Beryl Bryant
Encyclopedia
Beryl Annear Bryant was an Australia
n stage actress and theatrical producer born in America
who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. She was responsible for first bringing the plays of Patrick White
to the stage. Her career had many parallels with that of Doris Fitton
and her Independent Theatre
.
Her father George Edwin Bryant (1865– 26 November 1943), (who was to prove an invaluable aid to his daughter throughout her "Bryant's Playhouse" period) was an actor born in England
. He began his career in Australia around 1885 in a Brough
-Boucicault
production playing a policeman. He left for America in 1890, working in productions for Daniel
and Charles Frohman
, David Belasco
and the Kyrle Bellew
- Mrs Brown-Potter
partnership. He and Beryl toured the U.S. with E. H. Sothern
and played in the New York production of The College Widow
. He returned to Australia for a J. C. Williamson
production of Squaw Man. and The Virginian
. He worked for Muriel Starr and Gregan McMahon
, when he notably played the part of Abraham Lincoln
.
By this time they had decided to settle in Australia, purchasing a farm in Lilydale, Victoria
. She attended the Church of England Girls Grammar School
in Melbourne
.
's Criterion Company in 1917, playing in The Outcast, produced by Hugh J. Ward, followed by L'Aiglon
, The Rainbow
, Cheating Cheaters, Daddy Long Legs, Romance, A Tailor-Made Man, Nothing But the Truth, Seven Keys to Baldpate, Tilly of Bloomsbury
, The Silent Witness, The Blindness of Virtue, His Lady Friends, Adam and Eva, all with favourable notices. By 1923 when she retired to start her family, she was playing lead in The Faithful Heart. From this time her stage acting was confined to amateur productions with her own company (as detailed below) until 1941 when she played Calpurnia in Arthur Greenaways production of Julius Caesar.
from Carrie Tennant. The Bryant Playhouse, as they renamed it, near King's Cross was the crypt of a church with two just dressing rooms and audience capacity of only 90. The ethics she imbued in her pupils were that there were no "stars", only members, and each was expected to pass through a sort of apprenticeship which could include anything from program selling to scene shifting.
In July 1942 she was forced to vacate the Forbes Street premises so moved to the "Little Theatre" at 5 Phillip Street
(near Circular Quay), which she renamed "Bryant's Playhouse". Fanny's First Play was the first production in the new venue.
Without Beryl's guiding force, the company lost direction and She Stoops to Conquer was its last production. The theatre was then used by the Reiby Players, the Naval Dramatic Society, the Kuring-gai Theatre Guild, then the "Radio Players" (whose members included Muriel Steinbeck
, Atholl Fleming
and Leonard Thiele) until 1947, when it was acquired by Peter Finch
's Mercury Theatre School.
The Shaw season was not continuous - Beryl staged Peer Gynt at the spacious grounds of her Vaucluse
home from 24 February to 16 March 1940 then a second season in 1941??, and the annual play-writing contest went on as usual. This had been a tradition of Carrie Tennant, which Beryl revived in 1935.
She also staged (13 Dec 1944???) Man and Superman
(unabridged) in her Vaucluse garden, refreshments provided.
She was a member of Moral Rearmament from 1935, which may have influenced her choice of plays. She also produced plays for charity, often by the Doone Dramatic Society ("Doone" was a ladies' finishing school at Edgecliff
), all at the Savoy Theatre. Quinneys, Nine Till Six, Trelawney of the Wells were three such. After her retirement to Melbourne, she produced The Forgotten Factor from 20 June 1949 at the Union Playhouse for Moral Rearmament.
in 1921 and in 1923 had her first son, She had another son and a daughter Elizabeth (not to be confused with Elizabeth "Betty" Bryant, later Bryant-Silverstein, who starred in Forty Thousand Horsemen
).
Her husband died in 1941 and she moved to Melbourne shortly after (almost certainly to be with her father).
