AustLit

Comprising manuscripts, sheet music, correspondence, legal letters, running order sheets and other miscellaneous items, the Nat Phillips Collection came to light only after having been passed on to a Brisbane bric-a-brac shop in the early 1970s. The 11 boxes came to the attention then University of Queensland lecturer, Dr Robert Jordan (later professor of drama at the University of New South Wales). Jordan notified the Fryer Library of the boxes and they were apparently purchased for a nominal sum. Interestingly, although regarded as having historical significance, the boxes remained in the same state in which they were purchased in for more than thirty years.

Why the collection was shelved for so long is not known. It is likely that a decision was made in order that more 'worthwhile' holdings could be processed, but even so this would have been only one of several intervening factors. Certainly there was no priority given to either the Nat Phillips Collection or the possibility of increasing the library's collection of popular culture scripts by the University at that time. Evidence of this is contained in a memorandum to F. D. O. Fielding by Fryer Librarian Margaret O'Hagan (dated 9 Sept. 1985). The letter reports that veteran comedian/actor Ron Shand was in possession of a collection of original Stiffy and Mo scripts and was prepared to make available to the library (at cost) any it did not already have. An offer to purchase these scripts was never taken up by the Fryer possibly because the processing of the collection was not started until 2002, and/or because popular culture artefacts were not high on the list of any tertiary institution's priorities prior to the rise of popular culture studies in the 1980s. It is likely that Shand's offer was subsequently forgotten over the years and he has since passed away. The whereabouts of these scripts is presently unclear. If they have been accepted by any Australian library this has not been signalled within the wider theatre history community.

In all likelihood the main problem for the library was its inability to process the material, or indeed find anyone who knew enough about Phillips and his work to make sense of what was effectively an unsorted, unidentified and often fragmented collection of manuscripts and musical scores, with many in a deteriorated state. An additional problem relates to the fact that some of the material is not related to Phillips' or the Fullers' operations but rather constitutes a John N. McCallum/Cremorne Theatre collection. Despite these problems Margaret O'Hagan well understood the importance of the collection (even though referring to the Phillips' scripts as being less sophisticated than those held as part of the library's Phillip Street Revue Company collection). This is made clear when she proposes that the collection would compliment several existing library collections (Max Afford, Billy Moloney and Maxwell Dunn). "There is also a strong argument," she wrote, "that this collection of popular entertainment counterbalances the Hanger Collection of Australian Playscripts." The fact that it has taken more than 30 years to process it (in addition to the rejection of Ron Shand's offer), does suggest on the other hand that being a collection of popular culture texts it was not accorded the level of priority that more sophisticated or serious collections have been given.

[The above is an abstract from 'What Oh Tonight: The Methodology Factor and Pre-1930s' Australian Variety Theatre' by Clay Djubal]