Bert Levy

Bert Levy – Australia's first global Vaudeville star

Bert gets warm welcome in Frisco

To read about the origins of the ‘Coo-ee club’ see full text below from the San Francisco Call, July 18, 1904. (easier to read)
Interesting take on the word ‘Coo-ee’ adopted here. The wife of the Chief Rabbi Mrs Isidor Myers seems to be the chief organiser. Bert’s arrival seems to galvanise the group.
Of course Rabbi Myers was from Melbourne originally (Bert’s school master at one time) and also had been the Rabbi of Sandhurst in 1880’s. (That was the unpopular name of Bendigo till the 1870s when the citizens voted to change it back to Bendigo.)

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1904-07-18/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1904&index=0&rows=20&words=CLUB+Club+COO+Coo+COO-EE+Coo-ee+EE+ee&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1904&proxtext=Coo-ee+Club&y=9&x=11&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This fact above gives me an excuse to publish a sketch of the magnificent Sandhurst Synagogue, sadly pulled down in the 1920s. Bert Levy no doubt would have attended here along with fellow worshipper Sidney Myer in 1900 and 1901. Although Sidney’s older brother Elcon was more devout and they split on arguments on trading on the sabbath.

The synagogue in perspective of it Bendigo surrounds… In foreground, the Criterion Hotel was Bendigo’s first substantial pub, built by the Danish Brothers known as the Cohns. (Also Jewish) in early 1850s. The Cohns bought cold beer to Australia from Europe and should be widely celebrated for that.

yveltreb

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