AustLit
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Amy Horton was a working performer in London from 1868 - 1877 (Note 1). Though her age is unrecorded, she was described by one reviewer from Era that witnessed her 1868 debut as “very young” (8 Nov 1868). Between September 1877 and May 1878 Amy eloped to Australia with her husband, ex-Guardsman Mr. Buchan-Hepburn, to the seeming mortification of his relatives (Note 2). Within that time frame, Mr. Buchan-Hepburn attempted to become a sheep farmer in Australia, and failed. To generate income, Amy Horton returned to work as a performer in Australia in June 1878 (Note 3), with her husband acting as her agent. There could be no clearer sign of who was the family breadwinner when Amy subsequently cut down her husband's old officer’s uniform, to wear as a costume throughout her career (Note 4).
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'I Won't Play With You Anymore' - A Song, Sung by Amy Horton.(Queensland Figaro and Punch 26 Jan. 1889) -
Amy Horton travelled through England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, and potentially India, China and ‘the East’ (Note 5). Her return to performance in 1878 marked the beginning of twelve years performing in Australia and New Zealand, with the exception of an illness in 1889 (Note 6). This nomadic, touring lifestyle was interrupted only between February 1882 and September 1883 while she rested in Christchurch and, by all accounts, invested her time in developing her local community (Note 7). This is testified to by the published incitement to see her off from New Zealand and thank her properly, as well as her farewell benefit, tendered at her performative haunt in Christchurch, Oddfellow’s Hall (Note 8).
As a result of her travels, Amy had few consistent relationships throughout her life. Those notable were that with her husband, William Buchan-Hepburn, and her close professional relationship with D’Arcy Stanfield, whom she worked with from at least her time in New Zealand in 1883, and up until her departure for London in 1890 (Note 9). Throughout this time, Amy maintained some ongoing relation to her family, as evidenced by the appearance of two of her siblings J. and R. Horton, labelled ‘The Brothers Horton’, as an impersonation support act at one of her performances in 1886 (Note 10). The influence of her husband’s family and life evidently impacted her own life quite significantly, as most reporting on him at the very least mentioned Amy as his wife. A notable incident, or several incidents in close succession, was Mr. Buchan-Hepburn’s sudden ascension to a Scottish Baronetcy in 1883, via the death of his first cousin by murder in Mexico, and the death of his elder brother several weeks later (Note 11). In 1886, Mr. Buchan-Hepburn’s failure to catch his booked transport – the Ly-ee-moon – resulted in his narrow escape of a fatal shipwreck. Amy Horton proceeded to enact benefits on behalf of the effected families, one of which was performed while on board the Baroco from Sydney to Brisbane, with even the Captain and Purser contributing some songs (Note 12).
Though acquiring some fame, especially throughout the colonies, Amy Horton describes her favourite gift as not flowers or wreaths or jewels, but two Christmas cards from a ‘little fellow’ after a performance in Melbourne. The mother of this little fellow told Amy that these Christmas cards were the most treasured things he owned, and Amy held onto these mementos for years afterwards (Note 13). Despite her sentimental attachment to the colonies, however, Amy Horton expressed her preference for performing in the North, attributing it, simply, to the climate (Note 14). The sweat-infused costume changes at-speed in humid, claustrophobic backstages at Christmas-time was apparently rather horrible. She soon followed her preference by returning to London in 1890, where she lived at least until 1900, after which no digitilised record of her remains (Note 15).
