Faster: Manly in the 1920s
By Terry Metherell, 2006
Chapter 5: Exotic Pleasures: Manly Entertainment in the 1920s
Manly’s tradition as a pleasure resort had begun with the establishment in 1855 of
Henry Gilbert Smith’s New Brighton, as Manly Beach was then called. H G Smith
quickly established a small maze and Vauxhall Gardens behind his Pier Hotel, and built
a Camera Obscura, Swiss Cottage and stone kangaroo on nearby rocky promontories to
help attract and entertain tourists and visitors. A rocky overhang overlooking Manly
Cove, likely used by local Aborigines as a rock shelter, was fenced and advertised as
‘The Gunyah’.
The demand for ‘entertainments’ led to more exotic features such as the first Manly
Aquarium on the Corso (1886), the short-lived Hampton Court Maze on South Steyne
and, later on the same site, Steyne Court with its famous but short-lived giant water
chute (1903-06).
‘Sovereign’ Smith made a fortune with his merry-go-round on the Corso in the early
1900s. Several funfairs followed.
In 1906, Manly’s first movie theatre, the Pavilion Theatre, opened on the Ocean
Beach. It was operated by the actor, Roland Staveley, from a large tent on the
beachfront reserve opposite the end of the Corso. Later it expanded into a tall timber
structure built on a small pier jutting out over the sand. On opening day there were two
matinees and an evening session: “In the days of silent movies, they were usually
accompanied by piano, but on occasions the Manly Borough Band provided the musical
accompaniment.”1
In 1911 controversy erupted over an attempt by the lessee to remodel the structure
and extend their lease. Angry ratepayers protested and deputations saw the Minister for
Lands to oppose alienation of public beachfront land for commercial purposes.
In 1913, following a Council vote to permit another theatre on the beachfront,
controversy erupted again. Fortunately, in May 1913 a storm swept away Council’s own
bathing sheds and kiosks and probably weakened the already dilapidated Pavilion
Theatre. When the Pavilion’s lease expired at the end of 1913 it was pulled down.2
One film program at the Pavilion Theatre in 1908 captures the simple pleasures of
the early silent movies: ‘The Little Jules Verne’; ‘When the Devil Drives’; ‘A Trip through
Borneo’; ‘The Enchanted Pond’; ‘Across the Austrian Tyrol’; ‘An Exciting Ride’; and
‘Persevering Edwin’: admission sixpence, reserved deckchairs a shilling, children half
price.3 With an entertaining mix of adventure, moral tales, fantasy and travelogue there
was something for all the family, including young children.
Meanwhile, on Manly’s Steyne, beside the Steyne Hotel near the Corso, another
open-air theatre began screening films in 1908 or 1909, perhaps run by Sydney
1
Manly Daily, 1 July 2006, research by George and Shelagh Champion.
Loc cit.
3
Smith, Malcolm G, ‘Be it ever so humble’, in Kino Cinema Quarterly, Autumn 2003, p24.
2
Faster: Manly in the 1920s
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confectionery manufacturer and Manly resident James Stedman.4 By 1910 its mock
castle wall gave the venue its first name, ‘The Castle’, and was known as West’s Castle
Theatre. In 1912, a hardtop theatre was built on the site and named The Arcadia –
Manly’s first ‘permanent’ theatre on private land.5
The brief boom in Australian film-making between 1911 and 1913 (51, 30 and 17
local films were made in 1911-12-13 respectively) was followed by total domination by
American films and Hollywood after the war. The Federal Government’s wartime tax on
imported films was removed in 1918. By 1923, 94% of films exhibited in Australia came
from America.6 Manly children growing up in the 1920s were the first generation to
experience this wider world of exotic adventure and fantasy through the cameras of
American film-makers and the alluring talents of American ‘stars’.
After the Great War and the 1919 flu epidemic, Manly’s civic and commercial leaders
saw the need to revitalize Manly’s image and provide new attractions. The new
Britannia Theatre had opened in 1915 on Sydney Road, near the Corso. By 1920 it was
known as the Britannia De-Luxe, with the added attraction of a Grand Symphony
Orchestra.
