Cooke - Ada

Music hall and vaudeville

The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi by Andrew McConnell Stott.

Gaiety: Theatre of Enchantment by Walter Macqueen-Pope.

The Story of the Music Hall by Archibald Haddon.

British Music Hall: An Illustrated History by Richard Anthony Baker.

Tivoli King: The Life of Harry Rickards Vaudeville Showman by Gae Anderson.

Circus and Stage: The Theatrical Adventures of Rose Edouin and G.B.W. Lewis and Canvas Documentaries : Panoramic Entertainments in Nineteenth-Century Australia by Mimi Colligan.

Florrie Forde and Tivoli by Frank Van Straten.

When Vaudeville Was King: A Soft Shoe Stroll Down Forget-Me-Not Lane by Charles Norman.

Act as Known by Valentyne Napier.

Dames, Principal Boys and All That: A History of Pantomime in Australia by Viola Tait.

Leann Richards articles on early pantomime and theatre, available at hat-archive.com.

Australian Theatre Variety Archive, ozvta.com.

Travelling Shows in Rural Australia, 18501914 and From Minstrel Show to Vaudeville: The Australian Popular Stage, 17881914 by Richard Waterhouse.

Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 18891895 by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff.

Little People by Jane Sullivan.

India Dark by Kirsty Murray.

Magic and circus

Magical Nights at the Theatre: A Chronicle by Charles Waller, edited by Gerald Taylor (100 years of Melbourne performances by magicians).

Circus: The Australian Story by Mark St Leon.

The Sawdust Ring by Rupert Croft-Cooke and W.S. Meadmore.

Loe Fuller

Body Stages: Metamorphosis of Loe Fuller, edited by Aurora Herrera Gmez.

Fifteen Years of a Dancers Life: With Some Account of Her Distinguished Friends by Loe Fuller (mostly fibs).

American vaudeville

From Traveling Show to Vaudeville: Theatrical Spectacle in America, 18301910, edited by Robert M. Lewis.

The Marx Brothers by Kyle Crichton.

Much Ado About Me by Fred Allen.

Vaudeville: The Book by Caroline Caffin.

No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous by Trav S.D.

Nineteenth-century England

London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew.

How to be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman.

The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon, BBC.

Australia 18881910

Capital: Melbourne When it Was the Capital City of Australia 190127 and Yarra: A Diverting History by Kristin Otto.

The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne by Graeme Davison.

Black Kettle and Full Moon: Daily Life in a Vanished Australia by Geoffrey Blainey.

Larrikins: A History by Melissa Bellanta, and bellanta.wordpress.com.

Melbourne Street Life: The Itinerary of Our Days by Andrew Brown-May.

Madame Brussels: This Moral Pandemonium by L.M. Robinson.

MacRobertsonland by Jill Robertson.

Making Modern Melbourne by Jenny Lee.

Visions of Colonial Grandeur: John Twycross at Melbournes International Exhibitions by Charlotte Smith and Benjamin Thomas.

E.W. Cole: Chasing the Rainbow and Utopian Man by Lisa Lang.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume.

Its not every day a handsome young man appears on your doorstep to ask if youre a respectable woman

Miss Ada Delroy and her famous vaudeville troupe stormed five continents, enchanting royalty, miners and larrikins alike with her wit, illusions, and breathtaking dances.

I had a diamond pendant near as big as an emu egg off the Maharajah of Whats-His-Name. They named a racehorse after me, and a pigeon and a potato soup on an Orient steamship.

Under the costume made from 100 yards of billowing silk was a woman who couldnt help being both fabulous and disreputable. Down on her luck in a rented room in Melbourne, morphia cocktail in hand, Ada receives a visitor. Is she ready to share her secrets?

Inspired by photos of real 1890s vaudevillians, Kaz Cooke brings to life a forgotten world of cunning clairvoyants and trained cockatoos; of fierce loyalties and mixed lollies; the glamour of the stage and the muck of the road. Funny, inventive and lovingly researched, Ada is the story of an extraordinary woman in the toughest of times, with the courage to make herself the star.

Ill tell you what I loved about being a theatrical. Youre a custodian of magic, a purveyor of glamour, a repository of mystery. Youre someone.

Ada is absolutely compelling, complex and real! This Lady Thesp leaps off the page and stage with a brilliant turn of phrase and a fascinating life. Laugh out loud - and heartbreaking. - Gina Riley

kazcooke.com.au

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