BMC members and friends mentioned in Sydney New Theatre's Wiki.

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The Sydney New Theatre wiki is a fascinating site. 
It includes information about our founders and other early members and the productions of Reedy River they were involved with.
Thanks to Lyn Colllingwod from New Theatre for permission to use these extracts. 

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TOM & SILVIA SALISBURY
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Tom_Salisbury
Of interest to ASIO, Tom joined NT in October 1947 after which he was involved in 72 plays ... In 1955 Tom married NT member Silvia Meech. He and Silvia sang at NT fundraising functions and were regular marchers on May Day. In 1980 Tom helped with building repairs at King Street, and in 1987 he and Silvia were made Life Members ...  Tom Salisbury was the subject of several ASIO reports, one agent noting that he was a non smoker and non drinker and that "flattery has no effect on this person". He first came to the attention of Security in 1948 when he signed a NT petition protesting against the public screening of Iron Curtain.

Silvia & Tom (seated, right) performing at a Singabout night 27/09/1970 (Bob Bolton photo)

http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Silvia_Meech (later Salisbury) Silvia joined NT in 1951 as a pig-tailed schoolgirl. She acted in An Inspector General 1952, and the next year was in the chorus of the first Reedy River, before taking on the lead role of Mary opposite Milton Moore as Joe Collins. She went on to sing at NT functions and folk concerts, performed with Contact street theatre and at Lawson festivals, and at peace and Save Our Sons rallies. Her later passion was the Trade Union Choir, its choirmaster Tom Bridges, son of Doreen Jacobs. 

Cast list in Tom & Silvia's 1953 Reedy River program. (BMC Archives, courtesy of Silvia & Tom)
Tom & Silvia are members of the Sydney Trade Union Choir and were part of our Themed Presentation on BMC's First Ten Years at the 2012 National Folk Festival

Rehearsal for First Ten Years, Silvia second from left, Tom second from right
(Photo © Sandra Nixon) 
Memories of Reedy River & the Bush Music club by Silvia Salisbury (2012)
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JOAN CLARKE

http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Joan_Clarke ...With John Meredith, Clarke wrote The Wild Colonial Boy about bushranger John Donahoe. Billed as another Reedy River, it was staged by Brisbane NT in 1956 but survived only six performances ...
photo - Left to right: Les Hope, June Worth, Pat Barnett, Sylvia Meech, Edgar Penzig, Eddie Allison and Nan Gow in Home Brew, 1954

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JOHN DENGATE
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_John_Dengate John Dengate wrote a song re the My Lai massacre for On Stage Vietnam 1967, and in Exposure 70 sang “F111” and his own “HMAS Melbourne” to the tune of “Wild Rover No More”. In 1993 he participated in a NT fundraising concert, in 2002 performed in a concert version of Reedy River for a National Folk Festival, and in 2007 played Swaggie in Reedy River in NT’s season of Censored plays (occasionally banned because of its association with Sydney's "Red" theatre). 

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PETER FRANCIS (Not a member)
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Peter_Francis  ... All this changed with the unexpected success of Reedy River. Peter performed in it 70 times (sometimes removing his false teeth). On a trip to Newcastle the cast annoyed other train passengers with non-stop singing of the show's bush tunes.  
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CECIL GRIVAS
 http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Cec_Grivas ... A good singer, he performed in Reedy River in 1953 and 1954; ... One of his last appearances with The Bushwhackers was at Dame Mary Gilmore’s 90th birthday in 1955.

Bushwhackers in Reedy River costumes at Dame Mary Gilmore's 90th Birthday celebrations, August 16, 1955,  Harry Kay & Brian Loughlin were hidden at the left. (BMC Archives)
With brothers Roland and Milton he established his own group The Galahs which played in the suburbs. Milton, a pianist, also acted with the Richmond Players in the 1950s, and produced for the Blacktown Musical Society in the 1960s.

