Tag: Alan Brooks

Eileen Robinson – Bright reports & close friends from the USA

Eileen Robinson by Hollywood photographer Max Munn Autrey, c1935. The ‘bright reports’ of Eileen’s early US successes came about courtesy of letters she sent home to her father in Sydney in 1921. Photo courtesy Margaret Leask.
The Five Second Version
The only daughter of Sydney publisher Herbert E.C. Robinson (1857-1933) and Augusta Dahlquist (1862-1914), Eileen was “a young actress with an exceptionally charming personality across the footlights” reported one newspaper after her first professional appearance in 1914.[1]Sunday Times (Sydney)19 Apr 1914 P22 Great success was predicted for her. In 1919 she went to the US, where her older brother Cecil Robinson (aka Ashley Cooper) and niece (Dulcie Cooper) had been performing for more than a decade. She again earned good reviews, but extended returns to visit and perform in Australia every few years meant it was difficult for her to build career momentum in the US.
Her close friend and professional collaborator for a decade, US actress Theresa Carmo,(1906-1990) worked with her in the US and joined her on two extended Australian trips – in 1929-1931 and 1935-1936. Their collaboration included scripting and performing original material for the stage and on radio.
In 1923 she bore a daughter, Peggy, to US actor Alan Brooks (Irving Hayward) (1888 – 1936), but their marriage was short- lived. She died in Sydney in 1955.
Eileen Robinson in an undated photo, most likely from her performances in John Ferguson in San Francisco in 1921. (Enlarged) Courtesy Margaret Leask

At the time of her travel overseas in 1919, Eileen Robinson was spoken of as one of the new generation of successful Australian actresses. She was a direct contemporary of Sylvia Breamer(1897-1943), Dorothy Cumming (1894-1983) and a friend of Judith Anderson(1897-1992), all of whom would make successful careers in the United States. As Andree Wright has noted, “At the time, [these film success] stories convinced readers that ‘with very few exceptions, every Australian who ha[d] ever gone to America ha[d] succeeded beyond expectations.“[2]Andrée Wright (1986) Pps18-19. The inserted quote is from Picture Show, 2 August 1919

Eileen, aged about 25, in 1921,[3]The Triad (Aust) 10 June 1921, P24. Photo has been filtered

Born Eola Eileen Trilby Robinson in Sydney in October 1896, to Herbert Robinson (or “HEC” as he was known – after his initials), a well known map maker and publisher, and his wife Augusta nee Dahlquist.[4]The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 30 Oct 1896, P1 Eileen’s schooling was at Astraea College in Chatswood.[5]Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Nov 1941, P9 While she was still young, her much older brother Cecil (born 1880) threw in his career as a draftsman in Sydney to pursue the stage. In 1905, Cecil [6]later using the name Herbert Robinson and then Ashley Cooper took his young family to the US, spending some years establishing himself.

While a career on the stage continued to be viewed with some suspicion in many Australian homes, it clearly had great credibility in this family. Both Augusta and HEC Robinson were friends of actress Nellie Stewart and Eileen became a good friend of Nellie’s daughter Nancye. Eileen was also known within the family as “Trilby,” a name found in the novel and play popular at the time of her birth.

Company letterhead for HEC Robinson Ltd, showing the address in central Sydney in the 1930s. Courtesy Margaret Leask

By 1912, Eileen was attending classes with well known actor Walter Bentley – later moving to Douglas Ancelon and Stella Chapman’s dramatic school. [7]Daily Telegraph (Syd) 28 March 1914, P14 As Desley Deacon has noted, in the early twentieth century, such acting and elocution schools served a much broader purpose than just knocking off vestiges of a colonial accent. It also taught girls marketable skills and instilled discipline.[8]See Deacon (2013)

In September 1919, Walter Bentley (1849-1927) reminded Sydney readers that Eileen had been one of his successful students, along with Sylvia Bremer and Dorothy Cumming. [9]Freeman’s Journal (Syd) 27 Sept 1919, P1

Eileen’s first professional outings were in productions at Sydney’s Little Theatre, in The Gay Lord Quex in April 1914, followed by a short season in George Bernard Shaw’s Fanny’s First Play. The latter was “her first important role, (where she) scored a decided success. She hit off the Cockney mannerisms very well indeed, and gave the character the required note of impudent familiarity.”[10]The Daily Telegraph (Syd), 12 May 1914, P14

Eileen in a Marie Tempest comedy, in Melbourne in November 1917. Cast members Gwen Burroughs and Nancye Stewart both tried their luck overseas.[11]State Library of Victoria

