Vera Pearce | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by May and Mina Moore | |
| Born | Annie Vera Pearce 27 May 1895 Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 18 January 1966 (aged 70) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | c. 1900–1961 |
| Relatives | Harold Holt (nephew) |
Annie Vera Pearce (27 May 1895 – 18 January 1966) was an Australian stage and film actress. Her lengthy career was carried out in both her home country and in England. [1] [2]
Born in Broken Hill (New South Wales), Pearce spent much of her youth in Adelaide, and made her stage debut there at age five with the World's Entertainers [3] She went on to train as a juvenile performer in pantomimes and musical comedies produced by J. C. Williamson Ltd, and in 1910 scored much acclaim for her role in the Firm's hit production Our Miss Gibbs (1910). [4]
After making her film debut in The Shepherd of the Southern Cross (1914), Pearce went to England with the aim of carving out a career there but was induced to return to Australia shortly afterwards by Hugh D. McIntosh, General Manager of Harry Rickards Tivoli Theatres Ltd. [5]
Pearce made her return to the Australian stage in November 1914 as one of the stars of the Tivoli Follies revue, and remained with the show throughout its two and a half year tour around the country. Among the other productions she appeared in over the next seven years were The Beauty Shop (1917), My Lady Frayle (1919), The Officers' Mess (1919), His Little Widows (1920) and Chu Chin Chow (1920), in which she played Zahrat-al-Kulub opposite Charles H. Workman (as Ali Baba). [6] [7]
Pearce moved to the UK in 1922, with one of her earliest shows being Love's Awakening. She went on to work consistently on the London stage in musicals and pantomimes up until her death. In 1954 she appeared with Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare in the West End farce The Party Spirit . Her last notable appearance, though, was in a 1957 New York City production of Georges Feydeau's farce Hotel Paradise (aka L'Hôtel du libre échange ). [8] She also appeared in at least 16 films between 1931 and 1966.
Pearce was in a long-term relationship with a married man, Hugh D. McIntosh. Her nephew Harold Holt became Prime Minister of Australia ten days after Pearce's death. [9]
Pearce won two beauty contests in Australia. The first was promoted by West's Pictures in Sydney in 1911. The second event, the 1916 White City Beauty Competition, created controversy when it became known that the judges were linked to the vaudeville industry. The revelation also led to a number of 100-1 bets being placed by well-known "sporting gentlemen" for Pearce to win. When she was announced the winner the huge audience reportedly went "frigidly silent [being] too astounded to take the result seriously" [10]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | The Shepherd of the Southern Cross | Lady Helen Reynolds | |
| 1916 | The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell | Short | |
| 1933 | Yes, Mr. Brown | Franzi | |
| 1933 | That's a Good Girl | Suny Berata | |
| 1933 | Just My Luck | Lady Croft | |
| 1935 | So You Won't Talk | Edith | |
| 1935 | Heat Wave | Gloria Spania | |
| 1935 | Royal Cavalcade | ||
| 1936 | Southern Roses | Carrie, the Cannon-Ball Queen | |
| 1937 | Please Teacher | Petunia Trundle | |
| 1938 | What a Man! | Emily Pennyfeather | |
| 1939 | Yes, Madam? | Pansy Beresford | |
| 1947 | Nicholas Nickleby | Mrs. Crummles | |
| 1951 | One Wild Oat | Mrs. Gilbey | |
| 1954 | The Men of Sherwood Forest | Elvira | |
| 1959 | The Night We Dropped a Clanger | Madame Grilby | |
| 1961 | The Night We Got the Bird | Aunt | |
| 1961 | Nothing Barred | Lady Millicent | (final film role) |
Roy Rene was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of the 20th century.
Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. The piece premièred at His Majesty's Theatre in London on 3 August 1916 and ran for five years and a total of 2,238 performances, an astonishing record that stood for nearly forty years until Salad Days. The show's first American production in New York, with additional lyrics by Arthur Anderson, played for 208 performances in 1917–1918, starring Tyrone Power. It subsequently had successful seasons elsewhere in America and Australia, including in 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922.
Maggie Moore was an American-Australian actress born as Margaret Virginia Sullivan. She met and married producer J. C. Williamson in the U.S. and became popular as an actress in their production of Struck Oil, which premiered in 1873 and was revived many times. Soon after their marriage, they took the play on a tour of Australia. It was such a success that they stayed there, where he founded the most successful theatrical company in Australia, and she became a leading actress.
Charles Courtice Pounds, better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.
Nellie Stewart, born Eleanor Stewart Towzey was an Australian actress and singer, known as "Our Nell" and "Sweet Nell".
Elizabeth "Lily" Brayton was an English actress and singer, known for her performances in Shakespeare plays and for her nearly 2,000 performances in the First World War hit musical Chu Chin Chow.
The Tivoli Circuit was a successful and popular Australian vaudeville entertainment circuit featuring revue, opera, ballet, dance, singing, musical comedy, old time black and white minstrel and even Shakespeare which flourished from 1893 to the 1950s, and featured local and international performers from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Ada Reeve was an English actress of both stage and film. Reeve began to perform in pantomime and music hall as a child. She gained fame in Edwardian musical comedies in the 1890s.
Harry Rickards, born Henry Benjamin Leete, was an English-born baritone, comedian and theatre owner, most active in vaudeville and stage, first in his native England and then Australia after emigrating in 1871.
George Marlow was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur born in London of Jewish extraction, noted for bringing melodrama and pantomime to Sydney audiences in the early 1900s. His name has been frequently mis-spelled as "George Marlowe".
Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian show-business entrepreneur.
Chu-Chin-Chow is a 1923 British-German silent adventure film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Betty Blythe, Herbert Langley, and Randle Ayrton.
The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell is a 1916 Australian silent film about the execution of nurse Edith Cavell during World War I.
The Shepherd of the Southern Cross is a 1914 Australian silent film about an Englishwoman torn between two men. It was the first feature film produced by Australasian Films.
Gloria Dawn was an Australian actress of film and stage, singer and vaudevillian performer. She was one of the leading stars of the stage from the 1950s to her death.
The Tivoli Theatre was a major performing arts venue in Melbourne's East End Theatre District, located at 249 Bourke Street. The theatre's origins dated from 1866, with various remodelling and rebuilding throughout its history. Its final building opened as the New Opera House in 1901, and was renamed the Tivoli in 1914 when it joined the Tivoli circuit. The Tivoli eventually closed in 1966.
Kate Rickards was an Australian trapeze artist and later a musical theatre actress. Born in Melbourne, she began performing as a trapeze artist in Australia at the age of 11 under the name "Katie Angel" and later toured the United States, England, and South Africa under the management of the British-born vaudeville performer and impresario Harry Rickards. She and Rickards married in 1880, after which she had a career as a musical theatre actress under the name "Kate Leete". Following her retirement from the stage in 1894, she designed costumes for the Rickards shows for several years and devoted herself to charity work. She died at the age of 59 aboard a ship sailing from England to Australia and was buried at sea.
Beatrice Denver Holloway was an Australian actress, born into the theatrical Holloway family of Melbourne. Her father was well-known actor-manager Charles Holloway and her mother Alice Victoria Hayward. Holloway's stage career spanned over three decades until it was cut short when she moved to Hollywood with her actor husband Robert Greig.
Grace Palotta was an Austrian-born actress and writer. She was a Gaiety girl in London, and toured in Australia several times between 1895 and 1918.
Jack Haskell was an American theatrical producer who specialised in revue, later a dance director in Hollywood. Much of his early work was for J. C. Williamson's (JCW) in Australia.
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