person or book cover
The Queenslander, 29 Jan. 1898 p.215
Kate Howarde Kate Howarde i(A104521 works by) (birth name: Catherine Clarissa Jones)
Born: Established: 28 Jul 1864 London,
c
England,
c
c
United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe, ; Died: Ceased: 18 Feb 1939 Sydney, New South Wales,
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1886
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BiographyHistory

Kate Howarde was an actor, director, dramatist, entrepreneur.

Arguably the leading Australian-based female thespian/writer/entrepreneur of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Kate Howarde carved out a distinguished stage career over more than forty years, producing drama, musical comedies, pantomime, revusicals, and film. As a result of this remarkable activity, she also provided opportunities for a number of practitioners who later went on to establish their own high-profile careers, notably S. A. Fitzgerald, Bert Bailey, and Charles Villiers. As a writer, her best-known original stage works are Possum Paddock (1919) and Gum Tree Gully (1924).



DETAILED BIOGRAPHY

1864-1899: Born in North Woolwich, London, to labourer Edward George Jones and Harriett Hannah (nee Payne), Kate Howarde began her association with the Antipodes as a child, when her family immigrated to New Zealand. Although Howarde has claimed that she began receiving payment for her contributions to the Wellington Post at age nine after being encouraged to write by the paper's editor, this is believed to have occurred later in her teens (see note below). In 1884, she married musician William Henry de Saxe and that same year gave birth to their daughter, Florence. One of the first plays she wrote is said to have been When the Tide Rises. Although no premiere production has been located to date, Howarde is known to have staged it as late as 1925 (Theatre Royal, Brisbane, beginning 7 November). Another early work claimed by Howarde is Under the Southern Cross.

Howarde made her Australian debut on 3 April 1886, aged 22, with Bella Sutherland's Vital Spark Combination (Sydney Morning Herald 3 April 1886, p.2). This first appearance saw her cast as Wilhemina in a mini-musical comedy, The Rival Lovers, and as Julia in the farce Turn Him Out. She also performed an original local song, 'Tricky,' in the olio section of the programme. The following week, she played Ko Ket (the man catcher) in The Happy Man, performed the song and dance 'Some Girls Do,' and appeared as Mrs Pettibone in the farce A Kiss in the Dark (Sydney Morning Herald 10 April 1886, p.2). A few weeks later Howarde undertook an engagement with Pollock and Cunard, then sub-lessees under F. E. Hiscocks at Sydney's Academy of Music. Her appearance during the week beginning 15 May included a role in the farce Love, Divorce and Poison (as Mrs Littlejoy) opposite Alf Lawton and Add Ryman.

It is not yet clear when Howarde founded her own theatrical company. Although she reportedly did this soon after arriving in Australia, no dates or locations have yet been identified. Her engagement with the Willard-Sheridan English Company in 1889 and headline billing with W. R. Cowan's Dramatic Company at Brisbane's Gaiety Theatre in early 1890 certainly indicate that she had established a considerable reputation in the country within a short period of time. It suggests, however, that if she had formed her own dramatic troupe, it had not yet become a permanent venture. Howarde's association with John F. Sheridan and Pemberton Willard, which included a season at the Gaiety Theatre, Sydney ca. June-July 1889, also saw her appear alongside her sister Miss M. Howarde (aka Billie).

1900- 1909: The Kate Howarde Company toured Australia and New Zealand constantly up until around 1905. Although primarily a dramatic troupe, the company nevertheless occasionally staged pantomimes and burlesques, including Sinbad the Sailor (ca. 1897), Little Jack Sheppard, Aladdin Up-to-Date, and Diavolo Up-to-Date (all ca. 1898), along with vaudeville (including minstrel entertainment) and various operatic genres: operetta, opera bouffe, and comic opera. Among the more prominent troupe members engaged during this period were actors John 'Jack' Cosgrove and Albert Luca, along with Sam Gale.

Sometime around 1905, Howarde and Scottish comedian Elton Black, who later became her second husband, travelled to the United States in order to explore the opportunities available to them in that country's vaudeville and theatrical industries. While she was away, the company continued to tour under the management of her sister Billie, Billie's husband Harry Craig, and two brothers, Louis and Albert (Bert), both of whom also adopted the stage name Howarde. Howarde and Black initially settled in San Francisco but were forced to relocate to New York following the devastating earthquake of 1906. Employed as a journalist and theatre critic, Howarde is also believed to have continued writing for the stage, including a number of vaudeville sketches and songs. She and Black may have possibly spent a period of time in England prior to returning to Australia in 1909.