Film screenings highlighted a variety of musical entertainment supervised by Mr A
Campfield: “It was affectionately known to the locals as ‘the only theatre in Manly where
music lovers are properly catered for’.”7
In 1923, The Britannia along with The Arcadia came under the management of the
theatre managers, the Smythe family, who began to invest heavily in Manly. In July
1920, the Manly Daily carried feature ads for the new Paramount Theatre, opened in
1914 as The Palace, on South Steyne, run by Haymarket Theatres Limited, and for the
Britannia.8 In April 1921, the Manly Daily was carrying feature film ads for the Arcadia
on the front page: “Constance Talmadge: That Saucy Young Imp”.9
Scan 30.01.06 Fancy Dress party at Victoria Hall c1927
4
James Stedman, ‘manufacturing confectioner’ of James Stedman Limited, lived at Melrose, The
Crescent, Manly in 1910 (Sands’ Directory 1911).
5
Smith, Malcolm G, ‘A Site to Remember’, in Kino Cinema Quarterly, Spring 2001, p9.
6
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Australia
7
Smith, Malcolm G, ‘Rule Britannia, but the Olympic Ruled the Day’, in Kino Cinema Quarterly,
Summer 2001, p20.
8
Manly Daily, 16 July 1920, pp2-3. (Wellings Local Studies, Manly Library).
9
Manly Daily, 6 April 1921, p1. (Wellings Local Studies, Manly Library).
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Other entertainment venues were also being advertised more widely. Manly’s
Victoria Hall, built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, had opened on the Corso in
1901. By 1908, Fraser Shaw’s Vaudeville Company performed there weekly. The same
year the Beale Musical Society presented Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Yeomen of the Guard’,
with full operatic orchestra and a grand chorus of 60 voices.
Throughout the pre-war boom period the Victoria Hall had been in regular use by a
wide range of visiting drama and comedy groups, vaudeville troupes and local societies.
From 1918, it was the main Manly venue for popular comedy. In December that year
Allan Adair’s Touring Comedy Company presented ‘Gertie’s Glad Eye’.10
Also on Manly’s beachfront at South Steyne, the Eden Gardens had begun its
transformation from pre-war costume dramas to more raunchy and boisterous
vaudeville, unfair and dance entertainments. Eden Gardens had commenced in 1911 as
an open-air and under canvas venue for stage acts and music operating only in the
summer. In 1917 Clay’s Vaudeville Company started playing there and continued until
late 1921. During this period, it became known as the Paris Gardens, reflecting its
‘naughty’ new image. New buildings appear to have been erected.
In 1922, it became the Palais de Danse and from 1923 until 1925 as The Follies, after
the ‘Folies Bergere’, at the notorious Moulin Rouge in Paris. In 1925-26, racing to keep
up with the next big thing, it became The Palais.11
Scan 20.09.05 1926 programme
The Manly Musical Society performed ‘The O’Brien Girl’ at the Palais Theatre in late
1925, and ‘Little Nellie Kelly’ in March 1926. Subsequent shows were held at the
Victoria Hall in the Corso. This suggests that the Follies/Palais was pulled down in late
1926 in preparation for Manly’s newest attraction, the Big Wheel. In 1927 Australia’s
biggest Ferris wheel was erected on the site, renamed the Big Wheel Gardens.
Towering 80 feet above the Steyne and Ocean Beach, the Giant Ferris Wheel became a
Manly landmark and a beacon for Manly’s children and visiting families.
The Great Depression hit Manly’s existing venues hard. The Spry family took over
the Big Wheel Grounds in 1930, renamed it Luna Park and rejuvenated the funfair five
10
Malcolm Smith, ‘Be it ever so humble’, p24.
Sands’ Directory 1926, 1927; also Historical note on ‘Palais de Danse/The Follies/The Palais’,
Wellings Local Studies.
