Ethel Phillips & Stanley Walpole – pioneer silent movie actors

Australian couple Ethel Phillips (centre) and Stanley Walpole (right) in their last film together – Eclair studio’s For the Defense,(1914) Within a year they had separated.^[1]The photo has been edited using the WordPress photo AI function. Source Moving Picture World, 2 Jan 1915, p92. The original very grainy photo can be seen here.

The 5 second version
With a combined total of 90 films to their credit, one could reasonably expect the legacy of Ethel Phillips (1891-1949) and Stanley Walpole (1882-1967) to at least be comparable to other Australian-born expatriates of the same era – such as Dorothy Cumming, J.P. McGowan, Paul Scardon or Marc McDermott. But as we will see, they remained relatively unknown even in their own lifetimes – personal and professional circumstances playing a large part in their stories.

Ethel and Stanley were not unusual in pursuing an acting career beyond Australia. In the first few decades of the twentieth century, many of their professional colleagues sought to try their luck in the US or Britain. By the time they departed Australia in 1913, the couple had established themselves on stage and had even appeared in a handful of Australian films. However, it all proved to be short-lived. Ethel re-partnered – to actor-director Norbert Myles, and died in California in 1949. Her last film credit was in 1916. Stanley’s career had come to an end by 1925. He returned to Melbourne Australia in 1929, where he died in 1967.

Newly arrived in the US – Ethel Phillips and Stanley Walpole in US film magazines in 1914.^[2] Motion Picture News (Apr – Jul 1914) and Motography (Jul-Dec 1914) **[Click either image to enlarge]**

In Australia

Ethel Phillips was born in the inner Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst in 1891. Her unmarried mother Ada Farmer (or Fama) gave her the name Blanche Ethel Farmer,^[3]NSW Birth certificate 2970/1891 but as she matured she adopted the surname of her biological father, William Edgar Harold Phillips. Unfortunately, it seems likely that deep unhappiness marred Ethel’s childhood. In 1892, her father was listed in New South Wales Police notices for failing to support baby Ethel ^[4]The Australian Star (Sydney) 2 Nov 1892 p6 and in a separate matter, he was later charged and imprisoned for fraud.^[5]National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW) 12 November 1892, p2 She was very young at the time, but an awareness of this as she grew older might explain her repeated claims that she was born in Paris, France. There was also an added complication and embarrassment – in that her father already had a family.

Ethel is first mentioned publicly as a “brilliant juvenile” performer in Phillip Lytton’s dramatic school in 1904.^[6]The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Jan 1904, p2 She progressed well, and in mid 1905 Ethel took the lead in a production of Little Lord Fauntleroy ^[7]The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 July 1905, p8 and by the end of that year she was a pupil of the well connected and highly regarded dance teacher, Minnie Hooper. ^[8]The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 1905, p8

In 1907, her mother Ada died. Ethel was 16 and on her own, but was already spoken of as a juvenile prodigy thanks to her leading role in Blue Bell in Fairy Land.^[9]Footlights (Aust) 7 December 1907, p9 Around this time she met fellow actor Stanley Walpole, whom she would later marry.^[10]Another Ethel, one of the Sisters Phillips, performed in Australian variety between 1901 and about 1907. That Ethel and her sister Hilda appear to be unrelated to the subject of this account. See … Continue reading

The cast for **Peter Pan** in August 1908 at Melbourne’s Theatre Royal, included Ethel and others who would leave Australia to pursue a career including Robert Greig, Toots and Lorna Pounds.^[11] National Library of Australia, Prompt Collection

Stanley Orford Walpole was born in Yarraville, an inner Western suburb of Melbourne, to Horace Walpole, a senior Customs officer, and Anna nee Mills, in 1882.^[12]He sometimes gave his year of birth as 1881, however see Victoria Birth Certificate, 9412 / 1882 The Walpole home encouraged education, music and the arts and Stanley excelled at school. By 1900 Stanley had joined J.C. Williamsons. Melbourne Punch announced their new acquisition this way: “after directing his attention for some time to other pursuits, [Stanley Walpole] decided to adopt the profession of an actor in preference to all others. He is a young man, of medium height, with a good stage appearance, who, with diligence, may yet make a name for himself. Mr. Williamson evidently believes there is some good in him.” ^[13]Melbourne Punch 26 Apr 1900 p22

ads — **Left:** Stanley Walpole in a ***Sherlock Holmes*** play with Paul Scardon and Canadian Cuyler Hastings in Sydney in **1902**. ^[14]*The Daily Telegraph* (Sydney) 4 October 1902 **Right:** Stanley Walpole and Ethel Phillips together in Wilson Barrett’s **The Sign of the Cross**, in Perth in **1909** ^[15]*West Australian* (Perth)12 May 1909 p1. Advertisements have been enhanced using WordPress AI function

Exactly how the couple met we no longer know, but by 1909 they were building successful careers and were often touring together – including in Wilson Barrett’s The Sign of the Cross in 1909 and in the drama Pete in 1910.^[16]Evening Journal (Adelaide) 3 Oct 1910, p2 Notably, Stanley had also sometimes performed with actors who would resurface later in his career in the US, including Paul Scardon and the Majeroni brothers, who had departed Australia for the US as members of the Nance O’Neil company in late 1905.^[17]Punch (Melbourne) 14 Dec 1905, p38 Scardon’s subsequent “letters home” for the press sometimes revealed how hard he had to work to establish himself – but they would still have inspired young Australians to try their luck overseas.^[18]See for example, Punch (Melbourne), 20 December 1906, p.38

In December 1911, Ethel and Stanley married at the Walpole family home – “Airlie”, a large residence on Sommerville Road, Yarraville.^[19]Victoria Marriage Certificate 10072/1911 The building still stands, just.^[20]See Victorian Heritage Council Report On the marriage certificate Ethel listed her father and deceased mother by name, but gave her birthplace as Paris. A dutiful clerk wrote “no other direction than Paris” in the margin of the births registry, suggesting her claim already raised attention.

With the Australian Photo Play Company 1911

In early 1911, Stanley appeared in several Australian films directed by Alfred Rolfe (1862-1943). At least two of these were the inevitable bushranger films – the type that borrowed heavily from already established and popular plays.^[21]See Vagg & Reynaud (2016) By mid 1911, both Ethel and Stanley had become involved with a new film company venture – the Australian Photo Play Company. Established by Stanley Crick (1888-1955), it was an ambitious undertaking, employing a stock company of actors and technicians and developing plans to construct studios.^[22]Pike & Cooper (1980) p29-30 The company churned out at least 19 titles in 1911-12, perhaps more, most of these directed by Alfred Rolfe.^[23]See Vagg & Reynaud (2016) for Rolfe’s filmography

moora neeya version — Australian Photo Play advertising its first film in 1911 in Sydney and Adelaide. Leading players Ethel and Stanley were not named and little synopsis was given.^[24]*Referee* (Sydney) 9 August 1911, p16 and *Register* (Adelaide) 18 December 1911, p2. Advertisements have been enhanced using WordPress AI function

Unfortunately, none of these films survive today. Advertising confirms that Ethel appeared in at least four and Stanley in five films for the company, but because cast lists were often not published, or incomplete, they may have appeared in others.^[25]For example, a 1919 US Studio directory lists Caloola, or The Adventures of a Jackeroo 1911, as one of his films. The film – now lost – is not listed as a credit in the IMDB The first film for the company was Moora Neeya, or The Message of the Spear, which featured Ethel and Stanley alongside Australian “heavy” Charles Villiers (1884-1940). Pike & Cooper note that the film was 1500 feet, or about 25 minutes in showing time. Other commentary from the time, including from September 1911 for What Women Suffer, indicates some of the company’s films sometimes ran up to 60 minutes.^[26]Evening News (Sydney) 26 September 1911, p4

Hopes for success were high – because for a short time, Australian film production was booming. However, the Australian Photo-Play Company lasted barely 14 months. Several years later, Rolfe told a journalist that distribution challenges and securing a foreign market were the major obstacles for Australian producers.^[27]Motion Picture News, 1916, V13, No 17, p2528 Sadly, successive Australian governments remained indifferent to providing even rudimentary support for the industry for another half century.

**Figures from the Australian Photo Play Company** – Producer Stanley S Crick in later years ^[28]City of Sydney Archives, Director Alfred Rolfe c.1919 ^[29]*The Picture Show* 2 August 1919 p16. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW and regular villain Charles Villiers c.1919 ^[30]*The Picture Show* 1 December 1919, p50. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

US film careers 1913+

With the end of another performance tour for Ethel in December 1912,^[31]Shepparton Advertiser (Victoria) 5 Dec 1912, p2 the couple decided the time was right to try their luck overseas. Ethel and Stanley arrived in Vancouver on the Union line’s SS Zealandia in March 1913. The detailed ship’s manifest indicates their contact in the US was old Australian friend Paul Scardon, and their destination New York. At the same time, for US entry, Ethel continued the pretence she was born in Paris. After all, it said so on her marriage certificate.

The couple were fortunate in getting work quite quickly – thanks to the connections they had.

Left: Ethel Phillips as Louise the stenographer, in **Attorney for the Defence** (1913) with Tom Moore as the young lawyer at left. Right: **The Dumb Messenger** (1913) with Ethel, 3rd from left and Norbert Myles at right ^[32]See the *Kalem Kalendar* (1913) **[Click either image to enlarge]**

In June 1913 they were listed as new players for the Reliance Motion Picture Company.^[33]The Record (California) 14 June 1913, p4 Their first film was London Assurance, with Ethel playing heroine Grace Harkaway and Stanley playing the hero, Charles Courtley.^[34]Based on the play by Dion Boucicault Ethel and Stanley appeared in at least 11 films each in the remaining six months of 1913, most of these being “shorts”^[35]a “short” film being of 10-20 minutes – melodramas and comedies, intended to be shown as part of a mixed cinema program. The news soon reached Australia that the couple were doing very well.