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n stage actress and theatrical producer born in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. She was responsible for first bringing the plays of Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
to the stage. Her career had many parallels with that of Doris Fitton
Doris Fitton
Doris Alice Fitton Mason, DBE was an Australian actress and theatrical director who founded and for 35 years headed Sydney's Independent Theatre, staging a diverse range of local and international dramas, many for the first time in Australia, including Sumner Locke-Elliott's wartime comedy, Rusty...
and her Independent Theatre
Independent Theatre
The Independent Theatre was a dramatic society founded in 1930 by Doris Fitton , and was also the name given to the building it occupied from 1938. It was named for London's Independent Theatre Society founded by J. T...
.
Biography
Beryl's mother, Elizabeth Anne Bryant (née Annear), was an Australian actress whose brother was the architect Harold Desbrowe Annear.Her father George Edwin Bryant (1865– 26 November 1943), (who was to prove an invaluable aid to his daughter throughout her "Bryant's Playhouse" period) was an actor born in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He began his career in Australia around 1885 in a Brough
Lionel Brough
Lionel Brough was a British actor and comedian. After beginning a journalistic career and performing as an amateur, he became a professional actor, performing mostly in Liverpool during the mid-1860s...
-Boucicault
Dion Boucicault Jr.
Dion Boucicault Jr. was an actor and stage director. Son of the well-known playwright, Dion Boucicault, he followed his father into the theatrical profession and made a career as a character actor and a director...
production playing a policeman. He left for America in 1890, working in productions for Daniel
Daniel Frohman
Daniel Frohman was a Jewish American theatrical producer and manager, and an early film producer.Frohman was born in Sandusky, Ohio...
and Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
, David Belasco
David Belasco
David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director and playwright.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, where his Sephardic Jewish parents had moved from London, England, during the Gold Rush, he began working in a San Francisco theatre doing a variety of routine jobs,...
and the Kyrle Bellew
Kyrle Bellew
Harold Kyrle Money Bellew , more commonly known as Kyrle Bellew, was a British stage and silent film actor in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bellew notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside Brown-Potter...
- Mrs Brown-Potter
Mrs Brown-Potter
Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter , was one of the first American society women to become a stage actress.-Biography:...
partnership. He and Beryl toured the U.S. with E. H. Sothern
E. H. Sothern
Edward Hugh Sothern was an American actor who specialized in dashing, romantic leading roles and particularly in Shakespeare roles.-Biography:...
and played in the New York production of The College Widow
George Ade
George Ade was an American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright.-Biography:Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, one of seven children raised by John and Adaline Ade. While attending Purdue University, he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity...
. He returned to Australia for a J. C. Williamson
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
production of Squaw Man. and The Virginian
The Virginian
-Literature:* The Virginian , a novel by American author Owen Wister-Film:* The Virginian , a silent film directed by Cecil B...
. He worked for Muriel Starr and Gregan McMahon
Gregan McMahon
Gregan McMahon, CBE was an Australian actor and theatrical producer.McMahon was born in Sydney, elder son of John Terence McMahon, a clerk, and his wife Elizabeth, née Gregan. Both parents were emigrants from Ireland. McMahon was educated at Sydney Grammar School and St Ignatius' College, Riverview...
, when he notably played the part of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
.
By this time they had decided to settle in Australia, purchasing a farm in Lilydale, Victoria
Lilydale, Victoria
Lilydale is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 35 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district situated in the Olinda Creek valley. At the 2006 Census, Lilydale had a population of 13,887...
. She attended the Church of England Girls Grammar School
Melbourne Girls Grammar School
Melbourne Girls Grammar School , is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for girls, located in South Yarra, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
Acting
She joined J. C. WilliamsonJ. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
's Criterion Company in 1917, playing in The Outcast, produced by Hugh J. Ward, followed by L'Aiglon
L'Aiglon
L'Aiglon is a play in six acts by Edmond Rostand based on the life of Napoleon's son, Napoleon II of France, Duke of Reichstadt. The title comes from a nickname for Napoleon II, the French word for "eaglet" . The title role was created by Sarah Bernhardt in the play's premiere on 15 March 1900 at...
