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PERCY VERTO
AUSTRALIAN VARIETY THEATRE ARCHIVE: RESEARCH NOTES
See last page for citation, copyright and last updated details.
aka Prof. Hausmann / Verto the Great / the Handcuff King / Monarch of the Irons
(1869- ) New Zealand-born magician, illusionist, manager, entrepreneur. [Born: George Percy Hausmann]
Born in Christchurch and educated in Wellington, Percy Verto developed an
interest in magic as a child and in 1881 became a juvenile assistant to
touring conjurer Prof. Anderson. He later toured as Professor Hausman and
in 1896, in partnership with John Gow and Charles Godfrey exhibited the
first moving pictures in New Zealand. Known as Percy Verto from 1899 he
was largely associated with touring regional Australia own film and
vaudeville shows (in partnership with his wife). He built Cairn's Lyric
Theatre in 1912, toured the East (1912-14) and continued operating his own
regional shows into the mid-1920s. Verto also occasionally managed other
artists and troupes.
► See also: Verto Vaudeville Co • Verto's Biotint and Vaudeville Co •
Madame Verto (aka Millie Richardson / La Petite Verto) •
Mutoscope Biotint Co
• During the late-1890s Verto toured New Zealand with his own show,
billed as "Professor Hausmann’s Lumigraph Company".
• Verto claims that his association with Australia began in the late-1880s
(possibly 1889) when he travelled to Sydney and took up the lease of
the Masonic Skating Rink in North Sydney. After returning to New
Zealand he leased the Theatre Royal, Masterton and later toured with and/or managed various theatrical
companies. He also toured with Professor Anderson when he returned to New Zealand in 1891.
• Verto and his Biotint and Vaudeville Company received unexpected national publicity in early January 1900
following his bravery in helping to stop a train before it was destroyed by fire. With the driver and guards unaware
of the impending danger Verto climbed along the outside of seven carriages on the moving train, with only the
mouldings to hold onto (there being no rails). According to press reports at least 14 women and several men were
saved from certain death.
• After returning to Australia from the East in early 1914, the Vertos resumed their travelling picture and vaudeville
shows, primarily under the name Verto's Pictures and with a smaller line-up of performers. The post-1914
operations also went further afield, playing Western Australia and New South Wales before the couple settled in
Tasmania ca. 1919/1920. They were possibly based in Scottsdale.
• "He started life as George Percy Hausmann and was born in Christchurch, New Zealand on 27 September 1869,
and he received his education in Wellington, N.Z. He had a boyhood interest in conjuring which led to his
entering the theatrical profession in 1881. In styling himself as "Professor" Haussman, he was following earlier
conjurors who had adopted this self-endowed title. As well as performing, he was involved in theatrical
management and in lean times he was a house painter. He maintained his interest in showing films and travelled
with a film show, "Professor Hausmann’s Lumigraph Company. For a few years he returned to conjuring,
appearing in New Zealand and Australian vaudeville shows as "Percy Verto - The Handcuff King". He began
touring with another company in N.S.W. and there is a record of his being in a show in Sydney in 1907. Some
years later he settled in Tasmania showing films in towns too small to support permanent picture shows. He also
had an association with Thomas Edison, albeit more peripheral than that of Lubin. On 13 October 1896 at the
Opera House in Auckland, "Professors" Haussman and Gow presented a program of films projected by Edison’s
Kinematograph during a performance of a Vaudeville Company. This was the first public screening of motion
pictures in New Zealand. In fact Hausmann had written to T.A. Edison at Orange Grove, New York that year
from Wellington, N.Z. asking him to provide details about his Kinetoscope, asking for prices and particulars. He
ends his letter by stating "Your name is well known here as that of G-d Almighty himself and that is why I am
sending for reliable information to yourself."
Maurice. Australian Postal History and Social Philately. [sighted 9/05/2015] See also 1898 Otago Witness profile on
Hausmann below.
Australian Postal History and Social Philately
• "An even earlier use of the term [Lumigraph] is due to George Hausmann, who was the first to bring motion
picture shows to New Zealand. Around 1900, he toured under the name 'Professor Hausmann's Lumigraph
Company'" (Marc Levoy and Pat Hanrahan. "Light Field Rendering." Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory.
Australian Postal History and Social Philately
HISTORICAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS
1. Percy Verto should not to be confused with two other variety performers who were active in Australia around the
turn of the century and also known by the name Verto. Newspaper reports and advertisements from December
1899 record that all three performers were in different Australian states at the time. Percy Verto and his
vaudeville company, for example, were in South Australia and New South Wales (Broken Hill), while the
musical act Verto and Irene, having arrived in Perth direct from London, were at the Cremorne Theatre under
Jones and Lawrence's management. The third Verto, a champion bones soloist, was in Brisbane performing the
Theatre Royal under Percy St John's management.
