Bookmaker, vaudeville entrepreneur, publisher, writer.
OVERVIEW
Andy Kerr ('the Coogee Bunyip') started out as a telegraph operator on the North British Railway at age twelve. He emigrated to Australia in the mid-1880s as a footman to Lord Carrington, and later operated grocery businesses in the Newtown district. He became involved in bookmaking around the turn of the century, and by the 1910s was regarded as the best-known bookie of his era. He earned the nickname 'the Coogee Bunyip' through his love of swimming at the popular beach, and it stuck with him for most of his life. In 1917, he further cemented his association with the suburb by taking over the management of the Boomerang Theatre, Coogee. That same year, he also became manager and co-publisher of Australian Variety and Show World. Kerr briefly partnered Harry Sadler as a director at the Gaiety Theatre (Oxford St), beginning late 1918. Following Sadler's death in 1919, Kerr formed a partnership with Harry Clay to run the Gaiety from around late 1919. His other business interests included a Sydney city jewellery shop and a nightclub/casino at Bondi.
Kerr was ruined financially as a result of the Depression, and although he later became a commission agent, he never regained his position as one of the leading figures in the Australian racing industry. He wrote a series of articles for the Sydney Truth in 1941, in which he recalled people and incidents from his past. Kerr outlived both his first wife and all six children, dying at a granddaughter's house in Kirribilli in 1955. Renowned throughout Australia during the peak of his bookmaking career as the 'Longest Odds Bettor in the World,' and the 'Leviathan of the Australian Turf,' Andy Kerr reportedly received more unsolicited commendation from the sporting press and public than all the other turf agents combined (Australian Variety 8 September 1915, p.16).
DETAILED BIOGRAPHY
The son of lathsplitter Dickson Kerr and his wife Catherine, Andy Kerr arrived in Australia as an eighteen-year-old footman in the service of Lord Carrington, the newly appointed Governor of New South Wales. According to Kerr, prior to taking up this position he had spent some three years, from the age of twelve, working as a telegraph operator for the North British Railway. He remained in Australia after Carrington returned to England in 1890 and initially set up a grocery business in Newtown. It later expanded to the nearby suburbs of Marrickville and Erskinville. On 8 February 1893, he married Sydney-born Annie Elizabeth Butler, the daughter of a school teacher, at St Thomas's Roman Catholic Church, Lewisham. The couple later had six children, three sons and three daughters. Although Kerr reputedly showed an interest in Labor politics during his early years, any possibility of attempting a career in that direction was put aside after he began to establish a career in bookmaking.
Kerr's interest in the racing industry is believed to have developed in his teens, but it was not until his late twenties that he began to pursue a career as a bookmaker. He started out as a fledgling bookie at Sydney's pony tracks, before being accepted in 1903 as an 'Outer' bookie at the major metropolitan racecourses. He eventually graduated from this unenviable position to the 'Flat,' then to the 'Ledger,' and finally to the 'Paddock,' where he achieved considerable fame and fortune. According to newspapers of the day, Kerr revolutionised betting in Australia by offering £100 to £1,000 to 1 straight-out on a pony event. By 1915, he had a small army of clerks, bag holders, and bodyguards, and in 1916 at Flemington, the Sun recorded that in doing a 'roaring business... it was impossible to get near him. Sight-seers obstructed those who wished to speculate' (ctd. Australian Variety 12 April 1916, n. pag.).
John Ritchie (Australian Dictionary of Australian Biography) further records:
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He established his reputation by offering to take bets on any sporting event, whatever and wherever, and his style earned him the title, which he adopted as his slogan, the 'Longest Odds Bettor on Earth'. He once laid a bet of £300 to nothing and another of £50 to a cigar and won them; in the 1913 Melbourne Cup he laid odds of 1000 to one against Golden Shore and bet the punter who accepted £10 to £1 that the horse would run last; it finished second-last. In 1923 he paid out £15,000 to £45 on the Epicure-David Doncaster-Sydney Cup double. His betting stand resembled a sideshow: his bagmen bore his name emblazoned in bold block letters on their leather satchels and, bedecked in straw boaters, his team of clerks noted the bets while Kerr walked among the punters engaging in badinage while laying the odds - he teased female punters for being 'pests personified'. He had a rule that on taking silver or gold in payment of a wager, if he missed when he flipped the coin into the assistant's bag the crowd might scramble for the money (p.574).