In June 1915, while making a quick return trip to Melbourne, Stanley explained just how well: “The salaries are very good, and for people engaged the work goes on for the full 52 weeks… Leading people are paid anything from £17 to £125 a week… Stars are paid big money… Mary Pickford is on the £380 mark, and Charles Chaplin lifts £350 a week… In the main the money is good, the work steady and the conditions reasonable.”^[36]Mataura Ensign (New Zealand) 6 July 1915, p4 As a point of comparison, the Australian basic wage at the time was £2 and 15 shillings per week for men, and £1 and 7 shillings for women. Australian soldiers serving overseas were paid £2 pounds and 2 shillings per week.

As young Australians working in the booming US film industry, Ethel and Stanley were able to benefit from the usual curiosity about their experiences. In 1914, for Motion Picture Magazine’s regular series of funny stories, Ethel could recount the challenges of working on an Australian film with wild Emus – being used as background atmosphere – who were suddenly spooked and ran amok when artificial lights were turned on.^[37]Motion Picture Magazine, August 1914, p 118 A highlight in the last chapter of Ethel’s career was a supporting role in the 1914 film version of The Sign of the Cross (1914). Despite this achievement, her film output between 1914 and 1916 slowed – the IMDB lists appearances in only ten films made in those years.

**The Sign of the Cross** (1914). Ethel is in the centre, immediately behind and to the left of Giorgio Majeroni (1877-1924) and William Farnum.(1876-1953)^[38]*Motion Picture News*, Vol 10, No 23, 1914 p32

Separate ways 1915 +

Part of the reason for this modest output must relate to Ethel and Stanley’s split – although why this occurred we do not know. Ethel had met Norbert A Myles (1887-1966) in 1913, and had begun a relationship with him by late 1915. A daughter was born of the union in April 1916.^[39]There was no messy divorce reported, indeed this writer has found no evidence of a formal divorce between Ethel and Stanley, nor a marriage certificate for Norbert and Ethel Notably, Ethel’s last few films were co-starring roles in Westerns with Norbert. In the 1920 US census, Ethel was living with Norbert and two children in Los Angeles,^[40]a second child was born in 1919 and she was still, steadfastly French-born, although no longer acting.

Stanley Walpole as a leading man. Left: With Claire Mersereau (1894-1982) in **Seeds of Redemption** (1917)^[41]*The Moving Picture Weekly*, 30 June 1917, p30 Right: With Jane Gail (1890-1963) in **The Girl Who Didn’t Think** (1917) ^[42]*The Moving Picture World*, 3 November 1917, p652

Stanley Walpole’s rushed visit to Melbourne in 1915 may well have been related to the collapse of the marriage, but if that was the reason, he did not say so publicly. He returned to acting in the US – regular genres being ” society dramas” and “action quickies” – set on the frontier – like the Norma Shearer vehicle The Devil’s Partner(1923).^[43]Lambert (1992) p30 He appeared in about thirty films between 1915 and his last in 1924. And then, it all seemed to come to an end quite quickly. In 1914, he had been described as “a finely built and manly looking leading man… whose recent productions… have attracted favourable comment.”^[44]Motography, Vol XII No 2, 1914, p50 In 1921 his reputation was still sound enough that he was listed in Studio directories, amongst other popular stars. But by mid 1924, the New York Star wondered what had happened to him. “What a difference just a few years make in movieland. What a short few years a star lasts – then oblivion… The name of Stanley Walpole is unknown today in screenland…as a star or even as a featured player. The day was when he could pack any theatre, when fans wrote him letters by the mail bag full… but alas he was passed by on the movie highway…“^[45]New York Star, 24 March 1924, p10

His last performances, later in 1924, were in several dramatizations of American history. Yale University had produced The Chronicles of America, a 50 volume history series. At huge cost, 15 films were made, intended to tie in with the volumes and be shown to younger audiences. It was an idea ahead of its time. The films were not a success – there was limited opportunity to screen them outside cinemas.^[46]Lotstein (2020)

Stanley Walpole as Prime Minister Pitt, in his last film: Yale University’s **Wolfe and Montcalm** (1924) ^[47]Screengrab – PeriscopeFilm @ Youtube

Stanley returns to Australia 1929

In March 1929 Stanley returned to Melbourne, Australia. What he had done for the past four years remains unclear. But when he boarded the MV Mirrabooka, he told the Los Angeles Examiner he was “en-route to Australia on vacation after completion of a talkie contract with a local movie company,” which suggests he was still in the industry.^[48] Los Angeles Examiner, 21 January 1929, p8 However on arrival in Australia, the story was that he had been “commissioned to look into the possibilities of establishing a studio here… ” The Sydney Sun explained “When looking round for fresh ground on which to start operations, his company had decided upon Australia.”^[49]The Sun (Sydney) 16 February 1929, p7

Stanley gave talks on his arrival in Australia – with amusing US industry anecdotes. But surprisingly, for someone so experienced, only one Australian film came his way. This was a silent made by Kooringarama Films, an amateur group based in Eltham, whose resources apparently survived the initial shock of the Depression. Stanley was asked to direct it.^[50]Australasian Photo Review, 15 November, 1930 As Ye Sow was about an hour in length, and finally completed in late 1930.^[51]Jones (2014) Ominously, Stanley was “indisposed” when it was finally shown ^[52]Advertiser (Hurstbridge) 31 October 1930, p4 and the film does not survive today. There were other plans however. Briefly, in early 1930, a specialist sound production company was announced by Stanley and Albert Brandon Cremer (1871–1959).^[53]Everyone’s,(Aust) 22 January 1930, p32 However, nothing came of this.

A rare appearance of Stanley Walpole – in 1951. The Age (Melb) 3 January 1951, p6

Stanley Walpole disappeared completely from the historical record until late in his life.^[54]Presumably he changed his name by deed poll He reappeared on voter lists and the census in the 1960s, by which time he was retired and living in Elwood, a southern suburb of Melbourne. What he had done for the last 25 years we do not know, and his Will gives us no clues. He died in December 1967. The death certificate mentioned his marriage to Ethel, but stated he was divorced.^[55]Victoria, Death Certificate, 28104/1967

Ethel and Norbert

An actor in the 1910s, Norbert Myles is now best remembered as the director of The Daughter of Dawn (1920), a rare feature film made entirely with an American Indian cast – that was re-discovered in 2005 and has since been restored. According to the American Film Institute’s report on the film, Norbert had already developed a reputation as an “outspoken and temperamental actor with a penchant for alienating himself from studio moguls.”^[56]AFI “The Daughter of Dawn” (2024) And in a court case that dragged on for much of 1918, he had also been accused of gun running during the Mexican revolution, with Ethel sometimes called in his defence.^[57]See for example Los Angeles Herald, 13 February 1918, p1 and The Los Angeles Times 22 Aug, 1918 p11 But whatever his reputation, Norbert had settled down with Ethel and raised two children, later building an extremely successful career as a Hollywood makeup artist.

Ethel died in 1949. Her Californian death certificate accurately names her parents, but still listed her birthplace as France.

Nick Murphy
September 2026

References

Text

Ray Edmondson and Andrew Pike (1982) Australia’s Lost Films. National Library of Australia.
Gavin Lambert (1992) Norma Shearer : a life. Knopf, Random House.
Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper (1980) Australian Film 1900-1977. Oxford University Press.
Eric Reade (1975) The Australian Screen. Lansdowne Press.
John Tulloch (1981) Legends of the Screen. Currency Press.

Web

American Film Institute (2024) The Daughter of Dawn. AFI Spotlight
Maureen Jones (2014) At the Movies @ Eltham District Historical Society
Michael Lotstein (2020) 1924 Silent Films from the Yale University Press. @ Manuscripts and Archives Blog, Yale University Library
The Kalem Kalender (1913) contains images and preces of all that studio’s film releases. @ Lantern Media Digital Library
Adam Piron (2022) The Daughter of Dawn’s Vanished World.@ The Criterion Collection.
Stephen Vagg, Daniel Reynaud (2016) Alfred Rolfe: Forgotten Pioneer Australian Film Director @ Avondale University.

