Above: John Cherry and an unnamed Chinese youth, re-enact a scene from The Geisha. The photo is one of a series of the Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company taken on tour, credited to Ying Cheong, a photographer and painter in Shanghai. Taken c1903 or 1904.^[1] University of Washington, Special Collections, JWS31298

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The Five Second version
A handful of Australian born actors have made Broadway their home and the long forgotten John Cherry (1887-1968) (aka Jack Pollard) from Sydney is one of them. A former performer from Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company, he travelled three times to the US before returning permanently in 1909, when he set about building a career as a singer, dancer and comedian. He briefly tried out movie work in 1915, appearing in at least six films for Essanay studios, but then made a choice to concentrate on the stage. Cherry worked tirelessly on Broadway and the US east coast, developing a reputation as a reliable supporting and character actor. Unlike so many former Pollards players, he was married just once, and happily. He fathered two daughters, and when asked, spoke of his achievements in a characteristically modest way. A long serving member of New York’s Lambs club, he moved to Florida in the late 1950s and died in West Palm Beach in January 1968.
Above Left: John Cherry, aged 41 and made up to perform in St Louis, Missouri in 1928.^[2]St. Louis Post-Dispatch, (Missouri) 17 June, 1928, p100

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John Leslie Cherry (known as Jack during childhood) was born to engineer John Charles Cherry and his wife Margaret nee Larkin in North Sydney, in July 1887. A second son, Francis Joseph (Frank), was born in 1891. We know little of John Cherry’s childhood, although we do know that when he was aged only nine, his mother Margaret succumbed to kidney disease – undoubtedly a terrible shock for the family.

Years later, Cherry would suggest that aged only four, his father allowed him to be in a swing on stage for “atmosphere.”^[4]Daily News (New York) 19 Jan 1941, p121 He explained that his father was an enthusiastic patron of the theatre and a keen amateur dancer.^[5]The Minneapolis Star, May 23, 1925, p9 Young Jack was first publicly mentioned performing on stage in March 1901 with a Sydney based juvenile comic opera company, organised by George Gardner.^[6]The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 23 March 1901, p11 Aged 14, one Sydney paper described him as a “born comedian.”^[7]The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People (Sydney) 30 March 1901, p7

Just a few months later, Cherry had become a member of Charles Pollard and Nellie Chester’s Lilliputian Opera Company. This company drew almost all of its child performers (aged as young as 8 – like little Madge Woodson, or just 10, like Daphne Pollard and Oscar Heintz) from Melbourne’s working class, inner city suburbs – from Fitzroy and Collingwood particularly. Jack Pollard, as he was known, was therefore older than most of the other Pollard child actors, and had not grown up in company with so many of the Pollard players.

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Touring musical comedy through Asia and North America, Pollards went on to build a formidable reputation. In September 1901, the company sailed for the US via the SS Sierra. Within a few weeks of arriving, Jack Pollard was appearing in The Belle of New York at San Francisco’s Tivoli Opera House.

As this writer has noted previously, the Pollards tours took the child performers through various Asian port cities, before moving on to Canada and the Western half of the US.^[9]The Gerry Society’s influence meant all cities east of Chicago effectively banned children’s troupes Jack went on three long tours with Pollards – September 1901- October 1902, January 1903 -April 1904 and July 1904 – February 1907. By the time the SS Moama returned the troupe to Australia in February 1907, Cherry was almost 20 years old, and despite his slight stature,^[10]at 5’5″ or 166 cm he was about average height as an adult he could no longer pass as a child.^[11]Charles Pollard and Nellie Chester repeatedly understated the ages of the troupe members – a strategy to present them as being as youthful as possible. For example, on arrival in the US in Feb … Continue reading

In early 1909 Charles Pollard announced his retirement, while Nellie Chester decided to set up a “senior” or “adult” Pollards company, to be based in the US. At Nellie Chester’s invitation, Jack joined five of the older Pollard performers in the US again. Also sailing on the SS Aorangi to the US in March 1909 was Eva Moore (Eva Pollard), Emily Davis, Fred Bindloss (Fred Pollard), Roy Smith and Harold Fraser (known much later as Snub Pollard). Other former Pollards – like Alf Goulding, joined them.

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The arrangement with Nellie Chester appears not to have lasted very long and within a year or so – Cherry, Alf Goulding and Harry Fraser were soon performing with others – including vaudevillian Max Dill and comedian Robert Woolsey, before moving on again. By 1915 Cherry, still credited as Jack Pollard, had become a regular at San Francisco’s Gaiety Theatre – in musical comedies such as A Stubborn Cinderella and The Three Twins.

