Stewart Nellie – Idol

AUSTRALIA’S IDOL – NELLIE STEWART

A THEATRICAL FAMILY

Nellie was born in Wooloomooloo in Sydney on 20 November 1858 into a theatrical family. Her mother, Irish-born Theodosia, was an accomplished actress who had come to Australia with a touring opera company in the 1840s. After her first husband James Guerin died, Theodosia met and married Richard Stewart Towzley who later changed his name to Richard Stewart when he too became an actor. Nellie was Richard and Theodosia’s second child.
Shortly after Nellie’s birth the family moved to Melbourne where Nellie made her first stage appearance at the old Haymarket Theatre at the age of three.
Nellie enjoyed school but she always knew that her future was the stage so she also received lessons in singing, dancing and fencing.
The whole family was very active in the Melbourne theatre scene but also toured to other capitals, as well as to New Zealand, India in 1879 and America in 1880. Nellie, not yet a teenager, performed throughout all of those tours, gaining wonderful experience for the great career that lay ahead of her.

STAR OF PANTOMIME AND COMIC OPERA

At the age of 19 Nellie played the role of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore and many of her later successes were as principal boys in pantomimes. As Jack in a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk she fell while climbing the beanstalk and broke her arm. She had the arm set in the theatre and completed the performance. This was an early illustration of her legendary resilience and determination. Throughout her long career her under-studies rarely had the opportunity of replacing her.

AT LYSTERFIELD AND ROWVILLE

Helen Coulson, writing in her book Story of the Dandenongs, tells of Nellie Stewart’s visits to William Lyster’s country retreat Narree Worran Grange. Lyster delighted in getting away from the pressures of the Melbourne theatre world to the peace and quiet of his property in the Lysterfield Valley where he hosted actors, singers and others involved in the theatre.
Coulson also records Nellie’s visits to the Row property, Stamford Park, where she impressed all the staff “from parlourmaid to groom, as indeed a ‘smart lady’”.
“It was Nellie Stewart’s custom to drive from Melbourne in a four-in-hand, flash harness and flash drag, and a man on horseback was stationed at the entrance (then from Wellington Road) to open the gate. Once the actress was through, the man galloped ahead and opened four other gates which lay between the road and the house.”
The owner of Stamford Park, Frederick Row, had three sons and it was the youngest son, Richard, who was the reason for Nellie’s visits.
Nellie married Dick Row at the Manse, Scots Church in Sydney on 26 January 1884 but the marriage was destined to be a very brief one. In her autobiography My Life’s Story Nellie speaks of this date as being one of the most tragic days in her life. She writes: “Just a girl’s mad act to repent of at leisure afterwards – no love – but pity for the big, noble man who told me that without me he could not live, and would not. So I married him. I sailed for New Zealand with the Comic Opera Co. on February 6th, 1884, while he sailed for England – that was all! I never loved Dick, and when in later years his poor, bruised heart learned to forget, he married a sweet girl, and died in 1915, leaving two sons.”
Their divorce was not granted until 1901 and in that same year Dick Row married Elizabeth Hegarty.

NELLIE’S ONE TRUE LOVE – GEORGE MUSGROVE

In the meantime Nellie had formed a close association with the Melbourne impresario, George Musgrove, and in 1893 while in England, Nellie gave birth to their daughter Nancye. Despite her very unconventional private life in those strict Victorian days Nellie’s popularity with the public never diminished. That she was also still accepted in the highest ranks of society was attested by the fact that she was invited to sing before the Duke and Duchess of York and an assembly of 10,000 dignitaries at the concert that followed the opening of the first Australian parliament. This grand occasion was held at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne in May 1901.
Between 1881 and 1894 Nellie appeared in no fewer than 35 productions of comic operas.
Another example of her indefatigable energy and endurance was when, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Nellie sailed with her baby back via the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney where she appeared in nine different comic operas over a nine week season. She was certainly an enduring trouper.