, The Rainbow
The Rainbow
The Rainbow is a 1915 novel by British author D. H. Lawrence. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family living in Nottinghamshire, particularly focusing on the sexual dynamics of, and relations between, the characters....
, Cheating Cheaters, Daddy Long Legs, Romance, A Tailor-Made Man, Nothing But the Truth, Seven Keys to Baldpate, Tilly of Bloomsbury
Tilly of Bloomsbury (play)
Tilly of Bloomsbury is a 1919 British comedic play written by Ian Hay. It is heavily influenced by the story of Cinderella and concerns a young woman from Bloomsbury in London, Tilly Wellwyn who falls in love with a wealthy aristocrat. Despite her poor background, she tries to pretend she is also...
, The Silent Witness, The Blindness of Virtue, His Lady Friends, Adam and Eva, all with favourable notices. By 1923 when she retired to start her family, she was playing lead in The Faithful Heart. From this time her stage acting was confined to amateur productions with her own company (as detailed below) until 1941 when she played Calpurnia in Arthur Greenaways production of Julius Caesar.
Production
Her own company had its origins when she took on students for elocution and stagecraft then mounted modest plays. By 1931 she was producing plays at The Savoy theatre for charitable causes. She soon, with assistance of her father, took over the tiny Community Theatre in Forbes Street, DarlinghurstDarlinghurst, New South Wales
Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney...
from Carrie Tennant. The Bryant Playhouse, as they renamed it, near King's Cross was the crypt of a church with two just dressing rooms and audience capacity of only 90. The ethics she imbued in her pupils were that there were no "stars", only members, and each was expected to pass through a sort of apprenticeship which could include anything from program selling to scene shifting.
In July 1942 she was forced to vacate the Forbes Street premises so moved to the "Little Theatre" at 5 Phillip Street
Phillip Street, Sydney
Phillip Street is a street in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. While the street runs from King Street in the south to Circular Quay in the north, the present street is effectively in two sections, separated by Chifley Square...
(near Circular Quay), which she renamed "Bryant's Playhouse". Fanny's First Play was the first production in the new venue.
Without Beryl's guiding force, the company lost direction and She Stoops to Conquer was its last production. The theatre was then used by the Reiby Players, the Naval Dramatic Society, the Kuring-gai Theatre Guild, then the "Radio Players" (whose members included Muriel Steinbeck
Muriel Steinbeck
Muriel Steibeck was an Australian actor who worked extensively in film, theatre, radio and television. She is best known for her performance as the wife of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in Smithy and for playing the lead in Autumn Affair , Australia's first television serial.-Selected Filmography:*...
, Atholl Fleming
Atholl Fleming
Atholl Fleming was a British actor and an Australian radio personality.He was the third of nine children of R. S. Fleming, a Scottish Baptist minister of Beckenham in Kent. After a fall as a child, he became deaf in his right ear...
and Leonard Thiele) until 1947, when it was acquired by Peter Finch
Peter Finch
Peter Finch was a British-born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as "crazed" television anchorman Howard Beale in the film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a...
's Mercury Theatre School.
- 10 Dec 1932 Sweet Lavender
- Sister Beatrice
- 4 Feb 1933 Why?
- 11 Mar 1933 The Cloud that Lifted
- 17 May 1933 The Enchanted CottageArthur Wing PineroSir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.-Biography:...
- 22 Jul 1933 Uncle Anyhow
- 14 Oct 1933 The Tears of the Virgin
- 11 Nov 1933 Carlyon's Secret (by Gilbert Murray)
- 17 Feb 1934 The Laughing LadyThe Laughing LadyThe Laughing Lady is a 1946 British musical drama film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Anne Ziegler, Webster Booth and Francis L. Sullivan. During the French Revolution, a young aristocrat makes a deal with Robespierre that he will locate and steal some diamonds from Britain in order to save...
- 10 Apr 1934 The Silver BoxJohn GalsworthyJohn Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
- 26 May 1934 The BalconyThe BalconyThe Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...
