Maud Hobson (1860-1913), the gaiety girl who dreamed of Colorado

Maud Hobson c.1890-1900. A widely known “Gaiety Girl” in the George Edwardes’ Company, she was born in Melbourne in 1860. Her family moved back to England when she was an infant. She had lived in Hawaii, Colorado and London by the time she was 30. Talma Photographers, Sydney. Author’s collection. (I have taken something of a liberty with the title of this article. I only have one piece of evidence that she dreamed of Colorado.)

Born in the emerging suburb of Toorak, 5 kilometres south of Melbourne, Australia, on November 13, 1860, Jane Elizabeth Manson would eventually become one of the hugely popular English “gaiety girls” of George Edwardes‘ Gaiety Theatre Company, performing under her stage name, Maud Hobson. Tall, “stately, statuesque and classic” (by this the Brooklyn Standard Union meant she was attractive), she had earned a formidable reputation in Britain, the US and Australia by the end of the nineteenth century. And more than most of the “gaiety girls”, from the mid 1890s Maud was only too happy to speak at length to the press about anything that came to her mind – matrimony, the state of society, costumes and jewellery, and American as opposed to Australian audiences.

Her parents John Manson and Eliza nee Hollingshead, arrived (separately) in Melbourne in 1853, at the height of the Victorian gold rushes. For two Britons in their early twenties, it must have been an exciting environment of extraordinary opportunity. Many of the international arrivals of the 1850s were, like them, aged between 21 and 35. By 1858, half of the newly arrived Australian population lived in the colony of Victoria and Melbourne was the continent’s largest city. How the couple met we do not know, but they married at Melbourne’s St Peter’s Anglican Church in June 1855. John was soon to become “Head Teller” (Manager) of the Union Bank of Australia – an opportunity a young man could never hope to have achieved in London. Yet like some who did well in the booming colony, the couple returned to Britain soon after their daughter’s birth. Perhaps they had “made their pile” or possibly, they still weren’t convinced life in the young city was superior to life in Britain. Maybe John Manson was simply offered a better job back home.

Above: 27 year old John Manson announces the appointment of a bullion broker at the Union Bank’s Bendigo goldfields branch. The Age Saturday 9 Jan 1857. Via the National Library of Australia’s Trove.

Maud Hobson’s own account of her early childhood was – typically for an ambitious actor of the time – often short on detail. In several early interviews she suggested her parents were “just passing through” Melbourne when she was born. Later in life she embraced her Australian birth with gusto. It was claimed she was born Jennie or Jeannie, but this appears to have been a pet name used by the family.

Above: Maud appearing on stage before her marriage to Lieutenant Hayley in May 1881. The Era, 12 February 1881 via The British Newspaper Archive.

A popular up and coming performer in 1880, she admitted in several later press interviews that she owed some of her success to her uncle, the writer and manager of the Gaiety Theatre, John Hollingshead, who had also suggested her stage name. However, she left the stage in 1881, when she married Lieutenant Andrew Burrell Hayley, an officer of the 11th Hussars. A son, William Burrell Hayley, was born in early 1882. Soon after, Maud and little William joined Lieutenant Hayley in a new adventure – a posting to the Kingdom of Hawaii, of all places. There, Hayley took on the role of an attache to King Kalākaua. But while the last King of Hawaii received recognition for his efforts to reinvigorate Hawaiian national identity and shore up its economy, not all of the king’s European advisors were welcomed. On 31 July, 1884, The Honolulu Evening Bulletin took the unusual step of very publicly criticizing Hayley for his “lack of sobriety” and therefore his unsuitability as a Commander of the Mounted Police. He was appointed to this position anyway.

Kalakaua_and_staff_outside_Iolani_Palace

The Hayleys in Hawaii. Left; King Kalākaua with officers, including Lieutenant Hayley looking very splendid in white, third from the right. Via Wikimedia Commons. Right; Maud was still occasionally performing in Hawaii – The Honolulu Advertiser, 5 Jan 1886, via Newspapers.com. (click to enlarge)

In 1886, Maud returned to England, for reasons that are no longer known. Of her next few years, we only have court records to guide us, as she did not appear on stage again until mid-1889. Hayley petitioned for divorce from Maud in November 1887. He claimed Maud repeatedly committed adultery with Captain Owen Richard Armstrong, an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders. Hayley was extremely well informed about the places and dates of his wife’s adulterous behaviour, which included travel to the US and five months living “as man and wife” in Colorado. Before the court Maud and Armstrong strenuously denied the charges, but a divorce was granted in October 1888. The case was played out in newspapers in excruciating detail, although as Maud’s stage name wasn’t used, many readers may not have made the connection. The story that Maud spent the summer of 1887 in Colorado with a man she wasn’t married to would be hard to believe, if it wasn’t corroborated by records of shadowy movements that we can access today.

The faded manifest of the ship Servia, arriving in New York in June 1887. Owen R. Armstrong, Army Officer and his wife Maud(e) are listed. Via US National Archives and Records Administration, Via Ancestry.com

From mid 1889, Maud reappeared on stage in London for George Edwardes in such productions as ‘Faust Up to Date” and “Carmen Up to Data” – both burlesques with music written by Meyer Lutz. Edwardes was Hollingshead’s successor at the Gaiety Theatre at the eastern end of London’s Strand. She moved in to live with Hollingshead and his family in Kensington at about this time, continuing to enjoy her uncle’s advice and patronage.

Left: Maud – a photo taken well before 1896 (from “Around the world with a Gaiety Girl” page 100, via the Internet Archive). Centre: Maud on an undated postcard (probably about 1890). Right: Maud in The Sketch, July 21 1899. Author’s Collection.

In March 1892, Edwardes and George Musgrove arranged for a tour of some of the London Gaiety regulars, including Maud in a supporting role, to take “Faust Up to Date” on tour to Australia. The London Gaiety Burlesque Company (note how often the name changed) first performed in Melbourne in May. Four months later the company wrapped in Sydney and headed for home. It had been a success. On the eve of the show’s closing, the Sydney Referee reported “‘Faust Up to Date’ at Her Majesty’s still draws the people, fills the exchequer, and promotes hilarity.” Interestingly, Maud sought no personal publicity and made no public comments during this first trip back to the city of her birth.

London Gaiety Company program, Australian Tour, 1892. Courtesy Elisabeth Kumm.

1893 saw some dramatic changes. In early April the news reached her that ex-husband Andrew Burrell Hayley had died. She did not regain custody of her son from Hayley’s family, but following this event she seemed to find her voice and her place in the world. Later in the year she took a leading role as Alma Somerset in George Edwardes’ new production “A Gaiety Girl”, alongside Marie Studholme and Decima Moore. While a few reviewers felt the leading role required her to do little more than look “exceedingly handsome,” other reviewers were effusive in their praise. At the same time she wrote and appeared in a short one act sketch for the theatre, and it was performed as a matinee at the Gaiety Theatre in early July 1894. “A Successful Mission,” concerns Alice Gray, a burlesque actress (played by Hobson), and John Winton, a conservative vestryman (played by George Mudie) who attempts to convince Gray to discourage his love-lorn son’s attentions – to the point of offering her money to shun him. Of course, by the end, he discovers she is an admirable philanthropist and more than honourable. “Brightly written and neatly condensed, it was amusing and effective… and acted with much spirit” reported The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. One cannot help wondering whether there was a strong element of personal experience being recounted here!

In September 1894, “A Gaiety Girl” was taken on tour. It opened in New York that month, had moved on to San Francisco and then on to Australia by June 1895. Finally, Maud Hobson freely discussed her Melbourne birth and talked at length about her time in Honolulu, with her “late husband”. One Sydney journalist described her thus; “a young lady tall and most divinely fair” She told the same journalist “I, who am a native of Australia…feel that in coming to this country I am just visiting my own folks.” And she went on in this celebratory tone for the entire tour.

Maud as part of a large photo spread in The Pictorial Australian, 1 April 1895, shown here with company members Cecil Hope and Harry Monkhouse. Fellow cast member Decima Moore married Cecil Hope in 1894 in New York while on tour (Hope was another former army officer whose real name was Cecil Ainslie Walker-Leigh) and like Maud and Hayley, they divorced a few years later. Monkhouse died in 1900, after being declared bankrupt. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove.

While she was in Australia (and two years after Hayley’s death), a convoluted account of Maud’s relationship with Captain Armstrong appeared in some western US papers. This suggested that she had divorced Hayley herself, first, in the US, on the grounds of cruelty, and then had married Armstrong, only to find these arrangements were not recognised in the UK. Someone very well acquainted with her circumstances had written or provided the story. This writer cannot find the story in any Colorado papers, but more than thirty syndicated papers in nearby Kansas carried it. Following this brief outing, the story disappeared.

At the end of October 1895, the company departed Australia for England. The rather underwhelming 1896 travel book, “Round the World with A Gaiety Girl,” documents the successful trip.

Maud Hobson was now established as a leading regular in the Edwardes’ company. In August 1897 she appeared in the musical “In Town.” She again joined the troupe travelling to the US in September 1897, where “In Town” ran at New York’s Knickerbocker Theatre, in company with another very young Australian – Norma Whalley .

Left: “In Town” At New York’s Knickerbocker Theatre. The Sun, (New York) September 11, 1897. Right; “In Town” at the Garrick Theatre a month earlier in August 1897, with an almost identical cast. The Era, August 14, 1897. Via Newspapers.com.

Maud was now approaching 40, but she was regularly referred to as the “reigning English beauty”. In 1900 she appeared in London as Lady Punchestown in the musical “The Messenger Boy.” The cast also included another young Australian, 21 year-old Maie Saqui from Melbourne. She must have felt some degree of national consciousness as she also appeared in a patriotic sketch with Maie and other Australian favourites in June, entitled “Australia’s tribute to Britannia” (in aid of widows and orphans of Australians and New Zealanders who had fallen in the Boer War).

By 1902 she was at a highpoint in her career – light comedy and musicals had become her forte. That year she played Lady St. Mallory in “Three Little Maids”. She travelled to perform in the US again, and briefly to South Africa. After a “serious operation,” Maud travelled again to Australia in 1904 with another Edwardes’ Gaiety troupe. She was extremely popular in Australia, and she knew it. A journalist for a newspaper in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, put a typically Australian voice to this popularity when he wrote “Maud is the biggest-hearted woman the stage has ever known. Last time she was here she sold some of her magnificent emeralds to pay doctor’s bills for a girl member of the Company, and more of ’em to pay the hotel bill of a now- dead fascinating man member. You never heard of a woman speaking ill of Maud. That’s the record!”

Maud Hobson during her final 1904 tour of Australia. The Australasian, Sat 14 May 1904 via National library of Australia, Trove.

She spoke at length about herself and her career during this visit. She admitted to a nervous disposition, a condition she said had seen her spend much of 1903 resting. But she also spoke of her future, and mentioned her fiance who had an American ranch and was a minor cattle king. It was again, a successful tour.

1905 was her last year of activity on the stage – she took on a role in the popular musical Lady Madcap, in company with Zena Dare, Gabrielle Ray and Marie Studholme. Over the next few years she travelled to the US again but there were now stories of serious ill health. After what some papers reported was “a lingering illness,” she died in London on January 6, 1913. Maud Hobson was remembered fondly in British, US and Australian newspapers. The Era stated she had “a handsome appearance… amiable personality and was an intelligent and agreeable actress.”