1910- 1919:In 1911, Howarde took over the lease of the National Theatre, Balmain, where she staged pot pourri-style entertainments over the next three or four years. The shows produced ranged from dramatic sketches and dramas to burlesque, musical interludes, and vaudeville acts. At least two of her original works were staged at the National in 1914: The White Slave Traffic and Why Girls Leave Home. Howarde had toured the latter play through parts of regional New South Wales as early as 1912.

With Elton Black, Howarde spent much of 1915 touring the Fullers variety circuit with their own company. Among the known productions was an original revusical called Catch On (1915). Early the following year Howarde returned to the National Theatre while Black continued to tour the company through New Zealand on his own. The couple separated in 1918. The following year Howarde's greatest original success, Possum Paddock, premiered at the Theatre Royal Sydney.

1920-1939: Two years after premiering Possum Paddock, Howarde adapted the play into a silent film version. The success of both ventures helped finance a ten-month overseas tour by Howarde's company, with the itinerary including South Africa, the United States, and Great Britain. Although she found some success with another outback comedy, Gum Tree Gully (1927), Howarde's theatrical interests had begun to move towards dramatic realism during the early to mid-1920s. Among her more notable works from that decade are The Limit (1923), The Bush Outlaw (1923), Find Me a Wife (1923), and Common Humanity (1927).

One the final productions staged by Kate Howarde was in 1935, when she presented The Judgement of Jean Calvert (authorship unknown) in Sydney. She died in Kensington, Sydney, four years later from a bout of cerebral thrombosis.

Exhibitions

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Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • 1. HISTORICAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS:

    1.1. Ina Bertrand's research ('Celebrating Kate Howarde') indicates that a good deal of myth surrounds Kate Howarde's life, much of it having been created by the actress/manager herself. According to Bertrand, not only did Howarde subtract five years from her age in order to make 'her talent appear even more precocious than it apparently was,' but that some later commentators contributed to the myth by understating her age by up to twenty years. Hence, claims that her work was being published in the Wellington Post at age nine, and that she founded her first company at age seventeen (an achievement Michelle Ballad in the Companion to Theatre in Australia proposes was 'unmatched by any theatrical entrepreneur of her time,' p.286) should be treated with much scepticism. In exposing these and other inventions, Bertrand nevertheless makes the point that Howarde's manipulation of facts was very likely undertaken for publicity purposes, an extremely useful tactic for 'navigating successfully within the theatrical world with its notoriously fickle audiences.'

    1.2. The Companion to Theatre in Australia indicates that Howarde's first husband, William de Saxe, died ca. 1899 (p.286). Neither research by Ina Bertrand and the Australian Dictionary of Biography have so far been unable to locate a record of his death in Australia or New Zealand (pp.189-90). No record of the Howarde and Black marriage has been located either. It is possible that they were married in the United States between 1905 and 1909.

  • 2. PERSONNEL ENGAGED BY KATE HOWARDE FOR HER VARIOUS COMPANIES:

    An asterisk (*) beside a name indicates that they were members of Howarde's 1900 touring vaudeville company. All dates between 1905 and 1909 relate to Harry Craig's Australian Players (aka Kate Howarde's Dramatic Company).

    2.1. Actors and variety performers included Poppy Adare (1932), Charlton Aird (1932), George Albert (1904), Neill Alexander (1919), Arthur Ambrose (1909), Gordon Amesly (1923), Charles Archer (1904), Jean Argyle (1932), Fred Argyle (1932), John Bannan (1925), Oliver Barclay (1923), Barry and Bracey* (1900), Violet Beard (1903-1904), Jack Beattie (1925), Violet Bertram* (1899-1900), Elton Black (1904), Felix Bland (1923), Adley Brunton (1904), Len Budderick (1920, 1932), Sydney Carden* (1899-1900), J. Carmody (1899), Germaine Casier (1925), Walter Cornock (1927), John Cosgrove (1899, 1919-1920), W. Cotterill (1925), Harry Craig* (1897-1903), George Cross (1923, 1932), Jean Crossley (1927), Jessie Dale (1919), Walter Dalgleish (1904), Nellie Dalton (1904), Martin Deane (1909), John Fyvie Dench (1909), Horace Denton (1904), Reg. Desmond (1925), Grace Dorran (1923), Walter Dyer (1909), Mr Vivian Edwards (1927), Bobby Finch (1925), S. A. Fitzgerald (1923-1927), Mr E. Forde (1904), Bert Frawley (1909), Sam Gale* (1900), John Galway (1923), Victor Gouriet (1925), Harry Gray (1900), Vic Haines (1925), Harry Harte (1903), Reginald Haynes (1925), Mr D. Herkes (1909), Andrew Higginson (1923), Andrew Hodge (1909, 1932), Gordon Holmes (1925), Leslie Holmes (1903), Bert Howarde (1898-1909), Billie Howarde (1909), Lew Howarde (1898), Arthur Hunter (1899-1900), Leoni James (1900), Myra James (1899), Jack Kirby (1919-1920), Sydney S. Knowles (1919-1925, 1932), Arthur Lake (1904), Fred Lancing (1925), Herbert Langley (1904), Vivian Langley (1919), Leonard Sisters (1897), Blanche Leslie (1904), Therese Leoni (1899), Dorothy L'Estrange* (1897-1900), Nell Lister (1925), Albert Lucas (1903-1904), Lionel Lunn (1923), Amie Lyle (1925), Bert Lynn (1919), Nellie Lynne* (1900), Ward Lyons (1909).

