19 May, 2015

The Roxy Theatre

When I first heard Colin Chapman’s name spoken, it was in reverential tones. ‘Of course, you know of Colin Chapman.’ I didn’t, then – but now I understand the reason for the revered expression.

Most of us are fortunate if we know one person like Colin Chapman in our lifetime.

Colin Chapman was a singer, teacher, conductor, producer, director, actor and playwright. A leader and a visionary, he was able to gather round him others who shared his vision and were prepared to personally volunteer their skills, effort and time to achieving it.



Colin Chapman, 1904-1984
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


Novocastrians didn’t realize it at the time, but in 1938 when Colin Chapman established the Colin Chapman Students’ Club, later to become the Newcastle Dramatic Art Club (NDAC), he would be giving Newcastle its first long lived theatrical company.

NDAC would buy and sell two Roxy Theatres in Hamilton, and despite financial ups and downs, continue to operate for over 70 years until 2010.

Chapman would also be giving hundreds of individuals the opportunity for self expression, friendship, service to a shared cause, and for some, career advancement. NDAC has been described as ‘the fount from which much of Newcastle theatre has flowed.’ [1] He would be giving the Newcastle community endless delight in performance art, and an appreciation of a world of music and culture far beyond the boundaries of this industrial city.

Not just the fount from which Newcastle theatre flowed, the association was where many met and married their future partners. Betty Lind, Colin’s daughter, estimates there could have been as many as 150 weddings.

Who was Colin Chapman?

Colin Chapman was born in 1904 in Boorowa, NSW, one of two children. His father was a soldier; his mother had theatrical leanings she was unable to pursue.

Chapman’s working life began on the railways.
When Chapman married Emma (known as Ailey) Field in 1929, he was Night Officer at Cardiff. Always a lover of music and singing, Chapman began formal studies under Gladys Davis in Newcastle.

Not only did he become the youngest stationmaster in NSW at the time, based at Arthurville, but he also became known as ‘the singing railwayman.’

In 1934 Chapman entered the City of Sydney eisteddfod and was successful, and again in 1935 and 1936 when he won the Operatic Championship. Part of the prize was to participate in a season of grand opera the ABC was presenting on radio with the famous conductor Maurice de Abravanel.

‘My father toured for the ABC throughout Australia,’ explained daughter Betty Lind, ‘but he couldn’t afford to travel overseas to continue his career. By then he had a wife and family. He became a well known soloist in Newcastle and featured in many of the musical events of the city at this time.’

With such experience, and a growing reputation, in 1938 Chapman began teaching singing. His first studios were in New Lambton and Maitland, later expanding to Newcastle city, Charlestown and Goulburn.


Advertisement for The Academy of Music
Program for The White Horse Inn, from 
the personal collection of Betty Lind


It was at the first annual recital at the Maitland studio that the formation of the Colin Chapman Students Club was announced. The new Club would give his students ‘a stage to perform on.’

The Club went from strength to strength, presenting musicals at Newcastle City Hall and the Victoria Theatre. Throughout the second World War, many concerts were given to troops in the area.

‘Club members gave unstintingly,’ says Betty Lind. ‘They were holding down their ordinary jobs during the day and supporting the war effort at night.’

The Colin Chapman Students Club became the Colin Chapman Dramatic Art Club and then, in 1950, the Newcastle Dramatic Art Club (NDAC). With the last change, Colin Chapman remained as producer and became Club President.

By this time, Chapman had established his family in Hamilton. They lived in Gordon Avenue from 1944 until 1970. In the 1960s Chapman moved his ‘studio of opportunity’  to Hamilton, where it occupied three different sites over time, including 34 and 124 Beaumont Street.

In 1953 NDAC became the first amateur company in the world to produce ‘Oklahoma.’ It was performed in the Victoria Theatre, Newcastle. [2]

Over these years, Colin Chapman had nurtured a long held dream – that NDAC would one day, have its own theatre.

That dream was realized when the first Roxy Theatre, at 99 Beaumont Street, [3] opened on Friday 14 October 1955. It became Newcastle’s premier live theatre venue, from 1955 until its closure in 1971. NDAC had around 130 members.

