Tag: 76 Kerr St Fitzroy

Freddie & Johnnie Heintz & the tale of tiny thespians

Above: Johnnie and Freddie Heintz, sit distracted on the ground in front of older children of the Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company, while on the long performance tour of 1904-1907.[1]University of Washington Sayre (J. Willis) Collection of Theatrical Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons

Until quite recently, accounts of Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company, as run by Charles Pollard and Nellie Chester, have tended to be of a celebratory and nationalistic nature, coloured by the success of a few of its Australian graduates. At the time, a great effort was made to represent the company [2]or more correctly – companies, as the troupes changed over time as a type of travelling educational institution,[3]Democrat and Chronicle (New York), 9 March 1902, p.10 while all sorts of spurious claims were made regarding the qualifications of the adults accompanying the children.(See for example, the account at left from the Chicago Tribune, 19 May 1902. Click to enlarge)

We have few records from the child performers themselves. Only one Lilliputian was interviewed in any depth, much later in life. The experience of Freddie and Johnnie Heintz, related below, shows a childhood spent with Pollards was much less spectacular than the prevailing stereotype suggests.

Maggie Moore on Child Actors

Maggie Moore c1902. Bangs Photographer.[4]State Library of Victoria. Coppin Collection MS 8827

In 1904, during one of her many performance tours of Australia, popular US born actress Maggie Moore (1851-1926) wrote an article on the valuable experience the stage provided for children. The piece in The Australasian Stage Annual was entitled “Tales of Tiny Thespians,” and it was unusually long for a magazine devoted almost exclusively to short articles about the legitimate stage.[5]The magazine appeared at Christmas time each year. The State Library of Victoria holds editions of 1900-1906 It made the point repeatedly, that a career on stage provided children, especially those from poorer families, with an education, personal development and a worthwhile career.

She told readers;
Recently a law in England was passed to prevent young children going upon the stage. Oh! The pity of it! How many tiny mites will have a cold, cruel Christmas – no sunshine, no laughter, no shillings for mother at the end of the week. Who knows, perhaps they will be hungry. Nothing to eat on Christmas day, nothing to put in the empty stockings.[6]The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p14, State Library of Victoria

Moore’s intention was completely serious here – there was no tongue-in-cheek, 21st century humour going on.

The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p14 [7]State Library of Victoria

The article was peppered with personal anecdotes, many of them about working class urchins who were venturing on stage for the first time, but still in need of a bath or a face wash, and whose speech she rendered into that peculiar and patronising style favoured by writers of the time, sometimes bordering on caricature;

[Moore] And tell me why you are called ‘Ginger’? What is your proper name?
“Oh! Me oder name: that’s Sonny… Yes me mudder always called me Sonny. It’s only since I went dancin’ in the pubs dat I’ve been ‘Ginger'”
[Moore] Your mother is dead is she?
“Yes” And tears came to his eyes…[8]The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p26, State Library of Victoria

Maggie Moore on “Joe and Jim O’Reilly”

Maggie Moore also recounted working with a pair of four year olds in a pantomime, who she named as Joe and Jim O’Reilly. “Joe was very quiet and always very tidy, Jim was a terror.” The boys fought to collect the flowers thrown at the end of one particular song to put on “daddy’s drave” (grave). Paid sixpence as tea-money, on one occasion they missed a cue because they spent the money instead on seeing another panto at a nearby theatre. But she reassured readers they had now grown up and were at work, although aged only fourteen. “The stage was their school until they lost their childish tricks, and I am sure both will be good, clever men when they get older.” [9]The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p22, State Library of Victoria

Did Joe and Jim O’Reilly really exist? Perhaps they did… in some other form.

Freddie and Johnnie Heintz

In the same year that Moore wrote her article, a Fitzroy widow was considering the future for her twin boys, Freddie and Johnnie Heintz. Annie Heintz lived in a small cottage in Kerr St Fitzroy, but had lost her husband John, a baker, in 1901.[10]Leader (Melb) 2 March 1901, p44 Despite the era’s significant mortality rate with childbirth (and with the birth of twins particularly), Mrs White, an experienced local midwife, had assisted in a successful delivery of Annie Heintz’s twins at home in December 1895. But by the time of John Heintz’s death there were six children aged under 12 in the Heintz family – it must have been a financial strain. Annie’s oldest son, Ernest, soon joined the thriving boot trade of inner Melbourne, but another son, Oscar, had turned in a different direction and in 1901, aged 10, had joined Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company. This arrangement generated a modest but steady income for the family.

Johnnie and Freddie Heintz with their mother Annie, c1904-1907. Private Collection.

Freddie and Johnnie join the Pollards

Like their older brother Oscar, Freddie and Johnnie developed an interest in performing. Ethel Monte Punshon (1882-1989) met them later in life and recounted that following the death of their father, the Heintz twins sold sweets outside Melbourne theatres, where they were also observed to be entertaining mimics.[11]See Tessa Morris-Suzuki’s bio of Punshon (2024), p80

The enthusiasm for an adventure performing musical comedy with the Pollards also affected other children living in Kerr St, Fitzroy. The girls of the neighbouring Trott and Bennetto families had already toured with the Pollards by 1904. The Topping girls had too – they also lived nearby, just around the corner in Fitzroy Street. Without a doubt, these children also knew each other from the very small playground and crowded classrooms of the nearby Bell Street School in Fitzroy.

Red dots mark the homes of Pollard homes in Kerr St Fitzroy, today. In 1900, No. 84 (red door on the left) housed the Heintz family, No 76 (centre of photo) the Bennettos, and No 56 (the white cottage in the right far distance) was home to the Trott family. Author’s collection
Ernest Wolff and Nellie Chester in happier times c1903. [12]Australian Performing Arts Museum

Coincidentally, in early 1904, the Pollard company’s musical conductor, Ernest Wolff (1874-1948), attempted to induce some of the Pollard parents to join a new break-away juvenile company he was planning, with higher rates of pay on offer. The tall, good looking and over confident Ernest Wolff personally visited many of the parents in April, and convinced them that that their existing contracts with the proprietors of Pollards (Charles Pollard (1858-1942) & Nellie Chester nee Pollard(1861-1944) were not binding. It is clear from surviving Supreme Court records that Annie Heintz had accepted Wolff’s offer to employ Oscar. However on May 4, after Oscar missed some rehearsals, Charles Pollard visited Annie Heintz. He assured her the original contract with him was valid and said, ominously, that the matter would be soon be going to Court. Annie quickly backed down, re-engaged with Pollards, and it was soon after this that she also signed up Freddie and Johnnie to join the next Pollards troupe. Other parents who had been lured by the promise of higher salaries also re-committed to Pollards.