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By May 1915, Cherry was announced as part of a new ensemble working at the studios of Essanay films in Los Angeles. He told the press he liked movie-making so much, he didn’t care if he never saw the inside of a theatre again.^[15]Los Angeles Herald, 22 May 1915 He went on to appear in at least 6 “one – reelers” (shorts) directed by Hal Roach, alongside the likes of Margie Reiger, Leo White, Snub Pollard, Bud Jamieson and others. The six titles included All Stuck Up, Off for a Boat Ride, Mustaches and Bombs, The Drug Clerk, Tale of a Tire and Street Fakers, but may have included others. Even if these films no longer survive, reviews indicate they were part of an endless stream of comedy shorts, filmed in quick time to be shown on the voracious US variety theatre chains – in spots between live acts. Experienced stage comedians like Cherry were often enlisted for movie work. They could improvise quickly and knew exactly what audiences responded to. At the time, few could foresee that moving pictures would soon become an entire art form of its own, and vaudeville would slowly be squeezed out of theatres.

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Whatever he really thought of filmmaking, Cherry soon moved back to New York and returned to the stage. Why he abandoned the movie industry we do not know.^[17]A report in Motion Picture News of July – Oct 1915, p86 may be suggesting Essanay was putting most of its efforts into developing its Chaplin product. See also Jeffery Vance: A Day of Silents … Continue reading However, the film industry of this era was also characterised by constant change. Margie Reiger, for example. who had also featured in films for Essanay with Cherry, and can be seen in Charlie Chaplin’s By the Sea in 1915, simply disappeared from the industry that same year and her later fate is unknown.^[18]There is some evidence Cherry may have appeared in the 1931 Alf Goulding short Shake A Leg

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Back in New York, the war years consolidated John Cherry’s reputation as a clever stage comedian. By 1917, he was warmly welcomed when he took the leading role in a run of George M Cohan’s The Yankee Prince, “a popular tuneful melange… [containing] lots of laughter, lots of fine dancing and some very fine numbers,” with Cherry handling the leading role “admirably.”^[20]Elmira Star Gazette, (New York) 21 August 1917, p11 He married soprano Cecile Corey in New York in mid 1918, and two daughters were born of the union.^[21]One daughter died in 1920, possibly during the influenza pandemic In 1920, he joined New York’s Lambs club, and he began the process of becoming a naturalised US citizen.

Entries on the Internet Broadway database (IBDB) hint at an extraordinary productive career, with John Cherry at work on Broadway regularly through to the mid 1940s, usually in character roles in musical comedies. Newspapers also show him touring US east coast cities with some productions.

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Despite the regularity of his employment, he remained unknown to some audiences, even during his lifetime. Writing from San Francisco in 1924, entertainment journalist Wood Soanes (1895-1972) commented that while he knew of John Cherry’s reputation, he couldn’t recall what he looked like.^[24]Oakland Tribune (CA) 4 July 1924, p14 In other cases, newspapers thought it necessary to reintroduce him to potential audiences by recounting Cherry’s world-wide travelling experience as a child with Pollards.^[25]See for example The Minneapolis Star (Minnesota) 23 May 1925 On at least one occasion, Cherry felt it necessary to provide his own account of his theatre history. Credited under his own name, the piece revealed sophisticated writing, and a dry wit. It appeared in the St Louis Post-Despatch in 1927.^[26]St Louis Post-Despatch (Missouri) 26 June 1927, p21 These celebratory accounts also listed the others he had appeared with – which included W.C. Fields, Lon Chaney, Bert Williams and Charlotte Greenwood. At times there were even a few Australians in his company, including Harry R Allen and former Pollard player Ted McNamara, but this seems more coincidental rather than planned.

In the mid 1930s, New York’s Daily News often ran cartoons using real photos of actors from current shows. At the time the following were published, Vivian Hart and John Cherry were appearing in a run of Gilbert & Sullivan at the Majestic Theatre. The dialogue had no connection to Pirates of Penzance or HMS Pinafore.

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As television began to appear in the US, there was a new demand for popular and entertaining material that could fill programming. Musical comedy was an easy pick, and Cherry appeared in at least two NBC television versions of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. He also appeared on radio in the 1930s.

John Cherry remained active until well into the 1940s. Sometime in the 1950s he moved to Florida. He died at West Palm Beach in January 1968. Arguably one of the most consistently busy of all the Pollards alumni, John Cherry never returned to Australia. His brother Frank joined him in the US for several years and was engaged in unspecified “film work” of some sort. Today the Cherry family descendants all live in North America.

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Nick Murphy
May 2026