AustLit

Variety entrepreneur, manager, performer, boxing entrepreneur, film exhibitor.

Known variously as 'The Droll' and the 'Lord Mayor of Poverty Point,' Bert Howard was one of Sydney's leading B-circuit vaudeville managers and entrepreneurs, a group headed by Harry Clay and also including J.C. Bain, Jacky Landow, Frank Reis, and Harry Sadler. He started out as out as a newsboy at Circular Quay and, at one stage, tried his hand at boxing before coming under the wing of Harry Rickards. He was initially given a job selling songbooks outside the Tivoli and later became the entrepreneur's office assistant and valet. After twelve years, Howard left in order to pursue a career as a showman. During his early years, he acted a tour manager, stage manager, and performer with Clay and Bain. Around 1910-1911, he began running his own picture show circuit around various Sydney suburban locations, while also involving himself in boxing industry, including managing several well-known local fighters.

Howard was employed for some two years by Fullers' Theatres during the company's early years in Australia, which led to his forming his own vaudeville circuit in Sydney in association with Humbert Pugliese and later Frank Graham (1913-16). In 1917, he and Ike Beck formed the short-lived Beck and Howard's Vaudeville Enterprises, presenting vaudeville and pictures in Redfern, Mascot, Leichhardt, Burwood, and Rozelle. After the partnership ended, Howard continued on his own, expanding his circuit to include outer Sydney areas such as Hornsby, along with Granville and Crows Nest. He also put together several regional tours around this period.

Among Bert Howard's other entrepreneurial ventures was a booking agency. In the late 1930s, a serious illness caused him to temporarily retire from management, and his company at that time was run by James H. White (who had previously managed Harry Clay's Theatrical Agency for some ten years). He continued to run vaudeville, pantomime, and pictures in Sydney and NSW into the early 1930s.

As a fight manager, Howard gained some recognition for his involvement in the careers of Bob Whitelaw, Arthur Cripps, and Tommy Hanley. He also toured such fighters as Billy McColl, George Johns, and heavyweight title contender Bill Squires.