The Galahs, Cecil is in the middle (source - Xanthe Grivas)
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JUNE MILLS (Grivas)
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_June_Mills (Grivas) ...Of interest to ASIO, June Mills was also known by the surnames Worth, Galloway and Grivas ...

In 1954 June Grivas penned an ode to Reedy River:
Some people they like Homer, others they like Shaw,
And others like the “classics”, I could name ‘em by the score.
Some people they like “epics” crammed full of blood and lust
While others go quite drooly over Marilyn Monroe’s bust.
But me, I like the stories of Australia land
Of the pioneers, the shearers and the gallant Eureka Band.
I’m not the only one, there’s at least 10 million more
So just give us Reedy River and the Eumerella Shore.
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DOREEN JACOBS
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Doreen_Jacobs
Doreen Jacobs arranged the music and Helen Palmer wrote the words of “The Ballad of 1891”; they were very strict about the accuracy of both in Reedy River productions. Doreen was musical director on the 1979 production directed by Frank Barnes ...

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HARRY KAY Jr 
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Harry_Kay ... Father and son Harry Kay were NT members, junior joining in 1951 and senior in 1953. In 1953 Harry Kay senr operated lights for United Notions in which his son performed. Harry Kay jnr was in the cast of Merry-Go- Round and the 1960 revival of Reedy River directed by Roger Milliss. Both were in the bush musical's original production.

Harry with mouth organ (Reedy River, Sydney, 1953/54 - BMC Archives)
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CHRIS KEMPSTER
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Chris_Kempster ...with Silvia Salisbury, was in a NT folksinging concert in 1964, ... He formed his own group the Rambleers (a founding member was Mark McManus) ...
(conversation with Alex Hood - Alex had the first idea about founding the Rambleers,
Mark was not a founder, he was invited to join a later concert when they needed a larger lineup. Alex later had an electrical contracting business & he employed Mark for a while, Mark later did a lot of acting (& radio?????


Chris with guitar (Reedy River, Sydney, 1953/54 - BMC Archives)
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http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Mark_McManus ...A natural tenor with a pure singing voice, he played Irish in Reedy River 1960 and was a member of Chris Kempster’s group The Rambleers.  (2 pics of RR 1960)
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DENIS KEVANS 
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Denis_Kevans ...Of interest to ASIO, “poet lorikeet” Denis Kevans was in the cast of Reedy River and performed in a number of folk concerts. He wrote verse and songs, and reviewed plays for Tribune. He joined the Rambleers folk group, its members including Mark McManus and Harry Kay jnr. His last appearances at NT were in a 2004 tribute for Chris Kempster and a Loosely Woven concert in March 2005.

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BRIAN LOUGHLIN
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Brian_Loughlin
BRIAN BERNARD LOUGHLIN (ca 1924 - 1974)

Like most of the original Bushwhackers, Brian was living at Heathcote when he performed in the first Reedy River in 1953 (his wife babysat while he played) and again in 1969. Brian played the lagerphone (a broom nailed with beer bottle tops) and bones, and for John Meredith helped publish Songs from the Kelly Country for the Bush Music Club, its first edition 1955.

Brian was born in Melbourne to Communist parents. He joined the CPA at age 18, and the Eureka Youth League. By 1948 he was working in Sydney as a compositor at the Daily Telegraph and became a prominent member of the Printers’ Union. On 22 October 1949 at Bankstown he married Pamela Louise Fenton who was working as a secretary in a biscuit factory. The Fenton family were strong trade unionists and Pam was a member of the CPA. (She could also play the spoons.) The couple were arrested in an early Aboriginal rights demonstration.

The Loughlins lived in Melbourne, Randwick, Heathcote and Rozelle (where their house, a distribution point for the Tribune, was infiltrated by ASIO informers). Brian Loughlin died of a heart attack at Balmain while dancing at a function supporting Communist forces in Vietnam.