- 14 Jul 1934 The Transit of Venus
- 12 Sep 1934 Maria Marten or Murder in the Red BarnMaria Marten or Murder in the Red BarnMaria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn is a 1935 British film melodrama film starring Tod Slaughter and Eric Portman. It was directed by Milton Rosmer, whose most famous film was the English-language version of Emil and the Detectives that same year. It is based on the true story of the 1827...
- 14 Nov 1934 Repressions
- 22 Jan 1935 Bread and Butter Women (world premiere of first play by Patrick WhitePatrick WhitePatrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
) - 13 Mar 1935 Lady s'il vous plâit
- 1 May 1935 The Mocking Bird (by Lionel Hale)
- 12 Jun 1935 TartuffeTartuffeTartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
- 21 Aug 1935 The Eldest Son
- 23 Oct 1935 A Stranger Walked In (by John CazabonJohn CazabonJohn F Cazabon was an Australian actor born in Hertford, England.His parents were Albert Cazabon , a noted violinist and from 1927–36 musical director of Prince Edward Theatre orchestra and Mrs Albert Cazabon , a professional actor born in Australia, who became active again with Pickwick Theatre...
) - 8 Apr 1936 The Two Virtues
- 3 Jun 1936 Wonderful Zoo
- 29 Jul 1936 The StagBeverley NicholsJohn Beverley Nichols , was an author, playwright, journalist, composer, and public speaker.-Career:...
- 16 Sep 1936 That By Which Men Live (by Dulcie Deamer)
- 10 Oct 1936 Heat Wave at Maccabean Hall, Darlinghurst
- 11 Nov 1936 Cherries Are Ripe
- 17 Feb 1937 Getting Married
- 16 Jun 1937 When the Crash ComesBeverley NicholsJohn Beverley Nichols , was an author, playwright, journalist, composer, and public speaker.-Career:...
- 28 Jul 1937 Three Cornered Moon
- 8 Sep 1937 Four one-act plays by Peggy McIntyre
- 22 Sep 1937 Androcles and the LionAndrocles and the Lion (play)Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw portrays Androcles to be one of the many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture...
- 10 Nov 1937 The Lady from the Sea
- 27 Apr 1938 Lovely Sunde (by Robert McCaughren)
- 10 Sep 1938 The Seagull
- 24 Sep 1938 Victory (by Dulcie Deamer)
- 18 Mar 1939 Heroes Don't Care (by Margot Goyder and Mrs Neville Goyder) at St James' Hall
- 26 Apr 1939 A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
- 27 May 1939 The Touch of Silk (by Betty RolandBetty RolandBetty Roland was an Australian writer of plays, screenplays, novels, children's books and comics.-Early years:Betty Roland was born Mary Isobel Maclean at Kaniva, Victoria, the daughter of Roland and Matilda Maclean...
)
- Beginning Jun 1939, Bryant mounted a Shaw Festival, remarkable in its scope, and which became part of Sydney "little theatre" history.
- 15 Jun 1939 Arms and the ManArms and the ManArms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
- 3 Jul 1939 The Millionairess
- 12 Aug 1939 Man and SupermanMan and SupermanMan and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...
complete and unabridged - the "Hell" scene alone occupied three hours! - 2 Sep Geneva at Federation Hall, 166 Phillip Street
- 14 Oct 1939 The Doctor's Dilemma all five acts
- 2 Dec 1939 You Never Can Tell
- 19 Apr 1941 Major Barbara
- 11 Apr 1942 Fanny's First PlayFanny's First PlayFanny's First Play is a 1911 play by G. Bernard Shaw. It was written anonymously, then later discovered to be the work of George Bernard Shaw and produced by the Shubert family. It opened at the Adelphi Theatre at Westminster in London on April 19, 1911 and ran for 622 performances , and second...
at new theatre in Phillip Street - 5 Sep 1942 Arms and the ManArms and the ManArms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
produced by Dorothy Hemingway - 17 Feb 1943 The Millionairess revived by Dorothy Hemingway to "mixed reviews"
- 8 Sep 1944 Three short plays. But which?
