Grace Gorman - collection of photographs and theatrical memorabilia, programs and letters, ca. 1901-1974

PXA 1086

fonds

ca. 1901-1974

Graphic Materials, Textual Records, Photographs, Ephemera, Paintings

449062

Photographs - 16 silver gelatin photoprints, some hand col., some on mount - 24 x 19 cm. or smaller
Ephemera - 18 postcards, some hand col. or trimmed - 14 x 8.5 cm.
Ephemera - programs, tickets
Textual Records - manuscript, letters & scrapbook
Paintings - 1 sign, yellow, white, grey and glitter on black card - 22 x 30 cm.

Grace Margaret Gorman was born 25 Oct 1900 (though she claimed it was 1901, and the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages registration no. is 6239/1901). Her parents were Catholic but she was christened by Rev. J.W. Gillet, St Matthias' Church of England, Paddington, 21 Feb 1901. The family lived at 112 1/2 Underwood Street, Paddington.
Grace's parents were Charles Edward Gorman (1876-1943) and Anastasia Kain (1881-late 1940's) and she had two siblings, Ernest Charles (1899-1978) and May. In 1904, the family moved to 4 Sunnyside (aka Bray) Avenue, Lilyfield. Mrs Bray would collect the rent from several properties. Charles was a tram driver and later was a point operator and bridge opener on tramway routes.
Grace attended Orange Grove School. She was taught dancing by Rae Buttle and then by Chrissie Royal at Derbyshire Road, Leichhardt. Royal had an acrobatic troupe which also sang and danced named The Three Midgets. Grace had a strong voice and replaced one of the Midgets, joining Vera Croft and Olga Whiteman in the act. They performed at the Empire Theatre, Brisbane in 1908 (?) and then toured to Townsville, Ayr, Charters Towers, Rockhampton and Cairns. Although an Anglican, Grace often went to Mass with the Catholic performers.
The Three Midgets spent twenty weeks at the Tivoli, Sydney in 1909-1910 and 1911. (The theatre was draped in black on the death of Edward VII in 1910.) The Three Midgets were accompanied by the full Tivoli orchestra and performed to the song Blaze away. They were the only children performing at Rickards' Tivoli and they also worked on the Fuller circuit, the Victoria Theatre, Newcastle, the Tivoli, Adelaide and at Broken Hill.
In Dec 1912-Jan 1913 they toured Western Australia, performing at the Shaftesbury Theatre and Cremorne Gardens, Perth, the Empire Theatre, Midland Junction, the King's Theatre, Fremantle and at Geraldton, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. They were billed as "Song and Dance Artists and Acrobats". Shortly after, Vera Croft had scarlet fever and lost her hair so the troupe disbanded.
In 1914 Grace performed in pantomimes at the Adelphi, the Grand Opera and the Tivoli and from this time until 1916 she was in the Eight Royal Troupe of Acrobats, performing at the Princess, Melbourne, with Stiffy and Mo at the Tivoli, Sydney and in the pantomimes Babes in the wood and Aladdin in New Zealand. Stiffy and Mo played the wicked uncles in Babes in the wood. (While in New Zealand a cinder from the locomotive caused a fire in the scenery carriage and the train stopped to put out the fire. Mo emerged wearing a large fur coat.) The pantomimes were produced by an American, Lester Brown and starred Grace Palotta as the principal boy. One of her recitations was: "Algy had a bear / and the bear was bulgy / and the bulge was Algy."
In 1917 Grace performed solo for Harry Clay and, in Newcastle, for Ben Fuller. Then she went to the National Theatre in Castlereagh Street, Sydney. She was also a member of the Esma Duo with Florrie Wilson. During this time she sometimes went to "Poverty Point" on the north-western corner of Pitt and Park Streets to obtain work. One of the theatrical agents there was Percy Lodge.
Grace left the theatre circuit when she married Arthur Oswald Phillips (1897-1976), a storeman, at St. Paul's Church, Redfern in 1918. Her parents had also married there. They had two children; Mavis Gloria (b. 7 Dec 1919) and Bruce Arthur (1925-1991). In 1930 Grace and her children converted to Catholicism.
The family lived at 210 Hawthorne Parade, Haberfield in the 1930's. Grace opened a dancing school in the School of Arts, Dalhousie Street. in 1935 she produced A Grand Revue and Pantomime Cinderella for the St Joan of Arc Catholic Church's Children of Mary in the Parish Hall, Haberfield.
In the late 1930's they moved to 26 Orpington Street, Ashfield. From 1940-early 1950's Grace produced shows for the St Vincent's Younger Set, the Ashfield Catholic Youth Organisation and the Red Cross at Ashfield Town Hall. In 1940 the St Vincent's Younger Set staged the Grand Revue and Pantomime Cinderella in Ashfield Town Hall. In 1948 she was Secretary of the St Vincent's Parish Ball Committee. In 1950 she produced a Grand Revue "Broadway" for the Ashfield Catholic Youth Organisation at Ashfield Town Hall. In 1952 she produced a Grand Revue for the Haberfield Catholic Youth Organisation at the Haberfield School of Arts.
In the late 1960's Arthur, Grace and Bruce moved to 64 O'Neill Street, Granville where Grace produced shows for the Catholic Women's League at a former cinema converted to a theatre.
Grace Phillips died 8 Jan 1993. -- Information supplied by her grandson V.Crow OAM, based on his research and the recollections of Grace and her daughter, Mavis (Aug 2006)