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From her first performances on the London boards, Amy Horton was heralded as “a new candidate for popular favour” (Era 22 Nov. 1868), and by 1875, her “popularity as a serio-comic songstress [was] well-established” (Era 14 Mar. 1875). Indeed, Amy seemed to turn heads and receive encores wherever she went, and reviewers often intimated that she was the brightest performer in any troupe she performed with (Note 16). She is described as “pretty, graceful, arch, dashing, and yet, in all she does, polished and refined” (Note 17), and as “a gem of purest ray serene” (Note 18). By 1885 she was heralded as “the Queen of Burlesque” (Note 19), and she earned this title well, receiving, as she did, very few bad reviews. Those bad reviews that do exist either point to travel fatigue, or point to Amy Horton specifically as the only saving grace of an otherwise worthless show (Note 20). She was so popular, in fact, that companies in New Zealand began to advertise her as part of their performances to attract crowds, even if she had no affiliation with the company (Press 28 Apr. 1883). Her performance style was seen as widely popular, though remaining – remarkably for burlesque – inoffensive. Though often playing characters within pantomimes, burlesques and benefits, she would also, and sometimes exclusively, sing songs during the intermissions between acts (Note 21). She often played male characters in burlesque, such as ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’, the Captain of the Guards, the Prince in ‘Mother Goose’, and Doctor Faustus (Note 22). In the role of Doctor Faustus, she was described as “successful in her representation of Faust, whether as the aged astrologer or the young and ardent lover” (Argus 6 May 1886).
Amy toured through England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and, most likely, India and China (Note 23), but her success was carved mainly within the bounds of Australia and New Zealand. Her first performance in Australia occurred at the Victoria Theatre, Sydney, on the 22nd of June 1878 (Note 24). The play was a nautical drama titled ‘The Ocean of Life’, and though the first performance may have suffered due to inclement weather on the evening, the attraction of Amy Horton from London bolstered the audience sufficiently. Her songs ‘Rowing on the Lake’ and ‘Captain Slash’ accorded “quite an ovation, and [were] repeatedly encored” (Note 25). After a benefit on the 6th of July, 1878 (Note 27), Amy Horton left to Newcastle on her first touring work in Australia, Rainford’s Ghost, which was described as ‘phantasmagorical entertainment’ (Note 28). Throughout its season it performed in Newcastle and Adelaide, and Amy Horton was recognised as a great contributor to the company, and granted a benefit (Note 28). After a brief season at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide, with a production of ‘Black-Eyed Susan’ (Note 29), Amy was back in Sydney by the 24th of October, 1878 (Note 30), and touring throughout New South Wales in her first Australian Christmas Pantomime ‘Merrie Moments!’ by the end of 1878, up to and including the 24th of January, 1879 (Note 31). Amy Horton would eventually come to tour with several troupes at length, leaving and returning to them throughout her extended career in the colonies. The most notable of these were Hudson’s, Lyons’, and D’Arcy Stanfield’s troupes.
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Hudson’s first tour with Amy Horton was marketed as ‘Hudson’s Surprise Party’, a novel, variety performance that Amy travelled with for eight months (Note 32). Between December 1879 and August 1880, Hudson’s Surprise Party toured through Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Toowoomba, Warwick, Ipswich, Gympie, Rockhampton, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Clare (Note 33). Throughout the season, Amy performed her comedic impression of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as well as songs titled ‘Never Kiss and Tell’ and ‘Emmalina’ (Note 34). Her reception was positive across the country: in Rockhampton she was “as usual long applauded” (Note 35), and in Adelaide was told of having “an unusual charm of voice; she sings merrily, as if she were born to make others merry… and when she goes off stage you are conscious of a blank whose void even the next best thing in the programme does not quite fill up” (Note 36). Ten years later, she would return to the renamed ‘Hudson’s Gaiety Burlesque Party’, starting with a production of Little Monte Cristo in Adelaide (Note 37). The records infer that this work travelled to India, China, and ‘the East’, reported as such in July of 1889, with a reported ‘reappearance’ of Miss Horton six months later (Note 38).