Its notable that Maud’s acknowledgement of being born in Melbourne occurred later in life, when she was well established and a contemporary of Nellie Melba, Nellie Stewart, Norma Whalley and Maie Saqui. It would be wrong to over-emphasize Maud as an Australian – for other than being her place of birth, her experiences of Australia were confined to her theatrical tours. In her mind, she was almost certainly British, more than anything else. And yet, one senses she developed a fondness for Australia – she was happy to make the long trip out on three occasions. She reputedly also made friends while on her Australian tours – perhaps these were old acquaintances of her parents, from the roaring days of the Victorian gold rushes.

Maud’s son, William Burrell Hayley died in 1967, after a distinguished military career. Her uncle and mentor John Hollingshead died in 1904. The Gaiety Theatre, which had seen Maud and the other Gaiety Girls perform so often, was seriously damaged by bombs during World War Two and was finally demolished in the 1950s.

Nick Murphy
May 2019

Notes:
1. The most accurate account of Maud’s divorce is the actual petition, held by the National Archives in Britain. The Era of 28 April 1888 also provides an accurate account of her life to that time. Hayley was in the 11th Hussars (not 10th or 5th as is sometimes reported) and was not a General, even if given this title as a courtesy.

2. Was she ever known as “the White Queen” of Honolulu? There is no evidence of this other than Maud’s own words.

Further Reading

Text

Granville Bantock and Frederick G. Aflalo (1896) Round the World with a Gaiety Girl. London, J. Macqueen. Digitised by University of California Libraries
Boyle Lawrence (1900) Celebrities of the Stage. London, George Newnes.
Digitised by the Public Library of India.
J. P. Wearing (2013 ) The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press.

Websites

National Portrait Gallery – Maud Hobson
Footlight Notes Collection; Maud Hobson
V&A Museum; Maud Hobson Lafayette Ltd

Newspaper archives

National Library of Australia – Trove

Australian Star, April 3, 1895. The Gaiety Girl Company
Australasian, September 28, 1895. Gentleman Joe at the Princess Theatre
Melbourne Punch, October 17, 1895. A Gaiety Girl at Home.
The Critic, June 15, 1904. Miss Maud Hobson at Home
The Sunday Times, July 3, 1904. Confidences of Stage Favourites
Table Talk. May 16, 1904. Miss Maud Hobson

British Library – British Newspaper Archive

The Era, April 28, 1888. The London Theatres
The Era, 11 June 1913. The Death of Miss Maud Hobson
Sunday Post, October 22, 1922. My Thirty years at the Gaiety

Newspapers.com

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 26, 1894. Burlesque and Comedy
The Washington Times. December 16, 1894. The Theatres
The Pittsburg Mail. October 17, 1895. Gaiety Girl’s Life

Sylvia Breamer (1897-1943) – I’m not a German!

Enlargement of a photo of Sylvia Bremer, possibly from the Witzel Studios, Los Angeles. c 1918. Author’s Collection.

The 5 Second version

Born Sylvia Poppy Bremer, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 9 June 1897, she died in New York City, USA, 7 June, 1943. After very successful stage work in Australia, she travelled to the US with her first and much older husband Willett Morrison. Her first film in Hollywood was for Thomas Ince, and she was active in film from 1917-1926. She could not re-establish herself after the coming of sound and an unhappy second marriage.

Sylvia Bremer is hardly a forgotten Australian at all. Ralph Marsden’s biography Who was Sylvia? was published in 2016 – making use of hitherto unseen private photos of Bremer – and including a great deal of painstaking new research on her career. Here are two photos of a very young Sylvia from Australian libraries – they are now out of copyright.

Above: Sylvia Bremer by May and Mina Moore. c1910-1913. State Library of Victoria. (Ralph Marsden dates this to 1916)

Above: Sylvia Bremer by May Moore, c 1912. State Library of New South Wales.

Bremer was born into a comfortable family home in Double Bay, a harbour-side suburb of Sydney, in June 1897. As with several of the other women documented on this website, she was a student at Ascham College, which is probably where she developed her interest in theatre. Her father was Frederick Glasse Bremer – her ambitious mother was Jessie Bremer (née Platt). Her mother remarried after Bremer’s early death. Her origins seem to have been a constant source of interest for the press, or embarrassment for her. In an interview with Julian Johnson for Photoplay magazine in 1918, she tied herself in knots to emphasize (or exaggerate) her British naval connections. Her father was not a battle-ship captain as she claimed, but a hard working public servant in the Lands Department, who had died when she was only 13. She was obviously sensitive to accusations of German ancestry, as in 1917 she had changed the spelling of her surname from Bremer to Breamer, apparently to make her sound less German in the midst of war.

Sylvia as profiled in *The Theatre* (Syd) 1 Feb 1911. West’s Pictures had run a beauty competition, but 13 year old Sylvia was disqualified due to her age. Presumably she was entered by her mother. State Library of Victoria

Following several years of stage work in Australia and tuition from Douglas Ancelon & Stella Chapman’s school of Elocution and Dramatic Art, in October 1916 she travelled to the US with her first husband, 48 year old actor-director Willett Morrison on the SS Ventura. And there she stayed – her first film for Thomas H. Ince was The Pinch Hitter, released in 1917.

Above; Sylvia in *Motion Picture Magazine*, August 1917. She had just appeared in *The Narrow Trail* with William S Hart. The rest of the story here reminds us how unreliable movie mags are as a source – she supposedly grew up in “the Australian bush” at “Baggadella”. Via Lantern Digital Media Project.

As Ralph Marsden recounts, Sylvia’s story was not a happy one at all. Her career in film did not last – it was over well before the coming of sound in 1927 (she made over 40 films in just ten years). She was active on stage from 1926 -1930, her performances with the Bainbridge Players in Minneapolis in late 1930 appear to be her last, except for a role in the 1936 talkie Too Many Parents, a Paramount kid picture with Billy Lee and Frances Farmer. Although its not really clear why she lost her currency, her tumultuous private life and widely published criticisms of the shallowness of work and life in Hollywood probably did not endear her to key figures in the industry – including the powerful film producers who might otherwise have employed her. “Sylvia now loathes pictures and everything Hollywood means. There can be no real friendship in Hollywood-nothing but jealousy and sham,” she was reported as saying in 1930.

Here is part of Sylvia Breamer’s only scene in “Too Many Parents”(1936), as the mother of the insufferable Billy Miller (Billy Lee). Twenty years after arriving in the US, her accent is an English one. Copyright held by Universal films.

Breamer 2 — A postcard of Bremer, produced about 1920. Ironically, it appears to have been printed in Germany. Author’s Collection

Sylvia married three times, but each relationship ended acrimoniously or abruptly. There were no children from any of the marriages.

She died in New York aged only 45, in 1943. Perhaps one of the most moving photos in Marsden’s book is a grainy photo of Sylvia and her sister on the streets of New York, taken shortly before she died. Her passing appears to have gone unnoticed in Australia. Her mother, step-father, sister and brother all moved to the US. For a time, her brother Jack worked as a cinematographer. Sister Doris married actor William J Kelly in December 1926.

Sylvia and sister Doris in 1920. *The Green Room,* 1 June 1920 (Mitchell Library, Sydney)

Marsden’s book is recommended for anyone interested in Breamer’s career and those of the other early Australian women pioneers in Hollywood with whom she was acquainted – including Enid Bennett, Marjorie Bennett and Louise Lovely.

Sylvia Bremer advertising for Australian beauty products in *The Theatre Magazine*. Left, for Healatta soap on 2 December 1912.(Given her age, it appears likely her mother arranged the advertisement) Right for Clements Tonic, 2 October 1916. Via State Library of Victoria.

Nick Murphy, December 2018

Further Reading

Text

Ralph L. Marsden (2016) Who was Sylvia? A biography of Sylvia Breamer. With an introduction by Kevin Brownlow. Screencrafts Publications, Melbourne.
Desley Deacon. Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies. Vol 18, No 1 (2013)
From Victorian Accomplishment to Modern Profession: Elocution Takes Judith Anderson, Sylvia Bremer and Dorothy Cumming to Hollywood, 1912-1918
Ann Rees. (2019) Breamer, Sylvia Poppy (1897–1943), People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

Library Collections

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

Florrie Forde (1875-1940) – a brief snapshot of an illustrious career

Above left: The United Service Club Hotel on the corner of Young Street and Gertrude Street, about the time Florrie was born. Source the State Library of Victoria Picture Collection. At right: The very altered building today. Author’s collection.

Florrie Forde was born Flora Flannagan in Fitzroy on 16 August 1875, to Lott Flannagan and Phoebe (Simmons). In time, she would become one of the great British Music Hall stars of the early twentieth century. A great deal has been written about her – she cannot be described as a forgotten Australian! Yet it perplexes the author that in a neighbourhood that also saw the births of Daphne Trott, Alf Goulding and Saharet, there is, today, no acknowledgment she was ever there.

Above: Florrie Forde and sister. Stewart & Co., photographer. [ca. 1889-ca. 1906] This beautiful photograph is from the collections of the State Library of Victoria.

This short article is intended to showcase her birthplace and her birth certificate. Links to longer articles can be found below.

Above: Part of Flora Flannagan’s birth certificate. Column 2 – date of birth, place of birth (no street number given); 3 – name (Just Flora and no May Augusta); 4 – gender; 5 – father’s name, profession, age and place of birth; 6 – date and place of marriage, other children; 7 – wife’s name age and place of birth (unknown, America). Via Victoria Birth Deaths & Marriages.

She was born at one of the family residences in Gertrude Street Fitzroy – the handsome but modest United Service Club Hotel run by her father at 88 (now 122) Gertrude Street being a possibility – although her birth certificate does not give a definitive address.

The 1875 Sands and McDougall directory for Melbourne lists her father’s business at 200 Gertrude Street. Today, this site is a tiny park, on the corner of Smith and Gertrude Streets, Collingwood. But this was surely only a business address at the time anyway.

In the same edition, the United Service Club Hotel is listed as managed by David Garcia:

Two years later however, the 1877 edition lists Lott Flanagan at the hotel. But it should be noted that there was probably some “lag” in time between when information was collected and the directory was published.

Source: State Library of Victoria, online digitised versions of the Sands and McDougall Directories for Melbourne.

In addition, in a very thorough survey of her early life in Australia, researcher Tony Martin Jones has suggested that instead of a noisy pub, her place of birth may have been at her maternal grandparents shop and residence nearby. Barnett and Susannah Simmons ran a crockery store at 181 (now 203) Gertrude Street. That building is still only a few doors from an even larger, noisy pub – the Builder’s Arms. Unfortunately, we are now unlikely to ever know for sure.

A terrace of shop/residences in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. Taking into account the change to street numbers, the Simmons crockery store was the building on the right, behind the blue car. Author’s Collection

Florrie first appeared on stage in Sydney in early 1892, and quickly became a popular singer and performer in pantomime. By 1894 she was a regular performer in Sydney and Melbourne. In 1897 she made her first appearance in London – apparently playing three music halls in the one night.

Florrie Forde Melbourne Punch August 24 1898

Left: Florrie Forde in 1898. Source: Melbourne Punch August 24, 1898, via National Library of Australia’s Trove.
Centre: Florrie Forde not long after her breakthrough on the stage in London. Source: “The Sketch,” Sept 21, 1898. Photo copyright Illustrated London News Group. Author’s Collection. At right – A signed postcard taken sometime later in, life, probably in the early 1930s. Author’s Collection.