Before then, however, for 25 years, the Roxy had been a popular picture theatre.

The Roxy’s life began in 1913. Newly built for Union Pictures Pty Ltd on land occupied since 1883 by George Gilbert’s mixed goods shop, [4] the wood and metal structure was opened on 3 May 1913 by Mayor CG Melville. The band of the Hamilton Superior Public School performed in front of hundreds of people. It was the days of the ‘silent movies,’ and a 7-piece orchestral group provided the sound track from the orchestra pit at the front. [5]

In 1923, William Herbert, who owned theatres at Islington and Broadmeadow, added the one in Hamilton to his group. The story is told how a couple of boys were given the job of carrying the reels from one theatre to another on their bikes, racing to get there in time for the scheduled show. [6] After 1929, the Hamilton theatre was renamed the Roxy, and showed ‘talkies’.


The Roxy Theatre, Hamilton (n.d.)
Photograph courtesy Greg and Sylvia Ray, 
published in their book ‘The Missing Years’


With the advent of television, cinema audiences were in decline. The Roxy cinema is remembered with immense fondness by Newcastle children, teenagers and adults alike. Many high tales are told of early picture going adventures!

When NDAC purchased the Roxy, it was on the condition they did not show films.
NDAC modified the front of the theatre (facing Beaumont Street) including the orchestra pit, creating an auditorium that could be used as a basketball court. This is where the Newcastle Basketball Association began. Hire revenue helped NDAC’s bottom line, not just from the NBA but also from other theatrical groups and organisations.


Program for ‘Annie Get Your Gun,’ Roxy Theatre 1966
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


The next 16 years in a permanent home allowed NDAC to flourish, with several productions each year. An opera season saw packed houses of up to 500 patrons to see Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Faust.  Musicals such as ‘Kismet’ and ‘South Pacific’ were hugely popular, as was ‘The New Moon,’ the show that celebrated the opening of the Roxy Theatre.

Writing in the Souvenir Brochure, Matt Hayes, Dramatic Critic for the ‘Newcastle Sun’, said –

‘The history of this achievement is essentially a story of personal effort and sacrifice, of courage and patience and dogged determination; and the full extent of this can on
only be appreciated by those who have shared intimately in it.’ [7]


A full window display in Gow’s Drapery Hamilton advertising
an upcoming NDAC show
From the personal collection of Betty Lind
The story of Gow's Drapery is here.


Many key people supported Colin throughout, not least his wife Ailey, Secretary Madge Ormerod, and daughter Betty (now Betty Lind).


Aileen Chapman, NDAC wardrobe mistress for 45 years
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


Colin’s first born, Betty had left school at the age of 15, and joined her father as a piano and singing teacher in his studio. She was later charged with the responsibility of establishing his Goulburn studio. Betty’s debut performance was singing the lead role in ‘Tosca’ in 1959 at the Roxy Theatre. Another lead followed followed in 1960,  as ‘Bloody Mary’ in South Pacific. She played opposite Frank Lind in ‘The White Horse Inn’, and they married in 1962. The young couple made their home in Hamilton North.


Betty and Frank Lind on stage in 1970
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


Madge Ormerod was the first Secretary of NDAC, and later served as Treasurer.

‘Madge was a tower of strength. She kept my father’s feet on the ground,’ Betty told me. ‘He was a do-er. She was his anchor.’

Drama was Madge’s great love, and she became acclaimed as an actress in her own right. An executive officer in the rates department of the Newcastle City Council, Madge sometimes relieved as Secretary to the Mayor.


Madge Ormerod, 1960s
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


When Colin Chapman began writing a musical of his own, he turned for inspiration to the story of Tasmanian-born Eileen Joyce. Joyce rose from poverty and hardship to world wide fame as a concert pianist. The genesis of what would become the musical ‘Ragged Ann’ lay in a period of deep despondency Chapman experienced while ill in a London hospital in the 1950s.[8] He’d been told by his treating doctor, ‘Go home and put your affairs in order.’ Feeling hopeless, yet desperate to complete what he thought of as his life mission, he began to read the lives of many of the world’s greats. He describes beginning to write, lifting his head up, and fighting back.