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

A. F. Pike (1981) Stanley Sadler Crick (1888–1955)’, accessed online 10 September 2026.

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

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	The photo has been edited using the WordPress photo AI function. Source Moving Picture World, 2 Jan 1915, p92. The original very grainy photo can be seen here.
↑2	Motion Picture News (Apr – Jul 1914) and Motography (Jul-Dec 1914)
↑3	NSW Birth certificate 2970/1891
↑4	The Australian Star (Sydney) 2 Nov 1892 p6
↑5	National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW) 12 November 1892, p2
↑6	The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Jan 1904, p2
↑7	The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 July 1905, p8
↑8	The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 1905, p8
↑9	Footlights (Aust) 7 December 1907, p9
↑10	Another Ethel, one of the Sisters Phillips, performed in Australian variety between 1901 and about 1907. That Ethel and her sister Hilda appear to be unrelated to the subject of this account. See entry at Clay Djubal’s Australia variety theatre archive
↑11	National Library of Australia, Prompt Collection
↑12	He sometimes gave his year of birth as 1881, however see Victoria Birth Certificate, 9412 / 1882
↑13	Melbourne Punch 26 Apr 1900 p22
↑14	The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 4 October 1902
↑15	West Australian (Perth)12 May 1909 p1. Advertisements have been enhanced using WordPress AI function
↑16	Evening Journal (Adelaide) 3 Oct 1910, p2
↑17	Punch (Melbourne) 14 Dec 1905, p38
↑18	See for example, Punch (Melbourne), 20 December 1906, p.38
↑19	Victoria Marriage Certificate 10072/1911
↑20	See Victorian Heritage Council Report
↑21	See Vagg & Reynaud (2016)
↑22	Pike & Cooper (1980) p29-30
↑23	See Vagg & Reynaud (2016) for Rolfe’s filmography
↑24	Referee (Sydney) 9 August 1911, p16 and Register (Adelaide) 18 December 1911, p2. Advertisements have been enhanced using WordPress AI function
↑25	For example, a 1919 US Studio directory lists Caloola, or The Adventures of a Jackeroo 1911, as one of his films. The film – now lost – is not listed as a credit in the IMDB
↑26	Evening News (Sydney) 26 September 1911, p4
↑27	Motion Picture News, 1916, V13, No 17, p2528
↑28	City of Sydney Archives
↑29	The Picture Show 2 August 1919 p16. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
↑30	The Picture Show 1 December 1919, p50. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
↑31	Shepparton Advertiser (Victoria) 5 Dec 1912, p2
↑32	See the Kalem Kalendar (1913)
↑33	The Record (California) 14 June 1913, p4
↑34	Based on the play by Dion Boucicault
↑35	a “short” film being of 10-20 minutes
↑36	Mataura Ensign (New Zealand) 6 July 1915, p4
↑37	Motion Picture Magazine, August 1914, p 118
↑38	Motion Picture News, Vol 10, No 23, 1914 p32
↑39	There was no messy divorce reported, indeed this writer has found no evidence of a formal divorce between Ethel and Stanley, nor a marriage certificate for Norbert and Ethel
↑40	a second child was born in 1919
↑41	The Moving Picture Weekly, 30 June 1917, p30
↑42	The Moving Picture World, 3 November 1917, p652
↑43	Lambert (1992) p30
↑44	Motography, Vol XII No 2, 1914, p50
↑45	New York Star, 24 March 1924, p10
↑46	Lotstein (2020)
↑47	Screengrab – PeriscopeFilm @ Youtube
↑48	Los Angeles Examiner, 21 January 1929, p8
↑49	The Sun (Sydney) 16 February 1929, p7
↑50	Australasian Photo Review, 15 November, 1930
↑51	Jones (2014)
↑52	Advertiser (Hurstbridge) 31 October 1930, p4
↑53	Everyone’s,(Aust) 22 January 1930, p32
↑54	Presumably he changed his name by deed poll
↑55	Victoria, Death Certificate, 28104/1967
↑56	AFI “The Daughter of Dawn” (2024)
↑57	See for example Los Angeles Herald, 13 February 1918, p1 and The Los Angeles Times 22 Aug, 1918 p11

The Majeroni brothers: Stage royalty & pioneer screen villains

Above: Giorgio Majeroni as De Lima in Patria, 1917. Youtube.

This article was originally published in On Stage, the online journal of Theatre Heritage Australia.

The Five second version
Born in Italy and Australia respectively, Mario and Giorgio Majeroni ^[1]listed as George Carlo John Majeroni on his Australian birth certificate, his name was also spelled Giorgio and Georgio during his lifetime. The author has used the more common Italian spelling of … Continue reading were the children of celebrated Italian actors Eduardo and Giulia Majeroni. Mario was born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy on 23 September 1870. Giorgio in Melbourne Australia on 11 January 1877. The brothers performed on stage for over a decade in Australia and New Zealand before departing for the United States in late 1905. With their friend Paul Scardon, they were amongst the first wave of actors to arrive in the US from the new Australian Commonwealth. By the time of the Great War, they had drifted into the booming and lucrative US film industry, as versatile character actors, although their preference seems to have remained the stage. Tall, (they both stood about 182 cms, or 6 feet) good-looking, well-travelled, multi-lingual, and able to step across cultural boundaries with ease, they had plenty of stage experience when they arrived in the US, as well as carrying their family’s notable theatrical heritage.

Mario Majeroni as Larrabee in Sherlock Holmes, 1916 Internet Archive.

There are various competing claims made regarding who was the first Australian to appear in or to make a career in US films in the early Twentieth Century. Was it adventurer J.P. McGowan? Or vaudevillian Clyde Cook? Swimmer Annette Kellerman has a strong claim. Perhaps it was former Sydney hairdresser Marc McDermott – who arrived in New York in 1902. So much early cinema history has been lost and the cultural identity of being an ‘Australian’ as distinct from ‘British’ had yet to emerge. In addition, in the first decade of the new century, the money to be made from movie making was not yet appreciated, and the concept of the film actor or star who was a celebrity icon was still emerging. However, we can still identify many of these pioneer Australian performers, whose first intention–as late as the First World War–was usually to try their luck on the US stage, not necessarily to dive into the new, revolutionary world of moving pictures. Brothers Mario and Giorgio Majeroni were amongst the earliest Australians to travel to the US to try their luck in the new century.

The Majeroni brothers professional record suggests that by the time they were settled in the US, they were having no difficulty finding work. By way of example, the Internet Broadway database (IBDB) lists more than a dozen Broadway productions each, while the Internet Movie database (IMDB) lists more than thirty film appearances each. Unfortunately, we are dependent on a narrow range of sources – newspapers, trade and fan magazines to verify their careers, while details of short films and provincial touring records are often lost.

In a lengthy interview for Table Talk in 1902, Giulia Majeroni said that her sons had “true artistic instinct, developed by artistic associations.”^[2]Table Talk (Melb) 3 April 1902, P14 It is quite likely they learned their stagecraft through family mentoring and close observation of their parents – no evidence exists of any other training, although in Australia they consistently performed with leading actors of the day. The presence of strong family traditions is also suggested by the fact the brothers sometimes worked together during their careers and remained close personally throughout their lives. A survey of the Australian career of the Majeroni parents possibly goes some way to explaining Mario and Giorgio’s later success.

**26 year old Mario and 19 year old Giorgio with their mother Giulia in Melbourne in 1896. Talma Photographers, Melbourne, 1 Jan 1896. State Library of Victoria**

The Majeroni family arrive in Australia

In July 1875, Adelaide Ristori and her Italian Dramatic Company arrived in Australia–at the tail end of a long and grandly named “farewell tour of the World.” With Signora Ristori were Eduardo and Giulia Majeroni and their five-year-old son Mario. The Ristori troupe had performed in New York, then travelled across the US, before moving on to Australia. Eduardo took many of the male leading roles for the company, while Giulia, a niece of Adelaide Ristori, also played leading roles.^[3]Eduardo Majeroni’s interesting life experiences are recounted in numerous sources including W.H. Leavitt’s Australian Representative Men. However, it is difficult to verify all of the claims made.

The Australian leg of the tour took in Sydney, Bendigo, Ballarat, Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide. The company performed a repertoire of plays that included some especially written for Ristori – such as Elizabeth, Queen of England (written by Paolo Giacometti). The tour was a critical success, despite the fact the plays were performed in Italian, to overwhelmingly English-speakers, and seats were relatively expensive.^[4]See Tony Mitchell’s two-part account of the 1875 Ristori tour of Australia in Australasian Drama Studies, 1995

Program from Adelaide Ristori’s farewell world tour in 1875, performing *Lucretia Borgia* in New York. The program was written in English and Italian. Author’s Collection

Adelaide Ristori c1876 as Mary Stuart. National Library of Australia.

A review given by Melbourne’s Argus in August 1875 provides a taste of the enthusiastic reception given to the Italians in Australia.^[5]The Argus (Melb) 30 August 1875, P6 The paper reported at length on Madame Ristori’s “superior energy” and “emotional power on stage”. A correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald went further, describing Ristori as “the greatest tragic actress of the age, the first great artist of world renown who has visited this far off country.”^[6]The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 August 1875, P5 In December 1875 Ristori’s troupe went home, but Eduardo and Giulia chose to stay on in Australia. Years later, Giulia explained that this was to give the couple a chance to learn English. By mid-1876, Eduardo had learned enough to perform The Old Corporal in English, again to enthusiastic Australian audiences. Giulia found the new language easier to learn – to such an extent that in 1893 she wrote a novel in English, based on one of their plays.^[7]A Living Statue, 1893. State Library of New South Wales Meanwhile, the couple’s second son, Giorgio, was born in Melbourne in January 1877. Only a few months after the birth, Giulia was back on stage, touring Jealousy and A Living Statue with Eduardo.

(Left) Signora Giulia Majeroni, from her novel *The Living Statue*, 1893, State Library of NSW. (Right) Lithograph of Eduardo Majeroni, attributed to Herbert J Woodhouse from *Australian Representative Men*, 1887. Author’s Collection

In 1878, and now more confident about performing in English, Eduardo and Giulia moved back to the United States with their sons. Over the next five years they toured new and favourite plays, while the 1880 US census showed the family living in New York. Despite making the US their new home, the Majeronis were not always happy with their treatment by managers, and their seasons met with mixed success. Finally, ongoing illness saw Eduardo step back from the stage into theatre management, after losing his voice, and, according to one 1882 newspaper report, suffering “malarial fever” in New York’s “severe changeable weather”.^[8]Buffalo Morning Express, 27 March 1882, P4 A decision to return to Australia was apparently made based on Eduardo’s health.

Eduardo Majeroni & W J Wilson’s production of *La Fille De Madame Angot.* Theatre Royal Adelaide, March 1885. Australian Performing Arts Collection, Melbourne

By April 1883, the Majeroni family were again in Australia, with every indication this was now to be their home. However, in the 1902 interview for TableTalk, Giulia recalled that Eduardo’s change to theatre management was a mistake – she felt he did not have the business sense to succeed.^[9]Table Talk, (Melb) 3 April 1902, P14.