A talented singer with an exceptional wit, she was supremely confident on stage and held a genuine affection for her audiences – music hall being her favourite. Her name is still connected with many of the music hall songs she made popular, such as the World War One favourites “A Long Long Way To Tipperary”, “Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag” and “Has Anybody here seen Kelly.” She appeared as herself in several British films in the mid 1930s, and in character in “My Old Dutch” in 1934. Her Australian accent remained with her all her life, as the numerous recordings she made demonstrate. As theatre historian Frank Van Straten notes, she achieved all this without any formal musical training – a remarkable achievement.

This C1930 booklet of sheet music lists many of Forde’s popular songs. Author’s Collection

Jeff Brownrigg’s entry at the Australian Dictionary of Biography provides an account of her work and quite tumultuous, perhaps dysfunctional, upbringing. She worked all her life – dying suddenly after entertaining in a Scottish naval hospital in April 1940. Obituaries in the UK and Australia were effusive. Florrie was very much the voice of the people, and apparently even Dame Nellie Melba was an admirer.

Above – Only a few months before her death, Florrie was still on stage, here with fellow Australian Anona Winn, in Portsmouth. Portsmouth Evening Herald 24 Feb 1940, listing shows commencing 26 Feb. Via British Library Newspaper Archive, Johnston Press PLC.

Nick Murphy, Rewritten November 2020

Further Reading

Norma Whalley – the Mysterious Australian “Gaiety Girl”

Norma Whalley is shown here at the height of her fame as an actress in the US and England. Big hair and extravagant headwear seems to have been the trademark of a “Gaiety Girl”. But we are no closer to knowing who she really was today than audiences were in 1900. Postcard in the author’s collection.

Norma Whalley first appeared on the stage in London as the Comtesse d’Epernany, in the popular musical The Circus Girl at the Gaiety Theatre, in late 1896 or early 1897. By September 1897 she was appearing in New York in a minor role in the play In Town, a member of the Gaiety Theatre Company, brought over by George Edwardes. Edwardes had already had great success with other musicals – in particular A Gaiety Girl in 1893-4. Under-studying for Marie Studholme, Norma appeared in a leading role soon after arriving, when Studholme became unable to perform due to “lameness.”

The term “Gaiety Girl” was to become a popular phrase to describe some of the young, glamorous British female performers, most often members of Edwardes’ company at some time. Like Norma, the Gaiety Girls could sing and dance, and were adept at “light comedy.” All presented as well-mannered and well dressed, purportedly representing modern womanhood, and they apparently dazzled audiences wherever they went. Edwardes seems to have chosen his female cast members deliberately to have that effect. His pioneering efforts to establish musical comedy were successful and helped establish the genre we know today.

Of her past, Whalley was always vague. In 1899 she was to claim that she had toured South Africa soon after the Jameson Raid (January 1896) and met President Kruger. He was a “squatty, ugly old man…devoid of manners.” Unfortunately, its impossible to track anything of her life before 1897.

Left: George Edwardes c1900. Source; James Jupp (1923) “The Gaiety stage door; thirty years’ reminiscences of the theatre”. Via the Internet Archive. Centre: Marie Studholme c 1900. Postcard in the author’s collection. Right: Melbourne born Maud Hobson who also travelled with the Gaiety troupe to New York in 1897. From “The Sketch”, July 21 1899.

Born in the mid to late 1870s, Norma Whalley was supposedly the daughter of the “late Henry Octavius Whalley, a well-known physician of Sydney.” Other accounts state it was Melbourne. But equally likely, it was neither. Despite this claim being repeated ad nauseam in biographies of her (all of which cross-reference to each other or the same few newspaper sources), there is simply no evidence of a person called Henry Octavius Whalley living in Melbourne or Sydney in the mid to late nineteenth century. Not only did Australian newspapers of the time not mention him, but census records and shipping records make no mention of him either. And most importantly, no one of this name appears in any of the usually reliable Sands directories for Sydney and Melbourne produced between 1860 and 1900. And there are just nine recorded births of a child called Norma in Sydney between 1870 and 1880 – and just four females born with the surname Whalley – but none called Norma Whalley. And there is, similarly, no matching child in the Melbourne birth records. The usually comprehensive history of Australian actors by Hal Porter (produced in 1965 – when many of his subjects were still alive) provides no information.

Norma Whalley in about 1900. Postcard in the author’s collection

Norma Whalley’s identity seems to have been deliberately obscured. There is nothing to verify that she was Australian at all, except her word. Perhaps like Saharet she wished to obscure a humble birth, or maybe an impetuous marriage gone wrong or an embarrassing parent. What better way to stay in command of one’s destiny than create an interesting but deceased father on the other side of the world! Perhaps the confusion also relates to our understanding of nationality today as opposed to then. In the late nineteenth century, a person born in the colony of New South Wales was just as likely to think of themselves as British – Australia not becoming self-governing until 1901.

After her successful season in New York, in January 1898 she returned to London on the S.S. St Louis with Studholme and some of the other Gaiety company members. Later contracted to George Lederer, she was back in New York again by March 1899, performing in The Man in the Moon, “a spectacular fantasy in three acts.” It ran successfully for some months at the New York Theatre, although not everyone was enthused with its four-hour running time or her performance (see Brooklyn Life, 10 June 1899 for example). Her involvement in this production came to a sudden end when she was dismissed for breaking character and chatting to a friend or admirer in the audience, during a performance in late September. But within a month, she had teamed up with Walter Jones, a popular “tramp “comedian, touring cities in the US. The partnership was both personal and professional, but it too came to a sudden end in July 1900 when Jones suddenly left to marry a wealthy widow. Nevertheless, her popularity was at its height by mid 1900 and for the first time she mentioned her Australian birth to inquisitive US journalists.

Walter Jones story SF Examiner 8 July 1900

Norma with Walter Jones, Los Angeles Times, 1 April, 1900. Her matrimonial affairs attracted considerable press attention. At right Norma in The San Francisco Examiner, 8 July 1900. Via Newspapers.com

Dunne and Ryley’s troupe traveled all over the US, headlined by Mathews and Bulger. Norma Whalley and Walter Jones are listed in the cast in this advertisement from Montana’s Butte Daily Post, 15 May 1900. Via newspapers.com.

Soon after, it was announced that she was engaged to another performer – James “Sherry” Mathews, one half of the comedy team Mathews and Bulger. They married in New York on 29 March 1901. Here, on the marriage licence, she recorded her birthplace as Sydney, Australia, and her age as 22. Her mother was listed as Mary J Rayson, her father “Harry”. Intriguingly, she was also recorded on the marriage certificate as divorced – hinting at another, earlier marriage.

Unfortunately the relationship with Sherry Mathews also failed. He was already ill in 1901 and suffered a stroke in mid 1902, and was severely incapacitated, being admitted to Sterne’s Sanatorium in Indianapolis, one of the most exclusive that could be found. Norma was at first praised for caring for him, but then came in for savage press criticism, particularly after she sued for a divorce in 1904, officially on the grounds that Mathews had deceived her about his state of health. The Broadway Weekly of 26 May 1904 even suggested that she was responsible for breaking up the Mathews and Bulger team and that when Mathews became ill, she was one of the first to desert him.

Norma had indeed left the US to perform in England in September 1902, in productions that included George Edwarde’s new musical The School Girl (where she was in company with other familiar Gaiety girls – Edna May, Marie Studholme, Violet Cameron, Marianne Caldwell and Billie Burke). Following the granting of her divorce, she married London lawyer (Edward) Percival Clarke, the son of barrister Sir Edward George Clarke. Percival Clarke followed his father into the law and was knighted in 1931.

Norma Whalley in “The School Girl,” with G.P Huntley as Sir Ormesby St. Leger. The musical ran at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre from May 1903. Postcard in the Author’s Collection.

With the publicity surrounding her 1904 marriage, the Australian dimension to her story was finally picked up by the Australian press. Unfortunately, these accounts were not well researched or accurate – it was now that the story of the “late Henry Octavius Whalley, the well-known physician of Sydney” was introduced and gained currency. It was also claimed that she had once been a popular comedienne in Sydney. Perhaps she was, but it’s hard to believe there are no existing records to confirm this.

Following her marriage to Clarke, she did not retire from the stage, as Australian newspapers predicted, but she did become more selective with roles. For example, she appeared as Mrs. Fergusson, the wicked husband-stealer, in W. Somerset Maugham‘s new comedy Penelope in 1909 and in J.B. Fagan’s play Bella Donna, in 1916. In 1915 British society magazine Tatler reported she was going into nursing to support the war effort, accompanied by a serious picture of Norma in a nurse’s uniform. This may explain why she disappeared for the later part of World War One. The British Journal of Nursing also reported her training as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital.

Above: Norma Whalley and Graham Browne in ‘Penelope.’ “Now what does all this mean?”she demands. Postcard signed by Whalley in the author’s collection. Dover Street Studios.

Between 1920 and 1926 she appeared in regular supporting roles in at least 16 British silent films. Women and Diamonds, made in 1924 with Victor McLaglen and Madge Stuart, appears to be the last of these. She later appeared in a few small character parts in the first years of sound film. We can only guess, but it seems that film work was an after-thought to a successful stage career, not something she aspired to do for the rest of her life. By the time she traveled to Cairo to appear in the 1934 Michael Balcon comedy-adventure The Camels are Coming, she was almost 60, and had been performing for almost 40 years. Her persona was well and truly British, as her role in this film demonstrates. Listen to her voice in this scene, which takes place outside the famous Shepheard’s Hotel. Norma, as a stereotypical British tourist, is escorting her daughter (Peggy Simpson) around the sights of Cairo when she runs into a bogus guide.

If she ever was Australian born, one would not guess so from this voice.

One of Norma Whalley’s final roles in the Gaumount British adventure-comedy, “The Camels Are Coming “(1934). Source: VHS copy in the author’s collection.

Sir Percival Clarke died suddenly in 1936. Norma, now Lady Clarke, remarried in 1940, this time to John Beauchamp Salter. When she died at her home in Grosvenor Square in London, in October 1954, she left a significant estate. There were no children from any of her marriages. A few reports in later life and British obituaries on her death noted her Australian birth. However these were more concerned to comment that Lady Clarke had “married well,” like some other Gaiety Girls. There were no Australian obituaries.

As Lady Percival Clarke, Norma visited Australia in late 1938. Although she made some comments on the Australian sense of dress, attitude to tipping and the hair raising speed of Melbourne taxis, she made no reference to being Australian born.

The mystery of Norma’s origins remained well into the 20th century. Norma’s mother Mary died at her cottage in Church Rd, Whitstable in June 1932. The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald reported her death, and the fact she was the widow of the “late Henry Octavius Whalley” of Melbourne Australia. If Norma had a humble birth as this writer suspects, it was well and truly hidden.

Other Gaiety Girls who “did well” for themselves in marriage.
Left: Zena Dare, who after marriage became Lady Maurice Brett.
Centre – New York born Edna May who married millionaire Oscar Lewisohn.
Right Denise Orme who became the Duchess of Leinster. Postcards in the author’s collection.