  • Alf McDermott (1897), Alex McDonald (1920), Fred MacDonald (1919-1920), Jack McGowan (1923), Cleave McGrath (1920), Louis Machilton (1919-1920), Ian McLaren (1923), Alex McPherson (1927), Lilian Maher (1909), Connie Martyn (1932), Hope Maynard (1899), Maggie Moore (1923), Lucie Nethersole (1909), Arthur Ordell (1923), Fred Patey (1927), James Perrie (1920, 1927 - aka Jim Perry), Katie Potter (1899-1900), Ethel Raye (1923), Molly Raynor (1927), Dorothy Robertson (1923), Rose Rooney (1919-1920), Dick Ryan (1932), James Rydel (1904), Bebe Scott (1932), Gwyn Scott (1904), Vincent Scully (1904), Allen Shaw (1923), Jock Sherwood (1923), Edwin Shipp (1897), Minnie Shipp (1897-1900), Eva Sinclair* (1900), Olive Sinclair (1927, 1932), Jack Souter (1919-1920), Fred Stephenson (1923-1927), Vera St John (1923), Percy Stuart (1900), Doreen Sweet (1923), Talbot Symes (1932), Donna Toppin (1925), Little Stella Tracey (1897), Mona Thomas (1927), Helen Vivian (1925), Alice Walton (1919), Cora Warner (1919-1927), Coral Warner (1920), Les Warton* (1900), Mable Waters (1920), Johnston Weir (1919), Marian Willis (1909), Marie Wilmott (1909), Fanny Wentworth (1909), Fanny Wiseman (1904), Leslie Woods (1919-1920).

  • 2.2. Production team members included David Cope Jnr (music director/musician, 1898), Harry Craig (business manager, ca. 1899-1909), Bert Howarde (business manager, 1898), Louis L. Howarde (music director, 1932), Elliot Johnstone (scenic artist, 1897-99), James Morgan (business manager, 1907), Ethel Templeton* (music director, 1900), George Wilson (music director, 1899-1900).

    2.3. Occasional or special guest performers included J. C. Bain (1898), Mrs Harrie Marshall (1900), Max Rodway* (1900).

    2.4. Elton Black-Kate Howarde Revue Company (ca. 1915): Peter Brooks, Billy Maloney, Clifford Keefe, Gerald Cashman, Grace Doran, Pearl Livingstone.

      • Peter Brooks: see also Nat Phillips' Stiffy and Mo Revue Company.

      • Gerald Cashman: see also Nat Phillips' Stiffy and Mo Revue Company.

      • Clifford O'Keefe: see also Nat Phillips' Stiffy and Mo Revue Company.

  • 3. PRODUCTIONS STAGED BY KATE HOWARDE'S VARIOUS COMPANIES:

    Burlesques, pantomimes, farces, and dramas not given individual entries in AustLit. It is yet to be established if some of the works listed were written by Howarde, however. All dates indicate the season premiere.

      • Accidental Honeymoon, The [comedy] ca. 1925.

      • Adventures of Bones, The [comedy] 13 April 1907 (Charters Towers).

      • Boccaccio by Franz von Suppé, with Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée [operetta] 8 February 1900 (Perth)

      • Brother's Crime, A [drama] 7 March (Gympie, Queensland).

      • Double Event [drama] 22 June 1907 (Charters Towers).

      • For the Term of His Natural Life [drama] 28 November 1904 (Perth).

      • Girofle-Girofla by Jaques Lecoqu, with Eugene Leterrier and Albert Van Loo [opera bouffe] ca. December 1899 (Perth).

      • It is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade [drama] 4 April 1907 (Charters Towers).

      • King's Colours; Or, For England's Glory, The [drama] 8 June 1907 (Charters Towers).