Eileen’s first contract with JC Williamson’s was for a 1916 revival of the very popular Get Rich Quick Wallingford, on £5 per week – a modest salary but still more than twice the Australian “minimum wage” of the time. [12]JC Williamson’s contracts, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne By the end of World War 1, she had almost three years of strong stage experiences performing in Australia under her belt, including tours with visiting actors like Marie Tempest (1864-1942) and Margaret Wycherly (1881-1956). Like so many of her contemporaries at this time, Eileen embarked for the US in early 1919. She travelled with Nancye Stewart – the adventure being described as a “six month holiday.”[13]See The Daily News (WA)1 Mar 1919, P3

Like many young Australian actresses, 18 year old Eileen was paid to advertise cosmetics.[14]The Bulletin (Aust) 26 Nov 1914, P45

In later years there were oblique references to how hard it was to establish herself.[15]The Sun (Syd) 7 Aug 1921, P17 However, in early 1920 she was offered a small role on Broadway in Trimmed in Scarlet, with Maxine Elliott. The New York Tribune dismissed it as the “silliest play of the season”, which may explain its short run.[16]New York Tribune, 3 Feb 1920, P11 Enthusiastic Australian newspaper reports claimed she appeared in films for Famous Players–Lasky, a claim now difficult to verify, but she is known to have found a supporting role in Mid-Channel, a film with popular cinema actor Clara Kimball Young(1890-1960).[17]Sydney Mail, 4 Aug 1920, P13 By extraordinary chance, this film has survived.[18]It can be seen here

Clara Kimball Young and Eileen Robinson in Mid-Channel (1920) Eileen Robinson has marked herself “me!” under the photo. Most online sources incorrectly credit her as playing Mrs Pierpoint, rather than the daughter Ethel Pierpoint. Photo courtesy Margaret Leask.

There was a brief mention in one Australian magazine that although she enjoyed the novelty of “picture acting”, she preferred the legitimate stage.[19]Everyone’s.(Aust) 10 August 1921, P5 Her one outing in film was rarely mentioned again.

However, it was Eileen’s work in the the play John Ferguson, first at San Francisco’s Columbia Theatre in early 1921 and then on tour, that brought her greatest acknowledgement.[20]6 weeks of touring is mentioned in Variety, March 11, 1921, P28 An oft-cited review in the San Francisco Call reported “Eileen Robinson, young, beautiful, clever, plays the role of Hannah, daughter of John Ferguson. All eyes are turned on her the moment she enters the stage. Her voice contains that undefined something that attracts respectful attention. She is a most finished actress. In her principal scene her interpretation of her part is such that when the tenseness of the moment was over the audience broke into the most enthusiastic applause of the evening. Miss Robinson scored every moment during the rest of the play.”[21]San Francisco Call, 1 February 1921, P4

Eileen’s father passed this and similar wonderful reviews on to the Sydney papers. Also of interest to Australians was the fact that well-known Queensland actor, Tempe Pigott, was in the John Ferguson cast. Eileen wrote to her father that she was “having a glorious time” and was “enjoying herself immensely.”[22]The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 21 May 1921 P8 She ended her US experience with a series of performances at the Denham Theatre in Colorado. By August 1921, she was back in Sydney.

Almost immediately she went on stage with comedian Bert Gilbert, touring on the Tivoli circuit. At the same time she reassured journalists that she would soon return to the US. This seems to have been because, while in the US, she had met US writer and actor Alan Brooks (Irving Hayward) and the couple apparently sustained a long distance relationship for more than six months.[23]The Daily Mail (Qld) 4 Mar 1922, P11, mentions she will soon marry She departed Australia again, in April 1922, taking the SS Osterley, bound straight for Southampton, England, because Brooks was now presenting his own play Dollars and Sense throughout Britain. Eileen joined him onstage on tour, and the couple married in Paddington in January 1923.

By June 1923, she was back in Australia yet again, with Brooks, and despite being pregnant, she appeared with him on the Tivoli circuit for the opening weeks of an Australian season of Dollars and Sense. Newspapers reported he was “very proud” of his wife. Eileen was “splendid” he told Australians.[24]The Sun (Syd) 9 Jun 1923, P6 A daughter, Peggy, was born of the union in Sydney in July 1923. Several months later, they departed for the US- first Brooks, followed a few months later by Eileen and baby Peggy.

Eileen reappeared on the US stage in San Francisco in early 1926, in the comedy A Man’s Man. Sometime in 1926 or 1927 she met Theresa Carmo, an actress about ten years her junior, who was making a name for herself in ingenue roles. As subsequent events show, the two became trusted friends.