- 15 Jun 1939 Arms and the Man
The Shaw season was not continuous - Beryl staged Peer Gynt at the spacious grounds of her Vaucluse
Vaucluse
The Vaucluse is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.- History :Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes...
home from 24 February to 16 March 1940 then a second season in 1941??, and the annual play-writing contest went on as usual. This had been a tradition of Carrie Tennant, which Beryl revived in 1935.
She also staged (13 Dec 1944???) Man and Superman
Man and Superman
Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...
(unabridged) in her Vaucluse garden, refreshments provided.
- 27 Apr 1940 High TorMaxwell AndersonJames Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist.-Early years:Anderson was born in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to William Lincoln "Link" Anderson, a Baptist minister, and Charlotte Perrimela Stephenson, both of Scots and Irish descent...
at the Conservatorium, - We Are the People by Harley Mathews
- Mothers Day by Leslie Rees
- Mourning Becomes ElectraMourning Becomes ElectraMourning Becomes Electra is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932...
, - Caroline Chisholm by G. Landen Dann.
- 22 Feb 1941 BrandBrand (play)Brand is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is a verse tragedy, written in 1865 and first performed in Stockholm on 24 March 1867. Brand was an intellectual play that provoked much original thought....
at her Vaucluse home - 21 Jun 1941 SalomeSalome (play)Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde.The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published...
- 15 Nov 1941 Escape Me Never (season ended with last production at Forbes Street on 10 January 1942)
- at new location 5 Phillip Street (near Circular Quay)
- 15 Aug 1942 Hedda GablerHedda GablerHedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
- 12 Sep 1942 Arms and the Man
- 18 Oct 1942 Liliom
- 24 Oct 1942 The Harvesters
- 2 Jan 1943 Sister Beatrice prod. Dorothy Atkinson
- 17 Feb 1943 The Milllionairess prod. Dorothy Hemingway
- 15 Aug 1942 Hedda Gabler
- J M Barrie season:
- 26 June 1943 The Admirable Crichton prod. Dorothy Hemingway and Dorothy Atkinson
- 14 Aug 1943 Quality Street prod. Dorothy Hemingway
- 2 Oct 1943 Mary Rose prod. Dorothy Hemingway
- 22 Jan 1944 Alice Sit by the Fire
- 11 Mar 1944 High Tor
- 27 May 1944 Terese Raquin
- 25 May 1945 She Stoops To Conquer
She was a member of Moral Rearmament from 1935, which may have influenced her choice of plays. She also produced plays for charity, often by the Doone Dramatic Society ("Doone" was a ladies' finishing school at Edgecliff
Edgecliff, New South Wales
Edgecliff is a small suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Edgecliff is located 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. The postcode is 2027.Edgecliff is surrounded by...
), all at the Savoy Theatre. Quinneys, Nine Till Six, Trelawney of the Wells were three such. After her retirement to Melbourne, she produced The Forgotten Factor from 20 June 1949 at the Union Playhouse for Moral Rearmament.
Alumni
Among Bryant Playhouse members who went on to greater things were:- John Cazabon
- Patricia Firman
- Carlotta Kalmar
- Jane Holland
Personal
She married Albert Edward Mayor, a businessman prominent in the Commercial Travellers' Association, in PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
in 1921 and in 1923 had her first son, She had another son and a daughter Elizabeth (not to be confused with Elizabeth "Betty" Bryant, later Bryant-Silverstein, who starred in Forty Thousand Horsemen
Forty Thousand Horsemen
Forty Thousand Horsemen is a 1940 Australian war film directed by Charles Chauvel. The film tells the story of the Australian Light Horse cavalry which operated in the desert at the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during World War I. It follows the adventures of three rowdy heroes in fighting and...
).
Her husband died in 1941 and she moved to Melbourne shortly after (almost certainly to be with her father).