When the matter went to the Supreme Court on May 13, Wolff abandoned his plan.[13]Supreme Court Victoria 1904/329 Pollard & Anor V Wolffe and see also contemporary reports – including Nanaimo Daily News (British Columbia, Canada) July 7, 1904, p3 The court records reveal some of the details of the Pollards operations. Oscar Heintz’s salary, paid to Annie, was 10 shillings per month for the first six months and £1 per month thereafter, on a two year contract.(The contract was due to expire in December 1904 – but it was subsequently renewed)

So, in July 1904, a new Pollard troupe departed Melbourne. The performance tour first took in Queensland (where some of their musical comedies were tested out), then on to Manila, Japanese ports and finally to North America. On board were Freddie and Johnnie, and their older brother Oscar, and all of the other children Wolff had attempted to “poach”. The very familiar Pollard repertoire of musical comedies included A Runaway Girl, The Belle of New York, A Gaiety Girl, The Geisha and HMS Pinafore. Although the troupe was predominantly made up of girls, the Heintz twins joined a small group of boys who took the leading comic character roles.

The Pollards troupe in late 1904, apparently posing outside a Manilla Jail. Oscar Heintz stands left rear, Freddie and Johnnie at the front.[14]University of Washington Sayre (J. Willis) Collection of Theatrical Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons

Compulsory Education and the Pollards

In the Heintz children’s hometown of Melbourne, compulsory education for all children aged between 6 and 15 had been legislated in 1872. But there was often non-compliance with child labour laws [15]See Wilcox and Anderson and the Education Act also allowed for legitimate “exemptions,” such as “that a child is under efficient instruction in some other manner.” This “some other manner” is also what the Pollard management claimed when they took Wolff to court – they stated they were contracted to “properly provide for, maintain and clothe… [the children] and teach and educate [them] in the profession of the stage.” The court found in the Pollards favour and by implication, approved of the contracts.[16]Supreme Court Victoria 1904/329 Pollard & Anor V Wolffe

Freddie and Johnnie Heintz in character for Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company in North America, c1906. [17]University of Washington Sayre (J. Willis) Collection of Theatrical Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons

Freddie and Johnnie’s first tour with Pollards did not to return to Australia until February 1907, an extraordinary 32 months away from home. Older brother Oscar was not with them when they returned. Aged 16, he simply stayed on in Portland, Oregon and built a new, non-theatrical life for himself in the US.

After four months back in Fitzroy, Freddie and Johnnie joined the next Pollards trip, which departed Australia in late July 1907, and which followed a similar route to the last, most of the time being spent in North America. In early 1909, fifteen months later, they returned to Australia. The Heintz twins had, by now, spent most of the last five years on the road.

In 1909, following Charles Pollard’s retirement,[18]The Telegraph (Qld.)17 Apr 1909 p8 the youngest member of the Pollard family, Arthur Hayden Pollard (1873-1940), organised another troupe and the Heintz boys joined up, once again. However, within six months the trip had collapsed disastrously and Australian newspapers were carrying news of the accusations of Arthur Pollard’s cruelty towards his charges.

The Arthur Pollard troupe – a photo taken in February 1910, after he had abandoned them. Freddie Heintz stands in the third row, 2nd from left, while Johnnie is sitting front row, third from right. [19] Leader (Melb) 2 Apr 1910, p23

Amongst numerous complaints from children that surfaced while the troupe was in India, Freddie Heintz claimed he had been repeatedly struck by Arthur Pollard. Through the pages of the Madras Times, Pollard attempted to defend himself; “Yes, I have boxed Fred’s ears, and smacked him on the proper place several times, but never without good cause for doing so.”[20]as reported in The Daily News (Perth) 9 March 1910, p7 Other child performers had reportedly been roughly treated, or confined to bread and water, or had their hair cut, or were punished in other ways. Arthur Pollard clearly had a temperament completely unsuited to managing children, even if Freddie Heintz was a difficult youngster. Pollard subsequently made off with the proceeds of the tour and 18 year old performer Irene Finlay, whom he later bigamously married. Stuck in India, it took several months for Freddie and Johnnie Heintz -and the rest of the troupe – to get home.[21]See Gillian Arrighi (2017) and Kirsty Murray (2010) for accounts of this

In Australia after 1909

In Australia again, Freddie and Johnnie joined the Juvenile Comic Opera Company being organised by J C Williamsons to tour Australian cities. Some of the company members were former Pollards players (Ivy Moore, Ivy Ferguson, Florrie Allen as well as the Heintz boys) and the musical comedies performed were from the familiar popular repertoire favoured by Pollards. There the similarities ended however. JC Williamsons took their responsibilities to educate seriously – they could scarcely do otherwise in Australia, with its pioneer laws regarding education. It was at this time that Monte Punshon, the troupe’s teacher, met the Heintz twins.[22]In Arthur Pollard’s ill-fated troupe, 17 year old Ruby Ford had been nominated as the “schoolmistress” – she later claimed this was a ruse so that Pollard could fulfil his … Continue reading

Freddie and Johnnie as members of the JC Williamsons juvenile opera in Adelaide in 1911.[23]The Advertiser (Adelaide) 14 April 1911, p2

Monte Punshon recalled that neither of the Heintz boys attended her morning classes, but they did develop a strong rapport with her. And it was Johnny who confided to Monte that neither of them had ever learned to read or write, an awful inditement of life for some of the Pollard children. Monte even recounted the experience of sitting on a train, with Freddie dictating a letter for her to write, a love letter to a girlfriend – too difficult for him to write himself.[24]Tessa Morris-Suzuki (2024), p79-81 The claim carries more weight when considered with fellow Pollards performer Irene Goulding‘s comments. Interviewed late in life she expressed regret for her limited education, a consequence of a childhood spent on performance tours.