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‘Lyons’ Tourists or Pleasure Party’ were to leave for New Zealand from Sydney by June of 1881, to tour from Auckland to Christchurch by August of that year (Note 39). As it turned out, they left significantly later, and toured in New Zealand significantly longer, with Amy Horton shipping over on the 5th of July, 1881, and seceding from the troupe in Christchurch, February 1882 (Note 40). Amy toured with Lyons’ Tourist or Pleasure Party to Invercargill, Dunedin, Wellington, Auckland, Wanganui and Christchurch (Note 41). There are signs that the company was not a complete success, achieving only ‘moderate’ business in Invercargill, and noted as ‘improving’ while in Auckland, due to a greater familiarity with their audience (Note 42). Amy’s reception, in contrast to the troupe, was glowing. Her impersonation of ‘The Captain of the Guards’ – arguably one of the routines wherein she utilises her husband’s cut-down guard uniform – “fairly brought down the house” (Note 43). It was joked, in Auckland, that she turned the head of a wealthy share-broker (Observer 8 Oct. 1881), and in Wanganui she was complimented as “the life and soul of the company” (Note 44). After her secession in 1882, Amy Horton did not rejoin Lyons’ troupe until October 1884 (Australasian 11 Oct. 1884). They endured a lacklustre five-night season in Brisbane, before touring throughout Queensland until the 28th of November, performing finally in Warwick Town Hall (Note 45).
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Amy’s first tour with D’Arcy Stanfield in 1883 marked her emergence from resting in Christchurch and her eventual return to Australia. With Stanfield’s ‘Merry Thoughts and Happy Moments Company’, Amy toured through Christchurch, Kaiapoi, Invercargill, Wellington, Dunedin and Launceston (Note 46). The most notable occurrence of this tour was the riotous success of the Christmas Pantomime ‘Mother Goose; or, the Enchanted Beauty’ which premiered on Boxing Day in Wellington, 1883, with Amy Horton in the role of the Prince (Note 47). The work closed on the 12th of February, 1884, at the Queen’s Theatre in Dunedin – this was the last recorded time that Amy Horton spent in New Zealand since making it her home in 1881 (Note 48). She was back in Melbourne by March, 1884 (Australasian 15 Mar. 1884). Her work with D’Arcy Stanfield was far from over, however, as in 1885 she began to perform alongside him at the Olympic Theatre in Sydney (Note 49). The Olympic Theatre was converted from the old Masonic Hall, and a production titled ‘Quits’, starring both Amy Horton and D’Arcy Stanfield, was the first show produced therein (Note 50). This was the beginning of a successful two month season with what would become ‘The Olympic Comedy and Burlesque Company’, featuring shows such as Quits, Mary’s Mashers, Acis and Galatea, Don Juan Jnr., Orpheus, and The Maid and the Magpie (Note 51). As well as performing alongside her, D’Arcy Stanfield also directed Don Juan Jnr., Orpheus, and The Maid and the Magpie. After a two year hiatus, her work with D’Arcy Stanfield would continue until just prior to her departure for London, either performing alongside him, or performing in his own burlesque company. Between 1887 and 1889 they both worked on productions of Don Juan Jnr., Mother Goose, Venus and Adonis, Camaralzaman, Black-Eyed Susan, Little Monte Cristo, Whittington and His Cat, and Babes in the Wood, touring between Brisbane, Rockhampton, Sydney and Newcastle (Note 52). Much like their New Zealand success in 1883 and 1884, they were complimented most for their Christmas Pantomimes, produced in Brisbane with great success, for three Christmases running between 1887 - 1889 (Note 53).
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Amy Horton, for a brief period between April and July 1886, was head of her own touring company: ‘Amy Horton’s Burlesque Company’. Her husband, Mr. Buchan-Hepburn, was the business manager (Note 54). Their premiere production was ‘Little Don Giovanni’ on the 17th of April, 1886, at St. George’s Hall in Melbourne (Argus 10 Apr. 1886). Though it was evident the production lacked adequate rehearsal, it went well regardless, with Amy Horton encored and gifted with a flower wreath (Argus 19 Apr. 1886). Little Don Giovanni was the beginning of a two month season at St. George’s Hall, which also featured productions of Doctor Faustus – a burlesque that was “a mere pretence for the introduction of topical songs and eccentric dances” (Note 55) – Acis and Galatea, Alexis, Grand Oleo, and The Spitfire (Note 56). Their last performance in Melbourne was the 11th of June, 1886, and after a week-long season in Ballarat, the Company took up a month-long residence at the Academy of Music in Brisbane (Note 57). It was while travelling to this season in Brisbane that Amy performed on board the Baroco, to aid those effected by the Ly-ee-moon tragedy (Telegraph 25 June 1886). The Company performed the same repertoire as they did at St. George’s Hall, with the exception of their last performance – and their last performance as a Company – of ‘La Somnambula’ between the 18th and 22nd of July, 1886 (Note 58).
