Queenie Paul

Eveline Pauline "Queenie" Paul (OAM) (30 December 1893 – 31 July 1982) was an Australian performer in vaudeville shows (singer and dancer) and a theatre producer, active from the 1910s until the early 1980s.

Queenie Paul (OAM)
Queenie Paul, 1919
Born
Eveline Pauline Paul

30 December 1893
Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia
Died31 July 1982 (aged 88)
Dulwich Hill, New South Wales
OccupationVaudevillian , theatre producer[1]
Spouse(s)Mike Connors
FamilyAnthony Field (great nephew)

Early life

Eveline Pauline Paul was born in Sydney, the daughter of Frederick William Paul and Antoinette Schuller Paul. Her father was born in Germany; her mother was French.[1] Her nickname came from being the first girl in the family after four sons; she was "the little queen" from a young age.[2]

Career

Queenie Paul was on stage as a chorus girl by age 15. In her early 20s she was "principal boy" in a production of a pantomime, The Bunyip.[3] In 1917 she co-starred with an American actor at the National Theatre; she and Mike Connors were soon wed, and worked in shows together for most of the next twelve years. Their "Con-Paul Theatre" company opened in 1931, with them headlining a variety show. In 1932, she was "ballet mistress and star" at the Sydney Theatre Royal.[4] The Connors took a touring company to New Zealand in the mid-1930s. Apart from Connors, who was busy with a new broadcasting career, Paul concentrated on producing shows featuring her chorus line, the "Sun-Kissed Girls".[1]

Honours

Paul's stylish wardrobe was often remarked upon and reported about.[5][6] Later in life, she continued performing in variety shows,[7] and she was a regular guest on television talk shows. In 1977 she was the guest of honor on an episode of This is Your Life. In 1982, she was awarded an Order of Australia medal (OAM).[2]

Personal life

Queenie Paul married her co-star Mike Connors in 1917. They had three children, Celestine, Colleen, and Paul; Colleen died in 1933. Paul was widowed when Connors died in 1949.[8] She married again in 1960, to Walter John Harding, an accountant. Her great-nephews were Anthony Field of The Cockroaches and The Wiggles, and John Field and Paul Field, also of The Cockroaches.[9] Queenie Paul died in 1982, just two days after her last performance, at the age of 88 years, in her home in Dulwich Hill.[1] Her papers are archived in the Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne.[10]

References
  1. Jennie Lees, "Eveline Pauline (Queenie) Paul" in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18 (MUP 2012).
  2. Frank Van Straten, "Queenie Paul OAM 1893-1982" Live Performance Australia Hall of Fame (2007).
  3. "Miss Queenie Paul" Critic (6 June 1917): 11. via Trove
  4. "In Defense of Chorus Girl: Queenie Paul Speaks" Arrow (12 February 1932): 21. via Trove
  5. "Queenie Paul's Dresses" Sunday Times (4 February 1923): 5. via Trove
  6. "Queenie Paul's Rainbow Frock" Sunday Times (18 February 1923): 5. via Trove
  7. "Queenie Paul at Royal" Sunday Mail (January 20, 1952): 11. via Trove
  8. "Show Goes On For Queenie" Daily Mercury (26 November 1949): 7. via Trove
  9. Field, Paul (8 November 2006). "It's a Wiggly Wiggly World" (PDF). Currency House. Archived from the original (pdf) on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  10. Evelyn "Queenie" Paul, Performing Arts Collection, Arts Centre Melbourne.
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