Dan Thomas
Dan Thomas (c. 1878-1965) was an English-born variety performer, pantomime dame/librettist, songwriter.
Stage name of Thomas Henry Daniels.
Contents
Biography
Dan Thomas carved out a successful career in Britain as a comedian and pantomime dame before moving to Australia for the Fullers in 1914. He travelled to South Africa in 1917 and soon afterwards took over control of the London Gaiety Company there. He returned to Australia in 1922 to play the dame role for George Marlow‘s Little Bo-Peep. Thomas performed with all the big-name companies in Australia and was extremely popular during the 1920s. In the 1930s he appeared in three of George Wallace‘s films. By the 1940s his dame specialty was outdated, so he continued his on-stage career with minor shows and circuses. He continued to work in Australian variety theatre and on radio up until at least 1954.
He was married 4 times, to Dulcie Dare (Martha May Agnes Tunstall), Daisy Yates, Hilda Attenboro and Aimee (Mae) Crean.
When Thomas moved on to Australia, Hilda Attenboro and Thomas appeared in The Babes in the Wood in Sydney. While in Australia, Attenboro was named as “the other woman” in a 1916 court case in which Daisy Yates, the wife of Dan Thomas, sued her husband for divorce. Apparently Attenboro and Thomas had been living together as husband and wife and were reported to have had a child together. Hilda Attenboro and Thomas were married in Pretoria in August 1918, possibly in order to legalise the status of their daughter.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
As actor
In October 1917, Thomas and Attenboro appeared in the revue S’Nice at the Empire Theatre.
As writer/director
He wrote and/or directed a number of pantomimes that were performed in South Africa, including:
- Dick Whittington and His Cat (1917)
- Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1918/1919)
- Babes in the Wood (1919/1920)
At one time was the manager of the Palladium.
Sources
https://ozvta.com/practitioners-t/
https://www.hatarchive.com/search/label/Dan%20Thomas
http://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2021/02/1913-which-panto-are-you.html
Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.
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