Awkward! Unravelling the story of Joe Valli 1885-1967 Scottish comedian, dancer, stage and film actor

 

Unravelling the story of Joe Valli 1885-1967 Scottish comedian, dancer, stage and film actor

My family tree program and has notes in it regarding my Nanny, Lavinia Strelley. It goes along the lines that my Nanny was living with Joe Valli's wife prior to her immigration to Australia in 1926.

As her father was a champion bare-knuckle boxer and boxing referee, I assumed that Joe Valli was a boxing pal and for some reason I thought he was from London. In fact when I googled him I found him to be a movie star in Australian movies.

This was placed in the too-hard basket when I found nothing more. A few stars aligned recently. I do believe my Nanny shook me awake one night saying, look at the 1921 census. As we know, it's only fairly recently been released.

My Nanny had an elusive upbringing and the connection between she and her mother have only been found through serious hard labour and occasional luck.

You see, our first stumbling block was that Nanny's mother and her father did not marry and it seems she always used his surname and actually worked for his boxing promotional nights from time to time  after finishing her day job shifts at the Macfarlane Lang biscuit factory.

So when I found her on the 1921 census, living with Rose McFarlane and family, I assumed she was a boarder with some of her employer's relatives. Seemed simple to me until, while I was down a rabbit hole looking for some of our family's musical artistes from another side of the family, I came across a couple of articles referring to who partnered who in the comedy duos.

Hayes also partnered Bert Bendon

A fellow called Billy Hayes was a Scottish performer in Scottish Glasgow Music Hall and also played the Moss Empire Circuit. This comedian called  Billy Hayes kept swapping who he partnered with on several occasions most of whom were relations of my great grandmother’s family. First he performed in a duo of Hayes and Finch. Finch was Jimmy McBride my grandfather’s cousin who performed as Jimmy Finch before he partnered with Carr. Later Hayes partnered another of my grandfather’s cousins Neil McBride when they played as Hellier and Hayes. Soon he teamed up  then with Austin Kerr (no relation) but whose sister was married to another McBride. He also partnered Bert Bendon who was part of the famous comedic duo Power and Bendon. Neil above became Power.

When I googled Billy Hayes it came up that he and Joe Valli were one and the same- and ex Scottish music hall comedian turned movie star in Australia.

Further  googling  Joe Valli  finds he was originally named Joseph George McParlane with a P .

He had originally been the son of an engineer and worked as a builder and engineer before devoting his time to music hall entertainment. As it turns out, he ended up in Australia and New Zealand, becoming a famous movie star.

He was born Joseph George McParlane, 1885-1967, son of Joseph McParlane and Agnes Gill. He started work in a foundry when he was nine. He learned dancing and supplemented his wage in concerts at night.

Joe and Rose's Wedding in Scotland

 In 1908 he married Rose Anne Mulvey, 1888-1962, and began his family in Glasgow. Somewhere along the way the family preferred to be known as McFarlane. Children, John Mulvey, Alice Agnes and  Josephine Jellicoe were born in 1907, 1909 and 1914 respectively.

It is said that in 1914 he joined the army and served in France but in 1916 he was touring Australia. Service in France was probably  a myth embellished by his later career performances in “Diggers” on stage.

The change of spelling of his surname was most likely because the McFarlanes wanted to fit in better in Scotland rather than standing out as Irish Catholic. But when you see what Joseph McFarlane got up to, it may have been to disguise other information about himself.

However, I'm told Billy Hayes, Joseph McFarlane/ Joe Valli deserted Rose and her family in the mid-1910s and  came to Australia performing in 1916 in Australia and NZ  with the comedy called “Tickets Please” with Harry Clay and the Royal Follies.

He returned to England towards the end of World War 1 around 1917, working in the Arsenal Munition Factory in London. He was discovered there and was sent to Scotland where he was charged with desertion, receiving a jail sentence. He rekindled his relationship with Rose but left her again before the birth of their next baby Agnes Mulvey in 1920.