The couple’s performance tour to India and China in 1889-91 was also not a success.^[10]See Geoff Barker (2012) and contemporary reports such as The Argus (Melb) Fri 23 Oct 1891 P10 In July 1891 a grand benefit performance was given in Sydney to support the couple – which Mario also performed in. Sadly, Eduardo succumbed to tuberculosis (TB) in Sydney later that year, while Giulia was so ill with chronic influenza, she could not attend his funeral.^[11]Phillip Parsons (1995) P338

Mario and Giorgio on the Australian stage

During his education at Sydney’s Royston College ^[12]Mario was apparently an outstanding athlete at Royston, Mario had at least one documented appearance on stage in 1884, while his parents toured, however his definitive pathway to the stage can be traced through amateur theatre in Sydney in the early 1890s. Perhaps the death of his father and the crippling 1890s depression encouraged young Mario to search for secure employment – because records show he sought steady work as a clerk in the Post Office at the age of twenty-one. Soon after, he applied for a New South Wales Certificate of Naturalization – suggesting his intention was to live in an Australian colony for the foreseeable future. At the same time, he was also a regular in amateur dramatics in Darlinghurst. However, within a few years he had left the Post Office and was appearing professionally. In 1893, Shakespearean actor Walter Bentley employed him for a six-month tour of Australia, in a program of Shakespeare and comedies.^[13]Bentley had previously been associated with the Majeroni seniors Following this he appeared in a tour of New Zealand with the Myra Kemble Dramatic Company. Mario reportedly also first wrote for the stage at this time. Contemporary newspapers referred to his newly authored play A Rebel Flag in May.^[14]The Lorgnette (Melb) 2 May 1894 P2. Some accounts claim this play was written by Giulia Majeroni. It was a melodrama set in the future, but further records of this play do not exist He appeared with Bentley again in New Zealand in 1894.

Giorgio’s professional acting career began in Sydney in May 1893, in a supporting role in George Rignold’s production of the melodrama East Lynne. He had spent some of his schooling as a boarder at Queen’s College (a now defunct school in St Kilda, Melbourne) and at sixteen, his youthful inexperience on the stage was noted. But later that year he was in the cast of George Darrell’s Australian play The Double Event, a tale of the Melbourne Cup. By 1894 he was a regular in the Charles Holloway Dramatic Company – in My Jack, A King of Crime and The Ring of Iron. He stayed with this company until early 1896. In 1898 Giorgio attracted attention in the role of the mute servant Clon in Under the Red Robe, played with “dramatic vigour and intelligence.”^[15]The Sportsman 27 Sept 1898, P6 The cast at Her Majesty’s Sydney included leading actors of the time – Julius Knight, W F Hawtrey and Gaston Mervale. Possessed of a fine baritone voice, in 1900 newspapers reported JC Williamson’s were training him for opera roles. It transpired that he did not have an important singing role until he was in the US.

Up and coming Australian performers. Giorgio and Mario as featured in *The Bulletin*, Oct 16, 1897, P10. National Library of Australia.

Giulia’s stated desire was that she might act one day with her boys. She did appear at least once on the same bill with them at another benefit concert (for her) in Melbourne in December 1895 –when she recreated the sleep – walking scene from MacBeth. The strength of her bond with her two sons and her anxiety about their future was indicated in the preface to her 1893 novel and the long 1902 Table Talk interview. In both, she worried that by living in Australia she was keeping her sons from pursuing careers overseas. “I would like my boys to go to England or America, but I fear I have been the means of keeping them in Australia … I have always said what will become of me if you go, and they have stayed for my sake.” What the boys thought about this, we do not know, but they did not leave Australia until well after her death.

Mario’s success in Australia from the mid-1890s was undoubtedly in part because of his close association with another acting family – that of actor-manager Robert Brough (1857-1906) and his wife Florence. Mario first joined the Brough – Boucicault company in 1894, and over the next seven years, regularly appeared in supporting roles with Brough.^[16]Dion Boucicault left the partnership in 1896 In the words of his ADB biographer, Brough was a “champion of refined and legitimate drama” in Australasia.^[17]Helen M. Van Der Poorten, ‘Brough, Lionel Robert (1857–1906)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography Hal Porter described the contribution of the Brough-Boucicault company to Australian theatre as “greater than that of any other company” of the era, their casts being “meticulously schooled.”^[18]Hal Porter (1965) P92 For a young and ambitious actor like Mario, it was the right theatrical company to be part of.

In 1896, Table Talk noted that Mario had “impressed theatregoers very favourably of late, by the vitality of his acting in subsidiary characters”.^[19]Table Talk (Melb) 15 May 1896, P13 Both the Majeroni brothers joined Robert Brough’s Comedy Company tour of India and the far east, departing Australia in September 1897. Indian and Shanghai newspapers welcomed the visiting company with enthusiasm. Their repertoire included comedies and farces–such as Darnley’s The Solicitor, Grundy’s Sowing the Wind and Pinero’s The Amazons; the productions being turned over every few days for expat audiences – who longed for culturally familiar productions from home. The Broughs always took first billing and leading roles, while the ever-reliable Majeronis took supporting parts.^[20]The North China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (Shanghai) April 18, 1898, P670

The relationship between the Broughs and Mario in particular, was not merely professional. When Mario married Nellie Harbin in Sydney in September 1899, Brough and his wife Florence were in attendance, together with other company members. Another performing member of the Brough family – Percy Brough – was groomsman, while brother Giorgio Majeroni was best man.

Mario featuring in the cast of Brough company plays in 1899 and 1900. Australian Performing Arts Collection.

Mario and Nellie Harbin married in September 1899. *Melbourne Punch*, 5 Oct 1899. State Library of Victoria

In late 1902, Mario and Giorgio established their own Majeroni Dramatic Company, to tour Australia and New Zealand with a repertoire of “tip-top sensational melodramas” including Brother Against Brother, The Banker’s Daughter, My Jack, Judge Not and Wages of Sin.^[21]Otago Witness,(New Zealand) 22 October, 1902 P57 Mario more often than not took roles as villains in these – notably Stephen Flint the merciless wicked landlord in The Shamrock and the Rose and as callous villains in The Flight for Life and Enlisted. Also in their repertoire was a version, probably Mario’s, of the convict story For the Term of His Natural Life. He also wrote his own version of the very popular Kelly Gang story, the troupe performing this for the first time in Brisbane in July 1904.^[22]Fotheringham (2006) P558

Giorgio Majeroni (At rear, centre), as Brother Paul in *The Christian,* by Wilson Barrett and Bernard Espinasse. Photographed by A. J. Perier, c.1901. State Library of New South Wales.

One member of the Majeroni troupe, Lionel Walshe, left a vivid and entertaining memoir of the tour. It was exhausting he recalled and struggled to make a profit. Interviewed ten years later he still thought it the “most exciting time of his stage life”.^[23]Northam Courier (Western Australia) 11 March 1913, P4 The Majeroni troupe was in New Zealand in August 1903, when Giulia Majeroni finally succumbed to her chronic influenza (back in Melbourne). Performance commitments meant they could not return for the funeral.^[24]She died in Melbourne but was interned next to her husband in Sydney

Mario and Giorgio in the US

In late 1905, Nance O’Neil offered both Mario and Giorgio work on her return tour of North America. They took this opportunity to try their luck in the US, as did their friend Paul Scardon, who had most recently been touring Australia with Minnie Tittel Brune. The O’Neil company arrived in San Francisco in December 1905. Mario’s wife Nellie did not join them. She was possibly unwell when the boys left, as she died in a Sydney hospital nine months later. Possibly–like Paul Scardon’s Australian fiancée Elizabeth, the couple were waiting to see whether a US career would take off.^[25]Elizabeth Hamilton travelled to New York and married Paul Scardon. Sadly she died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic The six-month tour with Nance O’Neil – performing works by Ibsen and Shakespeare – wrapped in Boston in May 1906. The Majeronis then made their base in New York. Following the Nance O’Neil tour, Mario and Giorgio had success in finding work–more readily than others, probably given their theatre antecedents. Over the next few years, both established themselves as reliable supporting actors on the New York stage.

Like many actors of this era, Mario and Giorgio apparently had no desire – or saw no need – to publicise their acting credentials or to provide any ongoing narrative on their career, even after they began to appear in the US, when one might expect more commentary to appear.

We owe their contemporary Paul Scardon an acknowledgement, as unlike the Majeronis, he had no qualms about maintaining his public profile by feeding Australian newspapers with reports of what was happening to him and his network of friends. About 12 months after they had arrived in the US, Scardon wrote to Melbourne Punch from New York, to recount the following: “There was quite a bunch of us here during the summer, chasing the nimble engagement, but they’re considerably scattered now. George Majeroni and my self being the only two in town at this moment – (the) balance being out on the road…”

Scardon went on to describe what had occurred to Mario and Giorgio in late 1906. His description of their experiences provides an insight of what was probably typical for many jobbing actors of the era. He wrote “Mario had rotten luck – gave a trial rehearsal of the Prince of India and satisfied them, and signed at a big salary; however after rehearsing a fortnight [he] contracted a bad cold …[Producers] Klaw and Erlanger…[said] he wasn’t physically strong enough for the part; then came the news of his wife’s death two days later… Giorgio had a landed a leading role in The Kreutzer Sonata, but the whole production had been laid up because leading lady Bertha Kalich had appendicitis.“^[26]Punch (Melb) 20 December 1906, P38. Scardon, or someone closely associated with him, kept up the stream of reports from New York over the next few years, sometimes these featured the activities of … Continue reading

A very young looking Mario in the pages of *The Theatre* (New York) in 1906. *The Theatre,* Vol 6, No 67, Sept 1906. Hathitrust.

Despite Mario’s bad luck with Prince of India, New York Producer Charles Frohman was impressed with him. He was given supporting roles in three of his New York productions between mid 1907 and December 1910 – My Wife based on a French comedy by Robert Charvay and Paul Gavault, Jack Straw – a comedy of ‘good quality’ by W Somerset Maugham, and Israel, a study of race prejudice by French playwright Henri Bernstein.

