Lance Fairfax

Lance Fairfax (12 April 1894 – January 1974) was a singer and actor from New Zealand, classed as a light baritone, who had a substantial career in Australia.[1]

History

Fairfax was born Lancelot [Launcelot?] Fairfax Jones in Wellington, New Zealand on 12 April 1894.[2] After leaving school he began studying for qualification as a barrister, working in the office of Sir John Findlay, KC, but the Great War intervened, and he enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.[3]

Lance Fairfax in 1926

He served with the Wellington Regiment (elsewhere cited as Canterbury Regiment), receiving an MC; in 1916 promoted to lieutenant, 9th regiment (Hawke's Bay),[4] then at war's end, when the New Zealand Division moved into Cologne, he joined H. P. "Pat" Hanna's No. 1 Entertainment Unit.[5] He studied singing in London[3] with George Uttley and Sir George Power.[6]

Returning home in 1919, Hanna founded a revue company of 21 New Zealand ex-servicemen, which in 1920 appeared at Sydney's Theatre Royal, billed as the "Famous Digger Pierrots"[lower-alpha 1] for J. C. Williamson's.[7] By September 1920 the "Digger Pierrots" had become the "Famous Diggers", and numbered eleven:

G. P. Hanna (Otago Regt), Lance Fairfax, Sydney Exton (Wellington Regt), aka S. Laslett Exton, Roy Simpson (Auckland Regt), Norman French (Div. Sig.), George Long (5th Div. AIF), Chris Kilner (Anzac Mounted, AIF), Johnny Marks (5th Div., A.I.F.), Will Crawford (Wellington Regt), Victor Cross (NZ Field Artillery Brigade) and Charles Stewart (Wellington Regt).[8]

They finished their Australian tour at the Arcadia Theatre on the St Kilda esplanade,[9] when their members included Hanna, Fairfax, Exton, Simpson, French, Long, Kilner, Marks, Crawford, Cross, and Stewart, also Clarice Norman and Ethel Hartley.[10] Fairfax left the group sometime after January 1921, joining The Masqueraders for a season in New Zealand[11] followed by vaudeville at Rickards' Tivoli Theatre.[12]

The "Famous Diggers" in February 1922 included Hanna, Exton, Simpson, Kilner and Marks mentioned above, also Clyde Fields, Myrtle Wedgwood, Bobbie Pearce, Norman French, Jessie Meadows, and Ada Pescud. The group survived to around 1930.[5]

In 1924 Fairfax appeared in concert with Miss Vida Castles,[lower-alpha 2] as the "Lance Fairfax Duo". It is likely she was by this time married to Fairfax.

By 1926 Fairfax had joined J. C. Williamson's Musical Comedy Company, playing in Minnie Everett's production of The Gondoliers in Melbourne as Giuseppe, to some success.[15] He should have played Sir Richard Cholmondeley in The Yeomen of the Guard but was laid low by influenza, and Albert Tarrant had to step in at short notice.[16] Fairfax played Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance, when both he and Bernard Manning were criticised for over-playing their parts.[17] He played Pish Tush in The Mikado and Strephon in Iolanthe. Fairfax and Leo Darnton played Hilarion's companions in Princess Ida.

After the Gilbert and Sullivan season he played The Desert Song,[18] as "The Red Shadow", a part he would play over and over, and for which, with his mild-mannered alter ego Pierre Birabeau, he is best remembered.[19]

In July and August 1928 he played Bill Smith in Hit the Deck, to excellent reviews[20] and full houses.

In 1930 he played The New Moon as Robert Misson, opposite Marie Bremner,[21] on occasion replaced by Sidney Burchall. Fairfax left the New Moon company to play the rebel chief Baldassaré in The Maid of the Mountains opposite Gladys Moncrieff.[22] By the close of that season Fairfax's contract with JCW had expired[23] He left aboard SS Moreton Bay for London,[24] where a chance encounter[25] led to his being managed by Sir Alfred Butt.

He played the title character in the 1931 film of the musical The Beggar Student.[26]

He played Escamillo in the 1931 film Carmen by Elstree Studios, much of which was filmed in Spain[27]

In 1940 he enlisted with the British Army, serving as lieutenant-colonel in charge of an entertainment unit.[28]

Films
  • The Beggar Student (1931) as Carl Romaine[29]
  • Carmen (1931) as Escamillo[30]

Family

Fairfax married Vida sometime around 1922;[28] they had two children: violinist[31] Bryan Fairfax (8 February 1925 – 11 January 2014),[28] and Diana Vida Jean Fairfax (19 December 1927 – 28 January 2019), who appeared in the film Between Five and Seven.

