Hugh D. McIntosh
Encyclopedia
Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh (10 September 1876 – 2 February 1942) was an Australia
n show-business entrepreneur born to parents of Scottish and Irish origin and modest means in Sydney
's Surry Hills, then a ramshackle suburb with a reputation for crime and vice among the largely Irish immigrant population. His policeman father Hugh Fraser McIntosh died when he was four.
According to an obituary, he was educated at Marist Brothers College, St Marys Sydney. but in an interview for Triad (a show-business periodical) in 1925, he gave a more colorful account, claiming to have run away to Adelaide
as a silversmith's assistant at the age of seven, to have worked for BHP
at Broken Hill at nine, then a variety of occupations culminating in working for a surgeon at twelve. Certainly by seventeen he was a chorus boy in a Maggie Moore
pantomime
Sinbad the Sailor in Melbourne
.
First it was cycle racing, notably seven-day events, while he was secretary of the League of New South Wales Wheelmen.
Then came boxing. Hoping to capitalise of the presence of the US "Great White Fleet
" in August 1908, he hurriedly built a huge open-air stadium at Rushcutters Bay to stage a boxing match between local champion Bill "Boshter" Squires and World champion Tommy Burns
. On Boxing Day 1908 he staged a world championship heavyweight title fight between Burns and Jack Johnson
. He made a huge profit from seat sales and a film of the bout, which he took to Britain and America. He sold his stadium business to his referee, the famous sportsman Reginald "Snowy" Baker who, with John Wren
, went on to develop a chain of stadiums.
From 1914 to 1917 he sponsored the trophy "Hugh D MacIntosh Shield" for the New South Wales Rugby League premiership.
Tivoli theatre chain, but was careful to retain Rickards' style (and company name: Harry Rickards Tivoli Theatres Ltd.), but adding an Adelaide
Tivoli, then building a Brisbane
Tivoli in 1915, designed by Henry White. To compete with the Fuller Brothers and J C Williamson he imported international stars such as Gene Greene
, Lew Fields
, Ada Reeve
, W. C. Fields
(then billed as "the world's greatest silent comedian") and George Gee and expanded the Tivoli repertoire to include musical comedy with the vaudeville, pantomime, Lee White - Clay Smith revues and melodramas such as "The Lilac Domino".
In 1920 he produced Australia's first musical comedy "F.F.F.", written by Mildura-based dried fruit millionaire (and Tivoli shareholder) Jack De Garis
with music by Reginald Stoneham
. It failed to attract critical or popular support and may have been a factor in De Garis' eventual suicide.
A transport strike caused him to lose money on an expensive production of Chu Chin Chow
and he was forced to sell the lease to Harry Musgrove, though retaining his newspaper interests. The Musgrove venture failed, leaving the way open for J C Williamson ("The Firm") to take over running the chain.
In 1927 he took a revival of the 1909 Edward Locke
play "The Climax" to London, apparently a good production, starring Dorothy Brunton
, but in an inadequate theatre, and it closed after three weeks.
In 1915 he started advertising his own theatrical weekly The Green Room Magazine, nicknamed "The Tivoli Bible", employing Zora Cross
as drama critic.
He sold his Sunday Times interests in 1929.
), "Pot Luck", then "Happy Days" (with a young Robert Helpmann
- billed as "Bobby Helpman, burlesque dancer") and "Sparkles", while trying to keep at bay creditors such as heiress Mrs Ben Shashoua (née Joan Norton, daughter of John Norton
) as the value of his assets shrank with the advance of the Great Depression
. Hopelessly insolvent, Harry Rickards' Tivoli Theatres Ltd folded the following year. Mrs Shashoua's solicitor later admitted to helping engineer McIntosh's bankruptcy.
In December 1930, Sydney "Truth", a weekly newspaper founded by John Norton
, published an article on the life and loves of McIntosh, calling him an "erstwhile pieman" who had "drained the life-blood" from the Sunday Times. McIntosh successfully sued for libel but was awarded damages of just one farthing. In the course of proceedings it was revealed that he had transferred £66,703 from the account of Sunday Times Ltd, of which he was managing director, to Harry Rickards Tivoli Ltd of which he was governing director in an attempt to keep the Tivoli chain solvent.
Premier (also "bosom friend" and business partner) William Holman
in his newspapers. He contributed generously to the party (he was characterised by Jack Lang
as "Holman's political fixer") and in 1911 was promised a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council
. This he was finally granted in 1917, but though using the honorific "MLC" in all his advertisements, he took little part in debates. In May 1932 McIntosh was forced, as a bankrupt, to relinquish his seat.