For unrelated reasons, JC Williamsons comic opera company folded, and Monte Punshon’s brief relationship with the twins came to an end. Also at about this time, Johnny left the stage for good. He became a baker and settled in Adelaide. Freddie however, stayed on the stage in variety, but seems to have drifted for a while. On New Year’s morning 1913, he found himself in serious trouble for swearing at a policeman. He was near his home in Kerr Street, so ran inside after the incident, but was pursued by angry police. He then made things worse by throwing a chair at them. In court a few days later, he explained he had been drinking too much with friends. He was fined 20 shillings.[25]The Herald (Melb) 3 Jan 1913, p6

Freddie seeks a career in the US

In Maggie Moore’s 1904 article, the ultimate measurement of success for a juvenile performer was to find work overseas. Of one, unnamed and perhaps imaginary former child actor, now in the US, she wrote; “You should have seen [his]… mother’s face when I called to see her… and what pride she spoke of her boy and the money he had sent her for Christmas.”

Perhaps with a similar dream, but likely at the invitation of Nellie Chester[26]who had set up a new musical comedy troupe in the US comprising ex-Pollards players Freddie left Australia in June 1914. He soon teamed up with some familiar Pollard names – Teddy McNamara, Nellie McNamara and Queenie Williams, to tour the old popular favourites like The Mikado and also their own shorter, snappier musical spectaculars – such as A Millionaire for a Day and Married by Wireless – with smaller casts and an increasing emphasis on mechanical effects.

The “adult Pollards”, almost all Australians, and including Freddie Heintz in top hat, touring California in 1916.[27]The Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA) Feb 6, 1916 p3

Like other performers during the Great War, Freddie dropped the surname Heintz for stage purposes, and went by the less German sounding surname Garland. Although the adult Pollards continued on for a short time, in March 1918 Freddie left the stage and travelled north to join the Canadian army. His military record shows he saw service in France for several months, but in January 1919, with the war over, he was sentenced to 21 days of the notoriously degrading “Field Punishment No1” for carrying out his sentry duties in a “slovenly manner.” He was “demobbed” in April 1919 and returned to the US and back to vaudeville. Whatever his weaknesses as a soldier, throughout his military service, Freddie dutifully sent most of his pay home to his mother Annie, still living at the little cottage in Kerr St, Fitzroy. Sadly, Annie died in June 1919, a victim of the Influenza pandemic.

Freddie in 1922. [28]The Oregonian (Portland) July 25, 1922 p6

Freddie Garland becomes Freddie Steele

In 1922, Freddie re-launched his career again. He was now “Freddie Steele,” and he had allegedly been “adopted” by vaudevillian Lillian Steele and her husband Harry Hoffman, becoming part of their song, dance and comedy act, performing Love Lessons on the Loew circuit.[29]A ridiculous account of his background appears in The Birmingham News (Alabama) May 29, 1922, p2. A more sober announcement appeared in The Vaudeville News, May 19, 1922 p12 This teaming with Lillian Steele continued on and off over the next few years and was apparently a successful partnership.

By 1926 Freddie was appearing in a variety-illusion act called In China on the Pantages circuit.[30]The Edmonton Bulletin (Canada) Feb 19, 1926, p16 Then in 1927, he appeared at the Schubert Theatre in Fog, a mystery melodrama – a complete change of pace for a song and dance man. He was now Freddie Garland again, perhaps to avoid confusion with others.

A typical mixed program of 1928, integrating vaudeville and cinema.[31]Poughkeepsie Eagle-News (New York) Jun 26, 1928 p12

In 1925 Freddie married Sophie Russell, a fellow performer from New York, whilst touring through West Virginia. The marriage had failed within a few years – by the time of the 1930 US census he described his status as single. We might assume that Freddie continued to perform in the 1930s, but his footprints in the historical record are faint and there seems little evidence of any significant activity on stage. With the rise of radio, the onset of the depression and then the booming popularity of the talkies, Freddie’s career as a jobbing vaudevillian meant he was particularly vulnerable. According to the 1940 US census, by that year he was boarding with the Emil Coretty family in Freeport, on Long Island, New York, and was now a handyman.

By the late 1940s, Freddie Heintz had moved on, perhaps in search of new opportunities. He was living at the Natick Hotel in Los Angeles when he was accidentally struck and killed by a car, in July 1949. His death certificate stated he was a clerk, although newspapers of the time had also reported he was a “newsboy.”[32]Daily News (Los Angeles) July 20, 1949, p29

A glance at the real and complex lives of the tiny thespians

In Maggie Moore’s view, from 1904, stage experiences beckoned invitingly for children. And for a few young people, membership of troupes like the Pollards really did change their lives, despite the absence of formalised education. Ted McNamara, Alf Goulding and Harold Fraser (Snub Pollard) all built impressive careers in the US. However, in terms of their personal lives, there was often much less success. After the death of his first wife, Alf Goulding remarried a further five times. Snub Pollard married three times but died alone in 1962, while Ted McNamara married twice before his early and unhappy death in early 1928. John Cherry (1887-1968), who often used the stage name Jack Pollard, is perhaps the most successful of the ex-Pollards boys – creating a long career on the legitimate stage on the US east coast while enjoying a stable relationship.

Gillian Arrighi has characterised the juvenile Pollards players as “caught in an industrial theatre complex.”[33]Arrighi (2017) p157 Some degree of awareness of this might explain why a number of Freddie’s contemporaries from Pollards chose not to pursue careers on stage. Roy Smith became an electrician in the US, while Willie Thomas became a butcher in Australia. Both Johnnie and Oscar Heintz left the stage.

