Outlaw Kelly
- Bib ID:
- 7507278
- Format:
- Book
- Online Version:
- National Library of Australia digitised item. PA Broadside 213 copy
- Printer:
- 527 Kent Street, Sydney : Builder Printing Works
- Description:
-
- [Sydney] : [The Robert Henry Dramatic Company], [1899]
- 1 broadside ; 101 x 38 cm
- Summary:
-
"Outlaw Kelly" is the main attraction listed on this letterpress printed broadside for a production at the Theatre Royal, Hobart, from Monday, 9 October 1899. The text includes a complete cast list and synopsis of scenery and incidents for the four acts of the play. It notes, "This drama has been specially written for Mr Robert Henry by the well-known Australian author, Mr Launcelot Booth, and is a remarkably bright and striking story of the notorious Kelly Gang." The play, which is one of several similar contemporary works, was first performed at the Victoria Theatre, Newcastle, on Saturday, 12 August 1899, and then for one night in Maitland on 21 August. The litigious Arnold Denham, who had commissioned a rival play, The Kelly Gang, sued for copyright infringement but failed to prevent its performance and Henry's planned departure for Tasmania, where this performance was noted in the Hobart Mercury: "The Henry Dramatic Company 'struck oil' last evening in the staging of their last piece of the season - Outlaw Kelly, a drama specially written for Mr. Henry by Mr. Launcelot Booth, an Australian dramatist, and is a remarkably striking and, withal, humorous story of the notorious Kelly gang of bushranging desperadoes who set law and order at defiance in the north-eastern district of Victoria, between November, 1878, and October, 1880" (10 October 1899, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12758561). The ironclad bushranger Ned Kelly was played by J. G. ('Handsome Jack') Patten, Miss Billie Howarde was Kate Kelly, and Robert Henry played an Irish trooper.
- Biography/History:
-
Lancelot Booth was a minor actor, playwright and novelist, born in England in 1845, who began working on the stage in New Zealand in the early 1870s. He moved to Australia in 1876, initially working on the Sydney stage. He moved to Brisbane in the early to mid 1880s, and then returned to Sydney, where he appears to have lived until his death in May 1913. His Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall bushranger novel, The Devil's Nightcap: The Story of the Gardiner-Hall Gang, was published in Sydney by the N.S.W. Bookstall Company in 1912. In 1914 the same publisher issued his Tools of Satan, a melodramatic thriller set in England and Australia. -Based on AustLit, https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A28175.
Robert Henry's real name was Robert Henry Nicholls. He was a minor actor and former assistant stage manager for the Brough and Boucicault Company before he formed his own company in 1896 or 1897. He also toured New Zealand. After its run in Hobart, Outlaw Kelly was next staged in Launceston; then in New Zealand from November 1899 to May 1900; in Adelaide and Broken Hill in 1901 and 1907; in Kalgoorie/Boulder in December 1904 and January 1905; and in Bendigo in October 1906. In late 1901 and early 1902 Henry was imprisoned in Brisbane for contempt of court for performing an alleged pirated play. His wife, Miss Billie Howarde, subsequently ran her own company, which co-existed alongside the Kate Howarde Company, established by her better known sister, Kate (1864-1939). While Kate was in America from 1905 to 1909, Billie managed Kate's company with Harry Craig (who she must have later married). Billie's real name was Minnie Evelyn Nicholls, formerly Jones. She was born in England in 1870 and married Robert Henry Nicholls on 21 April 1891 in Sydney. They were said to have lived happily together until he started drinking. They separated in July 1906, and she was granted a divorce on the grounds of desertion in 1910, after he told her he was going to America. Billie Howarde was probably with the Kate Howarde Company when they staged what may have been the last recorded performance of Outlaw Kelly in Perth in October 1914.
- Notes:
-
- At head of title: Friday, October 6th, Mrs Henry Woods' great work, East Lynne, Lady Isabel & Madame Vine (her dual impersonation) - Miss Billie Howarde. Saturday, October 7th, matinee performance at 2.30, evening performance at 8, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Uncle Tom - Mr. Robert Henry, Topsy (with songs) - Miss Billie Howarde. Special notice, matinee: Children, accompanied by adults, will be admitted to all parts of the house for sixpence. Monday, October 9th, Outlaw Kelly...
- PA Broadside 213 copy Also available online https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2712130677
- Eric Irvin, "Ned Kelly on Stage," Quadrant, vol. 19, no. 6, September 1975, p. 84.
- Source of Acquisition:
- Australian theatrical posters, 1825-1914, Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney, 18th June to 9th July 1988, no. 7 ; Mossgreen, Australian History, 11 December 2017, lot 720.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Also Titled:
-
- Friday, October 6th, Mrs Henry Woods' great work, East Lynne
- East Lynne
- Uncle Tom's cabin
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2026 [Creator Date of Death + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Presumed date of death of creator (latest date):
- 1956
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1899
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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