11
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years ahead of its more famous harbourside successor. Manly’s Luna Park finally
closed in the late 1950s.12
Also in the 1920s, a street away from The Palais/Follies/Big Wheel/Luna Park, in
Wentworth Street there was an open-air site in Victoria Parade known as Victoria
Gardens, commencing in late 1923 or early 1924. Advertised as ‘practically wind-proof’,
Victoria Gardens screened silent movies under canvas on a vacant block of land near
the harbour and East Esplanade, on the south-eastern side of Victoria Parade.
One Manly Daily ad for Victoria Gardens’ ‘Open-Air Pictures’ features Elsie Ferguson
in ‘Outcast’, film of the English and American Derbies with the ‘famous contest between
the American and English horses Zev and Papyrus’ accompanied by ‘the New
Orchestra’.13
Manly’s community leaders also sought other non-commercial ways to attract and
entertain visitors and local residents. In 1921, Council examined proposals for new Hot
Salt Water Baths to be erected on South Steyne, behind the surf sheds.14 In 1923 the
Manly Daily, Council and local businesses adopted the poem ‘Manly-By-The-Sea’ as the
slogan and promotional song for their new American-style ‘Boosting Manly’ campaign.
The Daily printed ‘Manly-By-The-Sea’, employed door-to-door sales staff to sell it
throughout Manly and the city, and promoted it heavily as the foundation for its new
sheet music business.
In July 1923, in a small Manly Daily report on new building approvals by Manly
Council, the following appeared: ‘Picture Theatre, The Corso, L Kaberry’.15 Lewis
Kaberry, the architect, lived in Oyama Avenue where he built his home ‘Casa del Mar’
and the adjoining ‘Casa Mia’ (now 3 Oyama Avenue). He became one of Australia’s
leading theatre architects. He was commissioned by the Smythe family, who also
owned the Arcadia and Britannia Theatres, to design The Rialto, on the former site of
‘Magic City’ on the Corso. In September 1923, the Smythes formed Manly Theatres
Limited as a holding company for their three Manly picture palaces.
Scan 05.09.05 Promotion of movie Hell’s Angels at Rialto, 1930
12
Malcolm Smith, ‘Be it ever so humble’, p25.
Manly Daily, 18 January 1924, in Malcolm Smith’s ‘Be it ever so humble’, p25.
14
Manly Daily, 27 April 1921, p1.
15
Manly Daily, 5 July 1923, p3.
13
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Malcolm Smith, cinema historian, described the grand opening and program:
“The Rialto opened on Monday 23 July 1923 with ‘Sherlock Holmes’, starring John
Barrymore, and ‘Thirty Days’, with Wallace Reid. Live on stage, Miss May Geary, a
‘glorious contralto’ direct from a season at Sydney’s Haymarket and Tivoli theatres,
delighted audiences with her charming vocal renditions... The theatre screened nightly
and on Saturdays a matinee, with a change of program three times a week on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday. The remainder of the opening week’s programs were ‘Human
Hearts’ with House Peters, plus ‘Breaking Home Ties’, ‘Dangerous Curve Ahead’ with
Richard Dix, and ‘Fortune’s Mark’. Miss May Geary performed with her glorious voice
for the entire week.”16
The Rialto featured a uniformed commissionaire who opened the car doors of
wealthy patrons and directed picture-going crowds. It had a four-piece orchestra.
Leading trade and building magazines in the 1920s praised the Rialto’s state of the art
ventilation, which included a sliding roof and a partly open western side.
By 1925, film programs were changing twice weekly and by 1929, The Rialto Concert
Orchestra was under the direction of local conductor John Maling. From its opening,
The Rialto became the pre-eminent picture palace in Manly and surrounding suburbs.
Two generations of local children attended its Saturday matinees to see a children’s
feature, cartoon and serial. Those who could afford it bought ice-creams or sweets from
the teenage vendors who walked the aisles at intermission. Their ice-cream trays were
stocked by Con Pappas’ milk-bar next door.
