National Library of Australia

Provided by The Australian Dictionary of Biography

ELLIOTT, LEAH MADELEINE (1896-1955) and RITCHARD, CYRIL JOSEPH (1897-1977), dancers and actors, were known affectionately by their public as Madge and Cyril. Madge was born on 12 May 1896 at Fulham, London, daughter of Nicholas Phillipps Elliott, physician and surgeon, and his wife Frances Selina Curtis, née Heighton. The family emigrated to Australia when Madge was an infant and she was educated at a grammar school at Toowoomba, Queensland. After her father moved his practice to Randwick, Sydney, Madge took dancing classes with Minnie Hooper, ballet mistress for J. C. Williamson Ltd. Hooper, herself an institution in Sydney theatre, recalled her young pupil as 'very dainty and very pretty, energetic and persevering with her work from the start'. It was said that Madge was signed up by Williamson's as a dancer at the age of 13, but, as she later lopped four years off her age, doubt must be cast on this precociousness. Her first contract was with the children's ballet of the Melba-Williamson Opera Co. in 1911. Remaining with Williamson as a member of the chorus, she was soon promoted to a group called the 'Exquisite Eight'.

Author: John Rickard

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