Mabel Gibson

Mabel GIbson in 1937

Mabel Wennstrom Gibson (1901 – 1951) was an Australian singer and actor, best known for playing in musicals and operettas.

History

Gibson was born in Perth, Western Australia,[1] a daughter of builder and Perth councillor Sydney "Sid" Gibson and his wife Catherine Charlotte Gibson, née Wennstrom[2] (1879 – 2 May 1931[3]). As a child, she studied piano under Richard J. Bastian,[4] dancing under Flora Lewin and Alice Patten,[5] and shone in juvenile pantomime.[6] She passed the L.A.B. examinations in pianoforte, and won a Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship, to study at the Albert Street Conservatorium.[7]

She played in several amateur theatre groups before being engaged with J. C. Williamson's

The Gibson family moved from the Mt Lawley suburb of Perth to the Melbourne suburb of Northcote sometime around 1925.[8]

Her first engagements with J.C.W. were as Clarice Hardwicke's understudy in Sybil and as one of the trio of sisters in Lilac Time.[7] She went on to play Therese in Ma Mie Rosette, Margot Spreckles in Sybil, Natalie in The Merry Widow, Juanita in A Southern Maid, Estelle in The Street Singer, Annetta in The Lady of the Rose by Jean Gilbert and Harry Graham, Dora in Funny Face, and Vittoria in The Maid of the Mountains, all supporting roles.

In Gilbert and Sullivan, she took a variety of roles — soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto — the last in trios with the sopranos Strella Wilson and Patti Russell.[9] She was applauded for her Phoebe in The Yeomen of the Guard[10]

She appeared as a hospital nurse in the film Diggers, aka Dinkum Diggers, produced at Efftee Studios by Pat Hanna.[11]

In 1933 she left for London where, to avoid confusion with another performer of a similar name, she took the stage name "Catherine Vennstrom", echoing her mother's birthname,[12] and in London's West End starred in Lawrence Wright's revue On With the Show at the Prince's Theatre.[13]

She left for America, where she played Adelina von Hagen in Edward Locke's The Climax opposite Guy Bates Post at the Hollywood Playhouse, and appeared in James B. Fagan's And So To Bed at the Music Box Theatre.[7] She auditioned for film roles, but was told she was "an inch or two too tall".[14]

She returned to Sydney in June 1935, and landed a role in Ball at the Savoy, opening at the Theatre Royal on 6 July 1935.[7]

She married an American, Paul Hebrick Long, at St Mark's Church, Darling Point on 29 October 1938[15] and moved to Ohio, where she died in 1951.[16]

Her sister Jean Gibson, a chorine with J. C. Williamson's,[17] left for Germany in 1936.[18]

References

  1. ^ "Miss Mabel Gibson". Sunday Times (Perth). No. 1446. Western Australia. 27 September 1925. p. 1. Retrieved 28 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Family Notices". The Leader (Melbourne). No. 2260. Victoria, Australia. 29 April 1899. p. 44. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "Mabel Gibson's Mother Dies". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 16, 835. Victoria, Australia. 2 May 1931. p. 2. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Pianoforte Recital". The Mirror (Perth). Vol. 5, no. 293. Western Australia. 2 December 1910. p. 10. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Annual Display and Concert". The Daily News (Perth). Vol. XXX, no. 11, 380. Western Australia. 6 December 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ ""Cinderella in Texas"". The Daily News (Perth). Vol. XXXIII, no. 12, 401. Western Australia. 16 December 1914. p. 4. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ a b c d "The Art of Being Different". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 30, 409. New South Wales, Australia. 20 June 1935. p. 8. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Peeps at People". Sunday Times (Perth). No. 1633. Western Australia. 12 May 1929. p. 3. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Gilbert and Sullivan". The Daily News (Perth). Vol. XLVI, no. 16, 232. Western Australia. 9 May 1927. p. 2. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Theatre Royal". The Register (Adelaide). Vol. XCIII, no. 26, 999. South Australia. 27 February 1928. p. 12. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Mabel Gibson in Talkies". Sunday Times (Perth). No. 1760. Western Australia. 18 October 1931. p. 8. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "Mabel Gibson Returning". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 17, 968. Victoria, Australia. 15 December 1934. p. 39. Retrieved 28 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "Cigarettes that Went Up In Smoke". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. IV, no. 44. Australia, Australia. 3 April 1937. p. 30. Retrieved 28 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "Another Theatrical Diet Case". The Labor Daily. No. 2122. New South Wales, Australia. 22 September 1930. p. 1. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "Musical Comedy Actress Married in Sydney". The Newcastle Sun. No. 6513. New South Wales, Australia. 31 October 1938. p. 3. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Their World a Stage". The Daily News (Perth). Vol. LXX, no. 24, 137. Western Australia. 23 August 1952. p. 12. Retrieved 28 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Brilliant Spectacles at Princess Theatre". Table Talk. No. 3291. Victoria, Australia. 4 June 1931. p. 16. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "National Theatre". The Telegraph (Brisbane). Queensland, Australia. 11 April 1936. p. 12. Retrieved 29 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.