Eileen on stage with Lowell Sherman (1888-1934) in Los Angeles in 1928 [25]The Los Angeles Times, 15 Jul 1928, P44

In early 1929, Eileen and Theresa were on stage together in the comedy One Wild Night at Los Angeles’ Theater Mart, when they decided to pack up and move to Australia. We don’t know the context or exact reason for this dramatic move – perhaps Eileen wanted to see her father again, or perhaps they thought the depression would be easier to manage in Australia.[26]It wasn’t, although Carmo did tell one Australian paper that conditions were very bad in the US. See Truth (Bris), 12 Jan 1930 P25 Eileen’s marriage to Alan Brooks had come to an end by this time.[27]The Los Angeles Times 15 Jul 1928, P44 (See Note 1 below)

To the left of the ANZ Bank was the home of HEC Robinson Map publishers at 221 George Street, Sydney. The Robinson’s rooftop apartment can be made out. Eileen lived here with her father, daughter and Theresa Carmo in 1929-1931 [28]Daily Pictorial (Syd) 8 Feb 1931, P19 and again in 1935. Photograph dated 1963. Copyright City of Sydney, Archives & History Resources

Within a few weeks of arriving in Australia in August 1929, Eileen and Theresa were on stage at Sydney’s Tivoli, in a sketch they had written themselves, You’re Another. Eileen’s father escorted Nellie Stewart to watch the show from a box. Eileen announced that she was “tickled to bits! I’ve got lots of flowers and bottles of champagne… America is a dry country!” [29]This was a reference to Prohibition in the US. Daily Telegraph (Syd) 20 Aug 1929, P5 Eileen and Theresa’s US acting credentials meant that they were welcomed and feted by the city’s society and theatrical leaders. For radio, Theresa sang – occasionally in other languages, accompanying herself on the ukulele.[30]The Wireless Weekly, 27 Sept 1929, P54 For the press, Eileen provided recipes from the US and entertaining stories of Hollywood – including a lengthy description of Marion Davies’ 36 bedroom mansion.[31]Poverty Bay Herald (NZ) 12 Oct 1929, P12

Eileen, Theresa Carmo and a very young John Wood (1909-1965) with Yvonne “Fifi” Banvard in January 1930. Courtesy Margaret Leask.

By November 1929 they were appearing with Yvonne Banvard in her touring comedy company. However, by the end of 1930, their stage appearances had come to an end – presumably by choice rather than a lack of opportunity, as they were popular performers. In April 1931 they returned to the US. But this was not to be the end of their Australian connection – as in July 1935, Eileen and Theresa were back in Sydney again.

In the intervening four years, Eileen and Theresa ran an acting studio and children’s Little Theatre in Hollywood, providing elocution and preparing children for performance.[32]Sydney Morning Herald 14 Aug 1935, P7 and The Australian Women’s Weekly, 14 Sept, 1935, P25

The very simple program for Eileen and Theresa’s Theatre of Youth, Christmas 1932. Eileen’s daughter Peggy Brooks also featured.
Courtesy Margaret Leask.

They titled this “The Theatre of Youth.” Although details of the enterprise are sparse, Eileen’s family records confirm that the enterprising pair constructed their own little theatre, with seating for 70. “Three performances were given every month with different casts and programs.”[33]Margaret Leask (2023) In 1938, Eileen took some pride in telling Australians that Hollywood actress Lynn Bari had once been her student.[34]The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Dec 1938, P21 Others may have included David Holt and Dorothy Gray.[35]Wireless Weekly, April 10, 1936, P21

Eileen and her long time collaborator Theresa Carmo c1935, taken by Max Munn Autry in Hollywood. Photo courtesy Margaret Leask.

When Eileen and Theresa arrived in Sydney again in July 1935, their focus was firmly on radio performance. Together they wrote and performed radio adaptions of popular stories and performed a stream of their own original material – whose titles hint at a range of content – The Lady’s Maid,[36]Australian Women’s Weekly 14 Sept 1935, P28 Therese and Me, the Fairy Clown [37]The Daily Telegraph 11 Feb 1936, P12 and College Daze [38]Sydney Mail, 11 Mar 1936, P34 all for Sydney radio station 2GB. It was a remarkable period of creative collaboration, but sadly only one of Eileen’s short skits has survived – a short solo piece probably designed for radio.

