Entrepreneur.
The son of theatrical manager Harry George Musgrove and nephew of George Musgrove, Harry G. Musgrove began his career in the Australian entertainment industry working for his uncle. In 1906, he left to work for pioneer film exhibitor T. J. West. When West's Pictures was taken over by Union Theatres and Australasian Films, he remained with the new organisation as a director. In 1920, Musgrove joined E. J. Carroll and Dan Carroll to form Carroll-Musgrove Theatres, which soon afterwards built the Prince Edward Theatre in Sydney. That same year, he obtained the Australian rights to screen films from the Hollywood studio First National, and in 1921 he created an exhibition company, First National Exhibitors of Australia, and a circuit of venues that operated as Musgrove Theatres.
In 1921, Musgrove also took over operational control of Harry Rickards' Tivoli Theatres Ltd from previous general manager Hugh D. McIntosh. McIntosh still remained on the board of directors, however. Musgrove's initial decision to turn the organisation into a cinema chain proved to be unsuccessful, largely because the theatres were unsuitable for film exhibition, and within a short period of time he was forced bring back vaudeville entertainment. This move saw him bring on board his cousin, Jack Musgrove, who had more experience in the variety industry. The company continued the Rickards tradition of importing foreign acts, notably Wilkie Bard, Claude Dampier (billed as the 'professional idiot'), Ella Shields, Bert Gilbert (later of the Famous Diggers), Wee Georgie Wood, and Lee White and Clay Smith, along with directors such as James Goold-Taylor. Spencer Barry, who had previously spent several years in Paris, was also bought in to oversee one of the Tivoli Frolics, which at various times included such acts as Moon and Morris, Eric Masters, Madeline Rossiter, and Scottish basso Richard McClelland. Under the Musgroves, the company also produced pantomimes, revues, and musical comedies.
In December 1923, Musgrove Theatres and J. C. Williamson's Ltd co-produced what was to be a financially disastrous production of The Forty Thieves at Wirth's Hippodrome in Sydney. After being forced into bankruptcy, Musgrove sold his interests in the Tivoli organisation to the Williamson's firm, which operated the circuit as Tivoli Celebrity Vaudeville up until 1931. Although Musgrove later worked for United Artists in Shanghai, his entrepreneurial career never again reached the levels he had attained during the decade or more leading up to 1922. In his book Tivoli, Frank Van Straten notes that Musgrove, 'once a good-looking, enterprising charmer... died in penniless obscurity in 1951 at the age of sixty-six' (p.66).