1. Esma Duo - Grace & Flo
2. Three Midgets
3-7. Grace Gorman / Charleston's Studio, Newcastle & Empire Post Card
8. St Vincent's Ball ticket, Town Hall, Ashfield, 20 Sept 1948
9. [Grace with baby] / R.S. Crompton
10. Three Midgets
11. Grace & Lily Skinner, duo before the Three Midgets
12-15. Three Midgets
16. Grand Revue & Pantomime, Ashfield C.Y.O. - flyer
17. Grace & Arthur Phillips (back left) on the verandah with the proprietors (far left & right) of the hotel next to the theatre, Newcastle
18. Eugene - signed photograph of Eugene as a bellboy, lighting the cigarette of a man in evening clothes [F.Mozzetto]
19-21. Programs for Grace Phillips' shows, 1950, 1974
22. Letter and envelope to Grace from Aunt Maisie
23. Letter and envelope to Grace from Josie
24. Red Cross Grand Review ticket, Town Hall, Ashfield, Thurs 25 Sept [n.d.]
25-26. Grammar School, Townsville & Townsville Jetty - postcards home from Grace, 1908
27. Ruby Davis - portrait
28. The Eight Royal Midget Troupe of Acrobats, taken during the Aladdin tour, Princess Theatre, Melbourne / Whitney Bros Electric Studios
29. Victor the King of Ventriloquists on a float in front of one of the cinema gardens, Perth - postcard home from Grace, 1912
30. Eugene [and F.Mozzetto] with poster, Victoria Theatre, Newcastle, 18 Nov 1912
31. Doris Royal
32. Grace Phillips - studio portrait, [1943-1946] / Hugh Spencer
33. Grace Phillips School of Dancing sign, Haberfield School of Arts, late 1930's
34. Catholic Women's Club Grand Revue program, East Granville, Wed 17 Oct 1973
35. Catholic Women's Club Moments of confusion program, Lakes Golf Club, Mascot, Thurs 9 Dec 1971
36. A Grand entertainment by Miss Chrissie Royal's ... pupils, Leichhardt Town Hall, Mon 11 Dec 1911
37. Red Cross Grand Revue programme, Ashfield Town Hall, Thurs 25 Sept 1941
38. Grace Gorman's scrapbook, 1911 - incl. photographs and portraits of The Three Midgets, F.Mozzetto & Eugene, Evelyn Gardiner, May Downs, Mo & Stiffy, Joyce Fidden, a violinist, newscuttings, mss (autographs and handwriting, letters, cards from bouquets, Footlights 9 Dec 1914) in one of Grace's school exercise books