OVERVIEW

Comedian, producer, director, manager, writer, revue company leader, singer, songwriter, musician, sketch artist, acrobat.

A forty-year variety entertainment veteran, Nat Phillips's greatest career achievement was his partnership with Roy 'Mo' Rene in the iconic Australian comedy duo Stiffy and Mo (1916-25, 1927-28). Recognised throughout Australia and New Zealand during the Stiffy and Mo years as the troupe's director, writer, and leader, Phillips's career has long been overshadowed by Rene's legendary status as one of the country's great comic geniuses. While Rene had the advantage of some three decades exposure to audiences through his hugely successful post-Stiffy and Mo stage and radio career (notably as Mo McCackie of McCackie Mansions), Phillips's death in 1932 saw his considerable achievements, which included twelve years touring the US, British, and European variety circuits, gradually slip out of public recognition. His once high-profile position in the Australian entertainment industry has been further diminished over the past thirty or more years by historians and academics who have relied too heavily on second-hand reportage and erroneous or biased memoir. This has resulted in Phillips's role in the partnership being reduced to the lesser comedic role of straightman, even though primary sources such as newspapers and industry magazines from the period clearly contradict such assumptions. Research undertaken at The University of Queensland now demonstrates that Phillips was not only recognised as one of the country's most popular comedians in his own right, but also one of the most influential Australian variety practitioners of the immediate post-WWI era.

DETAILED BIOGRAPHY

1883-1911: At age five Nat Phillips joined the Lilian Tree Grand Opera Company during its season at Sydney's Lyceum. Three years later he made his variety debut as an acrobat in an amateur line-up show (the venue was on the site where the Sydney Hippodrome and later the Capital Theatre would stand). Sometime around the mid-to-late 1890s he teamed up with another teenager, New Zealander Tommy Armstrong. In a 1915 interview published in Adelaide's Mail newspaper, Armstrong remembers finishing a stint with the Valdares acrobats and that he and Phillips, who had been presenting a straight singing and talking turn with their show, decided to form a partnership. Billed as Armstrong and Phillips, they toured Australia for some seven years (cited "Nat Phillips. Australian variety Theatre Archive).

Armstrong and Phillips left Australia in September 1903 to tour the lucrative American variety circuits. They remained in the USA for two years before amicably deciding to go their separate ways. Needing a new partner, Phillips called on Daisy Merritt, later his wife), who was then running a dance school in Sydney. As Phillips and Merritt, they debuted their new act the night after Phillips and Armstrong ended their partnership. After playing the US variety circuits the couple moved to the United Kingdom (ca. 1906) where they took up a long-term contract with the high-profile Stoll Moss variety organisation. Their act around this time had developed into a comedy sketch turn that featured Phillips's piano playing and acrobatic capabilities and their combined expertise in eccentric dancing and vocal work. When not engaged on the Stoll Moss circuit, Phillips and Merritt toured a number of European countries, including Holland, Germany, and Russia. For these largely non-English-speaking audiences, they simply cut out their sketch work and relied instead on physical comedy and singing.

1912-1916: In 1912, Phillips and Merritt returned to Australia on what was supposed to be a holiday to visit family. While in Sydney, they were offered a two-week season by the Fullers. The reception they received the night Ben Fuller saw their act convinced him to sign them immediately to a twelve-month contract. The conditions and prospects offered were such that they decided against taking up the four-year option they still had with Stoll Moss, and they remained in Australia on a more or less permanent basis thereafter. In late 1914, some eighteen months after beginning his association with the Fullers, Phillips was elevated to the position of theatre manager/director, taking charge first of the Princess Theatre, Sydney, and later the company's two theatres in Melbourne.

It was during this same period that he also began developing his skills as a writer and director of vaudeville farces. Staged as the conclusion to each night's entertainment, these productions laid the groundwork for his later career producing one-act musical comedies and pantomimes. His managerial responsibilities did not prevent him from continuing to perform nightly on stage, however; as the most experienced performer, he invariably starred in the farces as well. Three of his works from this period were The German Spy, The German Invasion, and The Gasman. A Theatre magazine article provides an insight into Phillips's duties at the Princess and his reputation at that time, reporting that since he took over control of the theatre, Phillips had contrived to give audiences a fresh finale each week. 'Mr Phillips is a strong believer in farces', the magazine's critic writes. 'In all of them [he] played the principal comedy part. For acting of this kind he has a distinct gift, and in the farces he was responsible for some excellent - indeed memorable - character studies (April 1915, p.43).

In September 1915, Phillips and Merritt took a leave of absence from the Fullers in order to undertake a seven-month tour of the East (which included an initial season at the Empire Theatre, Colombo, Ceylon). Not long after leaving Australia, however, Phillips published a warning in Australian Variety, giving notice to other practitioners that he held the Australian rights 'to the "Stiffy" series of sketches recently worked by him over the Fuller circuit... [and that it was his] intention to proceed against any performers infringing on them' (13 Oct. 1915, p.12). Stiffy had begun appearing in sketches presented by Phillips and Merritt from late 1914. The Nat Phillips Collection (Fryer Library) includes completed scripts for three of these works: 'Stiffy the Lunatic', 'Stiffy the Steward', and 'Sowing the Patch'. Speaking to the Theatre in 1919, Phillips recalled the origins of his alter ego:

'Until I brought [him] on the scene the Australian low-life character - the larrikin - was always portrayed as a [London] coster. This always appeared incongruous to me. It came about as the result of imported comic songs and comedy routines. I decided to try the experiment with the Sydney larrikin. Steele Rudd made Dave and Australian bush type. I determined to come nearer home and present a city type. I couldn't have wished for greater success along the line I followed' (January 1919, p.4).