My Nanny Lavinia lived with the McFarlanes before she left for Australia

 

Hence my Nanny was living with the McFarlanes of Joe Valli fame, not the biscuit manufacturer fame in the 1921 census with Rose and the three children at 38 Sister St Calton , Glasgow.

Once back in Australia Joe  was reunited with prior partner Elsie Archbold who he performed on stage with. They had two children together, Thelma Georgina  and Josie in 1918 and Joseph in 1920.  She died of breast cancer in 1927. Joe had he left her and took up  with Thelma Pittard who also appeared on stage as a solo dancer. They had a child Josephine  around 1927.

There are quite a lot of articles about him in vaudeville shows in New Zealand as well. The long-running partnership with Pat Hanna as “Chic and  Joe”- Hannas Famous Diggers. toured Australia, New Zealand and the US until 1931 when he starred in "Diggers" the movie. He’s how they described a show

“There is plenty of sparkling humour, good singing and attractive dancing intermingled in an entertainment put across with decided verve. The many and varied sketches are extremely humorous though some are inclined to suffer as a result of their maturity. However, Pat Hannah, Joe Valli and Stan Lawson know how to revive and present them so that they cannot fail to please. Joe Valli is an exceptionally clever comedian and his genial humour helps keeps the audience suffering from spontaneous mirth.”

He also did many shows around Australia and some radio comedy.

He debuted in the movies in “Diggers” in 1931 and played in 14 more features such as  "Typhoon Treasure” and “Let George Do It”.  In 1938 he received a "pressing invitation to leave" for Hollywood as soon as he finished his movie “Typhoon Treasure”. 

 

Joe in "Let George Do It "

Touring in NZ

His career ended in 1949  when he was 63 after a series of operations on his throat which meant he was unable to speak. He was fairly destitute and took a job as a caretaker 6 holiday units owned by Actors Equity located  in Sussex Inlet. He also had spent time living in the Eastern Suburbs at Rose Bay.

Joe leaving hospital

Rose probably had a little laugh when he couldn't remarry until after her death in Scotland in 1962. 

 
Back in the twenties Joe and his Sydney family (ies) probably felt they were pretty safe with their affairs (literally ).

However, from 1924 the Kerrs and  Nanny began to arrive in Sydney Australia the very place Joe was residing.

First to arrive was  my great grandfather James in 1924, then my grandfather, James in 1925 and finally, Frank Kerr (vaudeville  music hall artiste ), Mary Ann Kerr, Aunt of the McBrides  who had partnered “Billy Hayes”, Great Uncle Alf and Nanny Lavinia Strelley in 1926. They were well versed in the Music Hall scene and Hayes who partnered many of their relatives who in various productions around Scotland.

For years, Joe made headlines in Sydney and around Australia for his comedy sketches and film roles. They would not have failed to see the stories of his entertainment success and movie stardom in the local Sydney papers and at the theatre. Joe even lived in the same suburb as Great Uncle Alf at one stage!

Perhaps they even bumped into him. Nanny would have been torn between her relationship with his deserted wife Rose and the children and meeting up with a fellow Scot and co-performer with her husband’s cousins who was also famous.

 

 

Oh they knew the story alright and the connections. Above is a bit of what Uncle Alf wrote for my father many years later. As I said earlier Awkward!!


Joe died on 29/5/1967 of myocardial degeneration aged 81 after having married Thelma Pittard in 1963 when he was 78 This was after the death of Rose back in 1962 in Scotland.

Thelma Pittard a talented dancer

Do you know how Valli got his name which I mistook for a boxer’s name?

Well this interview from a WA journalist tells it all.

“Joe said, you have no doubt heard of the great Polish conjurer, Paul Cinquevaili?  You have? Well I played with him at the Hippodrome in Greenwich. My job was to assist him in his acts.

 

My pals called me Chinquvaile’s Vallet. And then someone christened me Joe Valli. And as such I have been known on the English and Australian boards.”