May Martyn as Maie Vine undated poster c1910[34] Prompt Scrapbook National Library of Australia

For women, societal norms made the pathway to the stage as an adult challenging and their careers were sometimes abandoned after marriage. However, many ex-Pollard girls successfully established themselves on stage. For example, using skills learned with Pollards, May Martyn (1893-1982) and Elsie Morris (1896-1966) both became popular male impersonators in Australia, specialising in the pretentious upper class “swell” or “toff” character. The Heintz’s neighbours from Fitzroy, Alice (1885-1970) and Ethel (1889-1985) Bennetto, also built successful stage careers in Australia. Alice went on to enjoy a long career as the personal and professional partner of comedian Elton Black. Ethel even appeared in an Australian film – Does the Jazz lead to Destruction? (1919)

But of all the tiny thespians with Pollards, it was Daphne Trott (Pollard), also from Kerr Street Fitzroy, who arguably achieved the greatest success – taking into account her stage successes on Broadway and in London, and her later Hollywood screen roles. It is worth noting that when interviewed by film historian Sam Gill in the 1970s, Daphne recalled that when first approached, she didn’t want to take the “step down” from the stage to appear in Keystone comedy films! It took until the late 1920s for her to see the value in acting for the screen.[35]Sam Gill, personal information, January 2026

Of Oscar and Johnnie Heintz

Oscar Heintz died suddenly in Portland, United States in 1939, aged only 48. He had studied, graduated and married by 1915, and had two sons. At the time of his death he was a manager for Ramsay Neon Signs, a company that survives in Portland today. In late 1929 he visited Australia to see his surviving sisters Annie and Eva.[36]The Oregonian, Oct 10, 1929, p6

John (no longer Johnnie in adulthood) Heintz died in Adelaide, Australia in 1945 as a result of myocarditis. He was 49 years old. He had married in 1918 and had a daughter who predeceased him.[37]The News (Adelaide) 29 Aug 1945 p3

Nick Murphy
March 2026

References

Thanks to 

  • A J McKirdy for her kind assistance.
  • Sam Gill
  • and Claudia Funder, at the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne.

Text

  • Gillian Arrighi, ’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, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017, pp.153–173
  • Gillian Arrighi and Victor Emeljanow (eds), Entertaining Children: The Participation of Youth in the Entertainment Industry, Palgrove MacMillan, New York, 2014. Chapter 3. ‘Children and Youth of the Empire: Tales of Transgression and Accommodation’, pp.51-71
  • Peter Downes, The Pollards. A family and its child and adult opera companies in New Zealand and Australia 1880–1910, Steele Roberts, Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2002
  • Sally Howes, Irene Smith (nee Goulding) interview, Cassette 616, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Art Centre Melbourne, 1985
  • Kirsty Murray, India Dark, Allen and Unwin, 2010

Museum of Australian Democracy

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

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

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1, ↑14, ↑17 University of Washington Sayre (J. Willis) Collection of Theatrical Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons
↑2 or more correctly – companies, as the troupes changed over time
↑3 Democrat and Chronicle (New York), 9 March 1902, p.10
↑4 State Library of Victoria. Coppin Collection MS 8827
↑5 The magazine appeared at Christmas time each year. The State Library of Victoria holds editions of 1900-1906
↑6 The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p14, State Library of Victoria
↑7 State Library of Victoria
↑8 The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p26, State Library of Victoria
↑9 The Australasian Stage Annual, 1904 p22, State Library of Victoria
↑10 Leader (Melb) 2 March 1901, p44
↑11 See Tessa Morris-Suzuki’s bio of Punshon (2024), p80
↑12 Australian Performing Arts Museum
↑13 Supreme Court Victoria 1904/329 Pollard & Anor V Wolffe and see also contemporary reports – including Nanaimo Daily News (British Columbia, Canada) July 7, 1904, p3
↑15 See Wilcox and Anderson
↑16 Supreme Court Victoria 1904/329 Pollard & Anor V Wolffe
↑18 The Telegraph (Qld.)17 Apr 1909 p8
↑19 Leader (Melb) 2 Apr 1910, p23
↑20 as reported in The Daily News (Perth) 9 March 1910, p7
↑21 See Gillian Arrighi (2017) and Kirsty Murray (2010) for accounts of this
↑22 In Arthur Pollard’s ill-fated troupe, 17 year old Ruby Ford had been nominated as the “schoolmistress” – she later claimed this was a ruse so that Pollard could fulfil his contractual obligations to parents
↑23 The Advertiser (Adelaide) 14 April 1911, p2
↑24 Tessa Morris-Suzuki (2024), p79-81
↑25 The Herald (Melb) 3 Jan 1913, p6
↑26 who had set up a new musical comedy troupe in the US comprising ex-Pollards players
↑27 The Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA) Feb 6, 1916 p3
↑28 The Oregonian (Portland) July 25, 1922 p6
↑29 A ridiculous account of his background appears in The Birmingham News (Alabama) May 29, 1922, p2. A more sober announcement appeared in The Vaudeville News, May 19, 1922 p12
↑30 The Edmonton Bulletin (Canada) Feb 19, 1926, p16
↑31 Poughkeepsie Eagle-News (New York) Jun 26, 1928 p12
↑32 Daily News (Los Angeles) July 20, 1949, p29
↑33 Arrighi (2017) p157
↑34  Prompt Scrapbook National Library of Australia
↑35 Sam Gill, personal information, January 2026
↑36 The Oregonian, Oct 10, 1929, p6
↑37 The News (Adelaide) 29 Aug 1945 p3

The Bennettos – the talented sisters from Fitzroy

Ethel Bennetto as she appeared in the Egyptian ballet of the revue Time, Please in June-July 1918. [1]The Green Room magazine, 1 June, 1918, P2. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales Melbourne newspapers of the time reported this scene was altered or “censored” at the request of Police. It appears not to have bothered Ethel at all.[2]The Herald (Melb) 12 Jul 1918, p1
The Five Second version
Alice Bennetto (1885-1970) and her younger sister Ethel (1889-1985) both built successful careers on stage in Australasia in the early twentieth century. Typical of the working-class, inner-city children who joined Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company, they were talented singers and dancers. and their speciality was the ever popular comic opera and variety – that audiences were so familiar with. In 1919, Ethel appeared in the now lost film Does the Jazz Lead to Destruction? before marrying a New Zealand doctor and retiring from the stage. About the same time, Alice became a personal and professional partner of popular Scottish-born comedian Elton Black (James McWhinnie)(1881 -1948), performing with him for the next twenty years and finally marrying him in 1939. Both women died in New Zealand.

