AustLit

Until recently, the popular culture theatre industry in Australia lay outside the priority interests of academics and professional historians. Much of what was known about the industry prior to the 1930s, for example, was a combination of recycled myth, unreliable memoirs (from retired industry practitioners or social observers), or piecemeal information located by historians as they researched other areas of theatre activity.

Recent research by academic theatre historians, particularly at The University of Queensland, has begun to supplement and correct the historical record. This research project records their findings as a first step. There is now ample evidence demonstrating that variety theatre, for example, made a key contribution to Australian popular culture between the 1850s and late 1920s. Peaking in the years after 1916, when the First World War forced the major variety organisations to rely more on local talent, the industry not only increased its overall professional ranks, but also established possibly the first ever locally-created theatrical genre – the Australian revusical.

With its performers constantly moving around the country via a network of established circuits, the industry was uniquely placed to transmit and respond to everyday issues of concern and interest, much as the television industry does today. Many of its performers became national celebrities. Some, like Nat Phillips and Roy Rene (Stiffy and Mo), George Wallace and Jim Gerald, became legends during their careers.