An undated skit by Eileen Robinson, c1935-6. Courtesy Margaret Leask. (Click to enlarge)

Eileen and Theresa’s collaborative radio work came to an end in 1936. Their final broadcast together seems to have been in early May 1936 and soon after this, Theresa went back to the California. In family correspondence there is evidence of a falling out between Theresa and Eileen, but why or over what is no longer known.[39]Personal communication, Margaret Leask to the author, December 2023

Flyer for Eileen’s Little Playhouse, established in Sydney in 1937. Courtesy Margaret Leask

After the death of her father, Eileen took an increasing role in company matters for HEC Robinson Ltd, but she still maintained an interest in the theatre. In 1937, she opened a Little Playhouse in the HEC Robinson Ltd building at 221 George Street Sydney. [40]The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Apr 1937, P18 She had by this time, renovated her father’s old apartment on the top floor, and this became her home.[41]The Sydney Morning Herald 18 Jan 1936, P11

Judith Anderson (Centre) on a visit to the Robinson’s Sydney apartment in July 1944 with Eileen (Right) and daughter Peggy Brooks (Left). Courtesy Margaret Leask. [42]See The Australian Women’s Weekly 29 Jul 1944 P12

Unfortunately relationships within the family were unhappy in later years, and Eileen was estranged from her daughter at the time of her early death in January 1955. In the post war period she sometimes styled herself Eileen Robinson-Brooks, [43]The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1950, P2 and was, more often than not, publicly associated with company business. The following photograph from 1945 concerned her plans to publish books about geography to ensure children enjoyed the subject at school. “Geography should be a wonderful adventure in a child’s education,” she said. [44]The Daily Telegraph(Syd)11 Jan 1945, P16

Eileen at HEC Robinson Ltd in 1945. Photograph courtesy Margaret Leask.

On her return to the US, Theresa Carmo went back to acting for the stage and radio. However, during the early 1940s she changed career and become membership secretary of the Press and Union League Club in San Francisco, a position she held for many years. Interestingly, she stayed connected to some of the Australians she had met through Eileen, even though the former partners were estranged. The 1940 US census shows her boarding with Tempe Pigott, the Queensland-born actor who was, by then 73 years old, but working on regardless.[45]Tempe told the census collector she was 56, and born in England. When Eileen died, it was mutual friend Judith Anderson who told Theresa. Theresa then set about rebuilding the connection with Eileen’s daughter Peggy and her family, later welcoming them on visits to the US and sending letters and presents. Eileen’s granddaughter Margaret Leask recalls her very fondly. Theresa died in California in 1990.[46]Personal communication, Margaret Leask to the author, December 2023

Note 1: Alan Brooks

Brooks appeared in several films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but his reputation was also built on his work as a writer and vaudeville performer. He also appeared in a number of Broadway performances between 1909 and 1932 and he gained some notoriety when he appeared in Mae West’s scandalous production The Pleasure Man in New York in October 1928. It ran for two performances at the Biltmore Theatre before being shut down by Police, with West and the actors being dragged to court.[47]Times Union (New York) 2 Oct 1928, P1 The experience appears to have done his career little harm. Brooks died of tuberculosis at the National Vaudeville Association’s sanitorium at Saranac Lake, in September 1936, having spent several miserable years in “rest cure.”[48]Variety, 7 Oct 1936, P62

Note 2: Theresa Carmo

Theresa Carmo was born Theresa Maria Perry, probably in Oakland, California in October 1906, although some sources state the Azores, Portugal. She married in 1951 but her husband died in 1954. She had no children. Theresa is reported to have been in episodes of the Lux Radio Theatre in the late 1930s. [49]Including Confession, a 1938 episode – which can be heard at the Internet Archive, here

Nick Murphy
December 2023

References

Special Thanks

  • Margaret Leask, Eileen’s grand daughter. Margaret holds Eileen Robinson’s archive, which includes many of the photos used here. Sincere thanks for her willingness to share some of these, and the long conversation.
  • Claudia Funder at the Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne Australia.
  • Fellow researcher Jean Ritsema in the US

Theatre Heritage Australia

  • Margaret Leask, Paper presented 16 July 2023 for Theatre Heritage Australia. You Never Know Where Stories Will Take You.

New South Wales, Births Deaths & Marriages

  • Birth Certificate 1923 Peggy Hayward (Brooks)

HM Passport Office, General Register Office (UK)

