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Goodie Reeve
Born
Lillian Mary Hazlewood

(1898-01-00)January 1898
London, England
Died4 December 1978(1978-12-04) (aged 80)
Brisbane, Australia
Occupation(s)Actress, songwriter, radio announcer
Years active1916–1972
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1919; died 1922)​
Walter Martin
​
​
(m. 1932; div. 1948)​
Paul Dawson
​
​
(m. 1948; died 1948)​
Children1

Goodie Reeve (January 1898 - 4 December 1978) was a British-born actor, singer, songwriter, radio host, critic and columnist who found fame in Australia, becoming known as the "First Lady of Sydney Radio".[2]

Early life

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Reeve's mother Ada Reeve

Reeve was born Lillian Mary Hazlewood in Warwick Garden, London,[3] the second child of famed comedic actress Ada Reeve and actor Bert Gilbert (Joseph Gilbert Hazlewood); her sister Bessie Hazlewood was an actress[4] before becoming a chauffeur in Sydney.[5]

Reeve's parents regularly toured with their acts, sometimes taking Goodie and Bessie with them, including to Australia in 1898[6] and Southern Africa in 1912.[7]

Reeve began violin lessons while very young, before switching to the piano.[3] Due to her parents' travels, Reeve did not attend school until age ten, initially sent to a convent by her mother in order to learn French,[3] before shifting to a school in Shropshire and then, with her sister, a school in Bonn, Germany, studying music and languages,[7] but was forced to flee when World War I broke out.[3]

Back in England, Reeve studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama[7] and, following in her parents' footsteps, Reeve established herself in musical comedy,[6] appearing in the hit play The Better 'Ole at the Oxford Music Hall in London, [8][9] initially in the supporting role of "Suzette"[10] before transferring to the lead female role of "Victorine". The Times theatre critic wrote that Reeve helped "brightly and daintily with the song and dance side of the entertainment."[11]

Australia

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Reeve came to Australia in 1917 for the local production of The Better 'Ole, continuing her role as Victorine.[6] Much of the early media interest in Reeve was related to her famous mother, with critics regularly comparing Goodie to Ada, including claims that Goodie was as skilled as her mother[12] but also having "a quiet charm of her own."[13] Reeve's management capitalised on the connection, billing Goodie as "Famous Ada Reeve's Fascinating Daughter".[14]

Following the end of The Better 'Ole's run in 1919, Reeve spent years appearing on the Tivoli circuit in a solo show,[14] singing and played the piano,[13] including a tour of New Zealand in the 1927/28 summer.[15]

Reeve also turned to journalism in the early 1920s, becoming the theatre critic for, at various times, Referee and Arrow[6] before a stint editing Theatre Magazine.[16]

Reeve also wrote on other topics, including women's issues, education, using the latest technology, including in 1936 looking at the future of education in Australia.[17]

In 1925 Reeve started working in the publicity department of J. C. Williamson's theatre company.[18]

In 1926 Reeve was taken seriously ill and by 1929 had 20 operations on her head, and was forced to slow down her work load.[7]

Music

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Wrote the first radio musical commercials in Sydney.[19]

In 1924, Reeve released Auntie Goodie's Bedtime Story Songs, an album of self-written children's songs, including "Come To My Island", "Poor Mummy's Tired, Every Night", "The Puppy Dogs' Parade", "I Jus' P'tend", and "It's Lullaby".[20]

Wrote the famous advertising jingle "Eat Your Uncle Toby's Every Day".[20] She also penned and performed "Here Comes Amy", the song sung at the official welcome of air pilot, Amy Johnson, in Sydney on 4 June 1930.[6]

Radio

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Reeve started a 46-year career in radio in Sydney in 1926,[6] with, at various times, 2BL,[21] 2FC,[22] 2GB,[23] 2CH and 2SM.[24]

In 1929 Reeve became the host of 2FCs Children's Session She sings a song then talks to the children, explaining it, while she continues to strum away some appropriate tune on the piano. “It seems to take away some of the dullness of the speak- ing voice,” Goodie Reeve explains, “to have an accompaniment in the background; but it is not too easy to keep the piano down quiet enough to be sure of the voice being heard.”

