David N. Martin 1898-1958

In May 1945 Martin presented the London hit show Get a Load of This. As his assistant producer
he engaged a recently demobbed young Sydney go-getter called Kenn Brodziak. This kick-started Brodziak’s extraordinary show business career, and the two men’s lasting professional relationship. Not long after, Martin faced the most tragic event in the Tivoli’s long history. On 1 September 1945 a backstage fire at the Sydney Tivoli claimed the lives of two young ballet girls, June McKenzie and Phyllis Haines; a third, Diana Hartt, survived horrific burns.

Martin’s first big overseas star was Tommy Trinder; the genial British comedian delighted the thousands of British migrants who were settling in Australia, so his enormous weekly salary of £1,260 was a good investment. In December 1952, during his second Tivoli tour, Trinder played Buttons in Cinderella in Melbourne, heading what was probably the best cast ever assembled for a pantomime in Australia: Jim Gerald (as Dame), Gloria Dawn (Cinderella), Toni Lamond (Dandini), Babs McKinnon (Prince Charming), Frank Cleary (the Juggling Jester) and George Pearson and Joe Lee as the Ugly Sisters. On 6 February 1954 Trinder topped the bill for the Royal Gala Performance in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. This was the first Australian theatrical performance attended by a reigning monarch, and Martin commissioned Dudley Ward to refurbish the Sydney Tivoli for the occasion.

In 1950 Martin scored with Armand Perrin’s Ice Follie. The first major ice show staged here after the war, it toured in various incarnations for several years. Perhaps Martin’s greatest and best remembered achievement was the 1952-3 tour of the famous Folies Bergère – a huge imported spectacle that opened in Sydney July 1952 and filled theatres around Australia for nearly 15 months. Martin’s star importations included George Formby and Lillian Roth (1947), Chico Marx (1948), Stanley Holloway, the Merry Macs and Arthur Askey (1949), John Calvert and Tommy Fields (1950), Jon Pertwee (1951), Allan Jones, Jean Sablon and Joy Nichols (1954), David Hughes, Michael Bentine, Mel Tormé and Winifred Atwell (1955), the Katherine Dunham Dancers and Richard Hearne (1956) and Shirley Bassey (1957). He also ventured into concert promotion, usually in liaison with other managements. His line up included the Vienna Boys’ Choir, the Spanish pianist José Iturbi, the Hohner Accordion Symphony Orchestra, the Italian tenor Luigi Infantino, American pianist Julius Katchen, the Don Cossack Chorus and Dancers and the celebrated Trapp Family Singers, well before their Sound of Music fame.

Martin knew that television would present live theatre with its greatest challenge. In Sydney, the Tivoli invested in TCN-9, and Martin was on its board. Its first telecast, on 16 September 1956, featured several Tivoli regulars. Another of Martin’s initiatives was the floating of Tivoli Freeholds Pty Ltd which paid Devon Buildings, a Tait–Tallis family company, £400,000 to acquire the freehold of the Melbourne Tivoli.