THE GHOST OF FEDERICI

Nellie also appeared in serious opera and one notable role was as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust which she performed over 24 consecutive nights at the Princess Theatre. An extraordinary event occurred on the opening night on 3 March 1888 when Federici, the Mephistopheles of the opera, dropped dead after singing the final note of his aria as he descended beneath the stage. Some people claim that the ghost of Federici still haunts the Princess Theatre.
Nellie’s unstinting performances caused her to put too much strain on her voice thus eventually curtailing her singing career but she then channelled her talents with great success into a repertoire of roles in comedies and drama.
Nellie appeared in many productions in London over the years but never felt at home there. However, one of her favourite memories was her season at the Drury Lane Theatre where she trod the same boards as her great-great grandparents, Richard and Mary Ann Yates, who had been famous actors in London in the eighteenth century.

SWEET NELL OF OLD DRURY LANE

In 1902 Nellie first played Nell Gwynne in Sweet Nell Of Old Drury at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. This was to become the role that forever afterwards resonated warmly with her admirers. Also about this time the plain gold bangle that she always wore (and said to have been a present from Dick Row) became a fashion fad worn by thousands of women.
In 1903 while playing the lead in Zaza she reached the highest salary of her career – eighty pounds a week.
In 1905 Nellie returned to America where Sweet Nell was a great success in San Francisco until the great earthquake and fire struck, destroying all of the company’s scenery and props. Of course, Nellie survived this catastrophe and with characteristic generosity sold her jewellery to help the company to return to Australia.
In 1909 and 1910 she had the leading roles in a series of hits: Sweet Kitty Bellairs, Zaza, As You Like It, Sweet Nell and What Every Woman Knows.
In 1911 Nellie appeared in a feature film Sweet Nell of Old Drury directed by Raymond Longford. Sadly no print of this pioneer cinematic work has been found.
The Great War of 1914-18 was a terrible period for everyone and the theatres endured a lean period. Nellie was forced to live on her savings but a greater tragedy was to befall her when in January 1916 her beloved ‘Muzzy’ died. Nellie was devastated by the death of George Musgrove, and it was a long time before she could be persuaded to return to the stage.
In her later years she was a tireless worker for charities performing parts of her most loved roles at fund-raising events into her 70s.
At the age of 72 she appeared in her last professional play, Romance, at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne in July 1930.
Nellie died in Mosman in June 1931 following a short illness. She was survived by her daughter Nancye and her brother Richard. It was typical of Nellie that she requested that no one attending her funeral was to wear black. Her ashes were taken to Melbourne where they were interred in the family vault at Boroondara Cemetery in Kew. The marble angel above her grave wears a Nellie Stewart bangle. Ironically, the grave of Dick Row who died in 1915 is not far away and his polished granite headstone faces in the direction of Nellie’s tomb.
Her obituary published in The Age on 22 June, 1931 records: “No Australian actress in her time has captured the heart and the imagination of the people so completely as Nellie Stewart, or as her devoted admirers continued even in recent years to call her, ‘Sweet Nell’”.
The Argus obituary added: “To thousands of Australians the name of Nellie Stewart recalls happy hours of brilliant entertainment. For many years Miss Stewart was the leading actress on the light musical stage of Australia and no actress in Australia has been more popular. All playgoers were under the spell of her exceptional artistic ability and her great personal charm.
Leaving musical parts, she showed new skill and won new popularity in comedy, romances and drama. A remarkable record of stage success was due to her high talent, versatility and winning personality, combined with earnestness and hard work. The stage was her life and only the best that was possible was offered to her audiences.”
Bryan Power

References:
Coulson, Helen. Story of the Dandenongs, F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1959
Stewart, Nellie. My Life’s Story, John Sands, Sydney, 1923
Ritchie, John (Ed). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 12, M.U.P., Melbourne, 1990
The Age, 22 June 1931
The Argus, 22 June 1931