It is impossible for anyone to accompany Goodie Reeve as most of her little talks and stories are impromptu, and no one else would know when to start or when to stop.[25]

Reeve hosted many different programs, including Behind the scenes at Hollywood on 2FC,[22] where she interviewed people involved in the entertainment industry, including her own father.[26]

Built herself to become "one of the best woman announcers on the air"[27] and has "a large army of listeners, renowned for bringing novel features into radio.[27]

Reeve was absent from the airwaves for a year in 1933 before returning to Radio 2UE with her new program Woman. Through the break she remained one of the best known personalities in Australian radio.[28]

Reeve or "Auntie Goodie" of program Tiny Tots on 2GB Sydney, urged nieces and nephews in her 1930 Christmas message, to ‘specially appreciate your presents this year, because most Mummies and Daddies have not had too many pennies to spend’.[29] The iconic Aeroplane Jelly jingle was first sung in the early 1930s on the Goodie Reeve radio show.[6]

At 2FC in the early 1930s, Reeve inadvertently performed the first interview on the ABC, when a visiting actor froze during a talk and Reeve was required to encourage him to speak.[30]

in the 1930s Called "perhaps the greatest favourite in the air in Australia to-day",[24] to the point that a letter from the UK addressed "Goodie Reeve, Sydney" found her.[31]

However, Reeve's popularity had its drawbacks, including death threats and Christmas cakes containing screws, needles and other objects sent to her.[32] to a listener travelling hundreds of kilometres to personally lecture her on the benefits of using a parrot to rub face creams on ones.[33]

Reeve gave Australian author Kylie Tennant her big break in the early 1930s, hiring Tennant to write plays for Reeve's children program.[34]

Reeve was well known for her "extraordinarily sympathetic nature", coming from surviving life-threatening illness and wanting to spread kindness in the world. [35] "Knack of radiating her happy personality at the mike."[36]

In 1937 Reeve started For Men Only, a program on 2GB. Men would write to Reeve about personal issues in their life, including complaints about their wives,[37] loneliness, lack of employment, Reeve would read out letters and respond.[35]

"Auntie Goodie's Good Deeds", where listeners would write in with stories of good deeds.[33] and Reeve was known for her ongoing charity work, in particular for the Royal Society for the Blind.[38][39]

After World War II, Reeve ran on 2GB Session for the Blind, a popular program for the blind that included a backing band of blind musicians.[40] Described in her "quiet, pleasant way, has deservedly achieved some remarkable results from her cheerful little programme."[40]

a children's show called Chickabiddies[19] and a show for blind ex-serviceman.[19]

Personal life

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Described as "of the pale face and the experienced grey eyes, and the lips which seem to form ideas instead of words",[7] Reeve was married three times:

The first to Dr Reg McGillicuddy, a physician and former Australian rules footballer with Victorian Football League (VFL) club University, at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on 5 December 1919.[41] Reeve left the Sydney run of My Lady Frayle, in which she played a leading role, at short notice, to travel to Melbourne to wed McGillicuddy.[42] Reeve was replaced by her understudy Trilby Clark.[42]

The couple moved to Queensland where they had a daughter, Patricia Mary "Yuki",[43][44] before McGillicuddy died in Cunnamulla[45] in 1922, aged 30.[46] Reeve was in Sydney visiting her father when she heard of McGillicuddy's illness but he died before Reeve was able to return to Cunnamulla.[46]

Reeve and her daughter returned to Sydney where Yuki attended Normanhurst Convent.[24]