She was to remain at his side to the end, through financial crises and numerous infidelities, notably with actress Vera Pearce
, whose nephew Harold Holt
, was to become Prime Minister
of Australia.
He was life governor of many NSW hospitals and charitable institutions; he was a founder of the Australia Day Committee and the Sydney Millions Club and at one stage president of the RSSILA and a fellow of the Royal Empire Society.
His wife also led an active social life. She travelled several times to the United States with Mrs Holman, was prominent in patriotic organisations the Vaucluse
branch of the Red Cross Society, in hospital fundraisers, sporting circles, notably as longtime president of the New South Wales Ladies' Amateur Swimming Association and its 1932 Olympics Committee. She was also prominent in the English Speaking Union
His last years were spent in England, where he died in a London hospital and was cremated.
He could inspire great loyalty among his acquaintances. Nellie Stewart
, in her memoirs, wrote "When I hear people talk slightingly of this big man I cannot bear it, for he was the most generous of men, and he was at all times far more likely to suffer from brigandage than to resort to it. He was of little less than medium height, broad in the shoulders, cheery in the eye, hiding under a rattling loquacity the fact that he was shy as a girl, a man all aglow with enthusiasm like a happy boy. He was electric. He had the oddest happy knack of getting out of all his people the best that was in them."
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n show-business entrepreneur born to parents of Scottish and Irish origin and modest means in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's Surry Hills, then a ramshackle suburb with a reputation for crime and vice among the largely Irish immigrant population. His policeman father Hugh Fraser McIntosh died when he was four.
According to an obituary, he was educated at Marist Brothers College, St Marys Sydney. but in an interview for Triad (a show-business periodical) in 1925, he gave a more colorful account, claiming to have run away to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
as a silversmith's assistant at the age of seven, to have worked for BHP
Bhp
BHP, or bhp may refer to:*BHP Billiton, Australian based mining company renowned as being the largest mining company in the world**The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, company name 1885-2000**BHP Limited, company name 2000-2001...
at Broken Hill at nine, then a variety of occupations culminating in working for a surgeon at twelve. Certainly by seventeen he was a chorus boy in a Maggie Moore
Maggie Moore
Maggie Moore was the stage name of the American-Australian actor Margaret Virginia Sullivan .Sullivan was born at San Francisco, U.S.A., in 1851, and began her theatrical career at an early age. She established a local reputation, and having married J. C. Williamson came with him to Australia in 1874...
pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
Sinbad the Sailor in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
Sports promotion
In 1897, while working as a barman in Sydney, McIntosh began selling pies at sporting venues, and by the age of twenty-six was the owner of a catering company, then in an audacious leap that was to become a trademark, embarked on sports promotion.First it was cycle racing, notably seven-day events, while he was secretary of the League of New South Wales Wheelmen.
Then came boxing. Hoping to capitalise of the presence of the US "Great White Fleet
Great White Fleet
The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with...
" in August 1908, he hurriedly built a huge open-air stadium at Rushcutters Bay to stage a boxing match between local champion Bill "Boshter" Squires and World champion Tommy Burns
Tommy Burns (boxer)
Tommy Burns , born Noah Brusso, is the only Canadian born world heavyweight champion boxer. The first to travel the globe in defending his title, Tommy made 11 title defenses despite often being the underdog due to his size. Burns famously challenged all comers as Heavyweight Champion, leading to...
. On Boxing Day 1908 he staged a world championship heavyweight title fight between Burns and Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (boxer)
John Arthur Johnson , nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion...
. He made a huge profit from seat sales and a film of the bout, which he took to Britain and America. He sold his stadium business to his referee, the famous sportsman Reginald "Snowy" Baker who, with John Wren
John Wren
John Wren was an Australian businessman. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series...
, went on to develop a chain of stadiums.
From 1914 to 1917 he sponsored the trophy "Hugh D MacIntosh Shield" for the New South Wales Rugby League premiership.
Theatre
In 1911 he headed a consortium that acquired the Harry RickardsHarry Rickards
Harry Rickards , born Henry Benjamin Leete, was an English-born comedian and theatre owner, active in Australia.-Early life:...
Tivoli theatre chain, but was careful to retain Rickards' style (and company name: Harry Rickards Tivoli Theatres Ltd.), but adding an Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
Tivoli, then building a Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
Tivoli in 1915, designed by Henry White. To compete with the Fuller Brothers and J C Williamson he imported international stars such as Gene Greene
Gene Greene
Eugene Delbert Greene , better known as Gene Greene was an American entertainer, singer and composer, nicknamed The Ragtime King. He was a vaudeville star and made some of the earliest sound recordings of scat singing in 1911 for Columbia Records and Victor Records and was a popular Ragtime performer...