  • Marriage certificate 1923 Hayward – Robinson

Clay Djubal and others: Australian Variety Theatre Archive

Films

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

Text

Primary Sources

  • City of Sydney, Archives & Resources
  • National Library of Australia, Trove
  • State Library of New South Wales
  • State Library of Victoria
  • National Library of New Zealand, Paperspast
  • Ancestry.com
  • Newspapers.com
  • Lantern Digital Media Library@ the Internet Archive
This site has been selected for archiving and preservation in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Sunday Times (Sydney)19 Apr 1914 P22
↑2 Andrée Wright (1986) Pps18-19. The inserted quote is from Picture Show, 2 August 1919
↑3 The Triad (Aust) 10 June 1921, P24. Photo has been filtered
↑4 The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 30 Oct 1896, P1
↑5 Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Nov 1941, P9
↑6 later using the name Herbert Robinson and then Ashley Cooper
↑7 Daily Telegraph (Syd) 28 March 1914, P14
↑8 See Deacon (2013)
↑9 Freeman’s Journal (Syd) 27 Sept 1919, P1
↑10 The Daily Telegraph (Syd), 12 May 1914, P14
↑11 State Library of Victoria
↑12 JC Williamson’s contracts, Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne
↑13 See The Daily News (WA)1 Mar 1919, P3
↑14 The Bulletin (Aust) 26 Nov 1914, P45
↑15 The Sun (Syd) 7 Aug 1921, P17
↑16 New York Tribune, 3 Feb 1920, P11
↑17 Sydney Mail, 4 Aug 1920, P13
↑18 It can be seen here
↑19 Everyone’s.(Aust) 10 August 1921, P5
↑20 6 weeks of touring is mentioned in Variety, March 11, 1921, P28
↑21 San Francisco Call, 1 February 1921, P4
↑22 The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 21 May 1921 P8
↑23 The Daily Mail (Qld) 4 Mar 1922, P11, mentions she will soon marry
↑24 The Sun (Syd) 9 Jun 1923, P6
↑25 The Los Angeles Times, 15 Jul 1928, P44
↑26 It wasn’t, although Carmo did tell one Australian paper that conditions were very bad in the US. See Truth (Bris), 12 Jan 1930 P25
↑27 The Los Angeles Times 15 Jul 1928, P44
↑28 Daily Pictorial (Syd) 8 Feb 1931, P19
↑29 This was a reference to Prohibition in the US. Daily Telegraph (Syd) 20 Aug 1929, P5
↑30 The Wireless Weekly, 27 Sept 1929, P54
↑31 Poverty Bay Herald (NZ) 12 Oct 1929, P12
↑32 Sydney Morning Herald 14 Aug 1935, P7 and The Australian Women’s Weekly, 14 Sept, 1935, P25
↑33 Margaret Leask (2023)
↑34 The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Dec 1938, P21
↑35 Wireless Weekly, April 10, 1936, P21
↑36 Australian Women’s Weekly 14 Sept 1935, P28
↑37 The Daily Telegraph 11 Feb 1936, P12
↑38 Sydney Mail, 11 Mar 1936, P34
↑39, ↑46 Personal communication, Margaret Leask to the author, December 2023
↑40 The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Apr 1937, P18
↑41 The Sydney Morning Herald 18 Jan 1936, P11
↑42 See The Australian Women’s Weekly 29 Jul 1944 P12
↑43 The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1950, P2
↑44 The Daily Telegraph(Syd)11 Jan 1945, P16
↑45 Tempe told the census collector she was 56, and born in England.
↑47 Times Union (New York) 2 Oct 1928, P1
↑48 Variety, 7 Oct 1936, P62
↑49 Including Confession, a 1938 episode – which can be heard at the Internet Archive, here

Little Dulcie Cooper & her father go to America

Dulcie Cooper (1903-1981), Ashley Cooper (1880-1952)

Above: Dulcie Cooper, “aged eight, in the part of Eva, St. Clair’s daughter in Uncle Tom’s’ Cabin at the Empress Theater, Vancouver, December 1912″. Enlarged from a public domain photo in the collections of the City of Vancouver Archives (See original photo).
The 5 second version
Dulcie Cooper was born Dulcie Mary Robinson in Sydney Australia on 3 Nov 1903. Active on the North American stage for over 50 years, she first appeared in Vancouver in 1910 with her parents Ashley and Emily. She appeared in films in the early 1920s but it was the New York stage where she was best known. She appeared in a handful of Hollywood films in the early 1920s, and one sound film. She died in New York on 3 Sept 1981.
Her father Ashley Cooper was born Cecil Augustus Robinson in Sydney Australia on 16 June 1880. A draftsman with an interest in acting, he arrived with his wife Emily and daughter Dulcie in the US in 1905. He later adopted Ashley Cooper as a name. He was appearing on the US and Canadian stage by 1910 and later in some Hollywood films. Ashley Cooper relocated to New York in 1925 and he became a regular Broadway performer and stage manager. He died in New York on 3 Jan 1952.

Cecil’s sister Eileen was also an actor in Australia, Britain and the US.

