Description:

GLADYS MONCRIEFF [1892-1976] - A collection of personal items, presentation pieces, photographs, books and household objects from her estate; left to her long-time companion and assistant, Elsie Wilson.

[A complete catalogue has been prepared and is available upon request.]

‘Our Glad’ ~ Gladys Moncrieff

“This golden voiced singer will always hold a first place in the hearts of the Australian public.”

~ Goulburn Evening Post, 2 July 1940

She was our superstar in an age before the word had been coined…While Melba and other famous performers expected royal treatment…Gladys was quite happy to be recognised and applauded as she walked through a department store. Prima donnas bask in the adulation and admiration of admirers, but Gladys sang for the troops in New Guinea and heard a lone voice call ‘Good on yer, Glad.”

~ Davvyds Restaurant, A Tribute to Gladys Moncrieff.

Musical comedy star Gladys ('Our Glad') Moncrieff atop an armoured vehicle at a mixed uniformed and civilian rally during an appeal for public subscriptions to a Commonwealth War Loan.

Image source: University of Melbourne Archives, Hartnett Collection

Gladys Moncrieff OBE (1892 – 1976) was an iconic Australian singer who was lovingly known by the Australian public and press alike as 'Our Glad', ‘Australia’s most popular singing star’, 'Australia's Queen of Song', and ‘Australia’s Songbird’.

She was born in Bundaberg, Queensland. Her first stage performance was at the age of six at the Queen's Theatre in Bundaberg. She sang the American folk song "The merriest girl that's out" with her father, Reginald, accompanying on piano. Light opera quickly became her forte. Moncrieff performed in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan productions and travelled around far north Queensland performing with her parents. She was billed as 'Little Gladys: The Australian Wonder Child' and her career as the all-Australian every girl had begun. In Sydney, she auditioned successfully for a position in J. C. Williamson's well-known theatre. By 1914 she was in the chorus of a Williamson G & S production but soon Moncrieff was a leading lady, taking on a variety of starring roles, such as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore.

Moncrieff toured South Africa and New Zealand as the female star in numerous productions. When she returned to Australia, she landed her most famous role as Teresa in Harold Fraser-Simson's light opera The Maid of the Mountains, which she first performed in Melbourne in 1921. The waltz song "Love Will Find a Way" became particularly associated with her. The Maid of the Mountains was to become the most frequently revived musical of the Australian stage, and Moncrieff appeared in it an amazing 2800 times. Her firm place in Australian popular culture was assured. She also found success in A Southern Maid in 1923.

As a performer, she was earning £150 a week, which made her one of the highest-paid performers in the history of Australian theatre. Like many Australian artists before her and since, she left Australia for the English stage in 1926. After a less than promising start, Moncrieff appeared in Franz Lehár's The Blue Mazurka in 1927 and her international success was sealed.

But Moncrieff always returned to Australia. The ex-pat’s life was not for her. She came back to the Antipodes to appear in John Fuller's highly successful Rio Rita as well as F.W. Thring’s Collits’ Inn and The Cedar Tree, all roles for which she became celebrated. In the 1930s Moncrieff had her own radio show in Australia, as well touring extensively through New Zealand at the behest of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service.

Her brilliantly successful career was interrupted in March 1938 when she was involved in a serious car accident, and she did not return to the stage until June 1940. She then reprised her love of musical comedy, and was particularly involved in entertaining Australian troops fighting at home and in New Guinea. With an engaging ‘can-do’ spirit and a marked lack of airs-and-graces, she became very active in raising funds for war-related charities. In 1951 she toured Japan and Korea to entertain British and Australian forces. For her wartime contributions, Moncrieff was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1952.

She continued her stage and radio work, and during 1958 and 1959 she undertook what would prove to be a hugely popular farewell stage tour of Australia and New Zealand called Many Happy Returns. Her final stage appearance was at Hamilton, New Zealand, and her last public performance was in a televised concert in Brisbane in 1962. She retired to the Gold Coast in 1968 and prepared her memoirs My Life of Song, which were published in 1971. Moncrieff died on the Gold Coast at the age of 83.

The federal electoral division of Moncrieff in Queensland and the Canberra suburb of Moncrieff are both named in her honour. Her likeness was featured on an Australian postage stamp in 1989. Bundaberg is home to the Moncrieff Theatre, a Gold Coast park has been named for her and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre houses the Gladys Moncrieff Library of the Performing Arts. Adrian Magee’s book Gladys Moncrieff: Australia's Queen of Song was published in 1996 and a two-CD release of her recordings was released in 2012, entitled Gladys Moncrieff - Our Glad: The Queen of Song. The glittering evening gown she wore for her final stage performance hangs in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, a beautiful reminder of a treasured Australian performer.

References:

Burgis, Peter, “Moncrieff, Gladys Lillian (1892–1976)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/moncrieff-gladys-lillian-7621

National Library of Australia, Trove Archive, http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=gladys+moncrieff

Powerhouse Museum database, “Evening dress worn by Gladys Moncrieff, 1961”, http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=163441

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Moncrieff

Prepared by Dr Emily Turner-Graham, March 2014.

Categories: Collectables > General (Collectables)