OVERVIEW:
J. A. Lipman, also known at various times as Rigby C. Tearle, spent much of the early 1900s involved in South Australia theatre. He toured companies around the state and through Western Australia before moving to Melbourne in 1914 to manage the St Kilda Comedy Theatre. Lipman later travelled to the United States and on his return in 1917 turned to film production and exhibition, with occasional forays into variety theatre and theatrical entrepreneurism. From the mid-1920s onwards he worked almost exclusively within the film industry, and at once stage served as the Australian representative for British International Pictures.
BIOGRAPHY:
1882-1913: Described as 'a colourful extrovert' with 'a flair for the wheeling and dealing of the film trade' (Pike and Cooper, p.107), Jonas Alfred Lipman was born in Adelaide in 1882. He started out his career in the entertainment industry in the early 1900s as a South Australian-based actor, occasional playwright, producer and company manager. Closely associated during his early years with the local Jewish community, and particularly the Adelaide Jewish Literary Society, he took amateur dramatic companies on tour to regional towns in South Australia and the Western Australia goldfields. Around the years 1903 to 1905 he and Judah Lipman were also associated with theatrical activity in the gold towns of Coolgardie and Kagoorlie and regional Victoria. The The Daily News (Perth) records in this respect that the pair had been tendered a farewell in the Coolgardie Council Chambers in late July 1905. Judah was purportedly leaving for an extended holiday while Jonas was embarking "in business elsewhere" (1 Aug. 1905, 12).
Sometime around 1906/07 he began using the name Rigby C. Tearle, the first such occasion found to date being the Tearle-Richards Comedy Company tour of South Australia in 1907. He also continued to be known as J. A. Lipman, using this name in his alternate position as an position as an advance agent (often for his own
companies). In 1908 he helped found the Sturt Choral and Dramatic Society (Unley), and by the end of the decade had firmly established himself as one of Adelaide's more prominent theatre practitioners. He toured the R. C. Tearle Comedy Company around 1910/11, presenting among other works Charlie's Aunt.
1914- 1918: In 1914 Lipman moved to Melbourne, taking control of the new theatre situated next to the Palais de Dance on St Kilda's Esplanade. Although originally conceived as a cinema, Lipman turned the venue into the St Kilda Comedy Theatre, offering patrons a selection of farces, musical comedies and other light entertainments. In the lead-up to the opening of the theatre the Prahan Telegraph noted that the venture was to be something new for locals:
One of the things which have been lacking in the suburbs south of the Yarra, has been a thoroughly organised 'play-acting' (as old fashioned people called it) company. This will be supplied at the building erected by the Daylight Pictures Co, on the Lower Esplanade which is now under the direction of Mr J. A. Lipman, to be conducted as a comedy theatre. It is a venture on an entirely new line, so far as St Kilda is concerned and will prove a change from the styles of entertainment most in vogue and should prove successful for the taste for the actual drama is always strong in the minds of the public (17 October 1914, P.5).
Sometime during the war years Lipman travelled to the USA, returning to Australia in early 1917. During his American sojourn he became familiar with various aspect of the Hollywood film industry, while also making connections with production companies and exhibitors. Although reportedly linked to Goldwyn Pictures, he continued to straddle the theatre and film industries during the late 1910s and early 1920s. In 1918, for example, the same year he oversaw the production of the feature film, Just Peggy, Lipman also appeared in the Tivoli revue Everybody's Doing It. Featuring Lottie Sargent, Elsie Parkes and Charles Workman, the revue's advertising for the Sydney and Melbourne seasons indicates that J. A. Lipman, the 'talented Hebrew comedian,' could be seen in diverting little Yiddish sketches such as 'Watch Your Wife' (as Moses Margulus) and 'The Bright Side of Life.'
Just Peggy, Lipman's first Australian film saw him involved as producer, writer, directed and actor. Credited in the latter role as Rigby C. Tearle, he plays the part of a theatrical manager. The film had been developed especially for Irish actress Sara Allgood, who at the time was touring the country in the play Peg O' My Heart. For the production Lipman co-founded the company, Mia Films (Mia being an acronym for 'made in Australia') and built a small outdoor studio at Seaforth on Sydney's north shore. Additional scenes were shot on location at nearby Palm Beach and Manly. Although the film became popular with both audiences and critics, and in fact made a solid profit, Lipman somewhat surprisingly decided not to continue making films but rather turned his attention to other areas of the film industry.
1919-1929: Lipman's career from 1919 onwards was largely involved in the areas film management, distribution and exhibition. When other entrepreneurial opportunities arose, however, he took them. In 1921 for example, he oversaw the Australian tour by a troupe of Maori performers.
In 1923 Lipman co-founded the Australasian Releasing Corporation Ltd with fellow directors, H. M. Percy and H. J. Harris. The company's stated purpose was to 'deal with the apparatus and films appertaining to the motion picture industry' (Sydney Morning Herald 15 March 1923, 11). As one of the country's leading exhibitors he was involved in several high profile industry controversies during the 1920s and early 1930s. In this role he was at the forefront of discussions with the government and various commissions, wrote numerous letters to newspaper editors around the country defending or attacking various film-related issues, and travelled extensively overseas on film-related business, notably to New Zealand and Great Britain. Among the issues he participated in were those relating to censorship (ca. 1923-24), insufficient investment in Australian films (1927), copyright (1932), and quota legislation (1933). From the late 1920s through until 1934 Lipman was also engaged as the Australian representative of British International Pictures.
1930-1958: Little is known about Lipman's career from the late 1930s onwards. What we do know is that he was involved in the making of two Australian films - The Man They Could Not Hang (1934, as producer) and Mystery Island (1937, as writer/director). Directed by Raymond Longford The Man They Could Not Hang tells the story of the life of John Babbacombe Lee, an Englishman famous for surviving three attempts to hang him for murder. His story had been the subject of two previous Australian films, the first in 1912 and the second in 1921. As with Just Peggy, set up his own company and oversaw the making of the film in the role of producer (credited again as Rigby C. Tearle). According to the Sydney Morning Herald his company, Invicta Productions Ltd, was capitalised with ₤5,000 (4 Nov. 1933, p.11). The film was heavily criticised by both the Australian and British critics, however, with much of the criticism directed at its lack of dramatic tension and for being too melodramatic. It failed to recoup its investment and became the Raymond Longford's last feature as a director.
Shot on location on Lord Howe Island, Lipman's third film, Mystery Island, similarly failed to impress the critics in terms of its dramatic qualities but did receive praise for its cinematography and memorable settings. Although the film received much publicity when lead actor Brian Abbott and fellow cast member Leslie Hay-Simpson disappeared while sailing back to Australia, Mystery Island was nevertheless confined to a support feature. Abbot's widow later sued the producers and their insurers for neglect over the death of her husband. The case was settled out of court.
Lipman's last known career movements to date are as representative for the Famous Artists and Production Agency in the late 1930s. He died in 1958.
[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]
