Harry Rickards

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Harry Rickards
Croydon, Surrey
, UK
Occupations
SpouseKate Rickards

Harry Rickards (4 December 1843 – 13 October 1911),[1] born Henry Benjamin Leete, was an English-born baritone, comedian and theatre owner, most active in vaudeville and stage, first in his native England and then Australia after emigrating in 1871.

Early life

Rickards was born in

Puritan parents.[2] He married Caroline Hayden on 10 March 1862 at Bromley
.

Harry Rickards c.1870-1900 Collection State Library Victoria (Australia)

Theatrical career

Rickards, however, developed a talent for comic singing — he was engaged as a vocalist at music halls in Canterbury and Oxford, where he appeared under the name of "Harry Rickards". He established a reputation as a singer of comic songs, even performing for the

Garrick theatre, Sydney and renamed it the Tivoli; he built up the Tivoli circuit, taking control of the Opera House, Melbourne, and was also lessee of theatres in other state capital cities. Every year he visited England, and during the next 18 years he engaged for the Australian variety stage great artists like Harry Houdini, Marie Lloyd, Peggy Pryde, Paul Cinquevalli, Little Tich, Ada Baker, Frank Travis and many others of great talent[2]
which he paid well.

Personal life, death and legacy

Rickards had diabetes and died from apoplexy in Croydon, England, on 13 October 1911. His body was returned to Australia to be buried in Waverley Cemetery, Sydney.[1] He was married twice and left a widow, Kate Rickards, a trapeze artist, acrobat and performer, and two daughters. His younger daughter Madge Rickards married the singer and actor Frank Harwood in July 1909.[4]

He was an excellent singer of such cockney songs as "Wot Cher! Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road" and "His Lordship Winked at the Counsel", and was a first-rate businessman whose hobby was his work.[2] For around 25 years his name was a household word in Australia, and at the time of his death his business as a single-handed manager and proprietor was one of the largest in the world.[2] His theatrical interests were acquired by the entrepreneur Hugh D. McIntosh.

References

  1. ^ a b c Rutledge, Martha (1988). "Rickards, Harry (1843–1911)".
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Serle, Percival (1949). "Rickards, Harry". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
  3. ^ "The Academy of Music". South Australian Register. Vol. L, no. 12, 033. South Australia. 8 June 1885. p. 6. Retrieved 13 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Dramatic Notes". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. LII, no. 15, 828. South Australia. 10 July 1909. p. 16. Retrieved 6 May 2022 – via National Library of Australia.

External Links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harry Rickards.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harry_Rickards&oldid=1220035153"