A British Pathe newsreel from 1946 includes footage of some of the Gaiety Girls later in life, including Norma. See it here

Nick Murphy
Updated June 2020

Note 1.
Researcher Alan Garner has listed some of the other British productions Norma Whalley appeared in, which include the following. (For further information refer to works by J.P. Wearing, listed below)

Comtesse d’Epernay in The Circus Girl – Gaiety, 5th December 1896
Lady Rosemary Beaulieu in Three Little Maids – Apollo, 10th May 1902 (transferred to Prince of Wales’s, 8th September 1902)
Birdie Beaulieu in The Linkman – Gaiety, 21st February 1903
Pepita in Madame Sherry – Apollo, 23rd December 1903
Mrs Olivia Vanderhide in Lady Epping’s Lawsuit – Criterion, 12th October 1908
Countess Marie of Riest in The King’s Cup – Adelphi, 13th December 1909
Mrs Crespin in The Liars – Criterion, 27th October 1910
Mrs Chepstow and Mrs Marchmont in Bella Donna – St James’s, 9th December 1911
Yvonne Stettin in The Turning Point – St James’s – 1st October 1912
Mrs Marchmont in Bella Donna – St Jamses’s, 31st May 1916 (revival of 1911 production)
Mme. Lemaitre in Buxell – Strand Theatre, 7th November 1916

Note 2.
The story that Norma Whalley had an early marriage to actor Charles Verner (really Charles E.V. Finlay 1848-1926) appears in a few accounts in Californian papers after her 1904 marriage to Percival Clarke. Verner himself appears to have claimed so. Despite the significant age difference it is possible. However, so far, there is no supporting evidence of this and it may just be a muddled-up account based around Verner’s real 1878 marriage in Melbourne to actress Mary Hendrickson, which ended in a very messy US divorce in 1888.

Mary Macgregor (1904-1954) a brief adventure in Hollywood

An enlargement of a publicity still. Myrna Loy (left) and Mary Macgregor of Queensland (as the maid Ellen), in “Wife Vs Secretary” (1936). Author’s Collection. Source – probably MGM.

Mary Macgregor (not to be confused with Mary Maguire) was born Francis Mary Macgregor on 16 August 1904, into a Queensland family with considerable social standing; her father Peter Balderston Macgregor was a highly regarded King’s Counsel and later a Judge. At a young age she earned a reputation for her prose – and she won a prize for a patriotic poem in 1916. The first stanza reads:

SOLDIERS OF AUSTRALIA.

Oh, soldiers of Australia, Who went to give your all

Right gallantly you did obey, the Mother Country’s call !

When Britain’s bugle-call rang out across Australia’s plains.
You left our peaceful wattle land to fight where cruel war reigns.

Brought up in a family that encouraged the arts, she first performed on stage at University, where she was studying literature, and then won a breakthrough role as Jill in Oscar Asche‘s Melbourne production of “The Skin Game”by John Galsworthy, in 1924.

Above: Mary in “The Skin Game” The Green Room Pictorial, 1 June 1925. Via State Library of New South Wales

She spent the next ten years on stage in Australia and New Zealand – earning consistently positive reviews and becoming so popular she was never out of work. Amongst her notable stage work were roles for the Leon Gordon company. This company travelled Australia performing several of his plays, including “White Cargo”, where Mary took the role of the sultry mixed race character, Tondelayo.

Of playing Tondeleyo, she remarked; “The part is, to say the least, unconventional, and different from anything I have ever played … the idea of browning myself all over and wearing the scanty attire of the coloured vamp, was hard to get accustomed to. Moreover, my mother, when I mentioned the matter to her, was most disapproving …” In the minds of many Australians, acting was still a questionable profession, and for some, only a few steps removed from prostitution.

Top: The Age, Melbourne, announces “White Cargo” with Mary Macgregor. 1 Feb, 1930, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
Below: Mary Macgregor on stage at a Melbourne theatre as Tondelayo. Table Talk, 13 Feb, 1930. National Library of Australia, via Trove

Macgregor departed for England on the SS Mongolia in February 1933, and soon after found work on stage in a season of “Cynara”and a part in John Gielgud‘s tour of “Hamlet.” Now approaching thirty, she was an experienced actress – witty, good-looking, good-humoured and extremely confident.

She went on to California in June, 1935 where she joined John Wood, another Australian stage actor she knew well from Australian performances together in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” and with whom she had already spent time in England. Wood had just starred as Flavius in the RKO film “The Last Days of Pompeii.” Mary’s account of her voyage to the US, the only passenger on board the Norwegian freighter Heranger, as it endured a heavy crossing of the Atlantic, became a story she often recounted. In February 1936, her engagement to Wood was publicly announced.

Macgregor then appeared in a small role in the film “Wife Vs Secretary” – a romantic comedy starring Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Australian-born May Robson. Macgregor’s part was as the maid, Ellen. She then returned in some haste to Brisbane to see her ailing father. But Wood returned to London, where he was to act in a number of films, including two with Mary Maguire. Macgregor was coy when questioned about the engagement, and it was soon dropped as a topic for newspaper publicity pieces. They did not marry.

Above: John Wood about the time he was in Hollywood. The photo appears to have been used by Herbert de Leon, a London agent, soon after Wood’s return to London. He was extremely handsome and was supposedly made offers of marriage by love-stuck viewers of “The Last Days of Pompeii”. Author’s collection.

Sounding every bit the English maid, Brisbane born Mary Macgregor as Ellen, in MGM’s “Wife Vs Secretary” (1936), her only Hollywood outing. The MGM film is widely available for purchase and held by Turner Classic Movies.

At home in Brisbane, Macgregor was treated as film-making royalty and the story of her six months in Hollywood was endlessly spun out in newspapers. In April, the Brisbane Sunday Mail reassured readers about her time in Hollywood – “The Brisbane actress met many celebrities there.” Macgregor was much more blasé – “Once you know two or three people in Hollywood’s film world, it is no time before you have met nearly all the others.” When the film was released in Australia in July, she was employed to appear at some screenings to introduce the film and discuss “Hollywood and noted stars.”

The Brisbane Courier Mail’s review of the film was typically effusive and very much in a celebratory style; “In the strong glare of the stars in…Wife versus Secretary, which started a season at Cremorne Theatre yesterday, patrons might fail to recognise the talented actress who plays the role of a maid. She is Mary Macgregor, of Brisbane, who has achieved no small name as a stage actress, and whose feet are now planted on the ladder of success at the top of which glitters screen stardom.”

Above: “Wife vs Secretary” opens at the Cremorne Theatre. Mary’s role was uncredited. The Courier Mail, 23 July 1936. National Library of Australia, Trove

When Macgregor joined radio station 2GB’s BSA Players (Broadcasting Service Association Players, later the Macquarie Players) in 1937, The Australian Women’s Weekly explained that she had decided to stay in Australia – Hollywood would have to wait for this star. And in the same vein, on John Wood’s return in late 1939, he also returned to radio and the stage with great fanfare. When the play, “The Quiet Wedding” opened at the Minerva Theatre in Sydney, he was heralded in the press as “Australia’s great film and stage star, John Wood, fresh from triumphs overseas.” A few more stage roles followed, including a season of Dorothy Sayers’ “Busman’s Honeymoon” which included a rather joyful re-teaming with John Wood. But in November 1940, Wood joined the Australian Army, being captured 14 months later at the end of the Malayan Campaign. The story of his efforts with the Australian Concert party in Changi are well documented.

By 1942 Mary had turned to war work, and she appeared less and less on radio. In February 1944 she married John Chirnside, one of the sons of John Percy Chirnside , and the couple moved to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Her acting career came to an end. Mary died barely ten years later in February 1954, aged only 50. Chirnside died the following year, leaving a significant estate. The couple did not have children.

Following repatriation, John Wood left Australia in 1948, joining the great exodus of Australian actors moving to England at the time. He performed on the West End for a few years, but then retired to Spain with his wife, actress Phil Buchanan. He also died young – in 1965.

Unfortunately, the group of performers who knew Mary well have also passed on – Lloyd Lamble, Peter Finch, Allan Cuthbertson, Lou Vernon – only Lamble left an as yet unpublished memoir. It’s a great pity Mary did not leave her own memoirs for us – we know that she was a great raconteur and her memoirs of the Australian stage would have been entertaining.

From Table Talk 30 Jan, 1930 Via National Library of Australia – Trove

Note:
The IMDB credits her with some roles on TV in the late 1970s. Obviously this is a different person with a similar name.

Nick Murphy
September 2018

Further Reading

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

National Library of Australia – Trove – Digitised Newspaper Collection

The Australasian (Melb) Sat 19 Aug 1916
The Argus (Melb), 26 April 1924
Table Talk 30 Jan, 1930
The Age, (Melb), 1 Feb, 1930
Table Talk, 13 Feb, 1930
The Telegraph (Brisbane), 22 April 1930
Daily Standard (Brisbane), Thu 27 Feb 1936
The Courier Mail (Brisbane), 23 July 1936
The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sat 20 Mar 1937

British Library Newspaper Archive

Daily Mirror, Dec 12, 1961

Alice Crawford (1880 – 1967) The actress from Bendigo

Above: Alice Crawford – undated postcard in the author’s collection.

Born on January 5, 1880, Alice Crawford was one of six children of a prosperous Bendigo family. (Her 1880 birth certificate at the Victorian Births Deaths and Marriages is registration number 4850/1880) Her mother was Margaret Jane nee Layden and father was George Hunter Crawford, a director of the very successful Frederick the Great Company, which worked several locations to mine Bendigo’s rich gold-bearing leads – at depths of up to 800 feet. He was also a well-known member of the influential Mine Managers Association of Bendigo.

Above: The former home of Alice Crawford in Palmerston Street, Bendigo, in 2019. Author’s Collection
Below: Alice Crawford is praised for her elocution in Melbourne Punch, 13 July 1899.

Alice and her siblings grew up in “Del Oro,” a large house that still stands in Palmerston Street in Bendigo. She performed on stage from a young age and consistently attracted very positive reviews for her impressive recitations, the earliest given at the age of only 10.

Through the later 1890s she won numerous awards as an elocutionist, and by August 1899 was performing in Melbourne, sometimes with Amy Castles , a noted Bendigo soprano of about the same age. In late 1900 she joined US actress Nance O’Neil‘s company on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, but abandoned it in June 1901 to join British actor – manager Wilson Barrett‘s travelling company. This took her to South Africa, then in September 1902, to England. In December she appeared with Barrett on stage in The Christian King, a “panorama” of the life of King Alfred, at the Adelphi Theatre.

Even a savage bout of pneumonia and the death of her mother did not impact her rise as one of the most popular and admired London actresses. Her mentor Wilson Barrett also died in July 1904, but she quickly found a small role as Iris in The Tempest with leading British dramatist Herbert Tree. Success as a Shakespearian actress quickly followed. By the end of 1907 she was regularly hailed as a leading British (or occasionally acknowledged as an “Antipodean”) actress. In 1907 she performed with Tree’s company in Berlin. Ever able to find humour in difficult situations, Alice wrote home to Bendigo of being mistaken for a wayward daughter by a German mother who saw her photo.

Alice in costume for **Matt of Merrymount**, c.1908, The New Theatre, London. A reviewer described her as “charmingly natural.” Postcard in the author’s collection.

Writing in the early 1960s when many of his biographical subjects were still alive, Australian theatre historian Hal Porter described Alice Crawford’s diction as “notably pure” and praised her performances as Shakespearian heroines. Contemporary writers commented on her height, prepossessing manner and “beautifully modulated voice”. Like Carrie Moore, (the Australian born star of musical theatre and light comedy), she was quickly absorbed into the British theatre tradition, and over the next fifteen years was never without work. She appeared in endless newspaper articles, was asked for her opinion on theatre topics (providing an interesting commentary on stage fright on one occasion) and appeared at charity events and fundraisers – notably several for Australian soldiers in England after the outbreak of war.

