variety lineup, became the norm, featuring their own original ‘miniature’ musicals – A Millionaire for a Day and Married by Wireless. These were accompanied by impressive mechanical effects. After 1916, the company was being led by Nellie’s oldest son Ernest. Until 1922, Pollards continued to tour North America variety theatres with original works that relied on clever and portable backstage machinery – including On Manila Bay (1919), and Earth to Moon (1920). After 1922 however, the Chester brothers turned to another pioneer field – manufacturing amusement machines – as the Chester-Pollard Company.

Nellie Chester died in California in 1944.

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The author’s article on the Pollards, written for Theatre Heritage Australia’s On Stage magazine can be read here:
Part 1 – September 2024 is here
Part 2 – December 2024 is here

Note 1
Some of the performers with Pollard’s whose full stories are known include

• Alice Catherine Bennetto 
  Born Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, 5 October 1885
  Died Auckland New Zealand, 22 January 1970
  
• Ethel Grace Bennetto 
  Born Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia 22 December 1889
  Died Auckland New Zealand, June 1985 

• Irene Finlay
  Born Brisbane, Queensland, Australia,16 August 1891
  Died Auckland New Zealand, 2 August 1962
  
• Alf Goulding (Alfred John Goulding)
  Born Richmond, Victoria, Australia, 26 January 1885,
  Died Hollywood, California, USA, 25 April, 1972.
  
• Irene Loftus (Irene Goulding)
  Born Collingwood, Victoria, Australia, 7 October, 1888
  Died, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1987
  
• Leah Leichner (Leah Caroline Cohen) 
  Born Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, 9 July 1890
  Died Hong Kong, China, 16 May 1957.
  
• Elsie Morris (Elsie Lavinia Morris)
  Born South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 26 June 1896
  Died Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1 November 1966
  
• Ted (or Teddy) McNamara (Edward Joseph McNamara)
  Born Prahran, Victoria, Australia, 19 September 1893
  Died Ventura, California, USA, 3 Feb 1928
  
• Daphne Pollard (Daphne Trott)
  Born Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, 19 October 1891,
  Died Los Angeles, California, USA. 22 February 1978.
  
• Snub Pollard (Harold Hopetown Fraser).
  Born North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 November 1889,
  Died Los Angeles, California, USA, 19 January, 1962.
  
• Harry Quealy (Henry Joseph Quealy)
  Born Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 2 July 1876,
  Died Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 25 July 1927.
  
• Nellie Quealy ( Nellie Finlay or Robins)
  Born New Zealand c 1885,
  Died Saranac Lake, New York, USA, 14 July 1936.
  
• Willie Thomas (William Thomas) and Emma Thomas
  William born Collingwood, Victoria, Australia, 1 January 1889,
  Died Boulder, Western Australia, 1969.
  Emma born Collingwood, Victoria, Australia, 12 January 1885,
  Died Sunshine, Victoria, 1963.
  
• Queenie Williams also known as Ina Williams (Alfreda Ina Williams)
  Born Footscray, Victoria, Australia, 17 November 1896
  Died Los Angeles, California, USA, 9 June 1962

• Sketches of Pollard’s Child Performers
  (The Heintz twins and older brother Oscar, Ethel Naylor and the Topping girls)

Nick Murphy
2025

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