Loughlin house in Heathcote, 1950s  (photo - their nephew Ron Nixon)
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JOHN MEREDITH
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_John_Meredith
JOHN STANLEY RAYMOND MEREDITH (1920 - 2001)
A self-taught musician, John Meredith was the founder of the Bushwhackers whose playing in 1953 ensured the success of Reedy River. While participating in the show he lived at Clovelly, his landlord Milton Moore.


He collaborated with Joan Clarke on the musical The Wild Colonial Boy about bushranger John Donahoe. ... Meredith recorded songs and music from all over Australia. He was a founding member of the Bush Music Club and edited its magazine Singabout. In 1980, researching a book about the 1915 Coo-ee march from Gilgandra, he was seeking out the 50 entries to the Coo-ee song competition.
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CLEM MILLWARD
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Clem_Millward  ... designed Roger Milliss’s 1960 production of Reedy River. ...

Inside back cover Reedy River song book 1979 (BMC archives)
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NEIL MORRISON (Not a member) 
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Neil_Morrison   ... He dressed in neck-to-knee bathers for the 1954 Reedy River fancy dress ball ... In 2002 and 2009 he recorded Henry Lawson and other Australian poetry set to music ... His funeral oration was delivered by ex-pupil Ian Hamilton, a NT supporter ... (Neil died a few years ago - conversation with Ian Hamilton) (Alex Hood missed the Ball as he was in Western Australia- Alex 2020) 


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EDGAR PENZIG 
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Edgar_Penzig ... Penzig set up an historical museum at Wallacia and organised re-enactments of Ben Hall’s death in a park in Forbes, involving Cec Grivas and his brothers as singers ... Penzig died at Oatlands Tasmania on 19 November 2010

Newspaper clipping, Tuesday February 2, 1965 (Chris & Virginia Woodland collection)
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ROD SHAW
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Rod_Shaw ... Rod Shaw married Frances Cottingham in 1939; she died in 1983. Of their three children, daughter Chrissie became an active NT member. Rod Shaw died of cancer on 7 December 1992.
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Les Tanner giving tips on make-up to the Reedy River cast, 1953
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/File:Les_Tanner_lesson.jpg

As far as we know Len Tanner was not a member,  
http://newtheatrehistory.org.au/wiki/index.php/Person_-_Les_Tanner   A CPA member of interest to ASIO, Les Tanner in the period 1948-58 was a "legend" at NT as a set, costume and graphics designer and a talented, consistently good actor with stage charm and presence, especially in comedy. He went on to become one of Australia’s best-known Press cartoonists for over 40 years.

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Silvia & Tom Salisbury Collection - Program from Reedy River, 1953/54

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Thanks to Silvia & Tom for supplying a copy of the program of the first production of Reedy River.










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Bob Bolton photos taken at BMC events, 1970s

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Among the treasures Bob has been bringing into the Hut as part of the transfer of BMC Library & Archives from the Boltons' spare bedroom was an envelope marked 

These pictures were taken when Bob had his own photographic studio.    

Thanks to Ann & Frank Maher, Dale Dengate & Chris Woodland for identifying participants.

1.  Herb Gimbert  1955 recording by Alan Scott in National Library

2.  John Dengate in the wings

3.  Jacko Kevans. BMC has always been family-oriented & children were renowned for sleeping under chairs & pianos.(photo reference - 106-32)

4.  Visit of Jim Buchannan, member of Victorian Folk Music Club (formerly Victorian Bush Music Club) to Sydney. (photo reference - 59A-24.) Jim was in the cast of the original Melbourne production of Reedy River in 1953.