In 1933, as the popularity of ‘talkies’ soared, the Smythes remodelled The Rialto in
the Art Deco style and built their fourth Manly theatre, The Embassy (later The Odeon)
on West Esplanade.
Cabaret, dancing and grand balls were all features of Manly social life in the 1920s.
The most popular venue was the Dungowan Cabaret on South Steyne. The Dungowan
cabaret and Ball-Room took its name from the fashionable Dungowan Flats built in 1919
on the former site of the Steyne Court Water Chute and amusement grounds.
Following subdivision of Steyne Court Amusement Grounds in 1905, a half-timbered
new building was constructed on the corner of South Steyne and Ashburner Street in
1913, the Manly Roller Skating Rink. By 1916 this had become the Palace Picture
Theatre and in 1920 the Paramount.17
By July 1920, the Paramount Theatre was controlled by city-based Haymarket
Theatres, with Fred Davies as the local theatre manager. The Paramount appears to
have closed in 1923. It was then converted to the Dungowan Palais Theatre and
Cabaret Dance Hall.18
In August 1923, Arthur Little, the Corso’s men’s outfitter, organised the ‘Cricket Ball’
at Cabaret Dungowan. At the same time, the ‘Manly-By-The-Sea’ song was featured at
Cabaret Dungowan, as well as the Tivoli, Lyceum and Haymarket Theatres in the city.19
In 1926, Haymarket Theatres decided to screen films there again. The grand
opening of Dungowan Palais Super Cinema was held on Saturday 10 July 1926.
However, six days later a dance was held in the theatre, so seating must have been
removable. Facing keen competition from the Rialto, the Olympic (formerly the
16
Malcolm G Smith, ‘The Rialto’, in Kino Cinema Quarterly, Winter 2002, p30.
Sands’ Directory 1917, 1921.
18
Malcolm G Smith, ‘A Theatre By Any Other Name’, in Kino Cinema Quarterly, Autumn 2002,
p26. Both names, Paramount Picture Theatre and Cabaret Dungowan, were in use in 1923 (see
Sands’ 1924).
19
Manly Daily, 2 August 1923, p3, ‘Dancing at Dungowan’.
17
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Britannia, renamed in 1924), and the Arcadia, film screenings soon ceased and the
building reverted to being the Dungowan Cabaret Dance Hall.
The popularity of cabaret declined in the late 1920s as movies became more
sophisticated, and the first ‘talkies’ commenced. The Great Depression completed the
rout. Dungowan Cabaret Dance Hall closed at the end of 1929 and in 1930 became the
Dungowan Roller Skating Rink. During the 1930s, use as a skating rink and dance hall
alternated several times. A new dance floor was installed in 1933 for the Cocoanut
Grove Cabaret Dance Hall, with ‘Tiny’ Douglas and his Orchestra. In 1949 it became an
Ice Skating Rink.
The crowd attending the Jubilee Ball at Dungowan in 1927
In January 1928, the high-point of post-war prosperity, Dungowan Cabaret Hall
hosted the Olympic Ball. This Ball, one of several in Manly’s summer ball season, was
held to raise money for local stars to attend the 1928 Olympic Games.20 One of the
organisers was H M ‘Harry’ Hay, a former Manly swimming star. The Dungowan’s
summer balls were a highlight of Manly’s social season and never failed to attract a lively
crowd of Manly’s glittering ‘young things’. Even as late as 1931 in the depths of the
Depression, ads for the Manly Life Saving Club’s Lifesavers’ Ball at Dungowan could
proclaim: “Yes! All the Crowd will be Going!”21
Manly’s entertainments took more sedate and controlled forms as well. Health and
fitness became a higher priority in the 1920s. The eugenics movement encouraged
more interest in organised gymnastics and fitness clubs. The success of Manly’s
swimming stars at the 1924 Paris Olympics excited further interest. In July 1926, the
Manly Daily announced: “Grand Opening of Olympic Club, Frank Stuart’s Fine
Institution”.22 Was Frank Stuart’s gymnasium in Denison Street the first purposedesigned gym in Manly?