      • Les Cloches De Cornerville by J. R. Planquette [comic opera] 6 January 1900 (Perth).

      • Limit, The [drama] 29 September 1923 (Palace Theatre, Sydney) NB: Premiered in New Zealand prior to Sydney season (with Maggie Moore in the cast).

      • Outlaw Kelly, The [drama] 22 January 1900 (Perth) / 18 June 1907 (Charters Towers).

      • Photographer, The [farce] 19 May 1900 (Brisbane).

      • Sign of Seven, The [drama] 26 November 1904 (Perth).

      • Sins of a City, The [drama] 4 September 1909 (Brisbane).

      • Soldier of the Queen [melodrama] 29 January 1900 (Perth).

      • Whose Baby Are You? [comedy] 21 November 1925 (Brisbane).

      • Woman Against Woman [drama with music] 14 March 1903 (Gympie, Queensland)

  • 4. ENGAGEMENTS CHRONOLOGY:

    Information provided in square brackets [ ] indicates either the name of the company/troupe or the producer/manager. An asterisk (*) beside a date indicates that it is either approximate or has yet to be established.

    1886: 3 April - * ; Olympic Theatre, Sydney [Bella Sutherland's Vital Spark Comination] / 15 May - * ; Academy of Music, Sydney [Mngrs. Pollock and Cunard].

    1889: 15 June - * ; Gaiety Theatre, Sydney [Willard-Sheridan English Co]

    1890: 8 February - * ; Gaiety Theatre, Brisbane [W. R. Cowan's Dramatic Co]

    1897: 27-31 December* ; Gaiety Theatre, Brisbane [Kate Howarde Pantomime and Burlesque Co].

    1898: 1 January - February* ; Gaiety Theatre, Brisbane [Kate Howarde Pantomime and Burlesque Co].

    1899: 27-31 December* ; Theatre Royal, Perth [Kate Howarde Celebrated Comic Opera Co].

    1900: 1-15 January* ; Theatre Royal, Perth [Kate Howarde Celebrated Comic Opera Co] / 18-19 January ; Town Hall, Fremantle [Kate Howarde Celebrated Comic Opera Co] / 20 January ; Ye Olde Englyshe Fayre, Fremantle [Kate Howarde Celebrated Comic Opera Co] / 21 January - 11 February ; Theatre Royal, Perth [Kate Howarde Celebrated Comic Opera Co] / March-April* ; South Australia / 12 May - * ; Toowoomba, Queensland [Kate Howard Vaudeville Combination] / 19 May - June* ; Theatre Royal, Brisbane [Kate Howard Vaudeville Combination].

    1903: ca. March-April ; Regional Queensland tour ; [Kate Howarde Dramatic Company].

    • Tour itinerary incl. Theatre Royal, Gympie; 7-14 March.*

    1904: 26 November - 31 December* ; Theatre Royal, Perth [Kate Howarde's Dramatic Company]

    1905: 1 January - * ; Theatre Royal, Perth [Kate Howarde's Dramatic Company]

    1907: ca. March-April* ; Regional Queensland tour ; [Kate Howarde Dramatic Company].

    • Tour itinerary incl. Theatre Royal, Charters Towers ; 4 April - 28 June*

    1909: 4 September -* ; Hippodrome Theatre, Brisbane [Harry Craig's Australian Players]

    1915: August-September* ; National Theatre, Balmain [Elton Black-Kate Howarde Revue Comapny]

    1919: 6 September -* ; Theatre Royal, Sydney [Kate Howarde Dramatic Co]

    1920: 21 February - 6 March* ; Theatre Royal, Brisbane [Kate Howarde Dramatic Co]

    1923: 17 February -* ; Grand Opera House, Sydney [Kate Howarde Dramatic Co] / 29 September -* ; Palace Theatre, Sydney [Kate Howarde Dramatic Co]

    1925: 7-28 November ; Theatre Royal, Brisbane [Kate Howarde Dramatic Co]

  • 5. PHOTOGRAPHS:

    The following list comprises bibliographic details of published and unpublished photographs, caricatures, and drawings of Kate Howarde and members of her various companies (all entries refer to Kate Howarde unless otherwise noted).

  • Entries connected with this record have been sourced from historical research into Australian popular theatre conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.

    Details have also been sourced from Barbara Garlick. 'Australian Travelling Theatre 1890-1935: A Study in Popular Entertainment and National Ideology.'

Last amended 11 Apr 2017 13:37:54
See Also
Elton Black
Kate Howarde's Company
Kate Howarde's Celebrated Comic Opera Company
Elton Black Revue Company
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
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