Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne

Following the Victorian gold rush, Melbourne became a sizable thriving city, and the area of Bourke Street near Swanston developed as the theatre and entertainment precinct.

In 1893, British actor-manager Harry Rickards bought the Garrick Theatre in Sydney, which he renamed the Tivoli, and presented music hall style entertainments.

Rickards commissioned the Melbourne architect William Pitt to design a replacement, and the New Opera House opened in May 1901 with a bill headed by British comedian Marie Lloyd.

[3] Rickards died in London in 1911, leaving a circuit that had expanded into theatres in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, which was Australia's major presenter of vaudeville.

In 1956tThe Tivoli in Melbourne was refurbished in a padded streamlined style,[7] During the 1950s and early ’60s there were also various pantomime matinees in the summer holidays, featuring puppets, acrobats and comic performers such as John Bluthal, Johnny Lockwood, Barbara Angell and Max Reddy (often as the Dame).

Regular television broadcasting in Melbourne began with the opening night of Channel 7 in July 1956, which included a 45-minute variety program relayed from the Tivoli stage, featuring Barry Humphries.

The Tivoli circuit was hit especially hard, since many of its most popular variety performance acts, singers and comedians, such as Syd Heylen, Joff Ellen, Happy Hammond and Buster Fiddess, had abandoned live theatre to concentrate on the new medium.