2. Percy Verto/George Hausmann is recorded as having been born in Christchurch on 27 September 1869. Details
regarding his death are yet to be located. The 1898 Otago Witness article on Hausmann (below) records his
middle name as Percy. The State Library of South Australia's "Hausmann Family" collection records it as Jacob.
3. Adelaide's Advertiser also records that Verto was a pupil of Prof. Anderson (18 Dec. 1899. 6). Anderson, who
toured both Australia and New Zealand in 1881 and again in 1891 claimed to be the son of a world-famous
similarly-named conjurer (aka the "Wizard of the North").
4. From the Talarm Hall website: "Film historian, Dr Lisa Milner, has provided the following information about
this travelling picture show. Percy Verto owned the Biotint and Vaudeville Company, a multimedia events
management business that operated in NSW and Qld in the 1900-1920 period. Verto (whose real name was
William George Alma) was an energetic businessman who started out life as a magician. He was known as the
'handcuff king', and he manufactured magic accessories alongside his day-job as an impresario and projectionist,
and died in 1936. His company travelled with live shows, as well as moving pictures, up and down the east coast
of Australia in this period, that saw many similar companies flourish."
http://www.talarmhall.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/1-welcome-to-talarm-hall.html
Dr Milner's information relating to Percy Verto being W. G. Alma is incorrect, as this Research Notes entry
demonstrates. Historical research into William George Alma (aka "The Amazing Alma, 1904-1993) also proves
that neither he nor his father, magician Oswald Henry Bishop (aka "Alma the Great,"1880-1956), ever worked
under the name Percy Verto. See their entries in the AVTA for further details.
W. G. Alama • Oswald Bishop
Film Pioneers of New Zealand: The Kinematograph arrives in New Zealand by Clive Sowry
This article contains original biographical and other historical research not previously published.
On 13 October 1896 at the Opera House in Wellesley Street, Auckland, "Professors" Hausmann and Gow presented a
programme of films projected by Edison’s Kinemotagraph during a performance of Charles Godfrey’s Vaudeville
Company. This was the first public screening of motion pictures in New Zealand.
The reaction was enthusiastic. "Everything moved as though in life; in fact, it was life reproduced. So natural was it
that the moving figures on the screen were cheered," reported the New Zealand Herald. The Auckland Star concluded:
"Altogether it is a wonderful invention, and should draw crowded houses wherever it appears."
Included in the screening were films produced by Edison for display in the kinetoscope, and English films (possibly
produced by R.W. Paul) obtained by Edison’s agents. Although the exact number of films shown in the first
programme is uncertain, six were singled out in reviews of the screening: a bathing scene on the sands at Folkstone; a
train coming in to Bristol railway station; a street scene in Leeds; a scene from the “Milk White Flag”; a skirt dancer;
boys coming out of school. Advertising for the show suggests there were also films of "Electric Trams", "Merry- Go-
Rounds", "London Streets" and "others too numerous to mention."
New Zealand audiences were already familiar with the projection of pictures on a screen, but these were still pictures
shown by means of the magic lantern. Mechanically-animated slides were sometimes used to give the illusion of
movement or to produce kaleidoscopic effects, but generally magic lantern shows were a succession of still
photographs illustrating stories, songs or a lecture. Lantern lectures were common in the late 19th century, and were
often used by church agencies as an attractive means of promoting their work.
Soon after the appearance of Edison’s Kinetoscope, various experimenters who turned their attention to projecting
kinetoscope images on a screen were successful in developing projectors. The machine presented by Hausmann and
Gow as "Edison’s Kinematograph" is better known as the Vitascope. It was developed by Thomas Armat but, in a
commercial deal that benefited both Armat and Edison, was manufactured and marketed under Edison’s name.
When Terry Ramsaye wrote his book A Million and One Nights - A History of the Motion Picture in 1926, as
evidence that "the fame of the Vitascope was reaching into the far places", he reproduced from an Edison
Manufacturing Company file of 1896 the following letter:
T.A. Edison Esq.
Orange Grove
New York
Metropolitan
Wellington
New Zealand
Dear Sir:
Some time ago what is called "the cinematograph" was exhibited in London by two brothers named Lumiere. I fancy it is (if
described correctly by the papers here) a copy of your Kinetoscope. I would be obliged if you could send me prices and
particulars, if you have any particulars on hand on this new invention. Your name is as well known here as that of God
Almighty himself and that is why I am sending for reliable information to yourself.