Alice and Ethel growing up in Fitzroy

Alice Bennetto and Ethel Bennetto on tour in Manila and enroute to North America – with Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company c1903.[3]Enlarged from a photo in the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Architectural Historian Miles Lewis has observed that by the end of the nineteenth century, “the inner suburbs in general, and Fitzroy in particular, were occupied not by people who aspired to be there, but by people who could not get out.”[4]Lewis (Ed) 2012, P63 It is likely that an apprenticeship to Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company was recognised by Fitzroy families as one means of social mobility, of “getting out.” In the case of three families who, in the late 1890s, lived in Kerr Street, Fitzroy, getting out, thanks to Pollards Lilliputian Opera, is what happened. Most of the Trott family – originally resident at No 56 Kerr St – left Australia in company with successful daughters Daphne and Ivy in 1907, re-establishing themselves in Seattle.[5]They had been living in King William Street when they departed Australia, leaving one married daughter behind 16 year old Oscar Heintz from No 84 Kerr St did not return with the Pollards troupe at all after the 1904-07 tour, instead settling in Portland, Oregon, where, with the help of the YMCA, he made a successful (non-theatrical) life for himself. His younger performing brother Freddie later moved back to the US in hopes of building a career, but met with little success. The subject of this account, the Bennetto girls, also moved away from Kerr Street Fitzroy after experience with Pollards.

Kerr St Fitzroy in 2024. In the late 1890s, No. 84 (red door on the left) housed the Heintz family, No 76 (centre of photo) the Bennettos, and No 56 (the white building in the right far distance) was home to the Trott family. Children of all these families joined the Pollards.[6]No 86, the home of William Bennetto, now demolished, was to the left of the photo

Alice (1885-1970) and Ethel (1889-1985) Bennetto were born in the inner Melbourne suburbs, the children of bricklayer Arthur Bennetto (1857-1909) and his wife Sarah nee Montague (1862-1920). Arthur, who was the Australian-born son of Cornish goldrush immigrants, moved his family around various rental properties in the Fitzroy and Carlton areas, until settling into Kerr Street, Fitzroy. His unmarried brother William (1859-1895), a carpenter and builder, who might possibly have been a business partner, also lived and worked in Kerr St until his early death in 1895.

The Bennetto girl’s uncle William advertising in 1889, at the height of Melbourne’s building boom.[7]Jewish Herald (Vic) 16 Aug 1889 p3

Like many of the children who travelled overseas with Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company, we have only vestiges of information about the home life of the Bennetto girls.

In 1908, at age 46, Alice and Ethel’s mother Sarah gave birth to another daughter – Violet. But a year later, their father Arthur died at the family home at 76 Kerr Street. The girls and their brothers almost certainly attended school number 111 in nearby Bell Street, Fitzroy. Irene Goulding (1888-1987), a friend of Alice Bennetto, is known to have attended the Bell Street school, and like the Bennetto girls, she left at a young age to join Pollards. Interviewed near the end of a long life, Irene could still recall that her favourite teacher at Bell Street did not approve of her leaving school for a life of touring with Pollards.[8]Regrettably, all records regarding this important early Melbourne school have been lost or destroyed by the Education Department. The 1985 interview with Irene Goulding is held by the Performing Arts … Continue reading

Fitzroy girls with the Pollards: Alice Bennetto (Right front), with friend Irene Goulding standing behind her (Right rear). Also shown are Pollards proprietor Nellie Chester, left front, and Alice McNamara, left rear. c1900 [9]Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne


Alice and Ethel had four brothers, none of whom joined Pollards, and several of whom struggled to find a direction in life. On occasion the Bennetto boys were in trouble with the law, and two of them were rejected as medically unfit for military service in World War One. Oldest brother Thomas William Bennetto (1883-1943) blamed his poor education for not remembering details of his military service when he applied for a fresh copy of his discharge papers in 1937.[10]See his National Archives of Australia military file, p28 Whatever benefit the Pollards experience had brought his sisters, it apparently had not extended to him.

Alice and Ethel with the Pollards

Alice Bennetto first travelled with Charles Pollard and Nellie Chester’s Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company in 1899. Alice is listed returning from South Africa in February 1900 on the passenger manifest of the Salamis. In July 1900 both Alice and Ethel were listed as members of the next Pollards troupe, appearing on the manifest of the Pilbarra, arriving in Western Australia from Melbourne, while on their way to the “Far East.” Thus, the girls began touring overseas with the Pollards, at ages 14 and 11.

Alice and Ethel Bennetto, c1900-3, while with the Pollards. Irene Goulding at right, Nellie Chester in the foreground.[11]Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

It was Alice Bennetto who the Pollards chose to sing Nearer My God to Thee at a special memorial service held in Honolulu in October 1901, following the assassination of US President William McKinley. The Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company were on their way to North America at the time. She was the company’s leading player, a newspaper reported.[12]The Honolulu Republican, 1 Oct 1901, p1

Despite the Pollards popularity, not all audiences felt comfortable at the sight of children acting in adult roles in comic opera. In 1907, one correspondent for the Hong Kong Daily Press asked readers: Pollard’s Lilliputians are children, but their performance is anything but childish… That shrimp of a maiden …who portrays a woman many times divorced, how are we to regard her? [13]The Hong Kong Daily Press, 27 December 1907, p17

Comic operas, such as The Belle of New York, included lyrics like this:[14]The Victoria Daily Times (Victoria BC), 26 June 1913, p5

Teach me how to kiss dear,
Teach me how to squeeze,
Teach me how to sit upon your simple Celtic knees.
Teach me how to coo dear, like a turtle dove,
Teach me how to fondle you,
Oh teach me how to love.

