Comedian, writer, entrepreneur, songwriter, radio personality.
OVERVIEW
With his onstage partner Bill Verne (Will Barrington), Charlie Vaude established arguably Australia's most popular patter act of the 1910s and 1920s. Vaude and Verne were an institution on both the Tivoli and Fullers circuits during those years, performing mostly original material (jokes, patter, and songs). Much of their performance also relied on improvisation, with Vaude invariably focusing his sharp wit on current subjects and personalities. Verne's role in the act was the straightman. As a songwriter, Vaude wrote most of their material (either in his own right or in collaboration with Verne or other writers/composers). His songs were also sung by other variety performers, including high-profile vaudevillians such as Fred Bluett, Tom Dawson, Leonard Nelson, Dan Thomas, Mark Ericksen, and Alf J. Lawrence. A selection of Vaude and Verne's jokes were published in 1916, and many were also repeated in industry magazines such as The Theatre and Australian Variety. In 1934 he also published Chuckle with Charlie Vaude, a compendium of both his own and other comedian's jokes.
BIOGRAPHY
1882-1901: The son of Charles John Ridgway (a printer) and his wife Mary (née McCarthy), Charles Joseph Ridgway was reared and educated in London. After a period of time employed as an errand boy, he took up a carpentry apprenticeship, a decision that was influenced by his father. Ridgway's passion from an early age, however, was to pursue a life on stage, a career of which both his parents apparently disapproved. Frequenting music halls as often as possible during his teen years, Ridgway learned to imitate the patter routines and songs of such leading comedians as George Robey and Wilkie Bard. Desperate to be free of his indentures, he eventually enlisted in the Royal West Surrey Regimental Band, after lying about his age to the recruitment officers. It was with the regimental band that he played at King Edward VII's coronation in 1901.
1902-1909: Sometime around 1902, Ridgway migrated to Australia, initially settling in Western Australia. Although still keen to pursue his interest in the stage, fiscal demands meant that he was required to pursue various alternative jobs, including labouring and auctioneering. In an interview with Theatre: An Illustrated Monthly, he recalls that the latter job allowed him the opportunity to 'perform' a miniature variety show with fellow auctioneer Bert Thomas ('a good singer'):
'I used to operate at Pingelly, Albany, Bunbury, Northam, York and Fremantle. So as to stimulate buyers in making a bid I make it a point of working off topical jokes... [While] in Northam we [attended] a bioscope show. Something had gone wrong with the machine. I thought it would be a good thing for the following day's [auction if Bert and I] could work off a sort of announcement from the stage to the crowded audience. The proprietor of the show said I could do this if in return I could put anything in the shape of a turn. Thomas and I gave a few songs and worked off a number of topical jokes. The turn occupied twenty minutes. So pleased was the bioscope man at the way we had delighted the audience that besides allowing us to announce our sale, he threw us 30s between us' (January 1912, p.25).
At one stage, Ridgway and Thomas found themselves forced to spend some time in Perth due to a slow down in the auction trade during the winter months. Ridgway approached veteran minstrel comic W. B. (Billy) Warner, who was then about to begin a season in Perth and Fremantle, and succeeded in getting themselves on the bill. They followed this engagement with a season at Cotteslow with Medora's Pierotts. When Thomas decided to return to auctioneering, Ridgway put together a small show. Comprising a ventriloquist, a magician, and himself, the company nevertheless worked up a two-hour entertainment package.
In 1908, after having concluded that Perth and West Australia could not offer him the opportunities to develop both his act and career, Ridgway travelled east to Adelaide. While he did not find any engagements in that city, he did come across an advertisement for performers to undertake a season in the north-west N.S.W. mining town of Broken Hill. It was here that he met with Will Barrington, a comedian who was then viewed by the locals as a favourite. Ridgway and Barrington soon teamed up, adopting the stage names (Charlie) Vaude and (Bill) Verne. After completing their debut season in Broken Hill, they travelled to Melbourne, and shortly afterwards toured regional Victoria (including Ballarat and Bendigo). Around this time, they came to the attention of the Fullers' Collingwood-based agent, and subsequently signed with the company for an eight-week tour of New Zealand. The contract with Fullers was extended to nine months, after which they toured Tasmania, followed by a sixteen-week season in Brisbane under Ted Holland (q.v.). It was in 1909, during the latter engagement, that Vaude and Verne came to the notice of Harry Rickards's (q.v.) brother/manager Jack C. Leete. He signed the act to tour the Tivoli circuit, and it was in association with that organisation that Vaude and Verne became household names throughout Australia and New Zealand over the next two decades (Theatre: An Illustrated Monthly, January 1912, p.25).
