Bert Bailey

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Bert Bailey
Bert Bailey-pic.jpg
Born
Albert Edward Bailey

(1868-06-11)11 June 1868
Auckland, New Zealand
Died30 March 1953(1953-03-30) (aged 84)
Other namesAlbert Edmunds (with stage partner Edmund Duggan
Occupation(s)Writer, actor, theatrical manager
Years active1883-1943
SpouseIvy Gorrick

Albert Edward Bailey (11 June 1868 – 30 March 1953), better known as Bert Bailey, was a New Zealand-born Australian playwright, theatrical manager and stage and screen actor best known for playing Dad Rudd, in both mediums, the character from the books penned by Steele Rudd. [1]

Contents

Early life

Bailey was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the second son of farmer Christopher Bailey and Harriette Adelaide. His parents divorced and Bailey's mother moved with him to Sydney when he was six months old. [2] She remarried in 1879 and went on to become a noted retailer, establishing the firm McCathie's. [3]

Bailey was educated at Crown Street School and Cleveland Street Public School. He decided not to go into the family business and worked as a telegram boy and at a floor manager at Crystal Palace skating rink. At age fifteen he went into vaudeville as a tambourine player and vocalist at Canterbury Music Hall in George Street, Sydney. [4]

In 1889 he joined the touring theatrical company of Edmund Duggan, playing a wide variety of roles throughout Australia. In 1900 he and Duggan joined the company of noted theatre producer William Anderson, who was Duggan's brother-in-law.

Playwriting career

In 1907 Bailey and Duggan wrote a play together under the joint pseudonym of "Albert Edmunds", The Squatter's Daughter (1907). This was produced by Anderson to great success and was adapted into a film in 1910, which Bailey directed as well as appeared in.

He and Duggan collaborated on a number of follow up plays (with both men also acting in the productions), including The Man from Outback (1909), The Prince and the Beggar Maid (1910), On Our Selection (1912), an adaptation of the stories of Steele Rudd and The Native Born (1913). Of these the most popular was On Our Selection which became an Australian theatrical phenomenon, with over hundreds of productions through to the present day. Bailey would perform the role of Dad Rudd on and off for the rest of his career. [5]

Theatre entrepreneur

In 1912 Bailey ended his 12-year association with Anderson and went into partnership with his business manager, Julius Grant. [6] The two of them leased the Anderson Theatre in Melbourne and formed a highly successful association as theatre producers. Bailey also frequently toured with the 'Bert Bailey Dramatic Company'. He and Grant did suffer some commercial failures, such as a season of plays by William Shakespeare and a 1920 production of On Our Selection in London.

After touring in the Barry Conners play The Patsy for 23 weeks in 1929, Bailey retired from performing, believing that talking films were making theatre unprofitable.

Film career

Bailey was brought out of retirement in 1932 by Stuart F. Doyle to play Dad Rudd in a film version of On Our Selection , which he also co-wrote. He received £400 plus 60% of the profits which, for that movie, came to an estimated £14,000 by the end of 1934. [7]

Bailey played Dad Rudd in three more films, contributing to the script as well for each film. All four Rudd films were directed by Ken G. Hall who also directed an adaptation of The Squatter's Daughter. [8] After Dad Rudd, MP (1940), Bailey retired for good, apart from a brief appearance in a propaganda short made for the war effort, South West Pacific (1943). [9]

Personal life

Bailey married fellow actor Ivy Gorrick in 1902 and they had one child, a daughter, Doreen. His wife died in 1932 and Bailey never remarried. His habits included lawn bowls, boating and travelling with his daughter. [10]

In 1937 it was estimated that Bailey had earned £200,000 from On Our Selection. [11] He died a wealthy man with an estate worth £32,527. [12]

Filmography

Select theatre credits

Bert Bailey in costume c. 1910-1913 by Mina Moore H38782/48 Bert Bailey in makeup and costume Mina Moore photographer State Library Victoria H38782 48.jpg
Bert Bailey in costume c. 1910-1913 by Mina Moore H38782/48

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steele Rudd</span> Author novelist and short story author (1868 - 1935)

Steele Rudd was the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis an Australian author, best known for his short story collection On Our Selection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken G. Hall</span> Australian film producer and director (1901–1994)

Kenneth George Hall was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Academy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinesound Productions</span> Australian film production company

Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film process, from production to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was On Our Selection (1932), which was an enormous financial success.

<i>Dad and Dave Come to Town</i> 1938 film by Ken G. Hall

Dad and Dave Come to Town is a 1938 Australian comedy film directed by Ken G. Hall, the third in the 'Dad and Dave' comedy series starring Bert Bailey. It was the feature film debut of Peter Finch and is one of the best known Australian films of the 1930s.

<i>On Our Selection</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

On Our Selection is a 1932 comedy based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd. These had been turned into a popular play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan in 1912, which formed the basis for the screenplay. Bailey repeats his stage role as Dad Rudd. He also wrote the script with director Ken G. Hall.

