Hide Article Text (OCR)
Mr. George Coppin.Tills able comedian and veteran manager was born on the 8th of April, 1819, at Steyning, near Norwich, in Sussex, and is consequently dow in his sixty-second year. His father was educated as a surgeon, but entertaining a dislike to the medical profession be tcok to the stage as a raean»*©f livelihood, arid become manager of a company travelling through his native county and occasionally some of those adjoining. Our Mr Oeorge Coppin become a viol niat wben very young, and from time to time he appeared on the stage with his father’s troupe. With his fiddle under his arm he left borne to seek his fortune at the age of seventeen. His first engagement was at the Woolwich Theatre, of which Mr £a\ille Faucit was proprietor, and the actor-author, Mr James Sheridan Knowles, the rtar. After playing in different parts of England. Scotland, and Ireland, with the late Mrs Nesbitt (lady Boothby), Mis Honey, and MI FSIn Ell on, Juhnstone, G relt; n, George Wild, and W. J. Hammond, our future '• Napoleon of the theatrical world determined to visit AustraBlMook his passage in the good ship ‘‘Templar,’' and arrived in Sydney on the loth of March, 1843. Soon after his advent Mr Coppin played a most successful starring engagement, but finding the field very limited—giving no scope to his abilities—be became a boniface.bnt wanting experience in the trade, failed to make it profitable. We next hear of him in Tasmania. In Ilobart Town he played a starring engagement and made money with which he went into management in Launceston, where he had a very successful season, both artistically and financially. Determining then to seek fresh fields and pastures new,” he engaged the whole of his company, which then included the late Mr 6. H. Rogers, the late Mr Charles Young, Messrs Hambleton and Watson, Mrs VSatson, Mrs George Coppin, ami Mrs Chas. Young (now Mrs Hermann-Vezin), for a season in Melbourne Under a heavy bond they arrived in tint city by the schooner Swan,” and opened at the Queen's Theatre Royal ia “ The Lady of Lyons.” with the foil »wing cast:—Claude Melnotte, Mr Charles Young; OhivU, Mr George Coppin; Colonel Duma*, Mr Rogers; JJeavorant, Mr Thompson : Mon*. Dr*-chajnlle*, Mr Watson ; Pauline, Mrs Coppin ; Madame Ursehtjulle*, Mrs Watson. After *ev. ral successful seasons Mr Coppin went to Adelaide and(here located himself for some years, built a theatre and hotel, and was very prosperous until the breaking-out of the gold fields in Victoria, which had the effect of paralysing everything in South Australia. Reverses again came upon him, which led him to follow the many hundreds attracted to the shores of the golden colony.” In 1852, having been unsuccessful as a gold digger, he became the manager of the Geelong Theatre (now a brewery), and was eminently successful. Having made a gocd competency, he paid all his South Australian creditors in full, and in the early part of 1854 he sailed for England. When in London be had a desire for a •• London” appearance, and tendered his gratuitous services to many of the metropolitan theatres, but could get no opening. At this time the war in the Crimea had just commenced and Mr C'oppin secured the old Haymarket 1 bcntro for a benefit in aid of the funds for the widows and children of those soldiers or tailors who were killed in the contlict. He ilso obtained the patronage of many wealthy colonists who were then in the old country. On the 26th of June, 1854, he appeared as M. I'utzi in - The Mayor of Nevers and Crack the Cobbler in “ The Turnpike Gate”—the opening piece in the j programme being the late J. Blanche's comedy,'*'Jhe Knights of the Round (Table, in which the late Messrs W. .Farren, Buckstone, and Tilbury, Miss Ktyuolds,and other well-known artists ( appeared. A long professional tour . through England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales succeeded, and although lt;professionally his travels were attended .with thorough success, the rapidity with which he made money in A us- lt;tialiacaused him to bedissatisfie 1 with the results ef his British engagements. * Having made arrangements with the lt;late Mr G, V. Brooke, Wizard Jacobs, Wizard Anderson, and many other pop- 1 ular artists to visit the colonies, he had ( made in Birmingham an iron theatre to be erected in Melbourne, and which 1 afterwards became known as Coppin’s , Olympic, otherwise The Iron Pot.”In December, 1854, Mr Coppin re- 1 turned to Melbourne, and on the 18th of the same month commenced a star engagement at the Queen’s Theatre when he was most warmly welcomed back to the scene of hisearlier triumphs.(To be continued.)Where do you sup I Where do you dine ? Always at Drew’s No. 1 Coffee Palace, directly opposite the Wax Works.
Newspaper Details
Melbourne Lorgnette
Melbourne, Victoria, AU
Fri, Nov 25, 1881
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Alexander M.
AU 12 Dec 2022
Other Publications Near Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne Record
Melbourne Punch Thu
Melbourne Public Opinion
Melbourne Norden
Melbourne Herald
