J.C. Williamson's was an Australian theatrical management company and theatre owner. Colloquially known as 'The Firm', the company dominated Australian commercial theatre in the twentieth century and at one time was described as the largest theatrical firm in the world. With its beginnings in the theatrical productions of J.C. Williamson and partners in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the company J.C. Williamson Limited was established in 1910. It closed under financial pressure in 1976.
History
In 1904, J. C. Williamson entered into a partnership with George Tallis, his Melbourne manager, and Gustave Ramaciotti, his legal adviser. The limited liability company J.C. Williamson Limited was registered in July 1910, with shareholders including Williamson, Tallis and Ramaciotti amongst others. Actor-producer Hugh J. Ward purchased an interest in November 1910. The company soon achieved outstanding successes with tours by H. B. Irving and Nellie Melba; the latter and Williamson earned £46,000 profit each from her tour. Williamson successfully opposed an application by Australian actors to form a union in 1913. After Williamson died in 1913, the company continued to operate under various managing directors, including Ward who resigned in 1922, and for many years, Sir George Tallis, and then the five Tait brothers, Charles, John, James Nevin, Edward and Frank. In 1920, their production company, J. & N. Tait, merged with the J.C. Williamson company. The firm continued to present musical comedy and operetta, including the extremely successful The Maid of the Mountains, beginning in 1917. Gladys Moncrieff was a hit as Teresa, appearing in over 2,800 performances of the musical. Its short-lived film production company, the J.C. Williamson Film Company, produced a number of silent feature films during 1914-1918. In 1930, James Nevin became manager of the Williamson London office. In 1937, New Zealand businessman Sir John McKenzie became chairman, and Ernest C. Rolls was appointed to the board and made managing director and principal producer of J. C. Williamson. By 1938, the Tait brothers were running Williamson's property and investment company. In 1941, Viola Hogg Wilson, a former principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company who had toured with the Williamson company beginning in 1940, married Frank Tait, later becoming an artistic director of the company. By 1943, the brothers were also running J. C. Williamson Theatres, Ltd., and Frank eventually became managing director. He died in 1965. The company's activities extended to London's West End, where it produced, among others, seasons of the musicals High Jinks, and Mr. Cinders, together with the revue Coo-ee! and the plays Little Accident and Coquette, in 1929. In addition to operating its film company and its property and investments company, J. C. Williamson Ltd., continued to produce seasons of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, seasons of operetta, musical comedy, straight plays, pantomimes and occasional musical revues, and later grand opera, ballet seasons, and concert tours by visiting celebrity singers and musicians, at the many theatres that it owned or leased throughout Australia and New Zealand. Following World War II, the company presented long-running productions of new American musicals, beginning with Annie Get Your Gun starring Evie Hayes which opened at Melbourne's His Majesty's Theatre in July 1947. In 1976, the company closed and leased out its name. The National Library of Australia acquired the records of J.C. Williamson's in 1979.