383px-Lieutenant_Valentine_Williams_(6498250535) — Above: Valentine Williams photographed in late 1915, when he was commissioned an officer in the Irish Guards. Alice Crawford’s brother George was also in the Irish Guards. Photo from Imperial War Museum Collections @ Flickr Commons

1906 Crawford — Above: Alice Crawford in 1906, firmly established in the style of popular stars of the time. Postcard in the author’s collection

In 1911 she became engaged to Valentine Williams, a well-known journalist from the Daily Mail, but it was not until 1916 that they finally married. Valentine Williams might be thought of as an “adventurer-journalist”, because even before the Great War he had travelled to cover other conflicts – including the Balkan Wars, the Riff Rebellion and the Portuguese revolution of 1910.

A correspondent at the British Army’s GHQ in 1915, Valentine was seriously wounded in fighting on the Somme, soon after he had joined the Irish Guards – earning himself the Military Cross in the process.

Alice’s stage career slowed at about the same time. The widely believed reason was that she was caring for Valentine, which may have been true, although it is more likely he was nursed back to health in a military hospital. It’s possible she took less stage work because she wanted to try something different. In 1912 she had written her first piece for the theatre, and she also began to try out roles in comedy during the grim years of World War One. In fact, it was reported that she had come to prefer comedy to serious drama.

In 1919 Valentine was back at work covering the Versailles Peace Conference for the Daily Mail. But after the war he increasingly turned to writing spy thriller novels, of the genre also inhabited by John Buchan, and inspired (he said), by his adventures as a correspondent – and on advice of Buchan himself. He left the Daily Mail in 1922. The first of his Clubfoot series, featuring the evil German master spy, Dr Adolph Grundt, appeared in 1918. Grundt is opposed – naturally – by a wholesome British hero, Desmond Okewood, and his secret service brother Francis.

Alice did not stop work, but the nature of her work changed. In 1921 she appeared in J. Stuart Blackton‘s The Glorious Adventure, a revolutionary early colour feature film made using a process called Prizma-colour. Seen today, it is unusually easy to watch – beautifully costumed and well acted by an experienced cast, including by Alice Crawford in a supporting role. Increasingly, Alice and Valentine’s work and lives became intertwined. For twenty years Alice’s letters home to Australia, which were often released to the press, recounted her adventures on stage and with Valentine.

The Sketch 1921 — Above: In 1921, weekly magazine, *The Sketch* heralded Alice’s role in **The Glorious Adventure** an early colour film

Alice and Valentine 1924 — In 1923 *the Sketch* portrayed Alice and Valentine, living like any middle class English couple, at their comfortable home in Mayfair. Copyright held by The Illustrated London News Group.

According to Phillip Stafford, in the mid 1920s Valentine visited the US on a publishers tour and apparently fell in love with the place – Alice had previously performed in New York with HB Warner, in 1909. Six years later they returned, living there until the late 1930s. Together, they wrote and sometimes performed together – a genuine and loving partnership. The 1931 play Berlin, based on one of his novels, was credited to both Alice and Valentine. Together they also wrote and performed in four radio plays for NBC. Valentine went on to write several scripts for films and more popular novels.

When his autobiography, The World of Action came out in 1938, it included numerous anecdotes of his life, including many that involved Alice. Five pages were devoted to Alice and her achievements alone. Not everyone enjoyed his autobiography however, the reviewer for the Adelaide News took exception to his failure to acknowledge Alice as an Australian. To Valentine, Alice was apparently as English as he was, and perhaps by 1938, that was how Alice saw herself too. And they were not alone in seeing the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of the Empire as a collectively British – confusing to Australians today perhaps.

Above: Valentine Williams & Alice Crawford by Bassano Ltd bromide print, 22 May 1939, NPG x85059. National Portrait Gallery, Creative Commons Licence.

On the outbreak of war, Valentine joined the Secret Intelligence Service. Malcolm Muggeridge recalled that he was screened for service by Valentine during a visit to his London club.”Writers of thrillers tend to gravitate to the secret service” Muggeridge commented. Kim Philby also came across Valentine in his secret service role. But soon Alice and Valentine were sent back to the US to work for the British Embassy developing propaganda – the kind of messages intended to encourage the USA into supporting Britain.

Crawford c1908 — Above: Alice Crawford’s signature was quite distinctive, as can be seen in this example. Author’s collection c.1906

Unfortunately, of Alice’s later life we know little. The few websites that canvas Alice’s life and career claim she was born in 1882 and died in 1931, and all cross-reference each other in perpetuating the errors, in typical internet fashion. However, as the 1940 border crossing note from the US below proves, she was alive long after that.

Alice 1940 — Above: July 18, 1940. Rouses Point border crossing details for Australian born Alice Crawford Williams. US National Archives

Following Valentine’s death in a Manhattan hospital in November 1946, we know Alice continued to live in New York – and she was interviewed there by newspapers in November 1953, when an enterprising writer borrowed one of Valentine’s stories and pretended it had really happened to him (see below). It is also likely she is the Alice Williams who records showed died in New York in January 1967.

Tampa Tribune Nov 24, 1953 — *Above: The Tampa Tribune, 24 Nov, 1953, cites a very much alive Alice Crawford Williams. Via Newspapers.com*

Notes

1. Alice’s younger sister Ruby Gertrude Crawford (born 1886) acted on stage in Australia before she married Albert Victor Leggo in 1916. Leggo, a manufacturer, property and mine owner like Crawford, was the brother of Henry Leggo, who operated a preserves and canned foods business that still operates in Australia today as Leggos. (The now US owned company suggests the name is Italian in its current advertising. In fact, Leggo is a Cornish name)

Right: Ruby Crawford, from Table Talk, 1 December 1904. Via National Library of Australia Trove

2. Despite the claims she appeared in Triangle films’ silent False Ambition in 1918, there is no evidence Alice travelled to Hollywood at this time. This is almost certainly another actress with the same name and the error has been cross-referenced repeatedly across websites.

Nick Murphy
June 2018, July 2024

References

Alan Burton (2016 ) Historical Dictionary of British Spy Fiction. Rowman & Littlefield.
David Stafford (2012) The Silent Game. The Real World of Imaginary Spies. Chapter 5. University of Georgia Press.
Hal Porter (1965) Stars of Australian Stage and Screen. Angus and Robertson.
Nigel West (2005) Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence. Scarecrow Press.
Valentine Williams (1938) The World of Action. Hamish Hamilton, London.
Digitized by the Public Library of India

National Library of Australia, Trove Digitised Newspaper Collection

Critic (Adelaide), 25 Jul 1903
Table Talk (Vic), 1 December 1904
The Australian Star (Sydney), 25 May 1907
The Sun (Sydney), 3 May 1911
The West Australian (Perth), 18 May 1912
Ultima and Chillingollah Star (Vic) 26 Feb 1915
The Daily News (Perth) Thu 3 Feb 1927
Western Mail (Perth) Thu 14 Jul 1938

British Library Newspaper Archive Project

The Sketch, Nov 9, 1921
The Sketch, July 18, 1923

Newspapers.com

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 April 1931
Courier-Post (Camden NJ), 18 Nov 1953
The Tampa Tribune, 24 Nov 1953

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

Joan Winfield (1918-1978) – celebrated violinist and actor

Above and below – Joan Winfield in 1942. Press photo, source unknown, in the author’s collection.

Joan Marie Therese MacGillicuddy was born in Melbourne in 1918, the second child of Dr Maurice and Nell MacGillicuddy, important figures in society and the local charitable community. Joan and her older sister Mary Mauricette (born in 1913 and called Billie by the family) had grown up with a love of performance and music. Maurice ran a well known and successful medical practice in the city and Richmond. Both girls gained fame in Melbourne as musicial prodigies – Mauricette was an accomplished pianist studying at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, while Joan, still a student at Catholic Ladies College, was a skilled violinist.

Joan and Mauricette as they appeared in The Advocate, the Melbourne Catholic newspaper.
Note that Joan had won the Victorian Open Violin Championship for Under 25 years, not as is often claimed, “The Australian Violin championship.” All the same, it was a remarkable achievement for a 15 year old. The Advocate 26 July, 1934 and The Avocate, 26 March 1936 via The National Library of Australia’s Trove.

Joan also enjoyed the stage, and took a leading role in several pantomimes performed for charity. In 1930 she appeared in The Doll’s House Tea Party, with another aspiring actress, Peggy Maguire, who she would later meet again in Hollywood as Mary Maguire. Joan apparently enjoyed this so much she played the same role again in 1931.

Peggy Maguire is in the maid’s costume, 6th from the left. Joan MacGillicuddy appears to be in the centre, 8th from left. Via The National Library of Australia’s Trove – The Argus, 16 June, 1930

Life changed in 1936, when the family decided to travel to Britain so that Mauricette could continue her studies in music. John Meredyth Lucas (Joan’s husband after 1951) suggested the move was also because Maurice had discovered he had terminal cancer and wanted to make the most of his final years. After numerous parties and farewell concerts, the family departed Melbourne in April. In July 1937, Mauricette, now making a name for herself in London as a musician, was presented at court. Joan was studying “dramatic art,” – it was later reported to be at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The family resided for a time at the Duke Street Mansion Apartments in Grosvenor Square and then in June 1939 sailed to New York on the SS Normandie. (Maurice’s sister lived in New York. He died there in August 1942)

The very young and fresh Joan Winfield in movie publicity shots. Above left: Joan and another Warner Bros. starlet, Faye Emerson, in a typical wartime publicity shot. The film they appeared in together was actually Lady Gangster and the cups they were pictured with an obvious studio stunt. [Hollywood Magazine Jan-April 1942, Via Lantern]
Above right: Joan with Warren Douglas in Murder on the Waterfront. [Warner Bros Pressbook, 1943, Via Lantern]

According to John Meredyth Lucas, it was in New York sometime in 1941 that Joan was spotted by a Warner Bros. scout and offered the standard contract – the type that enabled a studio to “try out” new faces for up to seven years, but did not necessarily offer much in return. Merle Oberon described the studio system at this time as a “sausage machine,” an apt metaphor for its treatment of young stars like Joan. She was to be known professionally as Joan Winfield, a name plucked from Bette Davis‘ character in the 1941 film The Bride came C.O.D. It was claimed her spectacular swimsuit body made her a popular pin-up with allied troops, which is almost certainly another studio publicity story. However, it is the case that like many other actors, Joan did her bit entertaining servicemen passing through Hollywood. Australian actor Vincent Ball, then a Australian Air Force (RAAF) trainee in Canada, recalled meeting Joan at the Hollywood Canteen on a break from training. While the highlight was dancing with Deanna Durbin, it was Joan Winfield who took Ball and his Australian comrades under her wing, and arranged studio visits for them.

Above: Joan demonstrating makeup in Modern Screen, Jan-Nov 1944, via Lantern.

By the end of the 1940s, after years of completely unremarkable B-films for the likes of Warner’s prolific director “Breezy” Eason, (see the rather underwhelming 50 minute Murder on the Waterfront for example), Joan’s career had become confined to un-credited supporting roles, later in father-in-law Michael Curtiz‘s films. If this annoyed her or disappointed her, she never publicly said so.

Above: Joan Winfield as she appeared in The Des Moines Register (Iowa), 4 March 1945. Beauty, swimsuits and health were important features of Joan’s publicity, and for someone confined mostly to minor or un-credited roles, she enjoyed remarkable publicity. Via Newspapers.com.

This is probably because she found interests beyond acting. She became a US citizen and after several reported romances, married Hollywood writer – director – producer John Meredyth Lucas (son of director Wilfred Lucas and Bess Meredyth) in 1951. They had met on the set of the wartime drama The Gorilla Man, in 1943. Together they raised three children and Joan increasingly worked for charitable causes, continuing to take small film parts until 1957.