Colin Chapman send-off. Newcastle theatrical producer, and Mrs Chapman,
 leaving for trip abroad, 26 June 1956
Photograph courtesy of Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW (hood_25785)


Chapman revisited his original inspiration in the late 1960s, completed writing what he’d begun, and in 1969, the result – ‘Ragged Ann’ – was on show at the Roxy. [9]


A scene from ‘Ragged Ann,’ 1970
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


Eventually the prospect of maintaining the deteriorating building became too much for NDAC, and in 1971, they decided to sell. Little did they know that a policy and funding environment much more sympathetic to the arts – the Whitlam government – was around the corner.

NDAC would be without a home for almost a decade. In 1974, the Club became the first company to use the Newcastle Civic Theatre, which had been newly released from its requirement to only show films. From 1974 to 1980, NDAC presented two shows a year at the Civic.

In 1981, NDAC purchased the former church of the Assemblies of God at 145 Beaumont Street. The new Roxy opened on 30 October 1981 and an exciting and productive new phase would begin.


At the opening of the new Roxy Theatre in 1981, Colin Chapman
played the second lead role in ‘Smilin’ Through’. He was then 77
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


‘The building still had a baptismal font, used for total immersion,’ Betty Lind explained. ‘We built the stage over it.’ When the company put on the drama ‘You Can’t Take it with You’, a hole was cut in the stage so that two actors could disappear down a cellar – into the old font!


An impression of the stage at the Roxy, 145 Beaumont Street, Hamilton
From the program back cover for ‘Merry Melodies’, directed 
by Frank and Betty Lind
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


In 1984, three years after NDAC bought the new theatre, Colin Chapman passed away. He was 80.

Writing in the program for ‘Merry Melodies,’ President Frank Lind reflected on what NDAC had achieved since purchasing the new Roxy. It was 1989, and the occasion was also a celebration of the opening of the new foyer.

The building had been purchased for $83,000. NDAC had borrowed $35,000 from the State Bank, $15,000 from members, and fundraised the balance of $15,000. In an incredible feat, the debt had been repaid in full by August 1988.

At the time of purchase, the Theatre and Public Halls Department asked that as soon as possible, the foyer be enlarged. However, the owners of the adjacent property objected to the necessary extension to the footpath level. Eventually, NDAC purchased that property too, thus eliminating the objection and providing a more spacious home for the Roxy Costume Hire Shop.


The Roxy Costume Hire Shop had long been an integral part 
of the Roxy Theatre
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


In March 1987 the foyer redevelopment began. It was to cost $60,000 -  almost as much as the original theatre - and involve contractors, volunteers, donations from businesses, fundraising and in-kind contributions on a huge scale. The Newcastle City Council supported NDAC over several years, and the State Government provided a grant of $2,500 – the first time in 50 years NDAC had ever received a grant from the State or Federal government.

In 1988 NDAC received a CONDA award from the City of Newcastle for 50 years of service to theatre in the city. What a pity Colin Chapman was not alive to receive it.

So many NDAC members who began under Chapman’s tutelage, performed in NDAC productions, and went on to bigger and better things have this man to thank.

At the time of the opening of the first Roxy in 1955, John Shaw (later AO, OBE) was performing in a principal role with the Italian Grand Opera in Australia. Rosina Raisbeck MBE, another protégée, went on to become a principal singer at London’s Covent Garden Opera. Barbara Leigh, Mona Malcolm, Betty Benfield, Eric Morrissey, and David Williams are mentioned in the Souvenir Brochure as singers who achieved notable careers, while many others won local prominence.

‘Theatre in Newcastle owes a tremendous amount to my father,’ Betty tells me. ‘Before he started NDAC, professional theatre didn’t want to come to Newcastle. It was known as the graveyard of theatre. Because of the work of everyone in the group, that changed.’

She believes her father was a man ahead of his time. ‘His understanding of the vocal process was so far ahead of current thinking – years later, I began hearing in seminars the things my father had taught. Now they were being scientifically substantiated,’ Betty says.

The Roxy Theatre was sold in 2001. Jeckyl and Hyde was NDAC’s final show, presented in 2010 at the Civic Theatre. It had produced and presented over 300 plays and musicals in 60 years.

