First known to have been performed on stage in February 1916, Vince Courtney's 'Why Me Brother Stayed at Home' was possibly a response to one of Tom Skeyhill's poems written during his time at Gallipoli. Skeyhill dedicates 'Me Brother Wot Stayed at 'Ome' to the 'Coldfooted Cobbers' who managed to shirk their military duty while he and others like him spend their days suffering and dying in the trenches.
A Theatre Magazine review of Courtney's appearance at Harry Clay's (q.v.) Bridge Theatre in February 1916 records:
'Mr Courtney - in the first half, and again in the second - sang patriotic songs of his own composition, clearly and nicely. His first number had a fine swing in it; and in the second half he spiritedly defended "Me Brother Wot Stayed at Home" - the point being that family obligations, in many cases, prevented some of the sons from going to the front' (March 1916, p.45).
Comic sketch.
Set on the corner of King and Castlereagh streets, Sydney. Two 'wanna-be' variety performers, Dick Doolittle (a knocker) and Alf Allsay (his pal), discuss the 'passable' vaudeville show they have just seen and the audience's inability to discern between good and bad acts. Monty Mugg (a greenhorn who reckons the show had a 'great bill') enters and Doolittle and Allsay put the hard word on him to get the pony he promised them so they could fix up their act.