Hotham St East Melbourne in 2020. The last MacGillicuddy home in Melbourne, the grey building (the grey is an extension on the front of a Victorian building) on the right is now a private residence again. It looks out on a streetscape that has changed little since Joan revisited it in 1960. Author’s collection

Joan returned to Australia in 1959, while John was directing and writing scripts for the TV series Whiplash, an Australian “western” starring Peter Graves. They visited the beautiful MacGillicuddy home in Hotham Street, East Melbourne. Much to her horror, it had become a scruffy boarding house. But her old school nearby, Catholic Ladies College, was still operating and some of the nuns who taught Joan were there to greet her. In his autobiography, John recalled being deeply moved by the welcome given to his wife in the school’s best parlour. Sister Bernard held Joan’s hand for the entire visit and recounted what had happened to her classmates and all of the nuns.

Apparently a heavy smoker all her life, Joan died after a battle with cancer, aged only fifty-nine, in June 1978.

Above: Jane Darwell with Joan’s sister Dale Melbourne in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House c 1945. Author’s Collection.

In addition to singing, Joan’s sister Billie also took to acting, performing on stage in the United States in the mid 1940s, using the stage name Dale Melbourne. Independent producer James B Cassidy organised a tour of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House throughout North America in 1944-6 and apart from Billie in the role of Nora, it also featured well known actors Francis Lederer, Jane Darwell and Lyle Talbot (yes – the same Lyle Talbot who appeared in Plan 9 from Outer Space in 1957). Cassidy and Billie were married, until his untimely death in 1952.

Above: A Doll’s House advertised in The Vancouver Sun, 18 November 1944. Via Newspapers.com

In 1981 Billie married John Herklotz, a Californian businessman and philanthropist. She died in 1998 but remains well remembered at the University of California. The University’s Conference facility at the Centre for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory is named after her.

John Meredyth Lucas’s autobiography, with its entertaining accounts of making a pioneering TV series in Australia, was published shortly after his death in 2002. He is, of course, remembered for his own prolific and diverse body of work especially on television – which included writing, producing and directing Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man, Harry O and The Fugitive.

Lucas and Meredyth in an advertisement from EJ Carroll. The Green Room Magazine, 1 Oct, 1919, P9. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

Note: Lucas’ parents, US actress and writer Bess Meredyth and director Wilfred Lucas, made three films in Australia in 1920-1 with Snowy Baker and local producer E. J. Carroll, one of which, The Man from Kangaroo has survived to the 21st Century.

Nick Murphy
Updated July 2020

Further Reading

John Meredyth Lucas (2004) Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood: Memoir of a Career in Film and Television. McFarland and Co.
Ross Carpenter Legends of Australian Ice – Site also includes photos of Joan and Mauricette.
Vincent Ball (1996) Buck Jones Where Are You? An Australian Boy’s Adventure. Random House Australia

National Library of Australia, Trove,

The Argus, 16 June 1930
The Advocate 26 July, 1934
The Avocate, 26 March 1936
The Australian Women’s Weekly 5 Aug 1944 Page 11
The Argus (Melbourne) 12 Jun 1946

Newspapers.com

The San Francisco Examiner, 15 Oct 1944
Vancouver Sun 18 Nov 1944
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) 18 Jan 1945
The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, Iowa) 4 Mar 1945
The Los Angeles Times 27 August 1981

Lantern Digital Media Project

Hollywood Magazine, Jan-Dec 1942

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

Jocelyn Howarth (1911-1963) – Endless disappointments

Above: Constance Worth (Jocelyn Howarth) manages a smile while being made up during shooting of the abysmal film, The Wages of Sin (1936). The phrase “endless disappointments” is suggested by Andrée Wright’s 1987 account of her life. ^[1]Photo – Author’s collection. Photographer unknown

The Five second version
Born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 19 August 1911, Constance Worth was known to family and friends in Australia as Joy. She used the stage name Jocelyn Howarth in Australia. It was in the US that she adopted the stage name Constance Worth.
A talented and popular actress who appeared on stage and in several films in Australia, she travelled to the US in 1936 to pursue her career. She has often been represented as an Australian pioneer in Hollywood – part of the wave of Australian women who travelled there for work between the wars. Sadly, her experiences in the US suggests she was continually frustrated by underwhelming roles in B films, and by poor treatment by the studio system. She died in Los Angeles, California USA on 18 October 1963, aged only 52. The IMDB suggests she appeared in 35 US films, sometimes in uncredited roles.
(See Note 1 below regarding the British actress Constance Worth)

Howarth without makeup, about the time she made **10 Minute Alibi** at Melbourne Comedy Theatre in 1934. Courtesy the Marriner Theatrical Archive, Melbourne.

Enid Joyce Howarth was born in Sydney on 19 August, 1911.^[2]NSW Births Deaths and Marriages certificate 44906/1911, Enid Joyce Howarth She was one of Australian director Ken G Hall’s “finds,” making a great impression under her stage name, Jocelyn Howarth, in The Squatter’s Daughter (1933) and The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934) before moving to Hollywood in 1936, where she was given or adopted the stage name Constance Worth. But her story was not a happy one. Indeed, her US film career would end up being one of frustration and continual disappointment. She spent much of her Hollywood career chasing film roles that either did not eventuate or failed to live up to expectations.^[3]See Wright (1987) p63-64

To family and friends she was known all her life as Joy. The youngest of three daughters^[4]Gwen born 1908, Nancy born 1910 born to wealthy Sydney importer Moffat Howarth and his wife Maryellen nee Dumbrill, her childhood was privileged but the family had its moments of unhappiness – and her parents finally divorced very publicly and acrimoniously in 1921.^[5]Truth (Syd) 25 Sept, 1921, p7 After leaving St Gabriel’s Church of England School, Waverley, she involved herself in amateur theatre, appearing in a production of Cynara.^[6]Despite many the many references to the contrary, the Ascham school archivist has assured the author that Jocelyn did not attend their school

Above: Cinesound publicity at work. Jocelyn Howarth advertising Ken Hall’s *The Squatter’s Daughter*, holding a Koala. ^[7]*Table Talk*, 20 July 1933. Via State Library of Victoria.

In 1933, Ken Hall tested her for The Squatter’s Daughter, his entertaining film of Australian pastoral life.^[8]Hall gave an account of testing Joy in his autobiography (1980) p58 Hall made much of her ability and composure during the film’s spectacular scenes – especially the bush fire scene. Publicity from production company Cinesound helped establish her reputation as “Australia’s bravest girl”. Cinesound ensured she appeared at screenings of the film around Australia and she certainly impressed reviewers. In late 1933, a reviewer from the Melbourne Argus wrote; “She is a most winning and attractive figure, who both looks and acts her part. She will establish a reputation for her work in this film.” ^[9]The Argus (Melb) 23 Oct 1933, P5 She certainly looked the part of the glamourous film star, but her answers to the press as she traveled Australia were well considered and also revealed a mature and thoughtful mind. In May 1934 The Silence of Dean Maitland was released with Joy in a supporting role and again, she enjoyed good reviews. According to Ken Hall, she had wanted the leading role in this film.

Above: Screen grabs of Jocelyn Howarth in Ken Hall’s **The Squatter’s Daughter** 1933. She was 22 at the time. ^[10]Unfortunately only a few of Ken Hall’s films are available publicly, in shortened low-quality versions from US sources, including this one. Author’s collection

Through 1934 and 1935, Joy waited for more parts in film. She performed on stage in Ten Minute Alibi and The Wind and the Rain and in several radio plays. Five feet, five inches tall, Blonde, blue eyed, and widely admired for her willingness to throw herself with gusto into her roles, Joy was a talented and seemingly confident young Australian about to go places.

She attracted great attention, and appears to have been briefly engaged to “Digger Comedian” Johnnie Marks. But unfortunately the problem for all of Australia’s enthusiastic young actors was that there were few feature films being made. Appearances – in advertising for iced tea and on radio with James Raglan, would not have satisfied her interests and ambitions for very long. So, in April 1936, aged 25, Joy sailed for California on the Matson liner Monterey, determined to try her luck in Hollywood.

Jocelyn Howarth, “charming young Australia actress” at the time she appeared in **Ten Minute Alibi** in 1934. ^[11]*Table Talk*, 23 August, 1934, P17, via State Library of Victoria.

Journalists reported Joy and a travelling companion mixing cocktails for well-wishers in their cabin on the eve of departure. Although she publicly claimed to be “loaded with introductions to people in Hollywood,” she was cautious enough to add “it seems to me going to Hollywood in search of a career is like taking a ticket in the lottery …” ^[12]The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 April 1936, P20 And so it was. Despite travelling on the Monterey with actor and director Miles Mander, and enjoying welcome dinners with the likes of expat Australian director John Farrow and actress Maureen O’Sullivan, by August 1936, Joy had received no film offers. In an angry despair she reportedly made a half-hearted attempt to take her own life. She was saved by the timely intervention of young actor friend, Tyrone Power, whom she telephoned for help.^[13]Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug 1936, PA2 via Newspapers.com Unfortunately, Joy found herself dogged by reports of this event for the rest of her Hollywood career, and the explanation of what had happened with the gas in her flat changed and therefore became less believable (a pot boiling over,^[14]Santa Rose Republican, 10 Aug 1936, P9 and Prescott Evening Courier, 11 August 1936 P5 via Newspapers.com a gas leak,^[15]The Daily News (Perth WA)14 Sep, 1937, P1, a new type of stove,^[16]The Mail (Adel. SA) 14 Aug 1937, P1 a heater^[17]The Daily Telegraph (Syd)13 Jul 1937, P2 over time. Years later, she would publicly acknowledge how hard her early years in Hollywood had been. “I really was in an emotional state in those days… I had little faith in myself and still less money.”^[18]Sydney Morning Herald 5 Nov 1961, P27 “I’ll rebuild my life as an actress” via

Above: Joy Howarth, August 5, 1936, taken just after the gas event. The accompanying story states “an inhalator squad worked an hour reviving her.” ^[19]A syndicated US news agency photo, Author’s collection.

Joy’s luck changed soon after this incident and she finally secured a contract with RKO. She took the lead in two underwhelming mystery/adventure films, China Passage and Windjammer, both released in 1937. On China Passage she was to co-star with Vinton Haworth, so at the suggestion or perhaps insistence of RKO she changed her stage name to Constance Worth.

Howarth1 — Above: Constance Worth in her first Hollywood movie, playing the leading female role in the exotic 1937 RKO thriller **China Passage**. The film was possibly influenced by the success of MGM’s **China Seas**, made a few years before. ^[20]Photo is an enlargement from an RKO film publicity photo. Author’s Collection. The film has recently been re-released on DVD

With Geo O'Brien in Windjammer 1937 — Above: With George O’Brien in *Windjammer* (1937), her second RKO film. ^[21]*Cine-Mundial,* Jan-Dec 1937. Via Lantern, Media History Digital Library

In the midst of this excitement, she met another actor, a friend of Tyrone’s, and began an intense relationship. Unfortunately the object of her affection was serial Hollywood womaniser, George Brent, who already had two failed marriages and numerous relationships behind him. Under intense pressure from Brent, they married, secretly, in Mexico in May, 1937. It was a disaster and within months the entire saga was played out in the press in agonising detail. After a few weeks of marriage, Brent had become morose, withdrawn and uncommunicative, later to suggest he realised he had made a terrible mistake. Brent attempted to have the marriage annulled on the grounds that having been conducted in Mexico it wasn’t a legal marriage, but before the end of the year it ended up as a full-blown stoush in a US divorce court.

cw and brent — Above- Joy and George Brent, about the time of their marriage in 1937.^[22] *Picture play* Magazine, 1938, Media History Digital Library

When Joy’s mother Mary-Ellen was pressed to comment she said; “when I first met Brent I was not impressed.” But “Joy…was in love and that was all that mattered to me.”^[23]The Australian Women’s Weekly, Dec 11, 1937, p27 Mary-Ellen was to spend the next twenty years worrying about Joy, while Moffatt Howarth repeatedly told his daughter to come home to Sydney.