Giorgio also had good fortune despite the difficulties with The Kreutzer Sonata in September 1906.^[27]Perhaps producer-director Stephen Fiske had offered Giorgio a role because he had worked with Eduardo and Giulia in the late 1870s In January 1907, Lee and JJ Shubert picked Giorgio up for a supporting role in the musical The Belle of London Town, but a more successful experience followed in the musicals The Top o’th’ World, which opened at New York’s Majestic Theatre in October 1907, and The Motor Girl, which opened at New York’s Lyric Theatre in mid-1909. In 1910 he also took the role of Sugar in a staged version of the fairy tale The Blue Bell. In the same year Mario took a role in the popular farce Why Smith Left Home. There was also good news personally for Mario at this time. In November 1910 he married fellow actor Gwendolyn Lowrey, touring with her through cities of the US east coast for a time.

Mario while touring in the ‘hilarious farce’ *Why Smith left Home. Pittsburgh Daily Post.* 1910. Newspapers.com

Although there is convincing evidence that while the Majeronis performed in a diverse range of characters in their first years in the US, it seems clear that within a relatively short time, both were consigned to a narrower range of character roles–distant authority figures or sinister villains. When Giorgio appeared as the white slaver and gang leader Enrico Savelli in Charles Frohman’s stage production of The Conspiracy in 1913, audiences were treated to his satisfying demise in the finale. In late 1913, when Mario appeared in At Bay, reviewers commented on Mario’s established reputation for playing society villains. His portrayal was reportedly so good that when his character–the ‘despicable blackmailing lawyer’ Judson Flagg suffered a heart attack in the second act, audiences invariably welcomed the death.

Second from the left–Giorgio Majeroni as the white slaver Enrico Savelli in the popular play *The Conspiracy.* Charles Frohman also produced a film version of the play–without Giorgio. The Green Book Magazine V9, 1913. P380. Hathitrust.

Mario Majeroni as the blackmailing lawyer Judson Flagg, with Chrystal Herne, in the play *At Bay. The Theatre Magazine,*(New York) Nov 1913. Hathitrust.

The Majeronis in film

At the same time the Majeronis were becoming well known figures on the stages of New York and the east coast, the US film industry was rapidly emerging. By the end of the First World War it was the country’s fifth largest industry. Voracious for material and talent, it was yet to become the organised studio system we associate with Hollywood’s golden age. And at this time, the industry was still based in New York and New Jersey, on the US east coast–near the established centres of finance, population and creativity. It was not until after the First World War that Hollywood California became the dominant centre of film production. What better place to find actors for film parts than the New York stage.

For established stage actors, work in the new medium of film was financially too attractive to ignore, even if they preferred the stage or had misgivings about the transitory and populist appeal of the ‘moving pictures.’ Unfortunately, the Majeroni brothers left no commentary about this themselves, but some of their contemporaries did. Queensland actor and elocutionist Tempe Pigott, who arrived in the US about ten years after the Majeronis at the late age of 49, yet who went on to forge her own remarkable US acting career, recalled the attraction of film work. Interviewed years later she said; “More money may be made in a day in pictures than in a week on the stage; so, naturally, everyone is attracted to film work.”^[28]The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 1936, P8 Bevan Harris, a vaudevillian from Orange NSW, who went into US movies as Billy Bevan in 1915, similarly observed; “this is the highest paying business in the world…” He was astute enough to add however, “Of course, one fine morning, like every other actor, I’ll wake up and though I may not know it, I’ll have done my last day’s work in pictures.” ^[29]The Mail (Adelaide) 22 Apr 1939, P4

The timing of the Majeronis entry into film was therefore not accidental and matches the experiences of many others. Melbourne born Paul Scardon first appeared as an extra on screen in about 1909, and then in featured parts several years later, when he left the stage for good. He turned to directing in 1913. Sydney – born Marc McDermott also left the New York stage for good in 1909. J P McGowan from Adelaide first appeared for the New York based Kalem company in about 1910. Another young adventurer, Sidney Bracey, also from Melbourne, first appeared on screen in 1909. Annette Kellerman arrived in New York in 1908 with the brightest reputation of all and found her way from variety theatre and into filmed shorts soon after.

Thelma, made in 1912 by the Reliance Film Company at their studio in Brooklyn, appears to be Giorgio’s first.^[30]Motion Picture News, P16, August 24, 1912 Not surprisingly, given the speed at which the industry worked to fulfil the demand, it was based on a popular novel by Marie Corelli–and a version had been filmed only a few years before. Yet another movie version was an easy option for a company looking for material to film quickly. Unfortunately, details of this film are sketchy and it appears to be a lost film.

Mario Majeroni and Ethel Barrymore in the film *The Nightingale*, 1914. The Moving Picture World Oct 1914, P192 Lantern Digital Library & the Internet Archive

Mario’s first film venture was in the Ethel Barrymore melodrama The Nightingale, made in New York in 1914. This was also Ethel Barrymore’s first film and it was written especially for her. A member of the famous acting family and well established on the stage, the 35-year old Barrymore specialised in playing young female roles. Mario had a supporting role as the vocal teacher Mantz, who helps to discover Isola (Barrymore) and her beautiful voice. This is also a lost film.

In an era when films lacked dialogue, early cinema often depended on forms of expression that are foreign to us today. At the same time, familiar stage types helped audiences identify a character quickly. In 1916, Giorgio appeared in a technical treatise on motion picture acting, a still from the film My Lady Incog being chosen to illustrate ‘watchfulness, suspicion, and sharpness’. In this film, Giorgio had given a strong performance as the thief and ’polished imposter’ Rene Lidal.

A page featuring Hazel Dawn and Giorgio demonstrating expressions. *Motion Picture Acting for Professionals and amateurs. A Technical Treatise on Make-up, Costumes and Expression* (1916) by Jean Bernique, P119. Lantern Digital Library & the Internet Archive

Veronica Kelly’s 2011 survey of the work of Gaston Mervale, another actor who worked in film and on stage in Australia and the US^[31]Mervale was born in Devon, England in 1866 as Gaston Mistowski also throws light on the roles the Majeronis took. Mervale (who was known to the Majeronis from the Australian stage) also specialised in character work – often “vividly realised and sinister personalities with intimations of… dark gothic powers.”^[32]Veronica Kelly (2011) P109 In the course of his career, Mervale portrayed Svengali, the wicked piano player with mystic powers, in the play Trilby, over 800 times. Giorgio Majeroni played an identical malevolent type with similar but ill-defined mystical or hypnotic powers, in the film The Stolen Voice,(1915). The film script closely parallels the play Trilby – again a feature of films of this era, when scripts stole shamelessly from books and popular plays. Mario also went on to play hypnotist/mystics in several films in 1917.

As noted, in time, both the Majeroni brothers found themselves regularly cast as pointy-moustached villains in films. One must conclude that their age, height and their dark and swarthy appearances contributed to the roles they were given. We should also note the long tradition of foreign ‘types’ who so often appeared as villains in theatre and film in the Western world. In its review ofthe Charles Frohman revival of Diplomacy at New York’s Empire Theatre in late 1914, Life magazine ^[33]Life. Vol.64, number.1671 November 5, 1914 reported that Giorgio, with his ‘pronouncedly Hebraic features’ was therefore suitable for the role of the Russian, Count Orloff. He reprised this role for a filmed version of the play in 1916.

Screengrab of Mary Pickford with Mario Majeroni as Ramlan the Indian sword maker in *Less than the Dust* (1916). He also played Ali Bey, an Indian servant, in the film *Children Not wanted* (1920) Youtube.

Leslie Faber, William Gillette and Giorgio Majeroni in Charles Frohman’s play *Diplomacy. The Theatre* (New York) V 20, 1914, P266. Hathitrust.

In 1917, following the release of the William Randolph Hearst funded serial Patria, Giorgio made a rare public commentary about being typecast. “I have been on the stage full twenty years and have been trying for the greater part of that time to quit being a villain, but it seems without success… Throughout my stage career I have plotted crimes and murders without end and have killed and slain until this hand is redder than that of any Borgia. When there was no one else to kill, I have had to kill myself a score of times…” In Patria, Giorgio played the wicked Senor de Lima of Mexico, who, in league with Japanese Baron Huroki (Warner Oland) plots to overthrow the US. “Here I am again in villainy up to my neck” he said. ^[34]Interview found in several US newspapers at the time including The Nashville Globe, 11 May 1917 Some greater controversy surrounded this serial. During World War One Japan was an ally, and in a rare case of concern about the reception a US film might have overseas, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson requested changes.^[35]Geoff Mayer (2017) P.225

Tempe Pigott accepted that she had become well and truly type-cast as a perpetual ‘land-lady’. On a return to Australia in 1936 she told reporters: “Immediately you score a success in Hollywood they type you, and you play that sort of role for ever… “^[36]The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 18 Sep 1936 P14 But after her visit she happily returned to Hollywood and to more typecast roles. At 84, her last role in a Douglas Sirk film was as an ‘old crone,’ in 1951.

Giorgio Majeroni in a supporting role as the traitor Bolo Pasha in the film *The Caillaux Case* (1918) The real Bolo Pasha had been executed in France only a month before. *Moving Picture World* May 11 1918, P800. Lantern Digital Library & the Internet Archive

By 1913 the Majeronis old friend from Australia, Paul Scardon, had moved from acting into directing films – first for New York’s Majestic Pictures and several years later for Vitagraph. Most likely as a result of their friendship, Giorgio Majeroni appeared in a string of Scardon’s films –eleven in all – for Vitagraph Pictures, between 1918 and 1920. Scardon’s films were really designed as vehicles for Harry T Morey, and usually featured Betty Blythe as the love interest. (Scardon married Betty Blythe in 1920) Unfortunately, Paul Scardon and Giorgio Majeroni’s friendship did not lead to any change in casting practices for Giorgio. All of his appearances were as secondary characters – again, usually as dubious foreigners or society villains. In Tangled Lives (1918) he played an unsympathetic millionaire killed by lightning, in The King of Diamonds (1918) he played the poisoner Dr Torrano, while in Beauty Proof (1919) he played Hodge the criminal. Each time, thwarted by Harry T Morey’s character.

