Category: Uncategorized
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Bert Levy Bio Note #8
In the mid 1890s Bert is now living in Sydney and starts free lancing with his sketch work. In his bio piece in 1911 from the Lone Hand Theatre Magazine he starts to make enough money to give away the scenic art work. Bert writes…….. Bert’s break through with the Sydney Bulletin seems to take…
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Bert Levy Bio Note # 7
In the last Bio note #6, we saw Bert is very happily apprenticed to Scenic artist George Gordon based at the Theatre Royale in Bourke Street. 1893, Gordon gets a commission for the Sydney Lyceum Theatre and it looks like he packs up the whole team for the job. Bert aged 22 gets a guernsey.
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Friar’s Club (con’t)
Bert’s membership of this erstwhile club has certainly attracted some interest from members !! Great description below- “In the 1960s, the Friars Club, the Lambs Club, and the Players Club were often confused. The columnist Earl Wilson put it this way in 1964: “Long ago a New Yorker asked the difference between the Lambs, Friars, and Players, since the membership was,…
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Friar’s Club
Bert seems to have been a prominent member of the club established in 1904. Latin scholars among you will know the meaning of club logo. Still operating it is the venue for big name ‘celebrity roasts’.
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‘another old Vaudeville mate’
Bert had been losing his hearing even before 1918 (when aged 46) as he was knocked back on enlisting in the Canadian army. (more on that later) On a trip to New York City, Rogers was at Madison Square Garden, on April 27, 1905, when a wild steer broke out of the arena and began to…
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Captive audience
In addition to his free children shows which he locked into most contracts on his Vaudeville circuit, Bert was most generous to other causes…
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Bert Levy Bio Note #6
Failing as an eyelet boy in his father’s boot making business and then in his brother in law Pawn broking business, Simon Levy (Bert’s father) took a course of action that would finally recognise his son’s creative talent. We pick up again in Bert’s own biographical account in the Lone Hand Theatre Magazine of February…
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Bert’s return in 1911
Bert and family returned to Australia in the October 1911. They had been gone nearly 8 years. He was booked by theatre manager Harry Rickards who owned the revamped Opera House theatre in Melbourne and the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney. Punch Newspaper (Melbourne) March 7 1922
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Always self -deprecating
Throughout his career, many journalists commented that Bert’s fame had not gone to his head…. Here is one story told to a journalist of the Oakland Tribune. (Oakland is a port city now part of the greater San Francisco Bay area)
Bert Levy 