American comedian Paul Stanhope came to Australia in 1913 with the
American Burlesque Company. A few months after the tour ended in August the following year, he formed Paul Stanhope's Merry Musical Burlesque Company. Inviting four members from that troupe, singers Harry Ross, George McCall, Teddy Long and Arthur Renshaw (aka The Grafters Quartette), to join him, Stanhope also engaged comedian Les Bates to take on the principle role of off-sider.
The troupe found popular success with its revusicals (one act musical comedies) and especially through Stanhope's wild Irishman character Spike Murphy. It was this line-up, too, that helped pioneer the revusical genre in Australia, and hence played a significant role in developing the most popular theatrical entertainment form to be staged in Australia and New Zealand during the 1910s and 1920s.
Stanhope's Australian and New Zealand tours through until 1921 were temporarily broken by two visits to the USA (1916-1917 and 1918). Each of his return Australian tours saw his troupes billed with different names. The second, Paul Stanhope's Revue Company (1917-18) included former members Long and McCall, his wife Helen Le Cain, Val and Lottie Newman, Will Rayner, Phyllis Faye and Polly McLaren. His last Australian-based troupe, Paul Stanhope's Musical Comedy Company (1919-21) involved at various times some of the country's best-known variety performers - notably Peter Brooks, Mabel Morgan, Mark Erickson, Ernest Pitcher, Cliff O'Keefe, and Pearl Livingstone. Stanhope is thought to have disbanded this last troupe in early 1921 following a lengthy season in Perth.