Despite Paul Scardon’s considerable output as a director (he is credited as a director on more than 50 films between 1913 and 1924) not all of his efforts were well received, even at the time. In another Harry Morey vehicle – a story of high finance based on a play, The Gamblers (1919), Giorgio played the villain George Cowper. The Film Daily panned Scardon’s direction as stagey and posey.

Mario also appeared in three of Scardon’s films–playing a marquis in The Hawk (1917), the leader of a family of crooks in Partners of the Night (1920) and the Hindu servant Ali Bey in Children Not Wanted (1920) He had previously appeared as an Indian sword maker in the film Less than the Dust (1916) with Mary Pickford and a mystic Hindu Yogi in the play Eyes of Youth (1918)

Giorgio Majeroni as the wicked Oliver Landis in the Sidney Olcott film Marriage for Convenience (1919). His expression says it all. *Motion Picture News* March–April 1919, P154. Lantern Digital Library & the Internet Archive

Later Careers

Despite the easy attractiveness of acting for film, both the Majeronis remained strongly committed to the theatre, and their narrow range of roles in films may be a reason why. In 1918, Giorgio was elected to the board of the Green Room Club, one of several New York thespian clubs. Opened in 1902 for young aspiring (male) actors, by the time Giorgio had joined it producers and managers dominated – including the Schubert brothers and George M Cohan. Mario also became a member, as did fellow Australian vaudevillian Bert Levy, who once described himself as a life-long pal of the Majeronis.

Following the release of the Paul Scardon film The Darkest Hour in early 1920, Giorgio appeared only twice more (as foreign villains), in films made in 1921. Apart from a passing role as a singer in a Betty Blythe film in 1922, it seems his interest in film had come to an end. Giorgio had married In June 1915, and settled in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, later moving to Skillman, New Jersey. He took up farming–apparently commuting to New York for acting work when he needed to. Unfortunately, at about the same time, Mario’s second marriage had come to an end in divorce.

Giorgio appeared on stage in New York again – as Signor Diranda in J Huntley Manner’s drama One Night in Rome, opening in late 1919, followed a year later in the mystery play The Claw, with Lionel Barrymore. In April 1920, Mario took over his brother’s role in a One Night in Rome, when it opened at London’s Garrick Theatre. The play had a notably rocky start in London, newspapers reporting that an organised gang of ‘play wreckers’ disrupted the opening night,^[37] Daily News (London) 30 April 1920, P1 but it soon settled into a good run.^[38]J.P. Wearing (2014) P24

**Giorgio Majeroni played the mesmerist Mr Morrison, in this comedy-ghost play. *The Boston Globe* 18 Feb 1923, P39. Newspapers.com**

In May 1924, newspapers announced Giorgio had tuberculosis, and was dropping out of David Belasco’s play Laugh, Clown, Laugh! and heading off to Saranac Lake in New York state. At this time, rest cure was the only solution for the usually deadly disease, and Saranac Lake provided the ideal fresh air climate, with numerous privately run cure cottages available for the ailing. Broadway magazine wished him well, adding that he was a “fine fellow and a splendid actor.”

Sadly, he declined rapidly.^[39]He was not the only Australian actor to face a battle with tuberculosis in the US. A few years later, 45 year old vaudevillian Nellie Quealy was admitted to a Saranac Lake sanatorium. She spent six … Continue reading Bert Levy warned Australian readers of The Bulletin that he had been told there was no hope for Giorgio. He succumbed in early August 1924. Mario was the informant on his brother’s death certificate, indicating he had travelled to be with his younger brother at the end. Giorgio left behind his wife Ethel and two sons, an eight year old and a five month old.

**Mario as the criminal Capriano(seated) with George Walsh, (brother of director Raoul Walsh), in *From Now On* (1920) Wikimedia Commons**

It is possible to discern a different professional experience for Mario in his post First World War career. His roles were, like Giorgio’s, often of a type – familiar villains as in From Now On (1920) and The Snow Bride (1923) and suspicious foreigners – such as Dr Dejonge in The Substitute Wife (1925) and Count Krenko in The King on Main Street (1925). Mario was most closely associated with film productions from Famous Players-Lasky at this time, but unlike Giorgio at Vitagraph, was apparently not contracted to them, allowing him to work for others. He also worked with some notable figures in cinema–actors Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore, and emerging directors including Raoul Walsh, Allan Dwan and Frank Borzage. Films that were well received included The Valley of Silent Men (1922), Enemies of Women (1923), two films from 1924 with Gloria Swanson – The Humming Bird and Her Love Story and the 1925 comedy The King on Main Street. His last film role was as Prince Zibatchefsky in the Famous Players-Lasky comedy Rubber Heels in 1927, released just before the arrival of sound. By then, film production had largely moved to California.

**Adolphe Menjou and Greta Nissen with Mario Majeroni in the film *The King on Main Street* (1925) *The Richmond Item* (Indiana) 1 May 1927, P18 Newspapers.com**

On stage in the later 1920s, Mario also took a range of character roles. In mid 1926 he appeared in Kongo, a melodrama set in an African trading post, inspired no doubt by the recent success of Leon Gordon’s play White Cargo. Mario donned blackface for 135 performances to play the voodoo priest Zoombie. In Broadway, a comedy -drama set behind the scenes of the night club world, he was back to playing a heavy role–the Greek owner of the Paradise Night Club.

A cartoon of some of the cast of *Kongo*–Betty Bruce Henry, Richard Stevenson, Clarence Redd (a real African-American actor who usually went uncredited) and Mario Majeroni in makeup. *Times Union* (New York) 2 May 1926, P24. Newspapers.com

In November 1931, while performing in a run of the play Cynara at New York’s Morosco Theatre, Mario died, quite suddenly. His death was put down to an unspecified stomach ailment, for which he had previously had treatment. ^[40]The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Dec 1931, P4 Many Australian newspapers carried news of his death, a reminder that although he had lived in the US for 25 years, he still had many friends there.

In this era of heightened national consciousness, can we really celebrate the Majeroni family as distinctively Australian performers? Perhaps not. Both brothers had started the process of becoming US citizens – Giorgio in 1918 and Mario in 1923, and neither returned to Australia. This was also a time when Betty Blythe remembered her Melbourne – born husband Paul Scardon as a “gentlemanly Englishman.”^[41]Kevin Brownlow (1968) P378 The Commonwealth was only a few years old when the Majeroni brothers left and although they were sometimes described as Australians while living in the US, they were more often described as Italians. However a fitting reminder of this remarkable family still exists in Carlton, Melbourne near the heart of the Italian restaurant precinct of Lygon Street. Guilia Majeroni, was living at 99 Drummond Street when she died in 1903. Number 99 is the centre building of a large terrace block – crowned with the pediment at the top, and although now used for offices, it remains one of Melbourne’s finest Victorian-era terraces.

**99 Drummond Street, Carlton in 2023. Giulia Majeroni’s last residence was the central terrace, with the pointed pediment. Author’s Collection.**
As at May 2025, the property is for sale

Originally published in On Stage, the online journal of Theatre Heritage Australia, September 2023

Nick Murphy
Sept 2023 & May 2025

Majeroni films available online

The Stolen Voice (1915) (Giorgio Majeroni) @ Eastman Museum
The Sign of the Cross (1917) [Giorgio Majeroni] @ Internet Archive
Patria (1917) [Giorgio Majeroni] The Serial Squadron on Youtube
Less than the Dust (1916) [Mario Majeroni] Silent Hall of Fame on Youtube
Sherlock Holmes (1916) [Mario Majeroni] @ Internet Archive
Enemies of Women (1923) [Mario Majeroni] @ Wikimedia Commons
The King on Main Street (1925) [Mario Majeroni] @ Internet Archive

References

Geoff Barker (2012) ‘Collodian photographic negative of Eduardo Majeroni in The Old Corporal by Freeman Brothers Studio.’ Powerhouse Museum (Curator’s Notes)
Jean Bernique (1916) Motion Picture Acting for Professionals and Amateurs. A Technical Treatise on Make-up, Costumes and Expression. Producers Service Company, Chicago
Katherine Brisbane (Ed)(1991) Entertaining Australia, an Illustrated History. Currency Press, Sydney.
Kevin Brownlow (1968) The Parade’s Gone By. University of California Press.
Clay Djubal (2001) ‘That men may rise on stepping stones’: Walter Bentley and the Australasian stage, 1891‐1927, Journal of Australian Studies, 25:67, 152-161.
Richard Fotheringham (2006) Australian Plays for the Colonial Stage, 1834-1899. University of Queensland Press
Veronica Kelly (2011) ’Australia’s Svengali: Gaston Mervale in Theatre and Film.’ Australasian Drama Studies, April 2011, P107-125
W.H. Leavitt (Ed) (1887) Australian Representative Men. Wells & Leavitt (See also online at State Library of NSW)
Ralph Marsden, Theatre Heritage Australia On Stage Vol 9 No 4, Spring 2008 ‘Melbourne Stage by Stage’ P41-44
Geoff Mayer (2017) Encyclopedia of American Film Serials. McFarland
Tony Mitchell (1995) Australasian Drama Studies, Number 26 1995 ‘Adelaide Ristori tours Australia 22 July–4 December 1875’ Part 1, P179 -199
Tony Mitchell (1995) Australasian Drama Studies, Number 26 1995 ‘High Art and Low Purse. Adelaide Ristori tours Australia 22 July–4 December 1875’ Part 2, P123
Phillip Parsons and Victoria Chance (Eds)(1995) Companion to Theatre in Australia. Currency Press/Cambridge University Press.
Hal Porter (1965) Stars of Australian Stage and Screen. Rigby
Helen M. Van Der Poorten, ‘Darrell, George Frederick Price (1851–1921)‘, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 16 May 2023.
Helen M. Van Der Poorten, ‘Brough, Lionel Robert (1857–1906)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1969, accessed online 27 May 2023.
J.P. Wearing (2014) The London Stage 1920-1929 : A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. (2^nd Edition) Rowman and Littlefield