, Lew Fields
Lew Fields
Lew Fields , born as Moses Schoenfeld, was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre manager and producer....
, Ada Reeve
Ada Reeve
Ada Reeve was an English actress of both stage and film. Reeve began to perform in pantomime and music hall as a child. She gained fame in Edwardian musical comedies in the 1890s....
, W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
(then billed as "the world's greatest silent comedian") and George Gee and expanded the Tivoli repertoire to include musical comedy with the vaudeville, pantomime, Lee White - Clay Smith revues and melodramas such as "The Lilac Domino".
In 1920 he produced Australia's first musical comedy "F.F.F.", written by Mildura-based dried fruit millionaire (and Tivoli shareholder) Jack De Garis
Jack De Garis
Clement John De Garis was an Australian entrepreneur and aviator, noted for his colourful marketing style and work in the dried fruits industries in the Sunraysia area around Mildura in the 1920s.-Early years:...
with music by Reginald Stoneham
Reginald Stoneham
Reginald Alberto Agrati Stoneham was an Australian composer and publisher of mostly topical songs, and a musical comedy F.F.F. He was perhaps Australia's leading exponent of jazz and ragtime piano styles in the first decades of the 20th century as both composer and performer...
. It failed to attract critical or popular support and may have been a factor in De Garis' eventual suicide.
A transport strike caused him to lose money on an expensive production of Chu Chin Chow
Chu Chin Chow
Chu Chin Chow is a musical comedy written, produced and directed by Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, based on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves...
and he was forced to sell the lease to Harry Musgrove, though retaining his newspaper interests. The Musgrove venture failed, leaving the way open for J C Williamson ("The Firm") to take over running the chain.
In 1927 he took a revival of the 1909 Edward Locke
Edward Locke
Edward Locke was an American playwright born in England.He became a theatre and vaudeville actor while still in teens. He wrote some vaudeville sketches and plays, the most successful of which was The Climax, which has been filmed twice, though one bore little resemblance to the play...
play "The Climax" to London, apparently a good production, starring Dorothy Brunton
Dorothy Brunton
Christine Dorothy Brunton , generally known as Dorothy Brunton or "Dot" was an Australian singer and actress prominent in musical comedy from 1915 to the mid '30s....
, but in an inadequate theatre, and it closed after three weeks.
Publishing
In May 1916 he acquired the Sunday Times newspaper, which became the major advertising medium for his theatres. With his purchase of the Sydney Sunday Times, McIntosh acquired the sporting weeklies The Arrow and The Referee.In 1915 he started advertising his own theatrical weekly The Green Room Magazine, nicknamed "The Tivoli Bible", employing Zora Cross
Zora Cross
Zora Bernice May Cross was an Australian poet, novelist and journalist.She was born in Brisbane, and was educated at Ipswich Girls' Grammar School and then Sydney Teachers' College...
as drama critic.
He sold his Sunday Times interests in 1929.
Decline
In 1929 J C Williamson Tivoli Theatres Ltd was losing money and ceased rental payments to Harry Rickards Tivoli Theatres. Interest in the "talkies" was waning and McIntosh returned to producing revues for the (Melbourne) Tivoli and Princess, and the (Sydney) Haymarket and St James in a desperate attempt to generate an income. "The Follies of 1930" (with a cast that included Roy "Mo" ReneRoy Rene
Roy Rene , born Harry van der Sluys, was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of the 20th century. Roy Rene was born in Adelaide in the 15 of February 1892 with the name Harry van der...
), "Pot Luck", then "Happy Days" (with a young Robert Helpmann
Robert Helpmann
Sir Robert Helpmann CBE was an Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer.-Early years:He was born Robert Murray Helpman in Mount Gambier, South Australia and also boarded at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. From childhood, Helpman had a strong desire to be a dancer...
- billed as "Bobby Helpman, burlesque dancer") and "Sparkles", while trying to keep at bay creditors such as heiress Mrs Ben Shashoua (née Joan Norton, daughter of John Norton
John Norton (Australian journalist)
John Norton, , was an English-born Australian journalist, editor and member of the New South Wales Parliament. He was a writer and newspaper proprietor best known for his Sydney newspaper the Truth...
) as the value of his assets shrank with the advance of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Hopelessly insolvent, Harry Rickards' Tivoli Theatres Ltd folded the following year. Mrs Shashoua's solicitor later admitted to helping engineer McIntosh's bankruptcy.
In December 1930, Sydney "Truth", a weekly newspaper founded by John Norton
John Norton
John Norton may refer to:*John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley , British peer and numismatist*John Norton , Victorian Gothic revivalist, remodelled Tyntesfield*John Norton , Olympic medalist...
