Sir Benjamin Fuller

Plaque Unveiling Gallery

Early life

Move to Australia and New Zealand

Establishing a family theatrical enterprise in New Zealand    

Marriages and family

Building a theatre empire in Australia

Ardenbraught, 23 Wentworth Street, Point Piper

Philanthropy and human rights

Awards and memorials

Legacy

Sources

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Sir Benjamin John (Ben) Fuller

1875 - 1952

Sir Benjamin Fuller at Ardenbraught, Point Piper, 27 February 1931, Wakeford, C & Fairfax Corporation, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-162127901

Sir Benjamin Fuller was a gifted musician and comedic performer and an astute businessman who helped establish, as part of the Fuller family, a theatrical business empire throughout Australia and New Zealand.

A plaque commemorating Sir Benjamin John (Ben) Fuller was unveiled on 28 October 2025 by the Mayor of Woollahra, Clr Sarah Dixson with nominator Graham Humphrey and guest speaker/granddaughter of Sir Benjamin Fuller, Lynn Rainbow, AM. A transcript of her speech is available(PDF, 271KB) .

Plaque location

The plaque is located on the frontage of 23 Wentworth Street, Point Piper.

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Plaque Unveiling Gallery 

 

Early Life

Benjamin John Fuller was born on 20 March 1875 in north-east London, England, the second son of five children of John Fuller, compositor, performer and later theatrical entrepeneur, and his first wife Harriet, née Jones. Benjamin and his brothers Walter and John and sisters Hettie and Lydia grew up in the then poor community of Shoreditch. Benjamin's mother Harriett died of pneumonia in 1887 when the children were still young and his father John remarried Emily Matilda Cryer on 22 July 1888. Two siblings, May and Ray were later born to John and Emily.[1]

John Fuller Snr. possessed a fine tenor voice and in the early 1880s he embarked on a full-time career as an entertainer with a minstrel group, the Mohwak Minstrels, a popular form of entertainment at the time. From a young age the Fuller children showed similar ability in music and the arts, following their father's lead with careers in entertainment.

As a child the musically gifted Benjamin (Ben) performed in clubs as a singer of comic songs. At the age of nine he appeared in the Savoy Theatre's juvenile production of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Pirates of Penzance'. He later went on to appear with Montague Robey's Midget Minstrels before joining Warwick Gray's Juvenile Opera Company.[2] Ben played the piano by ear and earned money playing at gatherings in hotels known as 'free-and-easies' and 'friendly leads'. Taking work wherever it was available Ben had various positions in the entertainment industry including as a dresser to the monologue entertainer Harry Liston, working with minstrel troupes and touring alongside his brother Walter with Poole's Myrioama.[3]

 

Move to Australia and New Zealand

The Fuller family's move to Australia began with John Snr. who, in 1889, went to Australia performing with a theatrical company, the London Pavilion Company. After the Company disbanded Fuller decided to remain in Australia, and keen to have his family join him he used the money he earned from singing engagements to bring his wife and two youngest children over from England. He then travelled to New Zealand with another touring company where his singing contracts enabled him to fund the emigration of another two of his children. Ben however made his own path, and in 1894 he took a job as a pianist and steward on a boat bound for Australia, arriving in Melbourne in 1895.

 

Establishing a family theatrical enterprise in New Zealand

In 1895 the reunited Fuller family settled in Auckland and John Snr. and his children began producing and performing their own shows under the banner of the 'People's Popular Concerts'. The concerts were frequently sold out and received fabourable reviews.

Mr Ben Fuller as usual supplied the comic element in the programme and it is needless to say he acquitted himself admirably. - The Bay of Plenty Times, 21 Feb 1896 [4]

Publicity from 1896 impresses that the production was truly a family affair:

John Fuller and his concert company are doing the country districts. The Fuller family is composed of John Fuller (tenor), Lydia Fullers (soprano and elocutionist), Ben Fuller (limelight delineator and humourist), Walter Fuller (organist, pianist and a clever composer), Master John Fuller (limelight operator and programme boy) and Miss H. Fuller (vocalist). Mr Fuller's greyhound dog also assists by running round the streets with an advertisement on his back. - Otago Witness, 10 Dec 1896 [5]

 

The Fuller family were skilled at keeping abreast of the latest developments in popular entertainment, their shows being continually updated with new material.  In 1896 to complement their concerts the Fullers introduced myriorama shows or limelight concerts, the art of projecting slides on a wall or sheet via a ‘lantern machine’. These shows, interspersed with songs, comedy, anecdotes and narration provided by the Fuller family, were enormously popular with audiences across New Zealand and Fuller’s Myiorama Company was born. Ben, who had taken on a greater role in furthering the business interests of the family, returned to England at the end of 1897 to replenish the supplies of slides and investigate new acts as well as the importation of waxwork displays. These displays, introduced at the end of 1898, proved to be another highly successful addition to the Fuller shows.