Left to right - John Dengate, Alex Bowker, Jim, Dale Dengate
Jim Buchannan interviewed by Rob Willis

 

5.  Eric Bolton, John Dengate, Alex Bowker, Jim, Dale Dengate   (photo reference - 59A-27)

6.  Left to right - Unknown man, Alweyna (Wendy), unknown Irishwoman, Elaine Thornhill,  guitar player, Mrs Collison   (photo reference - 104-6)

7.  John & Dale Dengate    (photo reference 106-13)

8.  Dave Small, Ken Greenhaugh, John Dengate, Eric Bolton, Jamie Carlin, Noel Ricketts 

(photo reference - 106-17)

 

9.  Dave Small, Ken Greenhaugh, Eric Bolton, Silvia & Tom Salisbury, Herb Gimbert 
(photo reference - 106-20)

10.  John Dengate, Jamie Carlin, Noel Ricketts, Eric Bolton

11.  John Dengate, Frank Maher

12.  John Dengate, Jamie Carlin, Frank Maher, Noel Ricketts, Wilma Bolton, Eric Bolton

BMC archives, all photos copyright Bob Bolton.

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Memories of Reedy River & The Bush Music Club by Silvia Salisbury

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Talks from BMC's 2012 National Folk Festival Themed Workshop on BMC's First 10 years.

In 1947 my father took me, a child of 12, to see my first play at the New Theatre - then at 167 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. This was a small amateur group performing plays on a repertory basis since 1932, covering a wide range of plays from Shaw to Shakespeare, Cliff Odets to Arthur Miller, topical political revues, parodied versions of Gilbert and Sullivan, plays with a political or social theme or “message”, plays with a working class bias, plays dealing with racism, social justice and peace in the world.

They encouraged and supported Australian playwrights.

In 1952, as a starry-eyed teenager I joined the New Theatre and was keen for any ‘walk-on’ part. Then in 1953, there was a buzz in the theatre. They were going to do a production of REEDY RIVER by Dick Diamond. This had been done earlier in the year by Melbourne New Theatre to great success.

This musical, based around the shearers’ strike of 1891, used Australian folksongs, bush songs and songs composed in the bush tradition and was the right play at the right time. There was an awakening of interest in our past, particularly the rural life of Australian workers, and the songs of the show expressed and captured that life so genuinely.

(1953 production of Reedy River, BMC archives)

REEDY RIVER required many actors, singers, dancers and a new type of ‘orchestra’. This was supplied by the Bushwhackers Band with it's lagerphone and bush bass. I do not know whether Reedy River made the Bushwhackers Band or the other way around, but I do know that my love of Australian bush songs started with being in that first production of Reedy River.

 1964 production (Silvia and Tom Salisbury collection)

I was a city/suburban girl from a Celtic/Anglo background singing the English and Irish songs of my parents with no knowledge that there were any ‘Australian’ songs except for the occasional radio broadcasts of songs from the war, such as There’s a brown slouch hat with the sides turned up or The Road to Gundagai etc. So these bush songs from Reedy River grounded my youthful psyche to Australia and not to the strong but nevertheless second-hand, distant culture of my parents.

  1964 production (Silvia and Tom Salisbury collection)

The opening night of Reedy River was abuzz with excitement, not nerves, for we knew we had a success on our hands. The foyer was decorated with the wonderful reproductions of the Holterman photos of the goldfields of the 1870’s whose negatives on glass had recently been discovered. The usual run of a show at New Theatre in those days was 8 - 10 weeks but Reedy River, with its theme and songs, struck such a chord in the people who came to see it, and the strength of ‘word-of-mouth’ publicity, that the season was extended to nine months with changes of cast and extra performances added. Even when the season ended at the New, the cast and crew were kept busy taking the show to school halls and out to suburban areas. I graduated from chorus singer to playing the female lead of Mary opposite Milton Moore’s Joe Collins.

  1964 production (Silvia and Tom Salisbury collection)

Ten years later I again played Mary opposite Pat Barnett in a new production of Reedy River and I think I brought deeper understanding to the role and the songs as, in the intervening years, my husband and I joined the Bush Music Club and often performed at their Singabout nights.


BMC Newsletter, March 1964, p.2 (BMC Archives)

Here I also worked with Chris Kempster who set the Lawson poem Reedy River to music when he was only 16 and who played the part of Snowy in that 1953/54 production.