Today, many would have mixed feelings about the appropriateness of some comic operas for child performers, but as this writer has noted elsewhere, Pollards repertoire reflected the dominant tastes of the time (or at least, some people’s taste). On the goldfields of Kalgoorlie for example, a reviewer for the Kalgoorlie Miner felt comfortable writing; Miss Alice Bennetto, as The Belle of New York, whose gradual diminution of costume during the evening suggests awful possibilities if the play were prolonged by another act.[15]Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 23 July 1900, p8

Alice and Ethel Bennetto (red dots) with Pollards Lilliputian Opera Company, c1903. [16]Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne

Alice and Ethel went on three Pollards overseas performance tours together –

  • July 1900 to April 1901,
  • September 1901 to October 1902 and
  • January 1903 to April 1904.

All of these Pollards tours ended up in the US and Canada, where the company was so popular – except on the US east coast, where the Gerry Society’s efforts to keep child performers off the stage were successful.[17]“The Gerry Society” was the popular name for the very influential New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Alice also went on the very long tour of September 1904 to February 1907, as a supervising adult and likely also as one of the troupe’s singing/dancing mistresses. By 1904 she was almost 20 years old and could no longer pass as a juvenile or Lilliputian, and while her name is on the shipping manifest entering Vancouver in March 1905 with the Pollards, it is not found in surviving programs.[18]A potted version of Alice’s career was given to News (Adelaide), 1 May 1924, p2 Back in Fitzroy, perhaps tiring of the long tours overseas, Ethel Bennetto instead joined Tom Pollard’s branch of the Pollards company – that toured locations in Australasia.[19]The Evening Star (WA) 9 Feb 1906 p3 Joining her were Minnie and May Topping, neighbours from 49 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy who, had also previously been with Charles Pollard and Nellie Chester’s troupe in North America. Perhaps they too, were tired of long periods away from family and friends.

Alice and Ethel’s Australasian careers – 1910s

 Left: Alice in Table Talk (Melb) 6 Jan 1910 p23. Courtesy Australian Performing Arts Collection.
Right: Ethel in 1909, while with Meynell and Gunn’s Opera Company. [20]Table Talk (Melb) 29 April 1909, p22

Following the Pollards tours, both Alice and Ethel built careers on the Australian stage. Their experience was common to other capable and aspiring young Australian actors at the time – Enid Bennett, Dorothy Cumming, Gwen Day Burroughs, Cyril Ritchard, Clyde Cook, Dorothy Brunton, W.S. Percy, and others. The Bennetto girls met and worked with many of these performers. They also benefited by patronage of experienced performers – Alice nominated singer and actress Florence Young (1870-1920), for whom she understudied, as a positive influence on her career, although she also noted that Young was always unwilling to disappoint fans by not appearing, even when ill.[21]News (Adelaide) 1 May 1924, p2

The sisters employment was very much dominated by JC Williamson’s, the Australasian theatre monopoly – and a surviving JC Williamson’s contract for Alice listed her 1916 salary as a modest £6 per week, whilst on tour. On a few occasions the Bennettos were in the same productions – for example they both appeared together in Meynell & Gunn’s production of The Belle of Mayfair [22]a burlesque version of Romeo and Juliet, in Auckland, in June 1909 and in The Arcadians in Melbourne in 1915.

Alice Bennetto and Lillian Lea singing in the 1909 panto Babes in the Wood. The Argus (Melb) 28 Dec 1909 p7 [23]National Library of Australia

The AusStage database shows an almost continuous body of work for both women in Australia in the 1910s, mostly comprising musical comedy and panto. However, newspaper reports show an endless series of less well documented variety performances were also a feature.

As Elisabeth Kumm has noted, dramatic changes were already under way in the Australian theatre scene when war broke out in 1914. The trend to concentrated ownership continued, but after a dip in attendances, demand for entertainment returned, and became such that during the war years some 200 new plays were performed in Melbourne alone.[24]Kumm, 2016 Frank Van Straten notes that the Tivoli circuit turned to big, imported revues at this time.[25]Van Straten, (2003) p53-57 War also meant there were fewer British stars available, and while US actors filled some of the gap, more Australian actors were given opportunities to impress. It is in this environment that the Bennetto girls flourished. Although never leading stars of the stage, they were increasingly profiled and often received good reviews.

Left: Ethel Bennetto helps advertise Cohen & Son’s new swimsuit. Theatre Magazine, 1 Feb 1916 [26]Theatre Heritage Australia digital Collection Right: Ethel Bennetto on the cover of Green Room magazine, while performing in the revue Time, Please in August 1918. , Perhaps she was channeling Annette Kellerman in the new film Daughter of the Gods (1916).[27]State Library of NSW, Mitchell Library

In 1918, Melbourne’s Table Talk magazine acknowledged the change in wartime when it reported:
Alice Bennetto, one of the principals in The Rajah of Shivapore at the Princess, is a young Australian who has already had a lot of stage experience but not much chance to shine. Now she scintillates, for she not only looks beautiful and acts appealingly, but proves herself. the possessor of a light soprano voice of delightful quality and charm. Yet with all these gifts she has had to tarry long in the chorus. The most successful favourites we have ever had on our light opera stage have been Australian.[28]Table Talk (Melb) 21 Feb 1918, p9

Ethel Bennetto’s 1919 film

In 1919 Ethel appeared in a comedy film entitled Does the Jazz Lead to Destruction? With her in this was Sydney dancer George Irving.[29]not the well known US film director with the same name, as the IMDB currently claims Unfortunately other details of the film are unknown to us now because -it is long considered lost. Advertising on its limited release suggests it may have been a comedy short, made to be a part of a mixed-bill variety program, with Jazz-themes.

Ethel Bennetto in Does the Jazz lead to Destruction? (1919) [30]The Sun (Syd) 1 Aug 1919, p7 and 3 Aug 1919, p20

Following this, Ethel joined the Sydney Tivoli Revue company for a New Zealand tour. And then, in 1920, she rather suddenly married well-known Auckland medico Theodore Endletsberger (1869-1931).[31]Born in Austria in 1869, Endletsberger had arrived in New Zealand in about 1906. He had been interned during the First World War, but had since built a successful practice By March 1920, Ethel had retired completely from the stage, and following the death of Sarah Bennetto in Fitzroy, 11 year old Violet, the youngest member of the Bennetto family, had come over to live with the couple in New Zealand. Auckland’s affluent suburb of Mount Eden would have been a stark contrast to King William Street in Fitzroy.