20
Manly Daily, 21 December 1927, p2.
Manly Daily, 1 September 1931.
22
Manly Daily, 8 July 1926, p2.
21
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Manly’s ‘characters’ were an entertainment in themselves. The best known was
‘Sweet Nell’ Sullivan who sold sweets and fruit from a home-made barrow. Sweet Nell
lived in a dilapidated weatherboard cottage in Norton Street (now Central Avenue)
behind the old Manly Daily printing room. In April 1926, “Mrs N Sullivan, better known to
Villagers as Sweet Nell” was given permission by Manly Council to “sell sweets etc on
the Ocean beach at the pleasure of the Council.”23 Villagers have vivid memories of her
roaming the beach, Corso and harbourfront selling sweets, or sometimes giving sweets
and oranges to small children. Mrs Joan Rudd, a youngster in the 1920s, recalls:
‘Sunday was, of course, a great day for our dear old Sweet Nell who, dressed in the
green get-up provided as an advertising gimmick by Wrigley’s gum, would sell sweets
and goodies from her huge basket.’24 On another occasion, perhaps a Venetian
Carnival parade, Sweet Nell chose to appear as Lady Godiva, without any ‘get-up’ at all.
Then, there was the informal entertainment on the Corso for Friday night’s shopping
and window-shopping. Mrs Rudd recalls the ‘Corso Sheiks’, named after the film
starring 20s heart-throb Rudolph Valentino: “If you had never been whistled at by a
Corso Sheik you were, to your friends, a social disaster… The Corso Sheiks, so named
by somebody’s scornful father, were smart young chaps who seemed to spend most of
their leisure time ‘bird-watching’. On Friday nights they were out in force… Of course,
you snootily ignored the whistles and walked past, talking earnestly to your girlfriend,
even though you both were secretly fit to burst with giggles.”25
Bert Owen, who lived in a flat in Grantleigh on the current site of the Dar West
Children’s Home in Wentworth Street, had vivid memories of Manly’s exotic pleasures:26
“Manly was a wonderful place for a young person such as myself during the 20s and
30s. There was so much to see and do. Then on the corner of Ashburner Street stood
the Tiny Douglas Cocoanut Grove Dance Hall [Dungowan Hall, the former Paramount
Theatre] which was a replica of its Hollywood counterpart. Many famous bands of that
era played there and they had lounges for small parties on the mezzanine floor…
Opposite on the Promenade [South Steyne] stood the bandstand where for many years
on Sunday afternoon Jerry Pheloung and the Manly Brass Band entertained the crowd
who sat on canvas chairs under the pines. On special occasions Jerry would augment
the band with famous musicians and they would play the 1812 Overture.”
Sweet Nell featured in many Manly memories of the period. Bert recalled: “She plied
her trade of selling sweets from a gaily coloured cart on the beach and had arguments
with her rival seller ‘the Yank’ when he invaded her territory.”
Next to the Owens’ home: “In the 1920s on the corner of Wentworth Street stood a
rambling old hall [the Palais] where a variety company called the Serenades performed
weekly. The comedian was Sid Beck and his straight man was Will Mahoney. Madeline
Knight was the lead singer. When the company closed, the hall was pulled down and
became a fun fair [the Big Wheel Grounds, and later Luna Park]. At the rear of the
property another building housed the dodgem cars which later became a small dance
hall then a roller skating rink.”
A block away another entertainment venue thrived in the 1920s: “In Victoria Road [sic
– Parade] between Darley Road and East Esplanade, Pat Hanna’s variety troupe
performed in the open air arena” – the Victoria Gardens, which also doubled as an openair cinema on summer nights.
23
Manly Daily, 16 April 1926, p3.
Manly Daily, 19 October 1984, p28.
25
Loc cit.