The character's popularity with local audiences convinced Phillips to develop a series of one-act musical comedies built around the character. It is believed that he began writing these in early 1916, either as he made his way back to Australia or shortly after his return in March of that year.

Upon returning to Australia in late-February 1916, Phillips and Merritt immediately opened for the Fullers in Perth. Buoyed by the audience responses to the Stiffy sketches he began developing a series of one act musical comedies based around the character (these later became the first Stiffy and Mo revusicals). The Western Australian capital was followed by seasons in Fremantle, Adelaide and then Brisbane beginning 17 June. Their stay in Brisbane was cut short on 30 June, however, when the Fullers requested that Phillips return to Sydney so he could take over Bletsoes' Tabloid Musical Comedy Company which had just completed its Brisbane season and was due to open at the Princess Theatre a little over a week later. However, the troupe's leaders, Albert and Maud Bletsoe had advised the Fullers that they intended to retire from the business and Phillips was considered the best person to take control of the company at such short notice.

Phillips first priority after arriving in Sydney was to re-organise the company. He retained several original members - notably rising star Roy Rene and dancer Rosie Bowie - and also engaged a number of other high profile performers contracted to the Fullers. The new company, billed as Nat Phillips' Tabloid Musical Comedy Company, debuted at the Princess on 8 July with What Oh Tonight and over the course of the extended season garnered an unprecedented level of positive critical attention and audience approval. Most of the troupe also appeared in the Fuller's hugely successful 1916 Christmas pantomime, The Bunyip. Based on an original story by a young Victorian variety performer, Ella Airlie, the production continued past the New Year. It was revived frequently around Australia by the Fullers up until at least 1924 and for several years was also presented as a feature entertainment during the Stiffy and Mo seasons.

1917-1925: Between 1917 and 1925, Nat Phillips's Stiffy and Mo Company toured the country, alternating seasons in Melbourne and Sydney over Christmas and summer with engagements in other capital cities, playing, in some instances, seasons of more than six months at a time. Phillips continued to write most of the material during this period (including many of the original musical numbers), with some of the more popular being What Oh Tonight (also known as The Beauty Parlour), A Sporting Chance, Bullfighters, Jockeys, In the Army, Police, In the Sanatorium, Wharfies,and Bankers.

During most of this period Phillips was also given the responsibility for writing and/or producing one of the Fullers's annual pantomimes. The first of these, and also his most successful, was The Bunyip, staged in Sydney by the Fullers over December 1916 and January 1917. Based on an original story by a young Victorian variety performer, Ella Airlie, the production was toured by the Stiffy and Mo company for several years and revived frequently around Australia by the Fullers up until at least 1924. Phillips's later original pantomimes included Babes in the Woods (1918), Cinderella (1919), Dick Whittington (1921), and Mother Goose (1922). The company also spent some 16 months touring New Zealand, beginning 28 March 1923 (Auckland) and ending in early August 1924 (Wellington).

• [For further details regarding this period, see AustLit's entry on Stiffy and Mo]

1925-1926: During Phillips's and Rene's eighteen-month separation, Phillips formed the Whirligigs Company and teamed up with comedian Jack Kellaway as Stiffy and 'Erb. The partnership saw them reprise many of the old Stiffy and Mo shows.

• [For further details regarding the Stiffy and 'Erb years, see the Nat Phillips' Whirligigs Company entry]

1927-1928: In February 1927, Phillips and Rene reunited in Brisbane, initially as a trio: Stiffy, Mo, and 'Erb. By the time the company travelled to Sydney a few weeks later, however, it had reverted back to simply Stiffy and Mo. The company played extended and sold-out seasons in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide followed by a brief tour of New Zealand in 1928 (playing seasons in Wellington and Auckland). Upon their return to Australia late that year, the pair decided once again to go their separate ways. Although a second reunion is said to have been organised in 1932 (Mo's Memoirs, p.132), Nat Phillips's untimely death meant that this never eventuated.

• [See Stiffy and Mo Revue Company for further details regarding the 1927-1928 period]

1929-1932: Following the final dissolution of the partnership, Phillips re-formed the Whirligig Revue Company, initially with Jack Kellaway reprising his 'Erb character. He later engaged comedian Joe Lawman to co-star opposite him in the Nat Phillips Revue Company (as Stiffy and Joe). This was to be the troupe's final line-up before its leader's death in 1932. Although Phillips had by this stage of his career moved more towards the revue format (particularly as a songwriter), his repertoire still continued to include some classic Stiffy and Mo revusicals, notably All Aboard and At the Grand. In March 1932, following a brief season of revue at the Grand Opera House, Phillips and Lawman (along with fellow troupe member Dan Weldon) appeared in The Follies of 1932, a 'vaudeville stars of the past' show staged at Sydney's Theatre Royal (28 March - 4 April). Among their fellow veterans were Minnie Love, Stan Foley, Maurice Barling (ex-Barling and Dale), and Winnie Edgerton (Sydney Morning Herald 28 March 1932, p.2).

Nat Phillips's final pantomime appearance was Beauty and the Beast,which he also wrote and directed for George Marlowe at the Grand Opera House in December 1930.

• [For further details regarding this period, see Nat Phillips's Whirligigs / Revue Company entry]

Nat Phillips died of a heart attack on 21 June shortly after having concluded a meeting with MIke Connors and Queenie at their Tivoli office in Sydney. He was parked in a car with his wife in Castlereagh Street and collapsed after complaining of chest pains. His passing was widely reported around Australia and New Zealand