The Squatter's Daughter is a 1933 Australian melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Jocelyn Howarth. One of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s, it is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously adapted to the screen in 1910.

<i>Grandad Rudd</i> 1935 Australian film

Grandad Rudd is a 1935 comedy featuring the Dad and Dave characters created by Steele Rudd and based on a play by Rudd. It was a sequel to On Our Selection, and was later followed by Dad and Dave Come to Town and Dad Rudd, MP.

<i>Dad Rudd, M.P.</i> 1940 Australian film

Dad Rudd, M.P. is a 1940 comedy that was the last of four films made by Ken G. Hall starring Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd. It was the last feature film directed by Hall prior to the war and the last made by Cinesound Productions, Bert Bailey and Frank Harvey.

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Edmund Duggan was an Irish-born actor and playwright who worked in Australia. He is best known for writing a number of plays with Bert Bailey including The Squatter's Daughter (1907) and On Our Selection (1912). His solo career was less successful than Bailey's. His sister Eugenie was known as "The Queen of Melodrama" and married noted theatre producer William Anderson, for whom Duggan frequently worked as an actor, writer and stage manager.

On Our Selection is a 1912 Australian play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan based on the stories with the same name by Steele Rudd. Bailey played Dad Rudd in the original production.

The Squatter's Daughter or, The Land of the Wattle is a 1907 Australian play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan, writing under the combined pseudonym Albert Edmunds.

On Our Selection is a 1920 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on the Dad and Dave stories by Steele Rudd.

Fred MacDonald (1895–1968), was an Australian actor best known for playing Dave Rudd opposite Bert Bailey on stage and screen, starting with the original 1912 production of On Our Selection. He also played a similar role, Jim Hayseed, several times on screen for director Beaumont Smith.

Talone Ordell (1880–1948), better known as Tal Ordel, was an Australian actor, writer and director. Ordell was probably born in Calcutta, India, seventh child of Victorian-born parents William Odell Raymond Buntine, drover, and his wife Susanna, née Mawley. He worked extensively on stage and screen as an actor in the 1910s and 1920s, playing Dad Rudd twice for Raymond Longford and Dad Hayseed – a similar role – three times for Beaumont Smith. He was the original "Ginger Mick" in the stage version of The Sentimental Bloke. He toured Australia with Marie Tempest.

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On Our Selection (1899) is a series of stories written by Australian author Steele Rudd, the pen name of Arthur Hoey Davis, in the late 1890s, featuring the characters Dad and Dave Rudd.

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References

  1. "Bert Bailey". Smith's Weekly . Vol. XXX, no. 3. New South Wales, Australia. 20 March 1948. p. 7. Retrieved 14 April 2018 via National Library of Australia.
  2. "REAL-LIFE 'DAD' HAS SEEN PIONEER DAYS." Sunday Times (Perth) 28 Jul 1940: 3 accessed 30 Dec 2011
  3. Harriette Adelaide MccCathie at Australian Dictionary of Biography
  4. "Frank Van Straten, 'Bert Bailey' at Live Performance Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
  5. "LOOKING BACKWARD". The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate . NSW: National Library of Australia. 15 October 1932. p. 5. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  6. "MR. BERT. BAILEY." The Sydney Morning Herald 17 Feb 1912: 13 accessed Web. 26 Nov 2011
  7. "Counting the Cash in Australian Films"', Everyones 12 December 1934 p 19-21
  8. Bert Bailey Archived 2011-08-22 at the Wayback Machine at Live Performance of Australia Hall of Fame
  9. Vagg, Stephen (18 August 2019). "Australian Movie Stars". Filmink.
  10. "FILM NEWS OF THE WEEK. BERT BAILEY'S DAUGHTER TALKS OF HER FATHER—"DAD RUDD."". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 30 May 1940. p. 20. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  11. "The TALK OF THE TOWN". The Mail . Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 13 November 1937. p. 11. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  12. "BERT BAILEY LEFT £32,527." The Sydney Morning Herald 18 Aug 1953: 5 accessed 30 Dec 2011
  13. "Criterion Comedy Burlesque Opera Company". Queanbeyan Age (NSW : 1867–1904) . NSW: National Library of Australia. 13 July 1895. p. 2. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  14. "THEATRE ROYAL". The Morning Bulletin . Rockhampton, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 29 December 1896. p. 5. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  15. "THEATRE ROYAL". The Morning Bulletin . Rockhampton, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 28 December 1896. p. 5. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  16. "The American Girl : or, A play without a plot". State Library Victoria (Australia) (Theatre Programmes Collection). J. C. Stephens. 1898. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  17. "LYCEUM THEATRE". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 10 September 1898. p. 10. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  18. "THE LYCEUM.—"THE SOUTHERN CROSS."". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 26 September 1898. p. 3. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  19. "HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE—". Punch (Melbourne, Vic. : 1900 - 1918; 1925). 22 June 1916. p. 36. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  20. "KING'S THEATRE—M'CLURE AND THE PARSON". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 7 October 1918. p. 9. Retrieved 3 October 2020.