Was Dulcie Cooper really an Australian, as was often claimed? At first glance it seems not, as there is no record of anyone matching her name or profile being born in New South Wales at the time. And later in life, Dulcie confused her story by suggesting a birth in 1907, in San Francisco. But the answer is simple – she was born in Australia under another name. All the same, describing her as “Australian” in any way seems misleading, particularly when we consider that she left Sydney forever in 1905, at the age of only 2.

Ashley Cooper NYPL2 Dulcie NYPL

Undated photos of father and daughter, probably taken in the late 1920s. Left – Ashley Cooper, born Cecil Augustus Robinson in Australia. Right – Dulcie Cooper, born Dulcie Mary Robinson. Both photos from the Billy Rose Theater Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections. (Click name to link to the original photos)

Dulcie Cooper was born Dulcie Mary Robinson in Woollahra, Sydney, to Cecil Augustus Robinson and Emily nee Curr, on 3 November 1903. Cecil was the son of Australian businessman and well known map publisher Herbert Edward Cooper Robinson. We know Cecil took an interest in theatre, as he is listed as a player for Ada Hatchwell‘s Hasluck Dramatic Club in 1901. However, on Dulcie’s birth certificate Cecil listed his profession as draftsman for Sydney’s Gas Company, a sensible career that, perhaps, his father had encouraged him to pursue rather than the stage. Given the inaccuracies in accounts of Dulcie’s life, part of her birth certificate is given here.

Above – part of Dulcie Robinson’s NSW birth certificate. Via NSW BDM
Columns 2 – date and place, 3 – child’s name, 4 – child’s gender, 5 – Fathers name, profession, age and place of birth, 6 – marriage details, 7 – mother’s maiden name, age and place of birth.

In 1905 the young family decided to pack up and move to North America. Precisely what the circumstances of such a dramatic move were, we no longer know. Even today such a move would require sound financial resources and a degree of determination. Cecil, now borrowing his father’s name and calling himself Herbert Robinson, travelled first, arriving in San Francisco on the SS Ventura on 20 June 1905 – his profession still recorded on the ship’s manifest as draftsman. Emily Robinson and little Dulcie arrived a few months later.

We can partly reconstruct the family’s pathway onto the North American stage from existing records.

The Oregon Daily Journal. 20 October 1908, P14. Via Newspapers.com

Sometime in 1908 or 1909, Herbert and Emily saw an advertisement like this, or perhaps this very one. Theater reviews show they were members of the George W. Lowe touring company at about this time. Now calling himself Ashley Cooper, the 1910 US census shows him with Emily and Dulcie and the dozen or so members of Lowe’s company together in the small town of Dayton, Washington, on tour. Other up and coming actors like Bert Hadley were also travelling with their families. But life performing “on the road” was probably hard for young families and in late 1910, the Cooper family settled down in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ashley and Emily joined Walter Sanford‘s stock company based at the Vancouver Empress Theater performing popular favourites like Get Rich Quick Wallingford.

While it is a guess by this writer, it seems possible the couple owed this lucky break to the reputation of Australian players from the old Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company, who were appearing for Sanford at the same time – including Teddy McNamara, Jack Pollard and Willie Pollard. These Australian-born players had stayed on in Vancouver after a Pollard tour wrapped in April 1909. Of course, the city was a first port of call for many Australians arriving in North America.

In December 1910, 7 year old Dulcie Cooper appeared on stage at the Empress Theater for the first time, as the child Jeannie, in the domestic comedy-drama The Little Church around the Corner. It was a great success and over the next two years her performances were increasingly well received. In August 1911, the Vancouver Daily World enthused “… Dulcie is a born actress and… somebody must have devoted a tremendous amount of loving care and time to her training.” At the age of 10, Dulcie took the lead role in a stage version of Oliver Twist, in May 1913. The City of Vancouver Archives photo at left dates from her success at Vancouver’s Empress Theater in the part of Eva, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, six months earlier.

In mid 1913 the family left Vancouver for the US west coast again. The “Ashley Cooper Players” (comprising all three members of the family) then appeared in Los Angeles and subsequently on tour in the Western states of the US, their “playlet” or sketch – The Newsboy’s Debt, reportedly written by Emily (using the stage name Emily Curr), with Dulcie in the lead. Dulcie was “the real life of the sketch” according to The Vancouver Sun. It allowed her “ample chance to show her ability in character work and the touching scene at the final fall of the curtain finds many eyes in the house tear dimmed.” After some prominent publicity about Dulcie being “America’s youngest player,” she suddenly disappeared from all advertising – although the play continued to tour on and off until 1917.

