Cirrus@Austlit

'Australian theatre was already undergoing momentous change when war broke out in 1914. Corporations were replacing actor–managers, theatre interests were contracting from multiple groups to just a few, and Australian audiences were increasingly open to American plays and players. The years immediately before the war saw the passing of two of the country’s leading entrepreneurs – music hall singer and founder of the Tivoli circuit Harry Rickards, and actor–manager JC Williamson, founder of JC Williamson Ltd – while other 19th-century show-business luminaries – George Coppin, George Rignold and Bland Holt – had died or retired.1 What did not change was the role of the audience as the arbiter of taste, which saw the public demanding the best, the brightest and the latest.' (6)