It was at the Bush Music Club that I learnt more Australian bush songs and came to appreciate the great work done by John Meredith and Duke Tritton in collecting and saving from oblivion the songs from shearers and drovers. There weren’t many songs from a woman’s point of view, but young men such as Chris Kempster and Mike Leydon were setting the poems of Lawson and other poets to music and John Dengate was writing his own satirical words to traditional tunes and, although not truly ‘bush’ songs, they were great songs and great to sing.

By 1964 I had three children and it was great to be able to bring them to Singabout nights held in the Building Workers’ Industrial Union’s building in George Street, Sydney. I remember hot summer evenings with the upstairs windows open and hoping if I was singing a quiet, sad song that the orange-clad Hari Krishna group would not go banging and jingling their way up George Street on a noisy Saturday night. Those nights of singing and dancing were great. We could take the kids with us (no need to organize baby-sitters) and they could join in the dances with the kindly teenagers and older people helping them to learn the steps and guiding them down the line of dancers.

Arising out of these Singabout nights, one could learn how to become a performer and try out new songs to an understanding audience. Through this experience I teamed up with Chris Kempster and we sang anti-war songs at Save Our Sons rallies during the Vietnam War. We sang at folk clubs, Lawson festivals and peace rallies. One memorable night we performed Australian songs to a huge crowd at the Rushcutters Bay Stadium to visiting Chinese officials (long before China was recognised by our government) where a very youthful David Gulpillil performed an amazing kangaroo dance. We sang at the unfinished Chalwin Castle in Cremorne for Pete Seeger on his first visit to Australia to give him a taste of Australian songs. It was here that a young Jeannie Lewis sang the Queensland version of Waltzing Matilda.

 (Anne and Frank Maher collection)

Through my background of Reedy River and the Bush Music Club I was part of a series of short films being made by the film makers of the Waterside Workers’ Federation - Keith Gow, Jock Levy and Norma Disher. Keith Gow was co-director of the 1953/54 production of Reedy River and Norma was the costume maker for both the productions of Reedy River I was in. These short films used Australian songs sung by Alex Hood as a background to the film version of the songs. The films were screened on the ABC as fillers when programmes finished early due to the ABC not having ads. These films were also shown at film festivals.

ABC films Reedy River songs (Silvia and Tom Salisbury collection)

Now in my late 70’s some things have come full circle. With an aging voice, but my love of songs and singing still intact, choral singing suits me perfectly, and with my New Theatre philosophy from my youth of art being used for a wider purpose than just self-expression, I joined the Sydney Trade Union Choir. Who should be there but Paula Bloch, a founding member of the choir and a singer in that 1953/54 Reedy River. And who should be the Musical Director for the choir but Tom Bridges, the son of Doreen Bridges who wrote the music for The Ballad of 1891, one of the most stirring songs from Reedy River. Tom also played the violin in one of the productions of Reedy River. Now our present Musical Director is Margot McLaughlin, the daughter of Cedric McLaughlin who played the swaggie in Reedy River and whose moving singing of My Old Black Billy still rings in my memory. One of the STUC’s favourite songs, Four Strong Women, about four British peace activists, was written by Maurie Mulheron, the nephew of Pat Barnett who played Joe Collins in the 1964 Reedy River with me.

Sydney Trade Union Choir singing Ballad of 1891 at the 2012 National Folk Festival

(photo - Sandra Nixon)

Silvia presenting her memories , 2012 National Folk Festival (photo - Sandra Nixon)

It is not only the times spent in Reedy River and the learning and performing songs for the Bush Music Club’s Singabouts that one remembers but the almost 60 years of pleasure and purpose which sprang out of that twin birth of New Theatre’s Reedy River and the Bush Music Club and for this I owe them my heartfelt thanks, my well-being and my best wishes for the future of both of them.

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