As in Australia and on the US East coast, the age children could appear on the stage was increasingly regulated by education and civic authorities. Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company had discovered this ten years before, when they were forced to abandon plans to tour the US east coast because of the influence of New York’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Above: Typical theater fare of the time. “Moving pictures” and vaudeville acts mixed in on the same program. Santa Ana Register. 30 October 1913. Via newspapers.com

In 1921 and by now aged 18, Dulcie appeared in half a dozen films, several with popular actress Clara Kimball Young. Young was struggling financially at this time, and appears not to have enjoyed making these films. Perhaps Dulcie didn’t either, as she soon abandoned film work for the stage again. In later years she seems to have been inclined to dismiss her outings in film, she was “at the awkward age” or “never felt at home in the movies” she variously explained. There was, again, familiar misleading publicity about Dulcie being “America’s youngest performer.” She was petite, and with her cherub like face she looked younger than her years, so it was believable.

Ashley Cooper also had some brief experiences in film in the early 1920s in supporting character roles – unfortunately most of these early films appear to be lost and details are confused. The Turner Classic Movie database provides the most accurate list – showing six credits for Ashley, while the IMDB lists only three. Norman Dawn‘s Son of the Wolf (1922) is one well documented example of a film that should be credited to Ashley Cooper rather than British actor Edward Cooper.

Ashley also continued on the stage in the mid 1920s, usually in vaudeville, while Emily Curr appears to have retired.

Ashley in PArtners of the Tide 1921  Dulcie Camera mag

Above: Ashley Cooper in Partners of the Tide (1921) Moving Picture World – Jan-Feb 1921. Right 20 year old Dulcie Cooper in 1923. Camera! April 1923-1924, Via Lantern Digital Media Project.

A glance at Dulcie’s stage work in Los Angeles at this time highlights just how intense a career on the stage was. In 1924-25 she appeared in a constantly changing, back-to-back program of light comedies and farces at the Majestic Theater, usually with Edward Everett Horton. These included The First Year (October 1924), The Darlings (December 1924), Just Married (January 1925), Outward Bound (February 1925), Cuckoo Pleases (March 1925), The Alarm Clock (March 1925) and Beggar on Horseback (April 1925). In May 1925 Dulcie left the company to have a well earned rest and to visit her parents in New York. Horton, who had made Beggar on Horseback as a film while also performing it on stage, also left at this time.

dulcie-la-times-1925 Horton and Cooper 1925

Above. Left: Dulcie in Just Married at Los Angeles’ Majestic Theater in early 1925. The Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan 1925, P131. Right: Edward Horton and Dulcie in Beggar on Horseback. The Los Angeles Times, 29 April 1925, P51. Via Newspapers.com

The reviews of these comedies were generally enthusiastic. “Clean wholesome entertainment” reported The Los Angeles Times on 23 November 1924. The paper went on to praise Dulcie’s “excellent acting and charming winsomness.” Barbara Cohen-Stratyner points out that Grace Kingsley, a journalist at the Times was an enthusiastic supporter of Dulcie. Even before Hollywood’s golden years, this support could make all the difference to a young actor’s career. Eight years later, the same journalist at the Times was announcing that Dulcie was about to sign a film contract at Paramount or MGM. She did appear in one sound film that survives, The Face on the Barroom Floor (1932) but no contract was signed.

In February 1925, Dulcie married Stafford Cherry Campbell, the stage manager at the Majestic Theater. For reasons now unknown, but perhaps just following a family tradition of changing names when it suited, Dulcie used the name Mary Robinson when she married. Within a few years the couple had divorced, Dulcie claiming, amongst other things, that Campbell ridiculed her when they rehearsed together.

At about this time, Ashley and Emily Cooper moved across to the US east coast. They owed this to Ashley’s part in the musical Topsy and Eva, which starred popular vaudeville players Rosetta and Vivian Duncan. A retelling of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Ashley had a supporting role when it opened in December 1923 at the Majestic Theatre and was still in this role when it finally opened at the Sam H. Harris Theatre in New York a year later. Ashley and Emily settled in New York and he went on to develop his reputation as a reliable character actor, and sometimes a Stage Manager. He appeared in a string of plays on Broadway and in US east coast cities, including the drama Tobacco Road, a story of rural poverty in Georgia, where he played Henry Peabody as well as being stage manager for at least part of its run. It was not well received at first, the play being described by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle as “a picture of squalor… too realistic to be palatable.” However, it went on to a very long run and he was involved with it for at least the six years 1933-1939. He continued to be active on stage until well into the 1940s.

Ashley Cooper finally applied for US citizenship in 1941, having lived and worked in the US for more than 35 years. On these documents his various changes of name were revealed.