Reeve's second marriage was to Walter Geoffrey Martin, an executive with Amalgamated Wireless,[44] in St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney on 22 October 1932, followed by a honeymoon in Suva, Fiji.[47] Up to 400 fans were outside St Mary's, throwing rose petals and mobbing Reeve, leading to near suffocations in the resulting crush and many children screaming in fright.[48] Reeve, while stopping to kiss and calm many of the children present, momentarily lost her gold plaited headwear.[48]

The third was to Australian Army Major Paul Frederick Dawson on 21 October 1948. Dawson, who had served with the New South Wales Lines of Communication Unit in World War II,[49] was critically ill from injuries sustained from the war, and died less than a month later,[50] on 16 November 1946.[51]

As Reeve married Dawson only three hours after her decree nisi for divorce from her second husband Walter Martin was made absolute on 21 October 1946, there was confusion over the validity of the marriage.[50]

Under Australian law of the time, remarriage was forbidden within 21 days of the granting of a decree nisi.[52] As Dawson's wife, Reeve would be entitled to Dawson's estate and war pension, and the case went before the court which ruled that the marriage was invalid.[52]

Although not eligible for a widow's war pension, as the sole beneficiary of Dawson's will, Reeve inherited his estate valued at £258[50] (the equivalent of $AUD40959 in 2022). Reeve continued to refer to herself as "Mrs Dawson" after the court case.[53][19]

Additionally, it was reported in early 1919 that Reeve had become engaged to British humourist Bruce Bairnsfather, and that they would marry when Bairnsfather came to Australia later that year.[5] However, Bairnsfather was too ill to undertake travel.[5]

Following her retirement, Reeve moved to Queensland, where she died in a Springfield nursing home on 4 December 1978, aged 80.[38] She was survived by her daughter and two grandchildren.[43]