By the end of the century the Fuller family enterprise in New Zealand was known as John Fuller & Sons and the popularity of their shows encouraged the family to make a tour of Australia in 1899. During this period Ben remained in New Zealand continuing to run performances in Dunedin, Wellington and Christchurch. Sensing a decline in the popularity of myriorama and wax works, the Fuller family began to concentrate fully on expanding its vaudeville operations as Fuller’s Vaudeville Company. The family business continued to grow, and the Fullers began acquiring the theatres in which they played, a practice which Ben would take to Australia. Ben later recalled that at the company’s peak in New Zealand they ‘owned 30 picture theatres and had affiliations with about 50 other houses’.[6]

As well as vaudeville, John Fuller & Sons’ ventures in New Zealand included moving pictures introduced in 1907. Their choice of picture, which was changed regularly, proved hugely popular with audiences. Trips abroad by John Snr., Walter, Ben and John kept the family company fully up to date with the latest trends in theatre entertainment.[7]

 

Marriages and family

On 6 October 1900 in Dunedin, Ben married widow Jessie Elizabeth Burton, née MacDonald, who had six children from a previous marriage. Ben and Jessie had a son, Alfred Benjamin (Ben) born on 6 January 1902 at Waverley in Sydney. Jessie died suddenly the following year on 27 May, aged 33, at Dunedin. A few years later on 8 November 1905 Ben married music teacher and singer Elizabeth Mary Thomson at the Sacred Heart Church in Auckland. Ben and Elizabeth had performed together during Ben’s first concerts in New Zealand, Elizabeth then appearing as Miss Lily Thomson.[8] He and Elizabeth had two daughters, Lilian Joan in 1911 and Fay Francis in 1912.

 

 

Building a theatre empire in Australia

With the Fullers' success and popularity firmly established in New Zealand, the family took their vaudeville circuit to Sydney in 1901. Although Ben purchased a house in Kenilworth Street, Waverley in preparation for the move, over the next few years he remained based in New Zealand while making frequent visits to Australia.

With the view to expanding their business in Australia, in 1912 John Fuller & Sons acquired a large interest in John Brennan’s National Ampitheatre Ltd. based in Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Ben moved to Sydney to take on the role of governing director of Brennan’s company while John managed the family’s interests in New Zealand.[9] Ben arranged for the Brennan company to begin touring Australia and New Zealand as the Brennan-Fuller Vaudeville Circuit. The Circuit received positive reviews and full houses, and within a few years Ben had established a large chain of theatres across Australia and New Zealand. The Fullers bought out Brennan’s interest in 1915, and in 1918 commissioned the theatre architect Henry Eli White to redesign the original Brennan’s Castlereagh Street theatre which reopened in 1919 as Fuller’s Theatre.[10]

John Fuller Snr. had been gradually relinquishing the running of the Fuller enterprise to his sons and in 1914 Ben and John were made joint governing directors of John Fuller & Sons Ltd.[11] By 1916 John had joined Ben in Sydney and the two brothers established and managed their own enterprise Fuller’s Theatres Ltd. The growing business produced pantomime and melodrama and quickly became one of the leading theatrical enterprises in Australia. In 1917 they opened the Majestic Theatre in Newtown, designed by Henry White, to accommodate their ever-increasing vaudeville and pantomime productions.

While acts and performers were frequently brought in from overseas Ben was keen to promote Australian talent such as Fred Bluett, Mike Connors, Queenie Paul and the comedy duo act Stiffy and Mo. One of their early successes was the production of the Australian pantomime ‘The Bunyip’, which opened in 1916.

The Fuller family will present its Christmas pantomine 'The Bunyip' or 'The Enchantment of Princess Wattleblossom' at the Grand Opera House... the big features promised are the bush fire, the corroboree, the Jenolan Caves scene, the cyclonic Chinese acrobats (a troupe of remarkable Manchurians) and the unique La Groh Trio specially imported for this performace. - Evening News, 22 December 1916[12]

Always willing to try out new attractions, in 1916 the Fullers introduced opera to their repertoire, presenting their first season of Italian Grand Opera by the visiting Gonsalez Opera Company at their newly renovated Adelphi theatre, renamed the Grand Opera House. The performances were reportedly received with ‘intense enthusiasm’ in both Sydney and Melbourne, and Italian Grand Opera became established entertainment for audiences around Australia. 