Kerr's position as the top bookmaker in Australia was apparently rivalled only by Albert Sluice (recognised as the longest odds place bettor in Australia). Sluice was also well-known as the brother of comedian Roy 'Mo' Rene. In 1916, Kerr and Sluice operated their stands at Randwick, numbers 72 and 48 respectively (the front cover of Australian Variety's 13 May 1920 issue indicates that Kerr's stand was then no. 104). Both also received much publicity through the vaudeville industry's leading publication, Australian Variety and Show World. Kerr's reputation by 1920 was such that he regularly advertised that 'Kerr, Coogee' was the 'sufficient and only [postal] address' required (ibid).
In April 1917, Kerr became involved in the variety industry as co-manager and publisher of Australian Variety and Show World with Martin C. Brennan (editor). Sometime later that same year he expanded his interests in entertainment by becoming managing director of the Boomerang Theatre, Coogee, a 1500-seat venue presenting both film and vaudeville, which also employed a full orchestra. The following year, in early December, he joined forces with Harry Sadler, taking on the role of director at the Gaiety Theatre in Oxford Street, and being heavily involved in the theatre's renovations. It is understood that Kerr looked after the business affairs while Sadler involved himself in the day-to-day running of the theatre and the organisation of the artists.
In August 1919, Kerr took over the management of the Gaiety on his own for some several months after Sadler committed suicide. With little experience at managing the entertainment side of a vaudeville business, he arranged for Harry Clay to provide artists for the theatre, and in November that year they formed a partnership, whereby Clay ran the entertainment and Kerr managed the theatre. Clay is also known to have been supplying Kerr's Boomerang Theatre with artists from as early as mid-January 1918 (Australian Variety 25 January 1918, p.15). While Clay's association with the Gaiety is the best known, the theatre was in fact known for several years as Kerr's Gaiety. He continued his role as a more-or-less silent partner in the Gaiety Theatre's operations until Clay's company ended its operations there ca. 1927. Kerr's association with Australian Variety is believed to have ended when the magazine merged with Everyone's Variety in 1921, becoming Everyone's: The Motion Picture Authority.
Apart from his varied business interests, which included a jewellery store in Market Street in the city and the Bondi Casino nightclub, Kerr is said to have supported many charities. Australian Variety records in this respect that 'his beneficence [was] a by-word within the Sydney community... For the war and patriotic funds alone he has given close on £1,000, and he has never yet been known to turn a deaf ear to any legitimate appeal in the cause of charity' (19 April 1916, n. pag.). He is also known to have on occasion graced the stage in cameo appearances, one such event causing Australian Variety to report that 'Mr Kerr nightly receives an ovation. And he deserves it!... His little part is done without the least affectation. He comes on keenly, speaks clearly, and moves easily and naturally' (9 May 1917, n. pag.).
As Australia's foremost bookmaker, Kerr was also renowned as a natty dresser, resplendent in three-piece suits, with winged collars and striped ties. He is described as being blue eyed, 6 ft 3 ins (191 cm) tall, slim, and clean-shaven with spruce fair hair. He smoked cigars, flaunted diamonds in his tie-pin, ring, and cuff-links, and was a member of leading social establishments such as the Tattersall's Club. Away from his business pursuits, he also enjoyed cricket, fishing, and motoring.
Although the extent of Kerr's personal wealth during his bookmaking career (ca. 1903-1930) cannot be estimated, it is believed to have been significant. His fortune largely disappeared, however, as a result of the Depression. He later became a commission agent. Although he never regained his place as a dashing leader of Sydney's turf world, John Ritche notes that he nevertheless retained his dignity and wit, adopting the philosophical attitude that 'Lady Luck' could give 'a lift or a raspberry' (p.575).
Kerr wrote a series titled 'Random Reminiscences' for the Sydney Truth and Sportsman in 1941. Following the death of his wife, he married Charlotte Elizabeth Weston-Campbell, née Parker, a widowed cake-shop proprietress, on 6 April 1942. He died on 9 October 1955 at the Kirribilli home of one of his granddaughters, having also survived all of his children, and was buried in the Presbyterian section of Northern Suburbs cemetery.
