Bert Levy

THE MATINEE HAT; OR, THE MAN BEHIND. BY BERT LEVY, 1908 THE LIGHTNING ARTIST AT THE PALACE THEATRE The Tatler – London Wednesday 04 November 1908

Before and during his vaudeville career, Bert sketched for many newspapers and magazines in both the UK and USA. On his first trip to England in 1908 he joined in the heated debate on the wearing of the Matinee Hat in theatres by drawing the above sketch. He would later write the following piece in his book ‘For the Good of the Race and other stories’ published in 1921. Yes, Bert Levy was also an author. (more on the book later)

The best strategy may be slowly introduce you to the life of Bert Levy in short doses. Here goes the first Bert Levy Biographical Tip # 1. Bert was born in the city of Ballarat in 1871 in the Colony of Victoria at the time, which became part of the Commonwealth of Australia thirty years later in 1901. Gold had been discovered in Ballarat just twenty years earlier. As this author is from the rival gold mining city in Victoria, I will not regale you with glowing tributes of Bert’s birth place. Here’s what Bert wrote about his birth and birthplace in 1912 when asked to contribute a biographical piece to Australia’s leading Theatre magazine, ‘The Lone Hand’. Bert wrote this on the boat coming back to Australia after an 8 year absence.

Bert wrote a long piece on Ballarat in the Bendigo Independent newspaper in the Federation year of 1901. No one in Bendigo read it ! They may however, looked at his full page depiction of Ballarat characters or Types (as he liked to refer to his people sketches) at Railway Picnic Day which he had published in the Bendigonian Weekly Supplement a year earlier, April 3 1900. He sarcastically titled this, A “Pleasant” Day In Ballarat. One does not have to examine the sketch too closely to understand the title !!

Source : Bendigonian Weekly Supplement April 3, 1900. Courtesy of Phil Lipshut. Bert returned two years later to the big day out in Ballarat, the Railway Picnic Day and again depicted the scenes to a new readership of the Leader Newspaper in Melbourne owned by David Syme of The Age.

The above photo and news clip appeared in the The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]), March 02, 1923, Home Edition, Page 11, Image 11 in 1923. Bert Levy initiated the concept of providing free entertainment for poor children 15 years earlier when his Vaudeville career was just taking off. In London in 1908 for the first time, Bert was so surprised by the abject poverty and misery he saw in the East End of London that he rallied all the American Vaudeville entertainers in London for the summer season to put on a free show to benefit the Fresh Air Society. Every 9d raised would give one child from the East End a day in the country.

The wealthy Rothchild family of London would become big supporters of Bert Levy and his children’s concerts.

Welcome to the Bert Levy blog. Bert was one of Australia’s first performers on a truly global stage, yet so few Australians know anything about his life and / or career. I hope this blog can redress some of this lack of knowledge, albeit nearly 120 years after his stage career took off.  I’m hoping to post something daily on Bert, so I hope you’ll join me on the journey.  

Cheers Jack Coyne                                                                                    

Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.