 

Sir Benjamin Fuller with visiting Italian opera singer from the Gonzales Opera Company, 1929, photograph Sam Hood, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

 

John Fuller Snr. died on 9 May 1923 in Auckland but the theatrical enterprise he had built continued in New Zealand under Walter’s management and expanded in Australia under Ben and John’s stewardship. In 1923, in partnership with Hugh Ward (until 1926), Ben and John began producing stylish musical comedies. In Melbourne in 1922 they renovated the Princess Theatre to the design of architect Henry White and in Sydney they built the St James Theatre, again designed by Henry White, at 107-111 Elizabeth Street. The St. James Theatre, described in Truth as ‘truly Australia’s Theatre Magnificent’, opened in April 1926 with a performance of the musical ‘No No Nanette’.[13] In 1928 the Fullers staged a highly successful production of 'Rio Rita' with Gladys Moncrieff in the lead role, opening to glowing reviews.

A huge audience gave Gladys Moncrieff an ovation on her first appearance in the musical comedy 'Rio Rita' on Saturday night... In a speech after the final curtain Miss Moncrieff thanked the Fuller management for giving her the opportunity to return to Australia. - The Age, 26 April 1928 [14]

From their early days in New Zealand the Fullers had understood the value of promotion, using newspapers and other media to their advantage. In Australia the press reported on new Fuller Theatre productions and theatrical happenings, while Ben was always happy to give interviews and was often quoted. During the 1920s Ben and John published and sold Fuller News, an in-house weekly magazine promoting their latest productions, programs and artists.[15]

 

Sir Benjamin Fuller with members of the Gonzales Opera Company, on board ship, 1928, photograph Sa, Hood, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

 

By 1930 vaudeville had lost much of its appeal for audiences in favour of the cinema, and most of Fuller’s theatres were adapted to accommodate the new era. The old Fuller’s Theatre in Castlereagh Street was the first of the Fuller theatres to be converted and it was renamed the Roxy. Its first screening of a ‘talkie’, ‘The Hollywood Revue’, took place in February 1930. The theatre was renamed the Mayfair in 1932 as part of a plan to stage only British productions. 

Sir Benjamin’s partnership with his brother John was dissolved in 1934 after John reportedly became tired of the extensive travelling required for their theatre productions.[16] John retained control of the St. James Theatre and St James Building while Sir Ben remained the governing director of Fuller’s Theatres Ltd. controlling the Mayfair in Sydney, the Princess and the Palace in Melbourne, the Empire in Brisbane, the Majestic in Adelaide and His Majesty’s in Perth.[17] Sir Ben sold his New Zealand interest wishing to concentrate his efforts in Australia, running musical comedy shows in Sydney and Melbourne, however his keen desire and plans to establish a permanent local opera company did not eventuate.

 

Drawing of St James Theatre, Castlereagh Street, Sydney, from 'The Theatre Incorporating St. James' Theatre, Sydney', Building, 12 March 1926, p. 52.

 

After the parting with John, Sir Ben continued his involvement in the theatre industry with his typical energy and enthusiasm. One of his first large scale endeavours was to refurbish the Mayfair theatre to the design of architect Charles Bohringer, resulting in ‘a very aesthetic and most pleasing interior decoration scheme’.[18] In 1936 alongside Garnett Carroll (who had been associated with Fullers since the 1920s) he established the Savoy Theatres with plans to stage operetta and musical comedy. They opened with the musical comedy ‘Billie’ staged at the Apollo in Melbourne in June 1936. In 1946 Sir Ben and Carroll, as joint managing directors, registered the Carroll-Fuller Theatres Ltd., continuing the tradition of presenting musical comedies as well as plays, opera and ballet. The company brought many well-known companies to Australia such as the Ballet Rambert in 1947-8 and the Old Vic Theatre Company with Sir Laurence Olivier in 1948.

The era of the Fuller’s theatre empire came to an end in July 1950 when the picture interests of Fuller’s Theatres Ltd were merged with Hoyts Theatres Ltd. Sir Ben retained his lifelong love of the stage and continued to be involved in theatrical productions. Some of his last presentations in 1951-52 included Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’ (with J.C. Williamson), ‘Let’s make an Opera’ by Benjamin Britten and Eric Crozier (with the Arts Council Ballet Co.), and the Christmas pantomime ‘Dick Whittington’ at the Palace in Sydney. Through his drive, experience and business acumen Sir Benjamin and Fuller’s Ltd. had established, within a few years, one of the largest and most popular theatrical enterprises of the first half of the twentieth century. Reminiscing on the success of Fuller’s Theatres, Sir Benjamin recalled in 1947 that

'Within a year or so of coming here [Sydney] we also had theatres in Melbourne, Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Port Pirie and Broken Hill with affiliations that meant supplying acts to Perth, Freemantle, Queensland and Hobart.'[19]

 

Ardenbraught, 23 Wentworth Street, Point Piper

Soon after their move to Sydney Ben and his family settled in the Eastern Suburbs initially at the house Haughley, overlooking Elizabeth Bay at 4 Billyard Avenue.  John Fuller and his family would later join Sir Ben in Elizabeth Bay when they moved to 14 Billyard Avenue. Reflecting their rising fortunes, Sir Ben and Lady Fuller purchased and moved to Ardenbraught at 23 Wentworth Street, Point Piper in 1925, while a few years later John moved to the house he purchased in 1930, Caerleon, at 15 Ginahgulla Road, Bellevue Hill.

