Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of entertainment popular in Australia from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill.

 

Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, trained magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebraties, minstrals and movies. 

 

Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums and burlesque. Called "the heart of Australian show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment.

 

John Dobbie was born into this era in 1903. His life would be firmly anchored in vaudeville where he entertained on stage, in the movies and before countless servicemen in Brisbane during the dark days of World War II.

 

After a successful career on stage and several classic films, he morphed into a radio personality and sports commentator.

 

John Dobbie was once a household name, his humour legendary. Sadly, as with many talented stars, Dobbie died all too young, on Queensland's Gold Coast, aged 49 in 1952...

 

It's high time to revisit a bygone era and rediscover a gentle giant....