All biographies should be considered incomplete – with research ongoing.
Check the individual PDF pages for “Last Updated” citation details.
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BERT RAY
![Ray, Bert [BC 6 Apr 1928, 10]](http://ozvta.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/ray-bert-bc-6-apr-1928-10.jpg)
Comedian (incl. panto dame), librettist, ballad singer, producer/director, troupe proprietor.
Bert Ray started out with Cohen’s Mohawk Minstrels and later appeared with the Pollard Opera Company. He was engaged by his future business partner (and brother-in-law) Jack O’Donnell for a 1908 tour of New Zealand and later became involved in O’Donnell’s balloon and parachuting show which toured throughout the Antipodes and the East. Ray returned to vaudeville in 1912 before co-founding O’Donnell and Ray as a touring pantomime concern after the war. The company continued to tour extensively around Australia and New Zealand up until at least the early 1930s.
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SHANNON RAYE
Soprano, actress, entertainer.
South Australian soprano Shannon Raye was given her first big break by Edward Branscombe after she left school. With a magnetic personality and mellow singing style soprano voice Raye became sought-after performer around the country after touring with Branscombe’s Dandies. Ashe was later associated with Walter George’s Smart Set, Jim Gerald’s Miniature Musical Comedy Co, Nat Phillips’ Whirligigs, the Moon and Morris Revue Co, and the Ideals Revue Co. She is thought to have retired from the professional stage in the late 1920s.
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BEAUMONT READ
American-born singer, songwriter, businessman, teacher.
(1833-1910) Once described as a sad, pathetic-looking performer, Beaumont Read was nevertheless considered the greatest male alto singer to appear on the Australian stage. He toured the USA and Europe with various troupes, notably Hague’s Georgia Slave Troupe (when it included white performers), and came to Australia via South Africa in 1874 with Anna Bishop. After a failed attempt to run a photographic business in Melbourne in the late 1870s he returned to the stage, becoming a huge star with Hiscocks’ Federal Minstrels. Read retired in 1903 and moved to Adelaide where he taught singing.
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ROY RENE
(1891-1954) Comedian, singer, and revusical, pantomime, film and radio actor. [Born Harry Van der Sluice]
One of Australia’s greatest ever larrikin comedians, Roy Rene is best remembered for his early career partnership with Nat Phillips as “Stiffy and Mo.” The pair toured the Fullers Australia and New Zealand circuits as the stars of a series of Phillips’ original revusicals and pantomimes between 1916-24 and 1927-28. In the early 1930s he co-produced revues, starred in the film Strike Me Lucky (1933) and continued to be a variety top-liner into the 1940s. He began his extraordinarily successful radio career in 1946 with the MaCackie Mansion series.
- More details
- “Roy Rene“ (a selection of film clips available at Australian Screen)
- “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” ca. 1940s (mp3)
- McCackie Manson: “The Xmas Present” ca. 1947-49 (mp3)
- Roy Rene and Hal Lashwood as Phillip and Aubrey (incl. “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo”) ca. 1940s (mp3)
- For further recordings by Roy Rene see Stiffy and Mo.
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VIC ROBERTS
English-born theatre, film, and radio scriptwriter.
Vic Roberts first came to Australia around 1926/27 as a comedian and in 1928 directed his own companies The Mirthquakers (Bris) and Smilestones (Perth) before heading back to the UK. After returning to Australia in the early 1930s he became a much sort writer, working in theatre, film and radio. One of his earliest film scripts was a collaboration with George D. Parker on Roy Rene’s 1934 film Strike Me Lucky. Although it has been claimed that Roberts contributed scripts for Stiffy and Mo no evidence of his contributions (if any) have yet been identified.
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AMY ROCHELLE
Soprano, pantomime principal boy, child impersonator, pianist, musical comedy artist.
Sydney Conservatorium-trained singer, Amy Rochelle made her first stage appearance in 1912 aged 14. After becoming one of Harry Clay’s leading attractions (1914-1918) she spent the next 10 years on the Fullers’ circuit – notably as a pantomime principal boy and with the Stiffy and Mo Company. She also expanded her vaudeville repertoire with child impersonations and as a pianist. Rochelle continued performing into the 1950s, appearing on radio as a singer and actor. Her first husband was Harry R. Kitching (editor of Australian Variety).
- More details
- “Dearest I Love You” 1940s (mp3)
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HARRY ROSS (1)
Australian tenor, revusical actor.
After establishing his reputation with one of J. C. Williamson’s companies, Harry Ross toured with the Grotesques Comedy Co in 1912 and the following year joined the American Burlesque Company as a member of the Grafters Quartette. The Grafters eventually assigned to an Australian Digger concert party (the Anzac Coves) and performed with them in England. After returning to Australia Ross rejoined the Fullers organisation, appearing in revusicals with the Tom Haverley Musical Comedy Co (1919-20) and the Walter George Sunshine Players (ca. 1920-22).
- More details coming soon.
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HARRY ROSS (2)
English-born variety singer, comedian, patterologist, revue company leader, writer, and director.
Harry Ross met Australian soubrette Clara Keating in the USA in 1919. They brought their rapid-fire patter act to Australia in 1921 for the Fullers and were later associated with Harry Clay among other firms. Ross eventually went on to produce revusicals, toured his own troupe (the Harry Ross Revue Co) and briefly performed with the Stiffy and Mo and Nat Phillips Whirligigs companies. Although he and Keating separated around 1927/28, Ross remained in Australia up until at least the mid-1930s.
- More details coming soon.
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MADELINE ROSSITER
Singer, dancer, song-writer, violinist, actress.
The daughter of a well-known British concert performer, Madeline Rossiter first toured Australia in 1914 as a member of the Royal Strollers (with Sydney James). She returned to Australia in 1919 following James’ death in the East and was later associated with the Town Topics, Famous Diggers, Tivoli Topics and the English Pierrots. A number of her songs were also published in Australia during the 1920s. Rossiter left Australia for the East in 1925 and soon afterwards formed her own musical comedy company.
- See also Sydney James / Town Topics / Famous Diggers
- “On the Promenade” (1913) by Madeline Rossiter [NLA Digital Collection, Sheet Music]
- “I Cannot Forget” (ca. 1910s) by Madeline Rossiter [NLA Digital Collection, Sheet Music]
- “Josie” (1923) by Madeline Rossiter/Oswald Anderson [NLA Digital Collection, Sheet Music]
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SAM ROWLEY
Comic, endman, monologist.
After establishing himself with Frank Smith during the late 1880s/early 1890s Sydney comedian Sam Rowley (“the Little Man with the Big Voice”) went on to carve out a three decades-long career in America. During that time he intermittently returned home – appearing for example with the Court Variety and Ballad Company (alongside W. Horace Bent) in 1895. His later Australian tours included engagements with Harry Rickards, Percy St John, Jones and Lawrence and the Fullers.
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BERT ROYLE
Writer, librettist, lyricist, composer, actor, and businessman.
Bert Royle came to Australia as a variety performer in 1888 and soon afterwards began his long association with J. C. Williamson. Initially employed as an actor in Williamson, Garner and Musgrove productions he was later engaged as Williamson’s literary secretary. His biggest successes were the pantomimes Djin Djin (1895) and Matsa (1896). Royle went to New Zealand in 1898 as Williamson’s representative and managed Tom Pollard’s opera productions for four years. He remained Williamson’s New Zealand representative until his death in 1929.
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