George Stevenson Wallace

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George Stevenson Wallace (born June 4, 1895 in Aberdeen , New South Wales , † October 19, 1960 in Sydney ) was an Australian comedian and actor.

Life

Wallace came from a family of comedians. His grandfather "Pipeclay" Wallace was an Irish comedian, his father George Stevenson "Groncho" Wallace worked in various professions, including as a painter, before he became an actor in Minstrel shows, he himself got up for the first time at the age of three with his parents the stage. In his youth he tried his hand at various professions before he was hired as an acrobatic tap dancer at Harry Clay's Newtown Bridge Theater in Sydney in 1919 .

In the same year he appeared here with Jack Paterson as Dinks and Onkus in the comedy The Two Drunks , which quickly became the most popular play at the Newtown Bridge Theater. Around 1924 he separated from Clay and worked for Ben Fuller . As Onkus and His Merry Company , he toured Australia and New Zealand with Marshall Crosby and Maida Jones and eight to new actors. Her programs included musical comedies like Harmony Row and His Royal Highness penned by Wallace, which later became successful films.

At the end of 1931, Francis W. Thring hired him to the newly founded Efftee Film Productions . Here he made his debut the following year in the short film George Wallace - Australia's Premier Comedian , in which he presented the "Dance of the Wounded Wombat". The musical film His Royal Highness followed in the same year . He has also appeared on stage for Thring in various revues and the musicals Collits' Inn (1933) and The Beloved Vagabond (1934).

After Thring's death in 1936, Wallace went to the revue company Mike Connors' and Queenie Pauls , with whom he appeared at the Victoria Theater in Newcastle and in New Zealand. On his return he appeared in two films by Ken G. Halls : Let George Do It (1938) and Gone to the Dogs (1939).

In 1939 he appeared at the Tivoli Theater in Melbourne in the revue Business as Usual and remained the star of the house until the show Americana (1947). He worked with Edwin Styles and Jenny Howard , for whom he wrote and composed the song A Brown Slouch Hat , which became Australia's patriotic anthem during World War II. He appeared in a cameo role in The Rats of Tobruk (1944) and Wherever She Goes (1951).

From 1949 he was on the radio "the boy from Bullamakanka" in the weekly George Wallace Road Show . In 1953 Harry Wren brought him back to the stage alongside stars like Jim Gérald in Queenie Paul's revue Thanks for the Memory . He had his last appearances on Wren's show The Good Old Days (1956–1957). Thereafter, his health deteriorated, so that his son George Leonard Wallace had to take his place on Wren's next show Many Happy Returns , while he himself represented his son at the Theater Royal in Brisbane for a few weeks .

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personal data
SURNAME Wallace, George Stevenson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian actor and comedian
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Aberdeen , New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1960
Place of death Sydney , Australia