Scottish-born comedian, actor, singer, director, manager, librettist, writer.
As with many of his peers in the pre-1930s Australian popular culture entertainment industry, Elton Black's ability to remain a professional performer for more than two decades was largely due to his versatility. In this respect, he was regarded as a fine comedian, comic singer, and dancer, and an impersonator noted for his takes on Sir Harry Lauder and Charlie Chaplin, among others. Invariably billed as the 'Scotch comic,' Black's Australian career saw him appear on circuits run by most of the leading variety organisations, with notable engagements being the Fullers, John N. McCallum (Brisbane), and Harry Clay.
Possibly born in Glasgow, Elton Black began his career as a professional actor in Scotland, and is believed to have moved to Australia in the early 1900s. His first known engagements were with I. E. 'Bohemian' Cole and later with Kate Howarde, beginning ca. 1904. Black and Howarde are believed to have married sometime around 1905, shortly before they moved for several years to the United States and later England. Although possibly associated with Howarde's theatrical enterprise at the National Theatre, Balmain (Sydney) in 1914, Black had by then turned his career towards variety entertainment. In 1913, for example, he appeared on the Brennan-Fuller circuit with soubrette Bel Bronte, while also presenting his own solo turns. In 1915, he and Howarde formed their own revusical company, which they toured on the Fullers' circuit. However, the following year, Howarde returned to Balmain to run the National Theatre, leaving Black to tour the company under his own name.
After the war, Black joined the Walter Johnson Revue Company (ca. 1919-1920) and afterwards alternated between solo engagements and taking on principal comedian roles with several other high-profile revusical companies, including the Billy Maloney/Elton Black Town Topics Company (ca. 1924) and F. Gayle Wyer's Bandbox Revue Company (ca. 1926). In 1928, he also toured his own company, Elton Black's Town Topics Co, on the Clay circuit. After touring with Elton Black and Cyril Northcote's London Revels Company in 1929, Black appears to have disappeared from the Australian variety industry for several years, with his next known engagements being in 1933, at which time he was touring his own London Revels company.
During the remainder of the 1930s Black appeared in pantomime for the Fullers (Cinderella, 1934), managed a variey company in India for Cyril Northcote (1934-35), and toured with Stanley McKay's Gaieties (ca. 1937). Black also spent some considerable time in Perth during the mid-1930s, working with community choirs and working as both a perfomer and director for various entrepreneurial organistions including Richard Shafto (Luxor Theatre) and Don Nicol/J. Wilson (Luxor Theatre). His last known engagement was in Brisbane in 1939, where he spent four months with Madge Cloherty's Celebrities (Theatre Royal) working as both comedian and stage director.
[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]