 

 

 

 

Ardenbraught had been designed by architect John Manson of Manson & Pickering in the Scottish Baronial style in 1903 for barrister and photographer Cecil Bedford Stephen. Following Stephen’s death his wife Alice offered the house to the Red Cross Society to be used as a convalescent hospital for returning servicemen during WWI. It was described in 1916 as one of the largest of the convalescent hospitals controlled by the Red Cross.[20] After the war ended the property was transferred to Leslie Archibald and Emma Beatrice Scandrett who engaged architect Edwin Roy Orchard to convert the house into 3 apartments.[21]

The Fullers took up residence in the ground floor apartment and ‘were renowned for hosting musical recitals’ and other social events.[22] During World War II Ardenbraught became one of a number of houses in Point Piper taken over by the RAAF Eastern Area Command, used as accommodation for WAAAFs from 1942. Between 1945 and 1947 it was it was occupied by the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Force.[23]

The property remained in the Fuller family until it was sold in 1998, the property was further converted to 6 apartments with a further 2 in the grounds, designed by architect Greg Anderson working in consultation with heritage architects Tropman & Tropman. 

 

Philanthropy and human rights

Sir Benjamin was a generous benefactor to education, an advocate of human rights and active on various committees. In 1920 Fuller gave £1000 to Vernon Treatt to enable him to take up a Rhodes Scholarship. The following year he gave two sums of £5000 to education and established the Fuller Trust to provide scholarships for overseas training in agriculture. Fuller’s Theatres sponsored artists and performances to raise money for various charities, particularly during wartime, such as the Australian Comforts Fund. He was chairman of the Howard Prison Reform League, president of the NSW Health Society and vice president of the Sydney Industrial Blind Institution where he was involved in fund raising. He was one of the founders (and vice-president) of the Theatrical Proprietors and Managers Association (later Live Performance Australia) in 1917. He was one of the founders of the cremation movement in Australia and director of the N.S.W. Cremation Company Ltd. He was a life member of both the Royal Empire Society and of the society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[24] He served as President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and was Chairman of United Charities. He was president of the Australian Council for International Social Service, raising money, himself a generous contributor, to bring refugee children to Australia from Europe in 1950.

 

Awards and memorials

In 1921 Benjamin was knighted as part of the King’s Birthday Honours.[25] The award of Knight Bachelor (Imperial) was conferred on Sir Benjamin on 20 September 1921 ‘in recognition of service as a philanthropist and benefactor’.[26]

A plaque was unveiled at Ardenbraught on 19 Feb 2004 to commemorate the housing at Ardenbraught, made available by Sir Benjamin Fuller, of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Force personnel following World War II.[27]

"Adenbraught" generously made available by Sir Benjamin Fuller was home to 280 officers and men of the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Force who operated from the Catalina Flying Boat Base at Rose Bay from December 1945 until 1947.
Unveiled by Madelien A.J. de Planque, Consul General of the Netherlands, On 19th February 2004

Legacy

During a trip to London with Lady Fuller, Sir Benjamin died on 10 March 1952. It was reported that during their visit he was pursuing a production of an adaption of ‘Love Me Sailor’ by Robert Close, at the West End.[28] 

He was cremated in London and survived by the son of his first marriage, his second wife Elizabeth and two daughters. Lady Fuller died some years later on 13 June 1960.

Sir Benjamin had a profound influence on the development of theatres and theatrical entertainment in Australia. He promoted and brought theatrical ventures, in particular vaudeville and musical comedy, to Sydney and further afield across Australia. He built theatres, designed by prominent architects, across the country for both vaudeville and cinema, and he encouraged and promoted Australian artists and theatrical acts. Aside from his business and theatrical interests Sir Benjamin was a generous benefactor to educational causes and an advocate for human rights.

Sir Benjamin has been remembered as a gifted musician and comic actor, charismatic, warm hearted and genial, and an astute businessman ‘full of energy and purpose’.[29]

'Sir Ben was a showman to his fingertips. He was the most courageous man the Australian theatre has seen. Everything that he touched he did on the grand scale'.[30]

 

Sources

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Australian Variety Theatre Archive

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Dictionary of Sydney

Duncan, Alistair, Actors Blood, Copacabana, N.S.W., Lexington Avenue Press, c. 2004

Griffiths, G. Nesta, Point Piper past and present, Ure Smith, 1970

Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand

Rundle, Virginia, Relatives Matter

TROVE

Woollahra Libraries digital archive and online newspapers