Joy’s sister Gwen Howarth visited Hollywood in late 1937, to support her sister through the divorce. Her thoughtful and considered views about Hollywood appeared in The Australian Women’s Weekly, in September and October 1937.^[24]Joy’s accounts appear in The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sept 11, 1937, Page 3 and The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sept 18, 1937, Page 4 While she celebrated Australian successes, amongst them that of Mary Maguire, Gwen Howarth didn’t balk at reporting the reality, which was often quite the opposite to the well-peddled stereotype of Hollywood success. She also told The Sydney Morning Herald of “Some of Hollywood’s Failures” in August: “Hollywood … is a city of hopes which are fulfilled for few. Its drug-stores, shops, and restaurants have as assistants and waitresses scores of beautiful girls who linger on in the hope of gaining employment in films. And most of them wait in vain.” Little did she imagine that a few years later, her sister Joy would also turn to waitressing when acting jobs dried up.^[25]The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 5, 1961 p27

Gwen also wrote a scathing account of the way the press reported events relating to her sister in Hollywood: “I was rather amused to read in a recent paper here… ‘Miss Worth had been seen out dining alone and she would be leaving for Europe next month.’ She has not dined out alone since she has been here, and will not be leaving for Europe next month. But that is Hollywood. What they don’t know, they invent.”^[26]The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sept 18, 1937, p4

Of course, there is an irony in Gwen’s “letters from Hollywood.” Despite her efforts to report to Australian readers with a high degree of reflection and honesty, the papers that carried her occasional accounts were the same ones that reported the nonsense and fed the impossible fantasy.

Wages of Sin 1936 — Above: Screengrabs from Joy’s rather dismal **The Wages of Sin** (1936). Left; the family meal scene accompanying the sound grab below. Right; One of the film’s scenes that attempt to titillate – Marjorie has a conversation with Tony (who is in another room) whilst in the shower. ^[27]Author’s collection

The Brent affair of 1937 undermined Joy’s public standing as a serious actress and RKO offered her no further roles. She was too closely associated with a messy public divorce to warrant more effort by the studio. In a 1945 interview, she acknowledged that not only had Brent’s rejection hurt her deeply, it had also hurt her career.^[28]The Australasian (Melb) 25 Aug 1945, p18 But besides this, the studio had dozens of young women keen to pursue film careers.

Joy’s next film was also a starring role, but in a minor studio exploitation flick – The Wages of Sin, a story of a young woman lured into prostitution. Producer Willis Kent was notorious for his sensationalist films made outside the Hollywood production code. The young Australian was desperate for work after the Brent divorce and apparently felt she had no other option. Perhaps she convinced herself that there was something worthwhile about the film. There wasn’t, but she made a great effort with the useless script, her Sydney accent sounding incongruous alongside the broad US accents of her co-stars.

In this short audio clip, hard working Marjorie (Constance Worth) scolds her oafish family for not giving young Tommy milk, and her father for not working.

The scandalous film had only limited release in the US, usually opening and closing in towns before local authorities could act. It was never released in Australia.

Not surprisingly, when Joy returned home to Australia in June 1939 she let slip her true opinions about working in the Hollywood studio system. It gave an actress “no scope” she said, and added that she “far preferred the stage.” She modelled the spring collection for Anthony Hordens department store and appeared at the Minerva Theatre (under her real name) in Good Morning, Bill.

The film star comes home. Joy Howarth on the *Monterey* in 1939. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

Joy Howarth at the Minerva theatre – photographed in quick change of costume, 26 July 1939. Photographed by Ray Olson. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

In October 1939, Joy announced she had been “called back” to Hollywood to do film work. This might have been for Angels Over Broadway (1940), but perhaps the dream of success in Hollywood was simply too strong. Back in Hollywood as Constance Worth again, she worked tirelessly over the next few years to re-establish herself as an actress. She freelanced, taking a mixture of uncredited, minor and supporting roles. A two year contract with Columbia was signed in the early 1940s, although she also suggested to journalist Lon Jones that finding work had been so difficult she had taken up waitressing.^[30]Lon Jones was an Australian journalist based in Hollywood. See The Australasian (Melb) 25 Aug 1945, p18

In a makeup test for Columbia, about the time she appeared in **Meet Boston Blackie** (1941)^[31]Author’s Collection

In 1943 she landed a leading role in Republic’s fifteen part serial G-Men Versus the Black Dragon. Playing British agent Vivian Marsh, she lurches from one hair-raising scenario to the next, tied to buzz-saws and fiendish torture machines by wicked Japanese spies, regularly saved “just in time” by US agent Rex Bennett, played by Rod Cameron. Unfortunately, while Director William Witney admired Joy as an actress, in his autobiography he also commented on the reputation the thirty-two year old Australian had developed. “One of the best actresses that I’d ever worked with. She handled her body well, was a good study and was as pretty as any blonde in pictures. Unfortunately she drank.”^[32]Witney (1996) p324-328

Cary Grant’s biographers, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley, also commented on this aspect of Joy’s personality, and a memorable early morning fight she had with actor Phyllis Brooks, at a Hollywood party sometime in 1940.^[33]Higham & Moseley (1989) p109

CW & John Beal — Above: With John Beal on the set of **Let’s Have Fun** in 1943.^[34] *Hollywood* Jan-Dec 1942 via Lantern, Media History Digital Library

In 1943’s Crime Doctor, the first of a long running series of crime films, Joy plays a nurse who is in the ward just before the hero, Ordway, awakes (He has amnesia and doesn’t recall, no matter how hard he tries, that he was a gangster). Joy’s lines, as Nurse Betty, include this banter with another nurse as they fuss about Ordway. Here was Constance Worth – well and truly typecast.

Nurse Betty: From where I sit he promises to be good looking
Nurse 2: I wonder if he’s married…
Nurse Betty: If he appeals to me, he’s married!
Nurse 2 (laughing): Well you can’t do anything with an unconscious guy!
Nurse Betty: You should know some of the men I’ve been out with!

And later when Nurse Betty asks a doctor whether there is any news as to the patient’s identity:

Doctor: Apparently no one misses him
Nurse Betty: (aloud, but almost to herself) I would, if he were mine!^[35]Transcription – copy in the author’s collection

In 1945, Joy was in the news again in connection with another court case, but this time she was named as co-respondent. Wilma Pierce, the wife of Bill Pierce, a Hollywood scriptwriter, had found her husband in Joy’s flat. Joy was apparently semi-naked when private detectives burst in, but she insisted there was nothing illicit in their relationship. They were just friends. She claimed Pierce had too much to drink “and decided to spend the night on the apartment couch, while she used the bedroom.”^[36]See Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1945, p13 and The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 11 Jan 1946, p1 Following the divorce, in March 1947 Bill and Joy married in Nevada.

Joy kept on working and in total, had appeared in at least 32 Hollywood films in the ten years 1939 – 1949. In this writer’s view, meaningless roles in underwhelming films soon became the norm for her, although as Graham Shirley notes (below), her supporting role in the film noir Deadline at Dawn (1946) is a reminder of what might have been.

Her final film was in the B-western film, Western Renegades, in 1949. With light entertainment offered by the plump and ever good-humoured Johnny Mack Brown, lots of western stereotypes and “comedy relief” provided by aging ventriloquist Max Terhune and his dummy Elmer, the audience for this film was clearly the emerging post-war generation of young American boys, about to be exposed to the onslaught of TV westerns. Taking another minor supporting role and looking thinner than ever, Joy played a flashy “actress” hired to impersonate a missing mother, Ann Gordon. In her final scene, she is strangled or bashed-up, it’s not clear which, at the foot of the stairs of the Gordonville hotel by the angry daughter of the real Ann Gordon.

Above. Older but in classic film star makeup and pose. Left, in 1945 **^[37]**On the cover of *Australasian*, 25 August, 1945 At right; in **Klondike Kate** in 1943.^[38] Author’s Collection. Probably a public relations photo by Columbia Pictures.

In mid 1950 it was reported that she was pregnant.^[39]Personal correspondence with a cousin, and also see Louella Parsons in The San Francisco Examiner, May 6, 1950 p7 If this was true, she did not carry the child to full term successfully, as there were no children from Bill and Joy’s relationship. There were also no more film roles after 1949, despite several reports that she was about to re-boot her career.^[40]See for example The San Francisco Examiner Sept 8, 1956, p21 and Sydney Morning Herald 5 Nov 1961, p27 She did at least, have the presence in the US of sister Gwen, who had married William Babylon in 1944 – although Gwen now lived in Maryland.^[41]The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Apr 1944, p5

Later in life.^[42]Author’s collection. undated

Joy Howarth died at age 52, on 18th October 1963, of complications arising from cirrhosis of the liver.^[43]Joy Howarth Pierce, State of California Certificate of Death, 7053 21590 It was a thoroughly dismal end to what had started out as a brilliant career for a genuinely capable actress. With the benefit of hindsight, it would seem Joy’s greatest pleasure came from performing on screen and stage at home, where to Australians, she was always a star.

Joy Howarth was never completely happy with her stage name. She complained on one occasion that it brought her bad luck. Her signature here, for a 1940s fan, looks like it was scribbled under sufferance. Author’s collection.

Note 1
Joy is regularly confused with British stage actress Constance Wadsworth (born 1892) who used the stage name Constance Worth for several films in England between 1919 and 1922. Wadsworth was the second wife of actor Dan Rolyat (Herbert Taylor) (1872-1927).

