Category: Uncategorized
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Bert helps out with the decorating but …..
Trove reproduction quality is poor here, so I have reproduced what appears to be a fairly innocuous story in Wednesday’s April 11 1900, Page 2 of the Bendigo Advertiser. DECORATIONS. – For the past four months ‘Claremont’, Queen-street, the residence of Mr. S. White, has been in the hands of the decorator and they have…
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Why Bendigo ?
Prior posts have touched on why Bert may have needed to leave Sydney at the turn of the 20th Century. But why did he come to Bendigo ? It has taken a while to establish a link between Bert and Bendigo, however without being completely definitive that this was the reason, I have only recently…
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Bert arrives in Bendigo……….
Bizarrely Bert chose to travel to Bendigo on Saturday December 30, 1899. (a fairly momentous week in the young Colony as it heralded a new century) He may been fronting for a job interview before the key people went on an extended New Year holiday ? It looks like he traveled alone, possibly leaving Harriet…
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Bio Note #16 Bert’s first stage performance 1897
This should be the final entry on Bert’s time in Sydney. In 1897 young Bert (mid twenties) was experimenting with a stage act in between his many other pursuits to make a living. Bert had appeared as a sketch artist at a number of testimonials and benefit concerts whilst in Sydney, (probably without payment) however,…
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Bulletin work #2
The Bulletin had its small stable of regular cartoonists and many more like Bert and Will Dyson who were freelancers in the 1890s…. I’d imagine they would pick up a few shillings each time they had something published. Bert would court controversy in 1899 for a number of his sketches that re-affirmed the Bulletin’s views…
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Bulletin work #1
When in Sydney, Bert was in his mid twenties and juggling income from the odd theatre work, costume design and managing the Photography studio in the Strand. He was most likely struggling financially. He got a break in 1897 as a free-lance cartoonist contributing ‘letter press’ to the nation’s notoriously satirical magazine, the Sydney Bulletin. At the time, the…
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The friends you meet when sailing…
Returning from his second European tour Bert sailed back to New York from London in November 1910. The ship was the SS George Washington built in Germany in 1908. The Ship was built for luxury as you can see from the First Class Lounge photo in the right image. In his 1921 book, Bert dedicated…
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Bio note # 14 ‘Brother of the brush’
During his time in Sydney, Bert joined the Mosman Artist camp on weekends forging friendships with Australia’s future art elite including Streeton, Roberts, Longstaff and McCubbin and referred to his membership of the group, as being a ‘a brother of the brush’. His association with the camp is buried in one of his Music and Dramatic columns…
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Bert takes Paris 1909, however gets lost in translation !!
Bert’s non-speaking act which featured him whistling on stage as he magnified his images on a screen behind provided an entrée into European theatre that was generally not offered to other English-speaking performers. Bert was able to write French and German words on his glass disk as he drew his famous characters. Now, I know some of you…
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Bio note # 13. ‘The King of China’
A recent search found this photo of Bert where he appears to be in his bridegroom outfit. If it is, he is 24 years of age and the photo is from 1895. This, and the next photo show Bert was experimenting with photographic presentation long before he took over the Alba Studio in Sydney. The…
Bert Levy 