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

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	listed as George Carlo John Majeroni on his Australian birth certificate, his name was also spelled Giorgio and Georgio during his lifetime. The author has used the more common Italian spelling of his name
↑2	Table Talk (Melb) 3 April 1902, P14
↑3	Eduardo Majeroni’s interesting life experiences are recounted in numerous sources including W.H. Leavitt’s Australian Representative Men. However, it is difficult to verify all of the claims made.
↑4	See Tony Mitchell’s two-part account of the 1875 Ristori tour of Australia in Australasian Drama Studies, 1995
↑5	The Argus (Melb) 30 August 1875, P6
↑6	The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 August 1875, P5
↑7	A Living Statue, 1893. State Library of New South Wales
↑8	Buffalo Morning Express, 27 March 1882, P4
↑9	Table Talk, (Melb) 3 April 1902, P14.
↑10	See Geoff Barker (2012) and contemporary reports such as The Argus (Melb) Fri 23 Oct 1891 P10
↑11	Phillip Parsons (1995) P338
↑12	Mario was apparently an outstanding athlete at Royston
↑13	Bentley had previously been associated with the Majeroni seniors
↑14	The Lorgnette (Melb) 2 May 1894 P2. Some accounts claim this play was written by Giulia Majeroni. It was a melodrama set in the future, but further records of this play do not exist
↑15	The Sportsman 27 Sept 1898, P6
↑16	Dion Boucicault left the partnership in 1896
↑17	Helen M. Van Der Poorten, ‘Brough, Lionel Robert (1857–1906)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography
↑18	Hal Porter (1965) P92
↑19	Table Talk (Melb) 15 May 1896, P13
↑20	The North China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette (Shanghai) April 18, 1898, P670
↑21	Otago Witness,(New Zealand) 22 October, 1902 P57
↑22	Fotheringham (2006) P558
↑23	Northam Courier (Western Australia) 11 March 1913, P4
↑24	She died in Melbourne but was interned next to her husband in Sydney
↑25	Elizabeth Hamilton travelled to New York and married Paul Scardon. Sadly she died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic
↑26	Punch (Melb) 20 December 1906, P38. Scardon, or someone closely associated with him, kept up the stream of reports from New York over the next few years, sometimes these featured the activities of the Majeronis
↑27	Perhaps producer-director Stephen Fiske had offered Giorgio a role because he had worked with Eduardo and Giulia in the late 1870s
↑28	The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Aug 1936, P8
↑29	The Mail (Adelaide) 22 Apr 1939, P4
↑30	Motion Picture News, P16, August 24, 1912
↑31	Mervale was born in Devon, England in 1866 as Gaston Mistowski
↑32	Veronica Kelly (2011) P109
↑33	Life. Vol.64, number.1671 November 5, 1914
↑34	Interview found in several US newspapers at the time including The Nashville Globe, 11 May 1917
↑35	Geoff Mayer (2017) P.225
↑36	The Daily Telegraph (Syd) 18 Sep 1936 P14
↑37	Daily News (London) 30 April 1920, P1
↑38	J.P. Wearing (2014) P24
↑39	He was not the only Australian actor to face a battle with tuberculosis in the US. A few years later, 45 year old vaudevillian Nellie Quealy was admitted to a Saranac Lake sanatorium. She spent six years fighting the disease until she too, succumbed.
↑40	The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 Dec 1931, P4
↑41	Kevin Brownlow (1968) P378

Paul Scardon (1875-1954) pioneer actor & director

Above: Paul Scardon, aged about 45, photograph used in Charles Fox and Milton Silver’s (eds)(1920) Who’s who on the screen, Ross Publishing, New York. Via the Internet Archive.

The 5 second version

William James Raper was born in South Melbourne Australia on 6 May 1875. He died in Fontana, California, USA, on 17 January 1954. He was on stage in Australia from about 1900, when he changed his name to Paul Scardon, finding increasing success. He travelled with the Nance O’Neill company to the US in 1905. Following a busy 6 years on stage in the US, he appeared in his first film in 1911. He began directing for Vitagraph in 1915. After his Australian born wife died in the Spanish flu epidemic, he married actress Betty Blythe. He retired from directing in 1924, but stayed active in community theatre. From 1939 he returned to films as an extra

Left: Ouch! Scardon was reported to have been a contortionist in his youth. This unbelievably uncomfortable image from Photoplay appears to show him in his teens, but the Australian context is unknown.^[1]Photoplay, Sept 1919, P69 via Lantern

Sometime in 1900, William Raper, a 25 year old telegraph operator in the booming Western Australian goldfield town of Boulder, decided to throw in his safe job working for the Government and pursue his dream of being an actor. An active member of the Boulder Dramatic Society, he returned to Australia’s east coast, adopted a new name – Paul Scardon – and found roles in J.C.Williamson productions. Smart, athletic and good looking, the world was at his feet.

early scardon — Above: An early photo of Scardon probably taken about the time he arrived in New York in 1906.^[2]Picture Play Weekly. April-Oct 1915. Via Lantern and the Internet Archive. See also University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections JWS13991 for a photo taken at the same sitting, but … Continue reading

William James Raper was born in Melbourne in 1875, at his parent’s modest cottage in Bank Street, South Melbourne (then called Emerald Hill). His mother Eleanor (nee Sawyer) and father Edward were both English born but they had lived in Melbourne for some time, having married in the city in 1867. Melbourne was still a distant outpost of the British empire, but it was also a booming city after the great gold rushes of the 1850s. It continued to attract hopeful immigrants through the later half of the nineteenth century. Sadly Will’s father, who described himself as a coachman and groom, died in 1881 when Will was only 6. In about 1896 Will, relocated to Western Australia. Eleanor and Will’s surviving sister Ada most likely moved at the same time. (See Note 1 Birth Certificate)

Building a career in Australia
Writing about important contemporary filmmakers in 1920, Carolyn Lowrey included Paul Scardon in her survey of the “first one hundred men and women of the screen”. She wrote that Scardon had spent some time in vaudeville and performed as a contortionist from the age of 15. This seems plausible even if there is a shortage of contemporary evidence. However, by mid 1902 he was a regular in the J.C. Williamson’s Dramatic Company, that travelled the length and breadth of Australia performing popular plays imported from London and New York.

Sherlock Holmes in Aust 1902 — Above; Scardon earning his stripes with JC Williamsons and in company with Canadian born actor **Cuyler Hastings** in 1902. ^[3]*The Daily Telegraph* (Sydney) 4 October 1902

minne043 — Above; The very popular **Minnie Tittel Brune**, about the time Paul Scardon worked with her. Postcard in the author’s collection.

The company’s repertoire included both comedies and dramas such as William Gillette’s play Sherlock Holmes, and J.M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton. Although he seems to have often been cast in supporting roles, what one writer described as the “heavy butler” type of role, it was more than enough to establish himself. From mid 1904 he performed with a troupe led by the popular Minnie Tittel Brune (and including Roy Redgrave) – developing his skills and earning increasing recognition for his roles in L’Aiglon and Romeo and Juliet. Then, after a year with Minnie, Paul left Australia to perform with Nance O’Neill and her troupe in the US. He arrived in the San Francisco on the SS Sonoma, on 4 December 1905, the troupe also included Australian actors Mario and George Majeroni. (See Note 2 below)

The US career 1906 +

Through early 1906 the company travelled across the US providing dramas, which gave O’Neill the headline roles. But by June he had joined Australian actor Nellie Stewart in Chicago in the supporting cast for her perennial favourite Sweet Nell of Old Drury. By the end of the year he was appearing with British actor Kyrle Bellew in New York.

In December 1906, a Melbourne Punch correspondent reported a long letter from Paul, now in New York.^[4]Punch (Melbourne) 20 Dec 1906, p38 It should be read in its entirety because, unusually, it reports on the doings of many Australian performers, like Marc McDermott and Nellie Stewart. It confirms that while Australians working in the US may not have all been close friends, they knew each other and followed each other’s successes. Scardon wrote;

“There was quite a bunch of us here during the summer, chasing ‘the nimble engagement’, but they’re considerably scattered now. George Majeroni and myself being the only two in town at this moment—balance being out on the road.” (read the Punch article here)

Above: Two Australians who often represented a very similar “type” in pioneer films – the suave leading man. Left; **Paul Scardon**, in 1924. ^[5] *Moving Picture World* Jul-Aug 1924 By 1924 Scardon was directing. **Marc McDermott** photographed in 1911. ^[6] *Motion Picture Story* Feb-July 1911.Via Lantern Media History Project

Elizabeth Hamilton and Paul Scardon
On 29 May 1907 Paul Scardon married Australian woman Elizabeth “Bessie” Hamilton in New York. Bessie and her younger sister Kate, or “Tottie,” had arrived in Vancouver in April, and headed more or less directly for New York where Paul was now based. These circumstances strongly suggest Paul knew Bessie already from Australia, and that the couple had decided to marry and live in the US. The 1910 US census shows Paul, Bessie (and Tottie) living together in New York. A daughter – Joan, was born of the union in April 1913. (See Note 3 below)

Scardon in 1918 — Above: A rather serious looking Paul Scardon in about 1917. ^[7] *Motion Picture and Studio Directory and Trade Annual,* Jan 1918. Via Lantern and the Internet Archive

Bessie and Tottie were daughters of William Campbell Hamilton (1834-1882), a wealthy pastoralist (Australians would call him a squatter) from the Broadford-Kilmore area north of Melbourne. Tragically, both sisters died within a week of each other during the New York Spanish flu pandemic, in the last week of 1918 and first week of 1919. The inscription on their headstone at the Hackensack Cemetery in New Jersey ends “erected by those who loved them in far away Australia”.

