John Fuller began his career as a performer in England in the late 1860s or early 1870s, specialising as a tenor vocalist with such troupes as the Mohawk Minstrels and Moore and Burgess Minstrels before coming to Australia in 1889 with
F. E. Hiscocks' London Pavilion Company. He remained in Australia for some five years before moving his family to Auckland, New Zealand, in 1904.
Fuller set about establishing his own popular concerts in New Zealand, with the entertainment mostly supplied by members of his family. Over the next few years the business gradually expanded with the addition of overseas performers like Fred Bluett, Will Stevens and Will Watkins, while also touring to other major New Zealand centres.
In 1899 Fuller returned to Australia with most of his family and began presenting "Shilling Pops" concerts in Melbourne. He later established the Empire Vaudeville and Minstrel Company (Sydney, 1901-1902) before touring elsewhere, including Tasmania. In 1904 the family returned to New Zealand and set about re-establishing a permanent circuit there. Fuller kept performing into the 1910s but by then had long since relinquished management of the family business to his sons. He died in Auckland in 1923.
[Source:
Australian Variety Theatre Archive]
