Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 55
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[Page 55]
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of "starting-price" bookmakers.
For evening entertainment, the City theatres ran good seasons of bright and gay musical comedies such as "The Belle of New York", "Floradora", "The Geisha Girl", and "The Arcadians". These were full of humour and tuneful catchy songs with very simple plots. Two vaudeville theatres staged the usual variety show of juggling, acrobatic, and magical acts, interspersed with the leg-kicking evolutions of a ballet of scantily clad, but beautiful, chorus girls. Also, there were serious and humourous songs, and comedians, with queerly made-up faces, cracking jokes which might be original or "corny", or just plain vulgar, but were always funny.
Gilbert and Sullivan, with imported English principals, was given a long season at the "Royal" every few years by that great entrepreneur J.C. Williamson in conjunction with Mr. Doyley Carte of London, and was always well patronised. Prices of seats in the main theatres were : in the pit 5/- (rear seats a little less), the dress circle also 5/-, and the gallery (the gods) 2/6d to 3/-. There was no governmental or other tax to be included in the prices. For once-a-week matinee performances the prices were reduced.
From time to time, in the magnificent new Town Hall, special concerts and recitals were held, with appearances of world famous musicians and vocalists, such as our own Madame Melba, then at the peak of her career. Incidentally, the huge pipe organ filling up one end of this great hall, was claimed to be the biggest in the world, and a very gifted overseas organist was appointed permanently to play it, almost daily. Early in the Century a bigger organ was built for the St Louis (U.S.A.) exhibition?
At Easter, the big pastoral, agricultural, and horticultural show opened (always on Good Friday) for a week at Moore Park. It was eagerly awaited by city and country folk alike, and for the latter it was an annual pilgrimage that crowded out all the city and suburban hotels. For most country residents it was the only visit for the whole year; Summer holidays were not nearly so much the rule as later on when surf bathing become so popular.