Alice Bennetto and Elton Black after 1919

Alice was interviewed several times in the 1920s. One brief interview from 1924 published in an Adelaide paper under the title Confessions – actresses unburden their souls suggests Alice had a very dry sense of humour – a tantalising glimpse of the real person. Asked what her “ideal man” was, Alice’s answer was – He doesn’t exist. Her favourite word was not in the dictionary. Of the stage, she responded that it was a decent way of making a living and of her greatest joy – she said it was singing for my salary. Her most awkward moment was when I crack on a top C. [32]News (Adelaide) 14 Jan 1924, p6 Despite the witty commentary about a lack of ideal men, Alice had already met someone she would spend the next thirty years with.

Left: Alice Bennetto in the comic opera The Rajah of Shivapore in Melbourne in early 1918. [33]Table Talk, 7 Feb 1918, p22
Right: Elton Black in 1923. [34]The Critic (Adelaide) 21 Nov 1923, p11

Sometime in late 1918 or 1919, Alice Bennetto met and became a professional and personal partner of comedian Elton Black (1881-1948) (real name James McWhinnie) – although the exact context of how this happened now seems lost. At the time Elton Black was already married to pioneer actor, director and writer Kate Howarde (1864-1939).[See Note 1 below]

Elton and Alice in a variety lineup in Brisbane, 1923.[35]Daily Standard (Qld) 19 Sept 1923, p2

Amongst the earliest collaborations between Elton Black and Alice Bennetto was Walter Johnson’s “Town Topics Company”. This was the pantomime Robinson Crusoe, performed in December 1919. Elton Black’s script for this survives in the Nat Phillips papers, at the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland. Even in its incomplete state, it is an fascinating example of how successful variety acts were stitched together, with handwritten corrections over the typed manuscript.

Alice Bennetto spent most of the next three decades performing with Elton Black. Clay Djubal’s research into the professional life of Elton Black also gives a survey of just how busy and successful they were as a partnership.[36]See his article on Elton Black at the Australian Variety Theatre Archive, here Their acts varied, but their speciality was increasingly the “Scottish comedian” act, in the style of Harry Lauder. Alice was his foil, a “Highland lassie.”

While performing with Elton and Billy Maloney (1895-1957) for the Town Topics Company, Alice was asked what made for success in vaudeville. She answered;
it has to be a pot-pourri of every thing of the best. Singing, dancing, comedy, and frocking. I always make a great point of the last mentioned, because it helps every item. I put all my money into my stage clothes, and we are fortunate in having an expert wardrobe mistress… I’m sure you will love the costumes they wear in Mr. Maloney’s number, Yes, we have no bananas – pink and grey silk paisley.[37]The Advertiser (Adelaide) 29 Nov 1923, p11

In September 1924 Alice and Elton arrived together in England on the SS Euripides, (apparently after several months spent in South Africa). For the next 20 months they performed successfully in Britain. While Alice was recognised for her own talents, one newspaper having described her as a charming musical-comedy-revue heroine, [38]Dundee Evening Telegraph,15 September 1925, p10, it was especially the Scotch comedian and his “Heilan’ Lassie” act that drew attention. They arrived home on the SS Runic in May 1926.[39]News (Adelaide) 11 May 1926, p1

Elton Black and Alice Bennetto advertising in London’s The Stage, soon after arriving in Britain.[40]The Stage (London) 6 Nov 1924, p10

Elton and Alice lived together as a couple for many years, with Auckland, New Zealand as their base from the late 1920s. However, it was only after Kate Howarde’s death in 1939, that they finally married.[41]Alice Catherine Bennetto & James McWhinnie, New Zealand Marriage Certificate – 1939/2568 The couple continued to work together almost until Elton’s death in 1948, including on some radio variety programs (in both Australia and New Zealand).

Elton Black’s Community Entertainers performing through regional Western Australia in 1935[42]The Mirror (Perth) 30 Nov 1935, p22

As Clay Djubal’s research suggests, by the 1930s it would seem their repertoire found more consistent audiences in provincial and regional settings. Live variety had adapted to the arrival of silent and then sound films, but perhaps more conservative audience tastes also helped companies touring variety survive longer in regional areas than the larger cities. Amongst Alice and Elton’s final shows was a live version of the popular radio show Chuckles with Jerry, on tour in New Zealand in 1947.

Left: Alice and Elton in a variety lineup in New Zealand in 1939 and at right, in a radio-themed lineup in 1947.[43]Auckland Star, 9 August 1939, p22, and Bay of Plenty Beacon, 11 April 1947, p1

Following Elton Black’s death in 1948, Alice Bennetto’s performances also came to an end. She died at Auckland’s Cornwall Hospital in early 1970. Ethel also died in Auckland, in 1985. Theodore Endletsberger had died in 1931 and Ethel had remarried in 1939.

Note 1: Elton Black & Kate Howarde c1904 – c1919

Elton Black had arrived in Australia in the early 1900s. He married Kate Howarde (1864-1939)[44]Born Catherine Clarissa Jones, her name at the time was Catherine De Saxe. Her first husband William Henry De Saxe had died in July 1902 at Port Adelaide in February 1905. A few months later, the couple departed for North America, and later Britain – where they sometimes performed together, before returning to Australia in 1909. The Kate Howarde Company toured Australia and New Zealand until about 1914, and Elton Black’s career appears to have been often intertwined with hers. In 1914 Kate Howarde settled into producing weekly rep at Balmain’s National Theatre. As Ina Bertrand notes, at least some of their performances were original works by Kate Howarde – The White Slave Traffic (1914) and Why Girls Leave Home (1914). While Elton Black was first and foremost a comedian, at times he took on character roles with the company. They toured again in 1918 – in regional Victoria, at the end of which Elton Black made a very late attempt to join the Australian Army, under his stage name. He was rejected as medically unfit, and late October 1918 was too late to make a difference anyway. His relationship with Kate Howarde seems to have come to an end at about this time.