References

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  1. ^ https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/sanfl-draft-dodgers-1982-you-got-nothing-i-want/?mc_cid=eeb2168f43&mc_eid=9efbe00c78
  2. ^ National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (1979), p. 165.
  3. ^ a b c d "Miss Goodie Reeve", The Lone Hand, 7 April 1919, p. 23.
  4. ^ Kumm, Elisabeth. "REEVE, Ada (1874-1966)". Theatre Heritage Australia. Theatre Heritage Australia Inc. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Footlight, "Dramatic and Musical", Free Lance, 20 March 1919, p. 10.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Goodie Reeve". AUSTRALIAN VARIETY THEATRE ARCHIVE. Australian Variety Theatre Archive. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Some say 'Hunty Goody' but we say 'Goodie Reeve'", Wireless Weekly, 4 October 1929, p. 11.
  8. ^ "Local and General", Stratford Evening Post (New Zealand), 3 February 1919, p. 2.
  9. ^ Dionysus, "Stageland", Sun (Christchurch), 1 February 1919, p. 12.
  10. ^ Ledger, p. 129.
  11. ^ "The Better 'Ole", The Times, 6 August 1917, p. 9.
  12. ^ "Music, Drama and Pictures", The Daily Mail (Brisbane), 11 January 1919, p. 12.
  13. ^ a b "Sundry Shows", The Bulletin, 9 January 1919, p. 9.
  14. ^ a b "Tivoli Theatre", The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 1919, p. 2.
  15. ^ "Like her Mother", Auckland Sun, 5 December 1927, p. 13.
  16. ^ "Playgoer", "Stageland", Southland Times, 4 December 1924, p. 11.
  17. ^ "Value of Personal Touch", Nelson Evening Mail, 30 May 1936, p. 4.
  18. ^ "Goodie Reeve for J.C. Williamson", Everyones, Vol. 5, No. 304, p. 13.
  19. ^ a b c d Clark, p. 150.
  20. ^ a b Snell, p. 128.
  21. ^ "To-day's Wireless Programme", Horowhenua Chronicle (New Zealand), 7 March 1930, p. 3.
  22. ^ a b "Wireless Broadcasting", Otago Daily Times, 27 January 1928, p. 2.
  23. ^ Chick, V. "With Malice Towards None", Commercial Broadcasting, 16 January 1941, p. 20.
  24. ^ a b c "Miss Goodie Reeve", The Catholic Press, 11 February 1932, p. 14.
  25. ^ "Goodie Reeve in Children's Session", The Wireless Weekly, 9 August 1929, p. 45.
  26. ^ "To-Day's Wireless Programme", Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 OCTOBER 1929, p. 3.
  27. ^ a b "Miss Goodie Reeve", The Sydney Mail, 2 March 1932, p. 14.
  28. ^ "Goodie Reeve on the air", Broadcasting Business, 7 December 1934, p. 16.
  29. ^ Griffen-Foley, p. 10.
  30. ^ Quinn, Rod; Bolger, Rosemary. "Australia's first radio station began 100 years ago as 2SB, now known as ABC Radio Sydney". ABC. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  31. ^ "Goodie Got It", The Sun (Sydney), 21 January 1933, p. 7.
  32. ^ "Screw, needles in Xmas Cake", The Northern Advocate (New Zealand), 30 December 1937, p. 4.
  33. ^ a b "Radio Programmes", Manuwatu Standard, 28 November 1929, p. 3.
  34. ^ Tennant, K. "My Bad Old Days With Radio", Sydney Morning Herald, 3 January 1974, p. 10.
  35. ^ a b Fisher, p. 44.
  36. ^ "Goodie Reeve", Wireless Weekly, 24 September 1937, p. 2.
  37. ^ Griffen-Foley, p. 57.
  38. ^ a b Sydney Morning Herald, "Goodie Reeve, 80, dies, 6 December 1978, p. 8.
  39. ^ "Wallacia Carry-On Club", Nepean Times, 11 October 1951, p. 7.
  40. ^ a b "Around the Dial", Sydney Telegraph, 11 February 1953, p. 16.
  41. ^ "Miss Goodie Reeve Married", Sunday Times (Sydney), 7 December 1919, p. 2.
  42. ^ a b "Miss Goodie Reeve's Marriage", The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 December 1919, p. 5.
  43. ^ a b "Deaths", Sydney Morning Herald, 11 March 1999, p. 34.
  44. ^ a b "Radio Auntie", The Labor Daily (Sydney), 24 October 1932, p. 7.
  45. ^ "Vaudeville Personalities", Everyone's, Vol. 2 No. 100, 1 February 1922, p. 6.
  46. ^ a b "Social Gossip", The Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga), 17 February 1922. p. 2.
  47. ^ "Mobbed by Children", Waikato Times 3 November 1932, p. 5.
  48. ^ a b "Wild Scenes at Cathedral Wedding", Waikato Times, 5 November 1932, p. 16.
  49. ^ "DAWSON, PAUL FREDERICK". World War II Nominal Roll. Australian Government. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  50. ^ a b c "Marriage Of Actress 'Invalid'", Daily Mirror, 10 March 1948, p. 4.
  51. ^ "World War Two Service". Noninal Rolls. Australian Government. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  52. ^ a b "Is She a Widow?", Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 2 March 1948, p. 3.
  53. ^ "Deaths", Sydney Morning Herald, 5 December 1978, p. 16.

Sources

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  • Clark, N. (2022) A dog for the job, Inspiring Publishers: Canberra. ISBN 9781922792433.
  • Fisher, C. (2021) Sound Citizens: Australian Women Broadcasters Claim their Voice, 1923–1956, ANU Press: Canberra. ISBN 9781760464318.
  • Griffen-Foley, B. (2020) Australian Radio Listeners and Television Viewers, Palgrave MacMillan: Sydney. ISBN 9783030546366.
  • Ledger, E. (1915) The Era Annual, Open Court: London.
  • National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (1979) Films in Review, vol. 30, National Board of Review of Motion Pictures: Washington, US.
  • Snell, K. (1991) Australian Popular Music Composer Index, Quick Trick Press: Melbourne. ISBN 9780958767767.
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