26
The following extracts are from various of Bert Owen’s undated and unpublished ‘Recollections
and Memories in the 20s and 30s’ (photocopy held by the author).
24
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There was a changing array of attractions on those sites with the best locations and
passing custom:
“On the Corso, [before World War One] Sovereign Smith’s fun fair with its slippery-dip
running the full length of the building and its large merry-go-round closed and was
converted into a theatre and for some time the ‘De Tisne Company’ performed there.
They staged many popular plays and an occasional musical comedy. It was later [in
1923] to become ‘The Rialto’ picture theatre.”
The harbourfront also had its attractions:
“At the end of West Esplanade stood a stage shell, now part of the Art Gallery
building. From here a Canadian sketch artist27 ran a variety show. He had three easels
on the stage and in each half of the program did three sketches of advertisements for
products such as White Wings flour and other popular lines. The balance of the show
consisted of other various artists. The paying public sat on canvas chairs in the open.
The show closed after about three seasons as a lot of the spectators preferred to watch
the show from what was called ‘Scotsman’s Hill’ [ie Tower Hill, near Dalley’s Castle, not
the other Scotsman’s Hill up Raglan Street, above Manly Oval].”
Bert Owen sold tickets to the show with the Canadian’s wife:
“I was paid weekly but each month he gave me a bonus for the number of tickets I
sold. I was pretty slick in selling and during the show he would give prizes to different
people in the audience. He would say to me ‘See if there is a woman in the tenth row
with, say, a blue dress,’ and if there was no one in blue I had a standard reply, ‘Nothing
doing’. It raised many a laugh but as people could see the show without paying he
lasted about two years.”
Bert recalled Saturday matinees at local cinemas:
“In the twenties on the beachfront next to the old Steyne Hotel was the Arcadia
Theatre where we kids thrilled to the serials, ‘The Perils of Pauline’ with Pearl White in
the lead. In Sydney Road, opposite the New Brighton [Hotel] stood the Olympic, where
we agonized with Elmo Lincoln in ‘Lion Man’ and ‘Tarzan’ and in the main movie in the
tender scenes, wriggled when the pianist played ‘Hearts and Flowers’.”
Lilian Owen
27
Arthur von Tossau, (d1927), also a popular member of Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club.
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Bert Owen had special reason to recall another popular entertainment of the 1920s,
beauty queen competitions. Lilian Owen, Bert’s sister, had won the 1924 Miss Manly
competition run in conjunction with Manly’s annual Venetian Carnival. She was unaware
her boyfriend had sent her photograph to the Daily Guardian which was running another
competition for the most beautiful girl in NSW associated with surf-bathing or swimming.
The total prize money was £1000. Over 1000 nominations were received.
A committee of prominent writers and artists, including Thea Proctor, Norman
Lindsay and B E Minn, as well as C D Paterson, President of the Surf Life Saving
Association, acted as judges. Bert Owen tells the story:
“Photographs of these [35] finalists appeared in the [Daily Guardian] paper each day
for some weeks. J C Williamson placed the Criterion Theatre at the Committee’s
disposal. Eventually 34 finalists appeared… They wore one-piece stockinette bathing
costumes, without caps or shoes and no makeup. Each girl paraded under the dazzling
spotlight, walking slowly down stage and then past the judging panel… Again and again
the girls paraded until the judges decided on the winner and place-getters.
[Lilian’s husband-to-be, Percy Baker, was a musician in an orchestra at the Piccadilly
Theatre in Pitt Street] and as often happened she was in the stalls waiting for a movie to
finish. On the screen flashed a message that she was required at the box office. From
the [Piccadilly] Theatre she was whisked up to Phillip Street to the office of Smith’s who
ran the competition. There she was told she had won the first prize of £500.
As C D Paterson said in announcing the winner: “Lilian Owen is the type of woman of
whom Australia can be proud and is proof of the beneficial effect sunbathing is having on
the young womanhood of Australia.”
