Page 24 - CR-90

By John Payne

n the early days of the Port Phillip Colony, W e n t w o r t h
Itheatre was frowned upon by government escorted a lady
due to the assembly of unruly patrons, partly to a night out
due to the excesses of liquor, and the lack of at the Queens
policing, and the need to use soldiers to assist Theatre after
in keeping order, necessitating the need to have a session of
barracks strategically placed around the a l c o h o l i c
growing colony. refreshment.
At one stage,
Melbourne’s first theatre, the Pavilion (1841) he started to
in Bourke Street, where David Jones thrash the lady
department store now stands, was often closed who, in
due to the behavior of the larrikins of Bearbrass defending herself, grabbed him around the It is an interesting point that a lane running
(Melbourne). When John Thomas Smith throat, causing him to begin to choke. In his from Little Collins Street up to the back of
opened his Queen’s Theatre in Queen Street effort to break free, he lifted the female up onto what became the Colosseum
near the south west corner of Little Bourke the parapet of the balcony and was trying to (Melba/Liberty/Odeon) Theatre is named
Street, he hired house police in an endeavor to throw her over into a pit when he was Sugden Place.
prevent the unruly from offending legitimate apprehended by Chief Constable William
patrons. Sugden. There were many incidents recorded William Johnson
in the early years of theatre, which made it Sugden was born
Colonial journalist “Garryowen” (Edmund difficult for legitimate stage companies to 1805 and came to the
Finn) wrote that a Mr Charles Henry obtain a licence to operate. Port Phillip Colony
from Van Dieman’s
Land, where he had
been an innkeeper.
He was a very trusted
police officer, who
would have come
across much poverty
and distress within Bearbrass. Due to his
diligent approach to policing, he was taken up
by the Deputy Sheriff and appointed to the
colony as his bailiff on 13 March 1841, at one
hundred pounds per year. During the
depression of 1842-4, he worked as an
auctioneer. He was appointed Chief Constable
of the colony in 1844 in an attempt to improve
the police force.

On 21 July 1845, he was involved in the
formation of the Fire Prevention Society and

24 CINEMARECORD # 90