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History of Australian vaudeville theatre.
National treasure is the story of Gertrude Johnson, the remarkable woman who almost single-handedly established the National Theatre, now based on Melbourne's St. Kilda. This book commemorates the centenary of her birth and her legacy to performing arts, and covers her career in both Australia and London, where she sang at Covent Garden and with Melba at the Old Vic.
This spectacular book is an affectionate celebration of Melbourne's Her Majesty's Theatre. Packed with evocative text and hundreds of rare, nostalgic images, it documents the shows and stars who've entertained Melburnians over the past 14 decades. Her Majesty's great stage has housed everything from Show Boat, Oklahoma! and Fiddler on the Roof to Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins and The Rocky Horror Show - hundreds of shows, including an intriguing few that were not exactly box office bonanzas! Its dressing rooms have been home to Dame Nellie Melba, Anna Pavlova and Dame Joan Sutherland as well as Peter Allen, Dame Edna, Jerry Hall, and even Bananas in Pyjamas. It hasn't always been ...
They shared a name, of course, and their physical resemblance was startling. And both Frank Thrings were huge figures in the landscape of twentieth-century Australian theatre and film. But in many ways they could hardly have been more different. Frank Thring the father (1882–1936) began his career as a sideshow conjuror, and he wheeled, dealed and occasionally married his way into becoming the legendary ‘F.T.’ — impresario, speculator and owner of Efftee Films, Australia’s first ‘talkies’ studio. He built for himself an image of grand patriarchal respectability, a sizeable fortune, and all the makings of a dynasty. Frank Thring the son (1926–1994) squandered the fortune and d...
Vicki Fairfax's account of the struggle to build an Arts Centre for all Victorians located in the heart of Melbourne makes for very exciting reading. Set against problems ranging from identifying and securing a site to seeing it completed and in operating mode many years later, the story provides insights into the generosity, creativity and vision of the many people involved. This book, with its hundreds of historic photos, plans and drawings will interest arts academics and architectural enthusiasts alike.
This groundbreaking volume of critical essays about popular entertainments brings together the work of eighteen established, emerging, and independent scholars with backgrounds in Archives, Theatre and Performance, Music, and Historical Studies, currently working across five continents. The first of its kind to examine popular entertainments from a global and multi-disciplinary perspective, this collection examines a broad cross-section of historical and contemporary popular entertainment forms from Australia, England, Japan, North America, and South Africa, and considers their social, cultural and political significance. Despite the vibrant, complex, and ubiquitous nature of popular enterta...
George Tallis arrived in Australia as a 17-year-old immigrant in 1886, and rose to become head of J.C. Williamson Ltd, the world's largest entertainment organisation. This book is his story, an intriguing view of Australian entertainment between 1886 and 1938.
"Musical theatre is --and always has been-- an international form, not just an American one. It can take root anywhere. Few people would realise that such hit standards as "The Glow Worm", "Brazil", "Mack the Knife", "I Will Wait for You" and "El Condor Pasa" came from foreign language musicals. A Million Miles from Broadway --Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London looks at the history (and future) of work that exists outside of the two traditional centres. Met Atkey has lectured internationally on musical theatre. He is also a composer and lyricist himself. When his musical A Little Princess (written with the late Robert Sickinger) opened, the New York Times praised its "lovely music". His earlier book Broadway North: the Dream of a Canadian Musical Theatre has become the basis for courses taught in Canadian Universities, including Sheridan College, where the international hit musical Come from Away was born. Austrailian TV producer and musical writer Peter Pinne called it "well documented", full of facts, and a compelling read for any musical theatre buff." "--
Eleven African Americans, including a musician, were among the First Fleet of colonial settlers to Australia. In the 150-plus following years, African Americans visiting the region included jubilee singers, vaudevillians, sports stars and general entertainers. This book provides the only comprehensive history of more than 350 African American entertainers in Australia and New Zealand between European settlement in Australia in 1788 and the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941. Famous names covered include boxer Jack Johnson, film star Nina Mae McKinney and jazz singer Eva Taylor. Background stories provide a multidimensional view of the entertainers' time in a place very far from home.
World of Sport examines the development of modern sport from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1960s in the light of transnational approaches to history. Critically probing existing studies and offering new insights, this volume demonstrates that while sport was a national and international phenomenon, it was invariably constructed transnationally. Taking in topics ranging from the dissemination of football codes to transpacific surfing cultures, and the touring lives of baseball and hockey players to the contact zones of international competition, it emphasises the importance of transnational perspectives in the way people around the globe experience sport. Like other forms of popular cultu...