1911-1919: On 25 September 1911, Charlie Vaude married seventeen-year-old variety performer Lilas Birt at St Jude's Anglican Church, Carlton. She had been performing on the variety stage as a serio-comic from at least 1905. Their only child, a son, was born in Melbourne in early December 1915. [See Historical Notes section below for further details on Birt].
By 1914, Vaude had become a major figure in Australia's vaudeville 'A' list of celebrities. His induction into the Chasers (q.v.) social group led to a number of his poems about the group's Sydney Harbour outings being published in Australian Variety, including one about Harry Clay: 'When the Baritone was Waiting on the Hungry Harry Clay' (1914). Other Chaser-related poems include 'In Sydney on a Thursday When it's Wet' and 'Has Joe Been In?' (both 1914).
1920-1929: When the variety industry began to decline in the late 1920s, Vaude and Verne temporarily established a base of operations in the Queensland coastal city of Rockhampton, with Vaude taking over the lease of several theatres in the city (and also in other nearby centres, including Mount Morgan). It is possible that their association with the area began as early as 1926, when Vaude took on the responsibilities of producer/performer with the Minna Theatres, which operated in both Townsville and Rockhampton. Certainly, by 1929, both men were well established in Rockhampton, with Verne's wife running her own dance school (advertised as Mrs Billy Verne's School of Dance). The school catered for adults' ballroom dancing, juveniles' theatrical and fancy dancing, and private tuition (Morning Bulletin 2 July 1929, p.2).Verne is believed to have also continued performing, appearing with the various companies that toured through the area.
Vaude's managerial career saw him lease Rockhampton's Coliseum and Oddfellows' theatres. Under his management (known as Vaude's Theatrical Enterprises), the city was treated to vaudeville and revue by such troupes as the Merrymakers of 1929 (ca. July). The troupe was led by George 'Hermie' Ward, with the other performers including Mrs George Ward, Vaude and Verne, and the Le Brun brothers. The Morning Bulletin's review of the opening night records that Vaude (invariably referred to as Chillo Vaude, or just Chillo) had instigated a Thursday night Merrymakers' market, whereby all holders of programmes were able to participate in the purchase of such articles as watches, gramophones, cutlery, thermos flasks, etc. He also held regular 'How Do You Do' competitions at the theatre (26 August 1929, p.3). Vaude also leased the Oddfellows' Theatre in nearby Mount Morgan around this period. The Vaude and Verne partnership most likely ended in 1929 or 1930, after Vaude moved to Melbourne to establish a new career in radio.
1930-1942: Charlie Vaude's radio career began in 1930, when he was employed by Melbourne station 3DB to invigorate its radio advertising. He was engaged to provide similar interest to the station's evening broadcasts of the cricket during the 1930 Ashes series. Partnered by Renn Miller (previously associated with Huxham's Serenaders), Vaude provided gags and songs to keep the audience amused while the experts deciphered the vital information from cables. Vaude was again involved in cricket broadcasting during the 1934 and 1938 Test series. During the 1930s, he also recorded a number of songs and several patter-style comedy pieces in collaboration with both Renn Miller and Richard Tauber.
Vaude's popularity with radio audiences saw him given further on-air opportunities, including the enormously popular Smile Away Club. By 1937, the show boasted 37,000 members, including Prime Minister Joseph Lyons and his wife. He also featured in 3DB's C. and G. Minstrel Show, hosted community singing and tours of country towns, acted as the ratbag professor of Bonehead College, and become a leading figure in the station's charity events. He also he also played an influential role in helping develop the careers of a number of variety performers, including Joy Westmore. With his almost two-decade-long career as a comedy star with the Vaude and Verne partnership and his subsequent radio career, Charlie Vaude was firmly entrenched as a household name in Melbourne.
Following the death of his first wife in 1931, Vaude married dancer Leila Halliday at Northcote in 1935. He died of cancer at his home in the same suburb on 29 October 1942 and was buried in Melbourne general cemetery. His wife and his son from his first marriage, survived him.