Based in New York, Paul was active on the US stage, appearing with E.H. Sothern and Mrs Minnie Fiske, until sometime in 1911, when he moved into acting in films for the Majestic studio. There are lists of his films in existence, but it is impossible to verify these, as many have long since been lost. At the time, Scardon was held in some esteem for his character portrayals and his clever use of makeup.

Scardon unidentified film — Above: Paul Scardon in ***The Mighty Atom*** (1915) and below (centre) as an officer in an unidentified film. From a 1915 *Picture-Play Weekly* article on his use of makeup. ^[8]“Paul Scardon, Master Makeup artist” by Carl G Rich. *Picture Play*, 24 April, 1915. Via Lantern and the Internet Archive.

In 1915, at the invitation of Vitagraph’s producer Albert E Smith, he began directing – The Island of Surprise and The Hero of Submarine D-2 amongst his early efforts. Plot summaries of many of his Vitagraph films survive, and indicate a mix of mysteries and romances was the preference, the scripts usually based on popular plays and characters lifted from novels – presumably these could be churned into films quickly and cheaply. The Alibi, a story of embezzlement and false imprisonment, was based on a recent short story. Arsène Lupin, based on a popular literary character from a series of novels, concerned a master criminal who is redeemed by love. The Green God was also based on a novel, George Majeroni playing the unfortunate victim whose accidental death is revealed at the end. (The green idol in the story has nothing to do with it). Similarly, The Maelstrom, a story of gangs, fog and trap doors, was based on a recent novel. Perhaps he found this repetitive work not particularly enjoyable. In 1920 he left Vitagraph, working for the Goldwyn Company for his remaining active years.

Paul Scardon married actor Betty Blythe (Elizabeth Blythe Slaughter) on 18 April 1920, 16 months after Bessie’s death. Born in California in 1893, Betty Blythe was given one of her first featured roles by Paul, in mid 1918 in A Game with Fate. Betty was a forceful personality and famous for her witty comments. She is reputed to have said “A director is the only man besides your husband who can tell you how much of your clothes to take off.” Betty’s reputation today rests on her exotic film roles and the flimsy costumes she wore in films made after her work with Scardon –The Queen of Sheba (1921), Chu Chin Chow (1923) and She (1925).

The IMDB repeats the oft-made claim Paul Scardon directed 50 films with Betty. The truth was he could arguably be said to have discovered her, and was director on eleven of her films, all made at Vitagraph between mid 1918 and mid 1919. But Paul directed as many films with old Melbourne friend George Majeroni as he did with Blythe, while his most frequently used actor was Vitagraph’s very popular Harry T. Morey, who resembled Paul somewhat, except he had a healthier head of hair. Morey was the leading man in all of Paul’s 1918 and 1919 films. Paul went on to direct films starring Blanche Sweet and Miss Patty Dupont before retiring from directing in 1924.

filmdailyyearboo00wids_0094 — Above: Scardon and Blythe, profiled together in 1925 in the *Film Daily Year Book*. However he had retired by this date.^[9]*Film Daily Year Book,* via Lantern and the Internet Archive.

Above: Paul Scardon and Betty Blythe on their 1923 US passport application. He was 49 years old, she was 30. He became a US citizen in 1922. These well known photos are found in US Archives, available via Family Search. Passport photos, then as now, provide a refreshing alternative to posed studio photos.

Life after directing

Aged fifty, Paul Scardon devoted his later life to running a citrus farm in Fontana, California and directing plays for community theatre in San Bernardino – well into the 1940s, reminding us that for many actors, the “legitimacy” of theatre is preferable to cinema. Paul did return to acting on the screen in the late 1930s, but now appeared without a toupee and usually in uncredited roles. He died suddenly in 1954.

Scardon in Mark Twain 1944 — Above: Screen grab of Paul Scardon playing Rudyard Kipling in Warner Bros *The Adventures of Mark Twain* (1944). It is his one scene. Author’s collection.

Today I Hang 1942 — Above: Screen grab of Scardon as Hobbs from *Today I Hang* (1942). Australian Mona Barrie saves the film from being a complete bore. Author’s Collection.

Above: Leon Errol from Sydney as the fast talking Knobby Walsh, a regular character in the Joe Palooka films, and Paul Scardon as the doddery file clark being offered cigars while his files are stolen. This is a short audio clip from Gentleman Joe Palooka (1946). Leon Errol was 65 years old, Scardon 71. Source – Youtube. Paul Scardon was an extra in three of the Palooka films.

Betty Blythe also continued to act almost to the end of her life -she died in 1972. Her final film role was apparently as an extra in My Fair Lady in 1964. Before she died she gave film historian Kevin Brownlow a long account of working with director J. Gordon Edwards on The Queen of Sheba. Interviewed while sitting beneath a portrait of Scardon, she said Edwards was like her husband, a similiar “gentlemanly sort of person.”

Betty and Paul’s citrus orchard in Fortuna has long since been taken over for housing, however the modest little cottage in which Paul Scardon was born still stands in Bank Street, South Melbourne.

Note 1
Paul Scardon’s date of birth was 6 May 1875, as per his birth certificate and his US naturalisation papers.^[10]Source above; Victoria, Births, Deaths and Marriages) Below; US Archives, via Ancestry.com Unlike so many actors working in Hollywood, Scardon apparently never felt any need to lie about his age.

Note 2
Mario Majeroni (born Italy, 1870) and Giorgio (George) Majeroni (born Melbourne, Australia 11 Jan 1877) arrived in the United States as part of the Nance O’Neill troupe with Scardon. Paul appears to have maintained a cordial relationship with the Majeroni brothers – he directed 3 films with Mario and 11 with George while at Vitograph. (More on the Majeroni family’s significant contribution to theatre in Australia can be found here.)

Majeroni family — Above: Signora Majeroni with her sons Mario and George in Melbourne. ^[11]Talma Photographer, David Syme and Co. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove.

Note 3

Paul and Bessie’s daughter Joan Scardon lived in Australia for some time in the 1930s, and gained acclaim for her costume designs for theatre. She married violinist and conductor Mishel Piastro in 1941. She died in 2003. Her descendants now all live in the US.

Nick Murphy
May 2020

Further Reading

Text

Kevin Brownlow (1968) The Parade’s Gone By… University of California Press.
Charles Fox and Milton Silver (eds)(1920) Who’s Who on the screen, Ross Publishing, New York.
Carolyn Lowrey (1920) The First One Hundred Noted Men and Women of the Screen. Moffat Yard & Co
J.O. Randell (1982) Pastoral Settlement in Northern Victoria. Vol II The Campaspe District. Chandos
Ken Wlaschin (2009 )Silent Mystery and Detective Movies: A Comprehensive Filmography. McFarland.

Heritage Council of Victoria, Database.

Glenaroua Station.

National Library of Australia’s Trove.

Punch (Melb) 14 Dec 1905 Page 38 Greenroom Gossip
Punch (Melb) 20 Dec 1906 Page 38 Greenroom Gossip.
Kilmore Free Press 23 Jan 1919 Page 2 Obituary
The Argus (Melb) 16 Jan 1919 Page 1 Family Notices
Everyone’s. Vol.2 No.86 ( 26 October 1921)
Leader (Melb) 9 Feb 1935 Page 36 Rhapsodies of 1935

US National Archives
Via Family Search and Ancestry.com

Newspapers.com

Los Angeles Times 20 April 1920
The Age (Melbourne) · 3 Jun 1935, Mon · Page 14
The San Bernardino County Sun, 24 Sep 1939, Sun Page 12
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette· 20 Jan 1954, Wed · Page 6

Lantern Digital Media Project

Films in the Public Domain

Selected for preservation by the National Library of Australia’s Pandora project.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Photoplay, Sept 1919, P69 via Lantern
↑2	Picture Play Weekly. April-Oct 1915. Via Lantern and the Internet Archive. See also University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections JWS13991 for a photo taken at the same sitting, but incorrectly dated 1924.
↑3	The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 4 October 1902
↑4	Punch (Melbourne) 20 Dec 1906, p38
↑5	Moving Picture World Jul-Aug 1924
↑6	Motion Picture Story Feb-July 1911.Via Lantern Media History Project
↑7	Motion Picture and Studio Directory and Trade Annual, Jan 1918. Via Lantern and the Internet Archive
↑8	“Paul Scardon, Master Makeup artist” by Carl G Rich. Picture Play, 24 April, 1915. Via Lantern and the Internet Archive.
↑9	Film Daily Year Book, via Lantern and the Internet Archive.
↑10	Source above; Victoria, Births, Deaths and Marriages) Below; US Archives, via Ancestry.com
↑11	Talma Photographer, David Syme and Co. Via National Library of Australia’s Trove.

Tag: Paul Scardon

Ethel Phillips & Stanley Walpole – pioneer silent movie actors

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The Majeroni brothers: Stage royalty & pioneer screen villains

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Paul Scardon (1875-1954) pioneer actor & director

Above: Paul Scardon, aged about 45, photograph used in Charles Fox and Milton Silver’s (eds)(1920) Who’s who on the screen, Ross Publishing, New York. Via the Internet Archive.

The 5 second version

Left: Ouch! Scardon was reported to have been a contortionist in his youth. This unbelievably uncomfortable image from Photoplay appears to show him in his teens, but the Australian context is unknown.^[1]Photoplay, Sept 1919, P69 via Lantern

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Above: Paul Scardon, aged about 45, photograph used in Charles Fox and Milton Silver’s (eds)(1920) Who’s who on the screen, Ross Publishing, New York. Via the Internet Archive.

The 5 second version

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