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Amy Horton’s music was exceedingly popular throughout Australia and New Zealand. At one performance in New Zealand, at the distress of the reviewer, two drunk men were disrupting the dress circle of the Wellington theatre by singing along raucously to all of her songs (Note 59). Several of her songs could even be described as ‘hits’, most notably her rendition of ‘I Shan’t Play With You Anymore’, which potentially enshrined her success in the colonies. First sung in an 1884 Christmas pantomime titled ‘Sinbad the Sailor, or, the Genii of the Diamond Valley and the New Guinea of the Future’, it entailed Amy dressing and mimicking a baby, the costume to which can been seen above (Note 60). One reviewer described the routine at length:
Miss Amy Horton’s baby-song convinces everybody that it is the special feature of the piece. Of its kind, it is quite unique, for it is exactly what it purports to be. It is the true picture of a pretty little spoiled child who has had a quarrel with another child. It would be quite easy to accept it as a reality, and, indeed, many persons who have seen it have believed, insisted on believing, that it was a child playing a child-part, so singularly complete is the illusion. It is nothing surprising, therefore, that Miss Horton has become a kind of rage. There are people who go to the Opera-house solely to hear this baby-song, and who time their going so as to hear it only. It is one of those perfect things of which there are so few in this world, and one cannot but imagine what Miss Horton would do with a child’s part specially written for her in a play where this exceptional qualification would have a larger opportunity of showing itself. (Australasian 24 Jan. 1885).
Another reviewer described that “her dramatic portrait of a schoolgirl was inimitable. She made up so well and acted so naturally that, with her winsome face and winning ways, she almost deluded the spectators into the belief that she was really a boarding school miss, and not a fullgrown woman” (Note 61). This song was performed many times throughout the remainder of her career, such as: during a production of ‘Mixed Mixed Mixed’ at the Sydney Opera House in 1885, during her productions of ‘Quits’ and ‘Mary’s Mashers’ at the Melbourne St. George’s Theatre in 1885, and during a benefit at Brisbane’s Academy of Music in 1886 (Note 62). She was continuing to perform it as late as 1894, where she sung it during a production in Scotland (Note 63).
‘Oh, You Men!’ was another notable and popular song, first performed in Amy Horton Burlesque Company’s rendition of ‘Grand Olio’ at the St. George Theatre, Melbourne (Argus 3 June 1886), further performed for the benefit on board the Baroco, and during Fairley Opera Company’s production of ‘Nap’ in 1886 (Note 64). In testament to its outstanding popularity, the score and lyrics of the work was published by Nicholson & Co. in the 1880s. Not only does this publication infer its success, but its demonstration of musical structure, and the repetitive verses with slightly changed lyrics, suggests that when reviewers narrated multiple encores of Amy Horton’s songs, they could be referring to encores between verses that encourage her to continue, as well as repetitions of the entire song (Oh! You Men).
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State Library of Victoria -
Amy Horton left Australia in 1890 to perform in a burlesque written for her by Fergus Hume, after several farewell benefits held in her honour (Note 65). Her first performance back in London was reported in October of 1890, after which – with the exception of a tour to Johannesburg, South Africa in 1895 (Note 66) – she toured with little fanfare between England, Scotland and Ireland up until the turn of the century (Note 67). Her final performance, and her final mention on record, was during a benefit of Australian Variety acts in 1900, to aid families effected by the Boer War (Standard 25 June 1900).
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