AustLit

Musician (piano/flute), music director, composer, piano tuner, entrepreneur, troupe manager.

The colourful career of Frederick King appears to have begun in the late-1870s. Having changed his name to Hermann Florack (likely in an effort to evade a Victorian arrest warrant from1876), he toured the country with companies led by Baker and Farron and Tom Buckley, and on a number of occasions produced and/or toured his own shows. He also worked a sideline business as a piano tuner.

Florack's life on the run ended in March 1880 when he was arrested in South Australia and sent back to Kerang, Victoria, to face charges of embezzlement, horse stealing (from his employer) and larceny as a bailee (stealing and selling a gun). Convicted of all offences he was given 12 months sentence for the embezzlement and 15 months hard labour for the larceny.

After being released from gaol, Florack returned to work as a musician and music director and in the mid-1880s was living in Dubbo where he served as the town's bandmaster. He later moved to Sydney, working at various amusements parks like the Coogee Palace Aquarium and for small variety companies before securing a position in 1888 as Frank Smith's music director at the Royal Standard Theatre, Castlereagh Street.

In early 1889 Florack contracted some of the former members of Hiscocks' Federal Minstrels to feature in a season of minstrelsy at Sydney's Haymarket Music Hall. Much to the chagrin of F. E. Hiscocks, who had only recently disbanded his troupe, Florack billed his venture the Federal Minstrels. This resulted in a stoush played out in a number of newspapers - notably the Sydney Morning Herald. Among the artists engaged by Florack were some of the biggest names in Australian minstrelsy, including Beaumont Read, Harry Clay, George Turner, J. S. Porter, Frank York, Tom Buckley, Charles Holly, Arthur Farley, Lucy Fraser and Will Stevens.

Florack left Sydney sometime around 1889/1890 to take up a position as band master at Casino in Northern New South Wales. After returning to Sydney later in the decade he again worked as music director for various variety and dramatic companies, including Stanford and Barnes, before teaming up with J. Harding Tucker to run their own variety show at the Opera House in 1898.

In early 1899 Florack directed the music for Charles Maurice's season at the Opera House. He and Tucker then produced their four-act musical comedy, The Two Scamps, at the same theatre beginning late-April. The season was not without some controversy and incident, however [see The Two Scamps entry for further details]

Sometime around 1900/1901 Florack again left Sydney to take up a position in a regional centre, this time the New South Wales town of Quirindi. By 1909 he was in Newcastle working for West's Pictures as music director at the firm's Victoria Theatre venue. Florack continued working as a professional musician/music director for concerts, picture houses, variety shows, theatre and music theatre up until at least the early-1920s.