Notes and references
  1. "Diggers" was a well-known synonym for Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
  2. Vida's birth name has not been found but was possibly sister of Florence Carter, who married Harold David James Clinton in 1911.[13] Castles was in Perth, September 1920, playing in Bing Boys on Broadway and The English Pierrots in Melbourne, December 1920, when her child impersonations were praised. Nothing further has been found until October 1923, when she was in Brisbane, accompanied by Fairfax.[14]
  1. "The Theatres". The Referee. No. 1808. New South Wales, Australia. 2 November 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. Stephen Pleskun. "Alfred Hill". A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions. Vol. II (1921–1940).
  3. "Theatre Chat". The Daily Mail (Brisbane). No. 7589. Queensland, Australia. 26 June 1926. p. 19. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "New Zealand Gazette" (PDF). p. 1573. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  5. "The Diggers Who Faced the footlights". The Age. No. 29, 720. Victoria, Australia. 29 July 1950. p. 23. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Stars and Stageland". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 15, no. 778. South Australia. 23 April 1927. p. 16. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 25, 681. New South Wales, Australia. 27 April 1920. p. 3. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia. Not to be confused with the seven-member "Diggers", an all-Australian services' revue which appeared around the same time for J. & N. Tait, at the Playhouse, Castlereagh Street.
  8. "The "Famous Diggers"". Table Talk. No. 1835. Victoria, Australia. 30 September 1920. p. 29. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Music and Drama". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 23, 154. Victoria, Australia. 18 October 1920. p. 11. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. "The Famous Diggers". The Prahran Telegraph. Vol. 59, no. 3066. Victoria, Australia. 30 October 1920. p. 8. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. "The Theatre and its People". Table Talk. No. 1867. Victoria, Australia. 12 May 1921. p. 26. Retrieved 3 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "Tivoli Theatre". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 26, 152. New South Wales, Australia. 29 October 1921. p. 16. Retrieved 2 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. "Family Notices". The Age. No. 27708. Victoria, Australia. 9 February 1944. p. 6. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. "Bohemia". Daily Mail. No. 21. Queensland, Australia. 21 October 1923. p. 10. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. "Stage & Screen". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 15, 261. Victoria, Australia. 19 April 1926. p. 8. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. "Amusements". The Age. No. 22, 176. Victoria, Australia. 3 May 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. "Entertainments". The Australasian. Vol. CXX, no. 4, 038. Victoria, Australia. 22 May 1926. p. 47. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ""The Desert Song"". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 16015. Victoria, Australia. 15 September 1928. p. 22. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. "Plays the Red Shadow". The Australasian. Vol. CXXV, no. 4, 159. Victoria, Australia. 22 September 1928. p. 22. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. "Spectacular Naval Musical Comedy". The Weekly Times (Melbourne). No. 3175. Victoria, Australia. 4 August 1928. p. 82. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. "A "New Moon" Resplendent". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). No. 141. New South Wales, Australia. 5 January 1930. p. 5. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ""Maid" Returns". The Daily News (Perth). Vol. XLIX, no. 17, 141. Western Australia. 11 April 1930. p. 11. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. "Lance Fairfax to Go Abroad". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 16, 511. Victoria, Australia. 16 April 1930. p. 4. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. "Mr Lance Fairfax". The Mercury (Hobart). Vol. CXXXII, no. 19, 623. Tasmania, Australia. 28 June 1930. p. 12. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. "Lance Enters the Lists". The Sun (Sydney). No. 1441. New South Wales, Australia. 9 November 1930. p. 7. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. "Pictures of the Week". The Australasian. Vol. CXXXII, no. 4, 346. Victoria, Australia. 23 April 1932. p. 14. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  27. "The Talkies and Their Stars". Table Talk. No. 3310. Victoria, Australia. 15 October 1931. p. 18. Retrieved 4 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. "Star's Wife Fainted on Meeting Husband". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Vol. X, no. 66. New South Wales, Australia. 7 June 1945. p. 5. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  29. "Lance Fairfax on Screen". The Age. No. 24, 018. Victoria, Australia. 4 April 1932. p. 10. Retrieved 2 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  30. ""Carmen"". Smith's Weekly. Vol. XIV, no. 20. New South Wales, Australia. 25 June 1932. p. 7. Retrieved 2 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  31. "Personnel Of Boyd Neel Orchestra". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 5 June 1947. p. 11. Retrieved 5 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
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