Rexona Soap made Lilian their ‘Rexona Girl’. Union Theatres engaged her to make
appearances at their theatres. The success of this first ‘surf girl’ competition was the
inspiration for future Miss Australia contests.
Bert Owen also recalled some Manly girls who featured in other ‘entertainments’:
“When I was a younger member of the [North Steyne] Surf Club, I with the other
callow youths were fascinated with the club’s ladies’ man who had no trouble attracting
females to his side. Our admiration was enhanced when, under the club, which was
built on wooden piers, he constructed a room with galvanized sheets, using the piers to
enclose the area. For some time ‘Shivery’s’ little lair was in use. Maybe the women
were there to see his etchings. One night with a big sea and a high tide the love nest
was swept away and the two householders wet. The ardor [sic] of the participants was
cooled, and the room never rebuilt, much to the pleasure of us envious males.”
Manly in the 1920s was crowded with bright, new clubs and societies, eager to cater
for the extra leisure time and new freedoms of post-war society. One of the many new
groups encouraged by the wave of popular music was the Manly Musical Society formed
in 1925(?). The Society’s first production was ‘The O’Brien Girl’ which ran at the Palais
Theatre (corner of Wentworth Street and South Steyne) late in 1925. ‘Little Nellie Kelly’
followed at the Palais in March 1926. The playbill featured a drawing by local artist,
Pixie O’Harris. Next came ‘Little Jessie James’ in June 1926 at the Victoria Hall. One of
the highlights of the 1927 summer season was the very popular ‘No, No, Nanette’ at the
Victoria Hall. The Society’s eleventh production was ‘You’re in Love’, played in July
1928 at the Victoria Hall. The celebrity aviators, Ulm and Kingsford-Smith, who had just
completed their record-breaking flight from England to Australia, attended. A special
song about their exploits was performed on the evening. Proceeds from the Society’s
shows were donated to local charities, including a soup kitchen which operated from
Manly Town Hall.28
28
John MacRitchie, The Manly Musical Society, file note, Wellings Local Studies.
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One of the Vice-Presidents of the Manly Musical Society in 1929, Sydney A
Maddocks, was ‘a talented violinist and producer of amateur theatricals’.29 He became a
Manly tragedy. Maddocks lived in Bower Street. After a rapid rise through the NSW
Public Service in the 1920s, he became Commissioner for Road Transport and
Tramways in 1932. A powerful reformer, he clashed with elements in the Police
Department over road safety, and with the unions over changes to bus routes and
services. In 1937 he was arrested for homosexual offences and jailed amid sensational
press coverage. After his release, Maddocks ran a shop in Manly with his son and died
at home in 1963.
Concerts were extremely popular. They provided an ideal opportunity to combine
entertainment, charitable fund-raising, ‘boosting’, community building and selfcongratulation. A spectacular example was the Manly Daily Song Competition in 1923,
organised and promoted by the Daily’s indefatigable editor, J R Trenerry.
The poem, ‘Manly-By-The-Sea’ was composed by Herbert C Bailey of Waterloo, as a
prize-winning entry in the Daily’s competition for a promotional ‘Song of Manly’. Eager to
set the poem to music and sell the music as part of the Daily’s new sheet music
business, Trenerry organised the Manly Daily Song Competition. One of the series of
Grand Competition Concerts was held at Dungowan Theatre on 12 April 1923.
The Grand Concert programme prepared by the Daily featured J R Trenerry,
‘Promoter’, who wrote: “Should the composition of music selected for the prize contain
such inherent merit as Mr Bailey’s poem, I feel sure Manly will have a song that will live
for many years to come.”
Five previous concert winners were listed, including Albert Jonas and W D Cope of
Manly. The six performers for the Dungowan concert included one woman, Miss Kate
Bishop of Roseville. The Grand Concert also featured Manly’s Miss Ethel Friend, an
outstanding contralto and local piano teacher, and The Manly Orchestra conducted by A
F Sayers.30
Concert by pupils of Ethel Friend, Presbyterian Hall, late 1920s.
