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Street, Melbourne. Two days later he was
dismissed, following complaints from the
Melbourne Hospital across the road. At age 11,
he had a song-and-dance act at the Bijou
Theatre, then travelled Australia with a circus
before returning to sing in a grand opera
chorus at the Bijou.
Assisted by his younger brother Ernest, he
transformed the William Tell legend into a
vaudeville act. He set three rifles at the points
of a triangle; using a fourth rifle and taking
sight with a mirror, he fired over his shoulder,
hitting the trigger of the first fixed rifle which
discharged the others in sequence, the last of
which shattered a ball balanced on his head.
This feat he performed in many Melbourne
theatres. In about 1901, he achieved fame with
his Bourke Street ghost-house of illusions and
horrors.
In 1908, two years after Carl Hertz introduced
moving pictures to the Opera House (later the
Tivoli), Hoyts first picture-house opened,
directly opposite in St George's Hall, Bourke
Street. Fredricksen, the “Sultan of Spruikers”,
was engaged. His distinctive voice projected
through the noise of a busy street and his
repertoire of alliterative incantations soon
captured audiences for the “flicks”: “A
arl Theodore (Charles) Fredricksen Fredrickson (d.1906), a musician from Russia, surprising series of skits, screaming sallies
C(1872-1966), showman and cinema and his English-born wife, Mary Louisa, née and silly situations; satisfactory, startling,
commissionaire, was born on 28 November Smythe (d.1923). Educated at Fitzroy State swiftly speeding scenes, surprisingly
1872 at Majorca, (a mining town near School, he began work as a child, beating a stupendous, side-splitting scenarios, sparkling
Maryborough, Victoria), the sixth child of Carl drum outside the Lyceum Theatre, Lonsdale
snappy stunts, sensational, superb,

32 CINEMARECORD # 96