Above: Dulcie Cooper at the start of her New York career, in The Little Spitfire at the Cort Theater. Daily News (New York) · 26 Dec 1926, Page 154, via Newspapers.com

Dulcie’s 1926 breakthrough role on Broadway, as Gypsy the feisty chorus girl, in the comedy The Little Spitfire, was not easily won. As Barbara Cohen-Stratyner points out, she was the fourth and final choice for the role. But she made it a success. After its run in New York, she reprised the role for a season at the Hollywood Playhouse. The Los Angeles Times welcomed her back with generous coverage. She was in New York again in 1928, to take a leading role in Courage at the Ritz, now well and truly established as a leading player. She was active on stage into the early 1960s, her roles increasingly character parts and she also appeared occasionally on television. In July 1961, The Columbus Dispatch described her performance as the fortune teller in Blythe Spirit as a “scene stealer,” although she was performing alongside film star Zsa Zsa Gabor. Gabor took Dulcie’s hand for the curtain call, an acknowledgement of Dulcie’s skill and reputation.

Above: The Los Angeles Evening Post-Record advertises The Little Spitfire, 24 May 1927, P4. Via Newspapers.com

As previously noted, some of the commentary provided by Dulcie herself in later years only served to confuse her story, although this was not an uncommon phenomenon amongst actors of the era. Was she really in the 1934 film Men in White with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy? Dulcie also suggested she had appeared as a child star with Charles Ray in the 1910s. This claim is difficult to verify and given her known movements, seem unlikely.

Above: Dulcie Cooper still performing in 1957. The Wilmington Morning News,·(Wilmington, Delaware), 20 Jul 1957, P17. Via Newspapers.com.

Dulcie’s voice
Dulcie speaks with a nice trans-Atlantic accent here in The Face on the Barroom Floor (1932). The product of close association and performing with her parents? Perhaps elocution lessons? Another example of an acquired accent?

Source; Bill Sprague Collection – Internet Archive. This is a pre-Hollywood code film about the dangers of alcohol. The author thinks Dulcie is quite successful in this, her last film role.

Dulcie remarried in 1932. Her second husband was Elmer H Brown, an actor and director ten years her senior. Two sons were born of the union. She died in New York in 1981. Ashley Cooper kept working on stage for most of his life. He died in New York in January 1952. Emily Curr had died in New York in December 1944.

Nick Murphy
November 2020

Note 1
Cecil’s much younger sister Eileen Robinson (1896-1955) also acted, working in Australia, England and in the US. For a time she was married to US writer, stage and screen actor Alan Brooks (born Irving Hayward).

Note 2
An Australian dancer and beauty contest winner named Dulcie Cooper was a contemporary of this Dulcie. The song “Hello Miss Aussie, What are you doing now?” by Alfred Jarvis is about Dulcie Cooper the Australian dancer.

Special Thanks
Again to Jean Ritsema in the USA, who again assisted finding sources in the US.

Further Reading

  • Original US archival documents sourced from
  • Text
    • Hal Porter. Stars of Australian Stage and Screen (1965) Rigby
  • National Library of Australia’s Trove
    • The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 23 Nov, 1901, P2
    • The Sydney Mail & NSW Advertiser. 1 March 1902, P559
    • Everyones.Vol.6 No.367 (16 March 1927) P15
    • The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Jan 1933, P12
    • The Australian Women’s Weekly, 29 Jul 1944 P 12
  • Newspapers.com
    • Enterprise News Record (Oregon) 23 July 1910, P3
    • Vancouver Daily World, 8 Aug 1911, P10
    • The Vancouver Sun, 8 July 1913, P5
    • The Paducah Sun-Democrat (Paducah, Kentucky), 6 Sep 1915, P 8
    • The Los Angeles Times, 3 Aug, 1921. P36
    • The Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov 1924· P 25
    • The Los Angeles Times, 23 Nov 1924, P69
    • The Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec 1924, P52
    • Los Angeles Evening Post, 14 Mar 1925, P10
    • The Los Angeles Times, 29 Apr 1925, P51
    • The Los Angeles Times, 22 May 1925, P25
    • Daily News (New York) · 26 Dec 1926, P154
    • The Los Angeles Times, 15 May 1927, P56
    • The Los Angeles Times, 24 May 1927, P35
    • Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 15 Jul 1930, P16
    • The Los Angeles Times, 24 May 1932, P7
    • The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 5 Dec 1933 P 24
    • The Daily News (New York) 5 Jan 1952, P23
    • The Wilmington Morning News,·(Wilmington, Delaware), 20 Jul 1957, P17

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