Bert Levy

Bert Levy – Australia's first global Vaudeville star

Bert Levy bio fact #2

One final reference to Bert’s birth place. The Levy family were certainly in Ballarat in 1870 and may have likely been there for at least a couple of years. Prior to Bert’s birth in 1871 his parent’s new boot making business possibly had a perilous beginning. The first reference to Simon Levy (Bert’s father) in the Ballarat newspapers is a reference to the Geelong Insolvent’s Court in May 1870 when he and a number of other Ballarat business people are mentioned.

We know the boot making took place in Armstrong street North from the above 1872 Ballarat Star advertisement. Street numbers have changed over the years so the exact location of the Levy business is unknown.

The family fortunes were not helped by the following natural disaster.

Bert’s older sister Sarah (born in 1869) would have been that baby in the cradle that went sailing around the floor of the bedroom. The flood was certainly bad as we read in The Ballarat Courier’s report.