, published an article on the life and loves of McIntosh, calling him an "erstwhile pieman" who had "drained the life-blood" from the Sunday Times. McIntosh successfully sued for libel but was awarded damages of just one farthing. In the course of proceedings it was revealed that he had transferred £66,703 from the account of Sunday Times Ltd, of which he was managing director, to Harry Rickards Tivoli Ltd of which he was governing director in an attempt to keep the Tivoli chain solvent.
Politics
McIntosh championed NSW LaborAustralian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
Premier (also "bosom friend" and business partner) William Holman
William Holman
William Arthur Holman was an Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, Australia, who split with the party on the conscription issue in 1916 during World War I, and immediately became Premier of a conservative Nationalist Party Government.-Early life:Holman was born in St Pancras, London,...
in his newspapers. He contributed generously to the party (he was characterised by Jack Lang
Jack Lang (Australian politician)
John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
as "Holman's political fixer") and in 1911 was promised a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council
New South Wales Legislative Council
The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...
. This he was finally granted in 1917, but though using the honorific "MLC" in all his advertisements, he took little part in debates. In May 1932 McIntosh was forced, as a bankrupt, to relinquish his seat.
Other ventures
- He acted as agent for Teesdale Smith in tendering for major government contracts
- For a time he dabbled in movie projection; one film he promoted was the Italian classic Cabiria.
- He managed a guest house "Bon Accord", adjacent to Norman LindsayNorman LindsayNorman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....
's home at SpringwoodSpringwood, New South WalesSpringwood is a town in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. Springwood is located 72 kilometres west of Sydney in the local government area of the City of Blue Mountains. At the 2006 census, Springwood had a population of 8,210 people. It is largely Anglo-Celtic.Springwood is near the...
in the Blue Mountains after the death of its owner, jeweller businessman Stuart Dawson. - In 1935 he opened the "Black and White Milk Bar" in Fleet Street, London. It proved highly profitable, but when he expanded it into a chain, the enterprise foundered.
Personal life
In 1897 McIntosh married art teacher Marion BackhouseShe was to remain at his side to the end, through financial crises and numerous infidelities, notably with actress Vera Pearce
Vera Pearce
-Filmography:* The Shepherd of the Southern Cross * Just My Luck * Yes, Mr. Brown * That's a Good Girl * So You Won't Talk * Royal Cavalcade * Heat Wave * Southern Roses...
, whose nephew Harold Holt
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt, CH was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia.His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December 1967 when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.Holt spent 32 years...
, was to become Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
of Australia.
He was life governor of many NSW hospitals and charitable institutions; he was a founder of the Australia Day Committee and the Sydney Millions Club and at one stage president of the RSSILA and a fellow of the Royal Empire Society.
His wife also led an active social life. She travelled several times to the United States with Mrs Holman, was prominent in patriotic organisations the Vaucluse
Vaucluse, New South Wales
Vaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Vaucluse is located north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council and the Municipality of Woollahra....
branch of the Red Cross Society, in hospital fundraisers, sporting circles, notably as longtime president of the New South Wales Ladies' Amateur Swimming Association and its 1932 Olympics Committee. She was also prominent in the English Speaking Union
His last years were spent in England, where he died in a London hospital and was cremated.
He could inspire great loyalty among his acquaintances. Nellie Stewart
Nellie Stewart
Nellie Stewart was an Australian actress and singer, known as "Our Nell" and "Sweet Nell".Born into a theatrical family, Stewart began acting as a child. As a young woman, she built a career playing in operetta and Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In the mid-1880s, she began a long relationship with...
, in her memoirs, wrote "When I hear people talk slightingly of this big man I cannot bear it, for he was the most generous of men, and he was at all times far more likely to suffer from brigandage than to resort to it. He was of little less than medium height, broad in the shoulders, cheery in the eye, hiding under a rattling loquacity the fact that he was shy as a girl, a man all aglow with enthusiasm like a happy boy. He was electric. He had the oddest happy knack of getting out of all his people the best that was in them."
Further reading
- Cunneen, Chris Hugh Donald McIntosh Australian Dictionary of Biography, volume 10, Melbourne University Press
- Hetherington, John Australians – Nine Profiles F.W. Cheshire, 1960
- Stewart, Nellie My Life’s Story John Sands Ltd, 1923
- Van Straten, Frank Huge Deal – The Fortunes and Follies of Hugh D. McIntosh Lothian Books, 2004
External Links
- Hugh D. McIntosh at Live Performance Australia Hall of Fame