The can-do, show-must-go-on spirit which infused the association of people that made up NDAC, under Colin Chapman’s intrepid leadership, is epitomized in a little story told by Betty Lind. Writing about the challenges of extending the foyer of the new Roxy, she says:

‘We had to install a steel pole on the property next door for the electricity. The pole (post hole ) digger we hired was not  long enough, so Amanda Helmers volunteered to go head first into the hole, the guys holding her by the legs, and dig out the remaining depth to make it the required 1.5 metres. That’s what I call dedication.’ [10]

‘There were so many people involved over the years,’ Betty concludes. ‘While Dad was the centrepin, to make things happen there had to be commitment from so many people – we received that… from people in all walks of life. The businesses, business managers, journalists, and the thousands of individuals who were members or supporters of the Club.


In a typical example of corporate support, David Jones took a full page advertisement 
as a tribute to Colin Chapman, in the program for 'Ragged Ann'
From the personal collection of Betty Lind


‘To the thousands and thousands who saw our shows over the years, the people of the Hunter who supported the theatre, without them there would have been nothing.’

It’s also true to say that without the dedication and commitment of a relatively small number of people who loved theatre with an enduring passion, there would have been nothing.


NDAC Committee 1955
From the personal collection of Betty Lind






Productions of opera, musicals and plays at the Roxy Theatre, 99 Beaumont Street (1955-1971) and 145 Beaumont Street, Hamilton (1981-2001) [11]

1955    New Moon (Opening)
            The Reluctant Debutante
1956    Anything Goes
1958    On Monday Next
            The Red Mill
            Hamlet
            Julius Caesar
1959    The Lost Prince (Children’s Theatre)
Bus Stop
            Madame Butterfly
            Tosca
1959    Janus
            Kiss me Kate
1960    Separate Tables
            The Glass Menagerie
Wizard of Oz (Children’s Theatre)
            Look Back in Anger
            Leave it to Jane
            South Pacific
1961    Kiss Me Kate
            Carmen
            They Came to a City
1962    Elixir of Love
1963    Free as Air
            Leave it to Jane
1964    Show Boat
            Call Me Madam
            Playboy of the Western World
            Faust
            Cavalleria Rusticana
1965    Irma La Duce
Il Pagliacci
Il Trovatore
Die Fledermaus
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1966    Annie Get Your Gun
            Androcles and the Lion
            Hamlet
            Blithe Spirit
1967    Look Back in Anger
            Playboy of the Western World
1968    The Poker Session
            The White Horse Inn
            Loot
            Mrs Gibbons’ Boys
Once Upon a Mattress
1969    Ragged Ann
1970    Ragged Ann
The Fantasticks
            Oliver
            Sound of Music
            Camelot
            Swamp Creatures
1971    Half a Sixpence

The Roxy Theatre was sold in 1971. NDAC continued to produce and present shows in various venues until the new Roxy Theatre opened in 1981.

1981    Smilin’ Through
            The Christmas Cracker Show or Nuts to You
1982    The Sentimental Bloke
            What’s Playing at the Roxy?
            The Stingiest Man in Town
1983    Lilac Time
            Lock up your Daughters
1985    Blithe Spirit
            Sheer Luck Holmes
            Annie
1986    Annie Get Your Gun
            Chicago
1987    The Boys from Syracuse
1988    The Sentimental Bloke
            The King and I
1989    Merry Melodies
1990    Little Shop of Horrors
            See How They Run
1992    Macbeth
            A Hard God
1993    The Crucible
            Away
            Something’s Afoot
            Pickwick
1994    Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
            The Importance of Being Earnest
1995    Chicago
            Little Shop of Horrors
See How They Run
            An Inspector Calls
            Fiddler on the Roof
1996    Showboat
            Me and My Girl
            Bedroom Farce
            Red Hot and Cole
1997    The One Day of the Year
            Various reviews
1998    No No Nanette
            Meet Me in St Louis
1999    Call Me Madam
            The Children’s Hour
            Godspell
            Boeing Boeing


Acknowledgements 

Thank you to Betty Lind for photographs, mementos and information, and to Jackie Ansell for the introduction.