The Manly Music Club also grew from the ‘pleasure decade’ of the 1920s when many
local charity fundraisers featured concerts by local musicians and singers. The 1929-30
season was the Club’s first. (The programme for its eighth monthly Musicale, held in
April 1930, states: ‘The annual season of the Club dates from September1st 1929 to
29
30
ADB, vol 15, pp280-281.
Loc cit.
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August 31st 1930’.) The Club’s object was: ‘to provide good music and social intercourse
for the enlightenment and entertainment of its members and their friends, and for the
advancement of music in the community, regular Musicales being held monthly’.
The Club grew from the Manly community’s passion for concerts such as the
fundraiser held in May 1927 in honour of General Granville Ryrie, the local Federal MP,
held at the newly-completed Soldiers’ Memorial Hall in Raglan Street. Another recital
held in the Presbyterian Church Hall on 11 April 1929 featured artistes most of whom
became members of the Music Club.
Six of Manly’s doctors were among the Club’s twelve Vice-Presidents, with S A
Maddocks, C W Leggo and others. The Musical Director was Lloyd Davies. Among the
Social Committee were Leggo, whose daughters Beryl and Gwynneth were local
teachers and music lovers; Mrs Keirle, the wife of former Manly Mayor and Club
President A T Keirle; Miss Ethel Friend, the well-known Manly music teacher; and Miss
Edith Kilminster, a concert pianist.
In the Club’s first season, local performers included Miss Ruby Zlotkowski (soprano)
who taught piano at her family’s Herbert Street home; Mrs Twigden (piano); Lloyd
Davies (violin); Miss Rosamond Cornford (cello) and Katie Cornford (piano). Oliver King
(bass), the founder of the Music Club movement in Australia, spoke at the Manly Club’s
AGM in August 1930.31
One of the Musical Society’s early members was Miss Jean Fryer who recalled the
lively Manly music and dance scene which included several ballet schools by the 1930s:
“Manly produced a lot of talent – singers, dancers, musicians… Misses Hazel and Violet
Meldrum, Miss Edith Head, Miss Maureen Sweeney, Miss Moya Beaver, Mrs Dot Grant
and her daughter Ena… There was a Ladies’ Choir, all dressed in white frocks. Uncle
Joe [Rognini] was Musical Director for some of the musical comedy productions. Also,
the Manly Band conductor, Jerry Pheloung, used to play at the Band Rotunda, South
Steyne, and won championships. Later, every Saturday night were professionals who
made up a concert [at the Rotunda]. One could pre-book canvas deck-chairs or else
find other seats or stand. There was also a group of pierettes [sic] who performed on
the old Art Gallery stage, harbour-side. Also, on the site of the present Royal Far West
building there was a huge marquee with a stage and concerts by professionals were
held on Saturday nights. Booked deck-chairs were the fashion… My music teacher
Ruby Zlotkowski and her mother were singers and choir members of the Methodist
Church, Manly, and often sang duets. Ruby sang with J C Williamson’s. Many of the
ballet teachers became members of J C Williamson’s, and also of the Tivoli Ballet. The
Misses Hazel and Violet Meldrum also danced with Sir Robert Helpmann [in the 1930s].
[Later] Hazel was also a producer for J C Williamson’s musical comedies.”32
Exotic pleasures were embraced in the 1920s as an antidote to war and work. Of all
those pleasures tasted in Manly were there any to compare with dancing the night away
at Dungowan, or simply sitting on the sea wall in the evening listening to Jerry
Pheloung’s Manly Brass Band and felling the fresh sea-breeze.
31
MacRitchie, John, Manly Music Club Beginnings, file note, Wellings Local Studies.
Interview with Miss Jean Fryer, 14 November 2002; Jean Fryer, ‘History of the Fryer and
Rognini Family and Early Manly’, 1999, pp2-3, Manly Library Local Studies.
32
Faster: Manly in the 1920s
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