James Cassius Williamson

JC Williams as a young man

James Cassius Williamson (born August 26, 1845 in Mercer , Pennsylvania , † July 6, 1913 in Paris , France ) was an Australian actor and stage impresario.

Life

Williamson first appeared on stage when he was twelve. In 1861 he became an errand boy and assistant to the Messres theater company. Hurd and Perkins and member of the Royal Lyceum Theater in Toronto in 1862 . He then appeared in New York as a dialect comedian.

In 1871 he went to San Francisco. Here he met the actress Maggie Moore , whom he married in 1873. In the same year they appeared in the piece Struck Oil, arranged by Clay M. Greene in Salt Lake City. They came to Australia under contract with George Coppin . Here they opened the Theater Royal in Melbourne with the play in 1874 , performed at the Queen's Theater in Sydney and toured Europe and America from 1875 to 1879.

In 1879 Williamson acquired the performing rights to Gilbert and Sullivan's H.MS Pinafore for Australia and appeared under the management of Coppin with the operettas in Melbourne and Sydney. In 1880 he founded the Royal Comic Opera Company , which in the following year the Theater Royal in Melbourne. From 1882 he worked with Arthur Garner and George Musgrove . Together they brought actors like George Rignold , Dion Boucicault and Nellie Stewart to Australia and opened the New Princess's Theater in Melbourne in 1886 with the operetta Der Mikado .

In 1891 Williamson and Garner succeeded in bringing the famous Sarah Bernhardt to Australia. The season was so successful that Williamson Garner - Musgrove had previously split from both - could pay off. From 1892 he worked again with Musgrove, with whom he produced the extremely successful Australian pantomime Djin Djin in 1896 and who was his representative in London until the final separation in 1899. In 1899, after divorcing his first wife, he married the dancer Mary Alice Weir .

Williamson ran the Princess's Theater alone until 1900 , after which he took over the Alexandra Theater in Melbourne, which he renamed Her Majesty's , and Her Majesty's in Sydney. In 1904 he founded a company with his manager George Tallis and Gustave Ramaciotti , with which he brought spectacles to the stage with over 600 paid employees.

In 1910 he founded JC Williamson Ltd with Ramaciotti as manager, with whom he organized successful tours to Australia with HB Irving and Nellie Melba . Williamson spent most of the last years of his life in Europe. On the way back from a benefit performance in favor of the widows of Robert Falcon Scott's South Pole expedition in Sydney, he died on July 6, 1913 in Paris. His theater company continued to work under various managing directors until 1976.

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personal data
SURNAME	Williamson, James Cassius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Australian actor and impresario
DATE OF BIRTH	August 26, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mercer , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH	July 6, 1913
Place of death	Paris