Related post

Music in the genes – Betty Lind

Note

This post has focused on the Roxy Theatre, at its two different sites in Hamilton, and Colin Chapman as the driving force behind NDAC. However, no story about the Roxy would be complete without touching on the larger story of NDAC. While we have sought to provide broader context, the account here is not a complete history of NDAC, or its performances and activities elsewhere in Newcastle, the Hunter and beyond.






[1]  NDAC Program notes ‘Ragged Ann,’ Roxy Theatre, Thursday 22 May 1969
[2] NDAC Souvenir Brochure to commemorate the opening of the Roxy Theatre, Hamilton. Friday 14 October 1955.
[3]  The Westpac Bank now occupies the site, at 99-101 Beaumont Street, Hamilton
[4] In personal records kept for historical walks she led around Hamilton, local historian Mavis Ebbott notes that the Bank of NSW built a small bank near George Gilbert’s shop before 1929. The Bank of NSW moved back to the site in 1972, rebuilding the present Westpac Bank. 
[5] Newcastle Morning Herald, 5 May 2013
[6] Personal communication from local historian Mavis Ebbott.
[7] NDAC Souvenir Brochure to commemorate the opening of the Roxy Theatre, Hamilton. Friday 14 October 1955. History of the NDAC. Matt Hayes.
[8]  Colin Chapman was in England 1956-1958.
[9] Information from an article by Colin Chapman in the ‘Ragged Ann’ program: Inspiration …to whom does it come? - From whence does it flow?
[10] From the program ‘Merry Melodies’, in the personal collection of Betty Lind
[11] This listing combines information provided by Betty Lind and found on https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/organisation/10721. It may not be complete, and does not include productions performed in venues other than the two Roxy Theatres, Hamilton.

11 comments:

Karen Brown (Eggleton) said...

As an ex- student/actress at the Roxy, my experience was very much a "next generation" view. To us, starting out in the 1980s the Roxy was definitely held up by & around Betty & Frank Lind. Their daughters Catherine & Carolyn were equally integral to the whole Roxy experience.

Colin Chapman may have started a legacy that I, among many appreciated and benefited from (thank you!); but hats off to the generations who followed on & not only honored that legacy, but created their own!

Ruth Cotton said...

Thank you Karen Brown. Beautifully put.

Unknown said...

My connection to the Roxy carried through just about all the phases. I went to the movies, I played basketball in the stalls and was a cast member of the NDAC juniors. I remember the Chapman family well and the loving care they showed to all of their young thespians. Can also remember doing classes upstairs at a building that was at the corner of Stewart Ave and KIng St. They are all memories now but fondly held.

Unknown said...

I knew I would forget to say it. It is a shame that the bank that is now on the Roxy site wasn't called the Roxy Branch, Hamilton just to perpetuate the memory.

Ruth Cotton said...

A brilliant idea, Clarence David!

Ruth Cotton said...

Karen Brown (Eggleton) I have something to ask you - would you mind emailing me at hiddenhamilton@gmail.com please? Many thanks.

Allan Fatches said...

Wow what an incredible story. I had the pleasure of seeing one of the roxy theatres and have fond memorys of the small amount i can recall. I knew some of the legacy but new little about that particular colin chapman as i was born in 1984. Aunty
Bet, Unncle Frank, Nanna Chapman, Uncle Col, My nan Anne, my pop Alan and Aunty Enid were larger than life and very inspirational. Even more so when i learn more about them.

Ruth Cotton said...

So glad you enjoyed the story Allan Fatches, and discovered more about the people involved. It is a piece of Newcastle's history that has touched many people's lives.

Anonymous said...

Colin Chapman was my great grandfather and still spoken of very fondly by my family. It's sad that I never got to see the Roxy as both my grandma and mu Mum regard it often as Home.

Philip Paterson said...

Colin was a real mentor to me when I was part of the Swallows Juniors crew on NBN in the 60s. I also performed in his Fu Manchu epic (designed for young audiences) at the Roxy (seriously heavy metal swords required; wonder if anyone else remembers that?). A truly great and enthusiastic teacher.

Ruth Cotton said...

Thank you Philip.