The Weatherly Sisters
Magazine clipping, c.1930s. Courtesy Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences)
This week we celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March.
The Weatherly sisters, Gaga and Toots, spent their ‘retirement’ years in Strathfield. With a pedigree background of several generations of vaudeville stars and circus performers, they had travelled the world with their parents in a number of circuses. Their father, Charles Weatherly (also known as Sydney Charles Odling) was an English musician, acrobat and Pippo the Clown. Mother, Clothilde Coleman was also a performer known as Pinky who, in her youth, appeared with her sisters as the Rio Sisters, touring Australasia and South East Asia during the 1890s with Harmston’s Circus. Charles Weatherly also toured with Harmston’s Circus.[1]
‘Charles Weatherly, famous in three continents as Pippo the Clown, was prominent in the troupe. Weatherly appeared before rajas and kings in the Far East, and has been a soldier, policeman, orchestra conductor, animal tamer, and circus clown. In his earlier days he was also known as De Zaro, the Human Knot.’[2]
Charles Weatherly, ‘Pippo’ c.1905 in Calcutta, India. Courtesy Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences)
Charles was once commissioned by Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald’s Circus to bring ten elephants from Burma to Australia. On arriving in Calcutta he purchased 200 monkeys. During the voyage one of the elephants managed to open the monkeys’ cage and 100 monkeys escaped to cause havoc onboard.[3]
Clothilde Coleman, ‘Pinky’ c.1900. Courtesy Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences)
Charles and Pinky were married in Melbourne in 1898. Eldest daughter, Zilla was born in Thailand in 1900. Zaida (Gaga) was born in Singapore in 1903 and Queenie (Toots) was born on a ship between Sumatra and Penang in 1905.[4] The captain of the ship was Karl von Müller, later captain of the Emden, famously destroyed by the Sydney during the early months of World War I. When Queenie was born von Müller gave mother and child an admiral’s salute and all the men lined up to welcome the new baby.[5]
During their childhood the family performed in the Indian sub-continent, the Far East, Australasia, Burma, Malaya, Singapore and southern Africa. Initially the girls sang and played instruments with a few impersonations thrown in, but in their teens they began a contortionist act. They also danced.
From about 1920 they were based in Australia where Charles, Pinky and Gaga appeared in a number of silent films, although they also continued to travel overseas. In the silent film For the Term of His Natural Life, Charles played the role of Captain Blunt.[6] In circus performances the family was often billed as ‘The 5 Musical Weatherlys.’[7]
Courtesy Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences)
Zilla was married in 1927 to Billy Andross (William Evans), a ventriloquist and magician. Their only child, daughter Gloria Dawn was born in 1929 and went on to have a stellar career on stage and screen.[8]
Donning makeup before a show in Newcastle, c.1927. The Weatherly sisters are dressed in white, with white headpieces. From left: Zilla, Toots and Gaga. Courtesy Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences).
In 1932 the family toured Western Australia, receiving great reviews in the press:
‘Pippo shone in new musical items including a straight violin solo which he followed up with trick playing and imitations. From the bottles he produced excellent music, and his musical saw playing was well received. The three Weatherly Sisters amazed the audience with new and varied contortions.’[9]
Magazine article, c.1940s. Courtesy Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences)
Gaga and Toots continued performing for many years, although their last contortion act was in 1945, the year that their father died. Pinky died in 1952.
With the advent of television, the Weatherly Sisters went on to perform on variety shows such as the Don Lane and Mike Walsh shows, and were still performing in hospitals and nursing homes in their seventies.[10] They had settled at 1/18 Margaret Street Strathfield by 1968 and remained there until at least the 1980s.
In 1983 Gaga and Toots were interviewed by writer and filmmaker, Graham Shirley and their oral histories are now in the collection of the Australian Film and Sound Archive.[11] They also donated a large collection of family photos, programs and papers to the Powerhouse Museum (Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences).[12] Toots died in September 1989 and Gaga died in 1995, aged 92.
By J.J. MacRitchie
Local Studies Advisor
References
[1] Wilson, Paul Guide to the Archives of the Weatherly Sisters, 2009 p.3 http://images.powerhousemuseum.com/images/pdfs/300246.pdf[2] Smith’s Weekly 10 March 1934 p.9 10 Mar 1934 – When the Circus Elephant Unlocked a Cage of Monkeys https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235494104
[3] ibid
[4] Wilson, Paul Guide to the Archives of the Weatherly Sisters, 2009 p.3 http://images.powerhousemuseum.com/images/pdfs/300246.pdf
[5] Smith’s Weekly 10 March 1934 p.9 10 Mar 1934 – When the Circus Elephant Unlocked a Cage of Monkeys https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235494104
[6] Geraldton Guardian and Express (WA) 6 July 1929 p.1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/67107331
[7] Wilson, Paul Guide to the Archives of the Weatherly Sisters, 2009 p.4 http://images.powerhousemuseum.com/images/pdfs/300246.pdf
[8] Susan Hogan, ‘Dawn, Gloria (1929–1978)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dawn-gloria-9926/text17577
[9] Mount Barker and Denmark Record (WA) 10 March 1932 p.4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240315939
[10] Wilson, Paul Guide to the Archives of the Weatherly Sisters, 2009 p.4 http://images.powerhousemuseum.com/images/pdfs/300246.pdf
[11] National Film & Sound Archive https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection
[12] Wilson, Paul Guide to the Archives of the Weatherly Sisters, 2009 p.4 http://images.powerhousemuseum.com/images/pdfs/300246.pdf