Kate Howarde’s ‘Possum Paddock as a film. Theatre Magazine, 1 December 1920, p54. At right is Leslie Adrien, Kate’s daughter.

Creative and busy to the end of her life, Kate Howarde went on to direct a film version of her very popular play ‘Possum Paddock in 1919, becoming the first woman to write and direct an Australian feature film. See Ina Bertrand’s survey of her life at the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and the Women Film Pioneers project. She died in Sydney in 1939.

Nick Murphy
July 2024

References

Australian Performing Arts Collection, Art Centre, Melbourne

  • Alice Bennetto contract with JC Williamsons
  • Irene Smith (Goulding) interview by Sally Dawes, 1985

Births, Deaths & Marriages documents

  • Victoria
    • Alice Catherine Bennetto, Birth Certificate, 5 Oct 1885
    • William Bennetto, Death Certificate, 25 Sept 1895
    • Ethel Bennetto, Birth Certificate, 22 December 1889
    • Arthur Bennetto, Death Certificate, 8 June 1909
    • Sarah Bennetto, Death Certificate, 3 April 1920
  • New Zealand
    • Ethel Bennetto & Theodor Endletsberger, Marriage Certificate 1920 -1920/5541
    • Alice Catherine Bennetto & James McWhinnie, Marriage Certificate 1939 – 1939/2568
    • Ethel Endletsberger & Andrew Kyle, Marriage Certificate 1939 – 1939/295
    • James McWhinnie, Death Certificate, 2 August 1948 -1948/30008
    • Alice Catherine McWhinnie, Death Certificate, 22 January 1970 -1970/25618
  • Australian Marriage Index 1788-1950 (Via Ancestry)
    • James Macwhinnie (sic) and Catherine De Saxe, Marriage Certificate, 2 Feb 1905, Port Adelaide, South Australia

Other Websites

  • Fitzroy Research Melbourne – Ongoing research into the history of Fitzroy buildings. Rachel Axton
  • Women Film Pioneers Project
    Bertrand, Ina. “Kate Howarde.” In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, (eds) Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. 
  • Australian Variety Theatre Archive
    Clay Djubal: “Elton Black.” 3 April 2021. Accessed online 5 July 2024.
  • Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy
    Peter Downes interview

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

Text

  • Cutten History Committee – Fitzroy History Society (1989) Fitzroy : Melbourne’s first suburb. Hyland House, South Yarra.
  • Elisabeth Kumm: “Theatre in Melbourne 1914-18; the best the brightest and the latest.“ The La Trobe Journal, No 97, March 2016.
  • Miles Lewis (Ed) Brunswick Street lost and found : proceedings of a seminar at Fitzroy. 20 May 2012. Available from Fitzroy History Society pages here.
  • Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1981 and 1998): Australian film, 1900-1977 : a guide to feature film production. Oxford University Press.
  • Frank Van Straten (2003) Tivoli. Thomas C Lothian
  • Margaret Williams (1983) Australia on the Popular Stage 1829-1929. Oxford University Press
This site has been selected for preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 The Green Room magazine, 1 June, 1918, P2. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
↑2 The Herald (Melb) 12 Jul 1918, p1
↑3 Enlarged from a photo in the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
↑4 Lewis (Ed) 2012, P63
↑5 They had been living in King William Street when they departed Australia, leaving one married daughter behind
↑6 No 86, the home of William Bennetto, now demolished, was to the left of the photo
↑7 Jewish Herald (Vic) 16 Aug 1889 p3
↑8 Regrettably, all records regarding this important early Melbourne school have been lost or destroyed by the Education Department. The 1985 interview with Irene Goulding is held by the Performing Arts Collection
↑9, ↑11, ↑16 Australian Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne
↑10 See his National Archives of Australia military file, p28
↑12 The Honolulu Republican, 1 Oct 1901, p1
↑13 The Hong Kong Daily Press, 27 December 1907, p17
↑14 The Victoria Daily Times (Victoria BC), 26 June 1913, p5
↑15 Kalgoorlie Miner (WA) 23 July 1900, p8
↑17 “The Gerry Society” was the popular name for the very influential New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
↑18 A potted version of Alice’s career was given to News (Adelaide), 1 May 1924, p2
↑19 The Evening Star (WA) 9 Feb 1906 p3
↑20 Table Talk (Melb) 29 April 1909, p22
↑21 News (Adelaide) 1 May 1924, p2
↑22 a burlesque version of Romeo and Juliet
↑23 National Library of Australia
↑24 Kumm, 2016
↑25 Van Straten, (2003) p53-57
↑26 Theatre Heritage Australia digital Collection
↑27 State Library of NSW, Mitchell Library
↑28 Table Talk (Melb) 21 Feb 1918, p9
↑29 not the well known US film director with the same name, as the IMDB currently claims
↑30 The Sun (Syd) 1 Aug 1919, p7 and 3 Aug 1919, p20
↑31 Born in Austria in 1869, Endletsberger had arrived in New Zealand in about 1906. He had been interned during the First World War, but had since built a successful practice
↑32 News (Adelaide) 14 Jan 1924, p6
↑33 Table Talk, 7 Feb 1918, p22
↑34 The Critic (Adelaide) 21 Nov 1923, p11
↑35 Daily Standard (Qld) 19 Sept 1923, p2
↑36 See his article on Elton Black at the Australian Variety Theatre Archive, here
↑37 The Advertiser (Adelaide) 29 Nov 1923, p11
↑38 Dundee Evening Telegraph,15 September 1925, p10
↑39 News (Adelaide) 11 May 1926, p1
↑40 The Stage (London) 6 Nov 1924, p10
↑41 Alice Catherine Bennetto & James McWhinnie, New Zealand Marriage Certificate – 1939/2568
↑42 The Mirror (Perth) 30 Nov 1935, p22
↑43 Auckland Star, 9 August 1939, p22, and Bay of Plenty Beacon, 11 April 1947, p1
↑44 Born Catherine Clarissa Jones, her name at the time was Catherine De Saxe. Her first husband William Henry De Saxe had died in July 1902