Nick Murphy, May 2018, updated 2022, 2024

References

Special Thanks
Marguerite Gillezeau, Archivist at Ascham School.
The Marriner Theatrical Archive, Melbourne Australia

Film Clips

NFSA Website The Australian Screen Clips from The Squatter’s Daughter
Many of her US films now appear to be in the public domain and can be found online. These include Windjammer (1937), Borrowed Hero (1941) , Criminals Within (1941), City without Men (1943), The Kid Sister (1945) , Sensation Hunters (1945)

Text

Ina Bertrand (1989) Cinema in Australia. A Documentary History. New South Wales University Press.
Ken G. Hall (1977) Directed by Ken G. Hall, autobiography of an Australian film maker. Lansdowne Press.
Charles Higham & Roy Moseley (1990) Cary Grant. The Lonely heart. Avon Books
Scott O’Brien (2014) George Brent: Ireland’s Gift to Hollywood and Its Leading Ladies. Bear Manor Media
Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1980) Australian Film 1900-1977. Oxford Uni Press/AFI
Eric Schaeffer (1999) “Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!” A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959. Duke University Press.
Amber Sloan (1998) Jocelyn Howarth. Bonza RMIT film resource, via National Library of Australia.
William Witney (1996) In a Door, into a Fight, Out a Door, into a Chase: Moviemaking Remembered by the Guy at the Door. McFarland & Co.
Andrée Wright (1987) Brilliant Careers: Women in Australian Cinema. MacMillan

National Library of Australia, Trove

The Australian Women’s Weekly, Aug 28. 1937, Page 4
The Australian Women’s Weekly, Oct 16, 1937, Page 4
The Australian Women’s Weekly, Dec 11, 1937, Page 26
The Australian Women’s Weekly, Nov 30, 1940, Page 20
The Australian Women’s Weekly, Dec 12, 1942, Page 12

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

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Photo – Author’s collection. Photographer unknown
↑2	NSW Births Deaths and Marriages certificate 44906/1911, Enid Joyce Howarth
↑3	See Wright (1987) p63-64
↑4	Gwen born 1908, Nancy born 1910
↑5	Truth (Syd) 25 Sept, 1921, p7
↑6	Despite many the many references to the contrary, the Ascham school archivist has assured the author that Jocelyn did not attend their school
↑7	Table Talk, 20 July 1933. Via State Library of Victoria.
↑8	Hall gave an account of testing Joy in his autobiography (1980) p58
↑9	The Argus (Melb) 23 Oct 1933, P5
↑10	Unfortunately only a few of Ken Hall’s films are available publicly, in shortened low-quality versions from US sources, including this one. Author’s collection
↑11	Table Talk, 23 August, 1934, P17, via State Library of Victoria.
↑12	The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 April 1936, P20
↑13	Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug 1936, PA2 via Newspapers.com
↑14	Santa Rose Republican, 10 Aug 1936, P9 and Prescott Evening Courier, 11 August 1936 P5 via Newspapers.com
↑15	The Daily News (Perth WA)14 Sep, 1937, P1,
↑16	The Mail (Adel. SA) 14 Aug 1937, P1
↑17	The Daily Telegraph (Syd)13 Jul 1937, P2
↑18	Sydney Morning Herald 5 Nov 1961, P27 “I’ll rebuild my life as an actress” via
↑19	A syndicated US news agency photo, Author’s collection.
↑20	Photo is an enlargement from an RKO film publicity photo. Author’s Collection. The film has recently been re-released on DVD
↑21	Cine-Mundial, Jan-Dec 1937. Via Lantern, Media History Digital Library
↑22	Picture play Magazine, 1938, Media History Digital Library
↑23	The Australian Women’s Weekly, Dec 11, 1937, p27
↑24	Joy’s accounts appear in The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sept 11, 1937, Page 3 and The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sept 18, 1937, Page 4
↑25	The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 5, 1961 p27
↑26	The Australian Women’s Weekly, Sept 18, 1937, p4
↑27	Author’s collection
↑28	The Australasian (Melb) 25 Aug 1945, p18
↑29	The Wages of Sin is now in the public domain. Copy in the author’s collection
↑30	Lon Jones was an Australian journalist based in Hollywood. See The Australasian (Melb) 25 Aug 1945, p18
↑31	Author’s Collection
↑32	Witney (1996) p324-328
↑33	Higham & Moseley (1989) p109
↑34	Hollywood Jan-Dec 1942 via Lantern, Media History Digital Library
↑35	Transcription – copy in the author’s collection
↑36	See Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1945, p13 and The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 11 Jan 1946, p1
↑37	On the cover of Australasian, 25 August, 1945
↑38	Author’s Collection. Probably a public relations photo by Columbia Pictures.
↑39	Personal correspondence with a cousin, and also see Louella Parsons in The San Francisco Examiner, May 6, 1950 p7
↑40	See for example The San Francisco Examiner Sept 8, 1956, p21 and Sydney Morning Herald 5 Nov 1961, p27
↑41	The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 Apr 1944, p5
↑42	Author’s collection. undated
↑43	Joy Howarth Pierce, State of California Certificate of Death, 7053 21590

Above: 27 year old John Manson announces the appointment of a bullion broker at the Union Bank’s Bendigo goldfields branch. The Age Saturday 9 Jan 1857. Via the National Library of Australia’s Trove.

Above: Maud appearing on stage before her marriage to Lieutenant Hayley in May 1881. The Era, 12 February 1881 via The British Newspaper Archive.

The Hayleys in Hawaii. Left; King Kalākaua with officers, including Lieutenant Hayley looking very splendid in white, third from the right. Via Wikimedia Commons. Right; Maud was still occasionally performing in Hawaii – The Honolulu Advertiser, 5 Jan 1886, via Newspapers.com. (click to enlarge)

The faded manifest of the ship Servia, arriving in New York in June 1887. Owen R. Armstrong, Army Officer and his wife Maud(e) are listed. Via US National Archives and Records Administration, Via Ancestry.com

Left: Maud – a photo taken well before 1896 (from “Around the world with a Gaiety Girl” page 100, via the Internet Archive). Centre: Maud on an undated postcard (probably about 1890). Right: Maud in The Sketch, July 21 1899. Author’s Collection.

London Gaiety Company program, Australian Tour, 1892. Courtesy Elisabeth Kumm.

Left: “In Town” At New York’s Knickerbocker Theatre. The Sun, (New York) September 11, 1897. Right; “In Town” at the Garrick Theatre a month earlier in August 1897, with an almost identical cast. The Era, August 14, 1897. Via Newspapers.com.

Maud Hobson during her final 1904 tour of Australia. The Australasian, Sat 14 May 1904 via National library of Australia, Trove.

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Enlargement of a photo of Sylvia Bremer, possibly from the Witzel Studios, Los Angeles. c 1918. Author’s Collection.

The 5 Second version

Here is part of Sylvia Breamer’s only scene in “Too Many Parents”(1936), as the mother of the insufferable Billy Miller (Billy Lee). Twenty years after arriving in the US, her accent is an English one. Copyright held by Universal films.

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Above left: The United Service Club Hotel on the corner of Young Street and Gertrude Street, about the time Florrie was born. Source the State Library of Victoria Picture Collection. At right: The very altered building today. Author’s collection.

Source: State Library of Victoria, online digitised versions of the Sands and McDougall Directories for Melbourne.

A terrace of shop/residences in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. Taking into account the change to street numbers, the Simmons crockery store was the building on the right, behind the blue car. Author’s Collection

This C1930 booklet of sheet music lists many of Forde’s popular songs. Author’s Collection

Above – Only a few months before her death, Florrie was still on stage, here with fellow Australian Anona Winn, in Portsmouth. Portsmouth Evening Herald 24 Feb 1940, listing shows commencing 26 Feb. Via British Library Newspaper Archive, Johnston Press PLC.

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Norma Whalley in about 1900. Postcard in the author’s collection

Norma with Walter Jones, Los Angeles Times, 1 April, 1900. Her matrimonial affairs attracted considerable press attention. At right Norma in The San Francisco Examiner, 8 July 1900. Via Newspapers.com

Dunne and Ryley’s troupe traveled all over the US, headlined by Mathews and Bulger. Norma Whalley and Walter Jones are listed in the cast in this advertisement from Montana’s Butte Daily Post, 15 May 1900. Via newspapers.com.

Norma Whalley in “The School Girl,” with G.P Huntley as Sir Ormesby St. Leger. The musical ran at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre from May 1903. Postcard in the Author’s Collection.

Above: Norma Whalley and Graham Browne in ‘Penelope.’ “Now what does all this mean?”she demands. Postcard signed by Whalley in the author’s collection. Dover Street Studios.

One of Norma Whalley’s final roles in the Gaumount British adventure-comedy, “The Camels Are Coming “(1934). Source: VHS copy in the author’s collection.

Other Gaiety Girls who “did well” for themselves in marriage. Left: Zena Dare, who after marriage became Lady Maurice Brett. Centre – New York born Edna May who married millionaire Oscar Lewisohn. Right Denise Orme who became the Duchess of Leinster. Postcards in the author’s collection.

Further Reading

Texts, including those via Internet Archive

Via Newspapers.com

Via National Library of Australia’s Trove

Other Media

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An enlargement of a publicity still. Myrna Loy (left) and Mary Macgregor of Queensland (as the maid Ellen), in “Wife Vs Secretary” (1936). Author’s Collection. Source – probably MGM.

Above: Mary in “The Skin Game” The Green Room Pictorial, 1 June 1925. Via State Library of New South Wales

Top: The Age, Melbourne, announces “White Cargo” with Mary Macgregor. 1 Feb, 1930, via National Library of Australia’s TroveBelow: Mary Macgregor on stage at a Melbourne theatre as Tondelayo. Table Talk, 13 Feb, 1930. National Library of Australia, via Trove

Sounding every bit the English maid, Brisbane born Mary Macgregor as Ellen, in MGM’s “Wife Vs Secretary” (1936), her only Hollywood outing. The MGM film is widely available for purchase and held by Turner Classic Movies.

Above: “Wife vs Secretary” opens at the Cremorne Theatre. Mary’s role was uncredited. The Courier Mail, 23 July 1936. National Library of Australia, Trove

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Above: Alice Crawford – undated postcard in the author’s collection.

Above: The former home of Alice Crawford in Palmerston Street, Bendigo, in 2019. Author’s CollectionBelow: Alice Crawford is praised for her elocution in Melbourne Punch, 13 July 1899.

Right: Ruby Crawford, from Table Talk, 1 December 1904. Via National Library of Australia Trove

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Above and below – Joan Winfield in 1942. Press photo, source unknown, in the author’s collection.

Peggy Maguire is in the maid’s costume, 6th from the left. Joan MacGillicuddy appears to be in the centre, 8th from left. Via The National Library of Australia’s Trove – The Argus, 16 June, 1930

Above: Joan Winfield as she appeared in The Des Moines Register (Iowa), 4 March 1945. Beauty, swimsuits and health were important features of Joan’s publicity, and for someone confined mostly to minor or un-credited roles, she enjoyed remarkable publicity. Via Newspapers.com.

Above: Jane Darwell with Joan’s sister Dale Melbourne in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House c 1945. Author’s Collection.

Above: A Doll’s House advertised in The Vancouver Sun, 18 November 1944. Via Newspapers.com

Lucas and Meredyth in an advertisement from EJ Carroll. The Green Room Magazine, 1 Oct, 1919, P9. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

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Nurse Betty: From where I sit he promises to be good looking Nurse 2: I wonder if he’s married… Nurse Betty: If he appeals to me, he’s married! Nurse 2 (laughing): Well you can’t do anything with an unconscious guy! Nurse Betty: You should know some of the men I’ve been out with!

Joy Howarth was never completely happy with her stage name. She complained on one occasion that it brought her bad luck. Her signature here, for a 1940s fan, looks like it was scribbled under sufferance. Author’s collection.

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Other Gaiety Girls who “did well” for themselves in marriage.
Left: Zena Dare, who after marriage became Lady Maurice Brett.
Centre – New York born Edna May who married millionaire Oscar Lewisohn.
Right Denise Orme who became the Duchess of Leinster. Postcards in the author’s collection.

Top: The Age, Melbourne, announces “White Cargo” with Mary Macgregor. 1 Feb, 1930, via National Library of Australia’s Trove
Below: Mary Macgregor on stage at a Melbourne theatre as Tondelayo. Table Talk, 13 Feb, 1930. National Library of Australia, via Trove

Above: The former home of Alice Crawford in Palmerston Street, Bendigo, in 2019. Author’s Collection
Below: Alice Crawford is praised for her elocution in Melbourne Punch, 13 July 1899.

Nurse Betty: From where I sit he promises to be good looking
Nurse 2: I wonder if he’s married…
Nurse Betty: If he appeals to me, he’s married!
Nurse 2 (laughing): Well you can’t do anything with an unconscious guy!
Nurse Betty: You should know some of the men I’ve been out with!