Yours truly
G. P. Hausmann
The first public exhibitions of the Cinematographe-Lumiere in London began at the Empire Theatre on 9 March, 1896,
so the above (undated) letter was probably written about June 1986. It shows that it was the initiative of G.P.
Hausmann that led to the importation in October 1896 of the first film projector to be used in New Zealand. George
Percy Hausmann was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 27 September 1869, and received his education in
Wellington. He developed a boyhood interest in conjuring which led to his entering the theatrical profession in 1881.
In styling himself "Professor" Hausmann, he was following earlier conjurors who had adopted this title. As well as
performing, he was involved in theatrical management and in lean times was a painter of houses. A further indication
of his versatility was his application in 1894 for a patent for "Hausmann’s improved stumping machine".
In 1896, in collaboration with John Gow of Dunedin, he exhibited one of the first examples of the Rontgen X rays
apparatus to be imported. The arrival of the "Kinematograph" from America interrupted their exploitation of the X
rays and they turned their full attention to exhibiting motion pictures by the Kinematograph.
They had intended to present the Kinematograph first at the Wellington Industrial Exhibition, but accepted an offer
from Louis Lohr, manager of the Godfrey Company, of an engagement with his company as it paid a return visit to
towns in the North Island.
The Kinematograph arrived on the mail steamer Alameda which berthed at Auckland on 8 October. Within five days
Hausmann and Gow had sufficiently mastered the intricacies of the machine to make its first public exhibition a
success. In addition to nightly screenings as part of the vaudeville show, performances of the Kinematograph were
given at hourly afternoon sessions at the Opera House. Following the Auckland season of five days, the Godfrey
Company, with the added attraction of the Kinematograph, visited Thames, Paeroa, Gisborne and towns in the lower
North Island. At Wellington the combined company performed at the Exchange Hall for three nights. Then the
Godfrey company went on to Christchurch without the Kinemotagraph, while Hausmann and Gow took their machine
on a tour of towns in the Wairarapa and Manawatu, before exhibiting it for a season at the Wellington Industrial
Exhibition. They then took the Kinematograph to Christchurch and Dunedin. These cities, and Wellington, had
already been visited by Australian showman Joseph Macmahon with his "Cinematographe". So, shortly after their
Dunedin screenings, Hausmann and Gow sold the kinematograph and films to Drayton Brothers, who took them on a
tour through the smaller towns of the South Island.
John Gow continued to demonstrate X rays but does not appear to have had any further involvement with films.
George Hausmann maintained his interest in showing films and was soon travelling with another film show "Professor
Hausmann’s Lumigraph Company". For a few years he returned to conjuring, appearing in New Zealand and
Australian vaudeville shows as "Percy Verto - The Handcuff King". Then he began touring with another travelling
film show in New South Wales. Some years later he settled in Tasmania showing films in country halls and towns too
small to support permanent picture shows. The Opera House in Wellesley St, Auckland, venue of the first film
screening in New Zealand in 1896.
Originally published in The Big Picture 9 (Winter 1996)
Accessed at: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mimage/9hist.html
______________
NB: The above paper was located on the Vodaphone New Zealand website and has been reproduced in its entirety and without
changes. Attempts to locate both the original Big Picture publication and its author (to obtain permission) have so far been
unsuccessful. The decision to re-publish it in the meantime has been made in response to the importance of Clive Sowry's original
research and the possibility that it may one day disappear from the internet. This has occurred with at least one other Sowry paper
(see the "S.S. Talune" entry in Wikipedia, which as of 9/05/2015 still includes the following, no-longer accessible, hyperlink):
‘The Big Picture’, Issue 11, Summer 1997, “The Illusionist and the Cinematographe – film pioneers of New Zealand”, Clive
Sowry, Media and Interdisciplinary Arts Centre / Toi Rerehiko
The AVTA would appreciate any help in contacting either Mr Sowry or the current copyright holder of this article.
If you wish to cite from this article please record the following publication details (not the AVTA): Sowry, Clive. "Film Pioneers
of New Zealand: The Kinematograph arrives in New Zealand" The Big Picture 9 (Winter 1996).
FURTHER REFERENCE
"Hausmann Family" State Library of South Australia. PRG 384 Series List.
George Jacob Hausmann adopted as a stage name, George Percy Verto or The Great Verto. His wife used several stage
names including Millie Richardson, Millie Verto and La Petite. Verto. Robert Houdini George Hausmann was their son -
referred to as "Bobs" in several letters
1894/95
New Zealand
1894
Hastings
Daily Telegraph (Napier, NZ) 3 Oct. (1894), 4.
Napier
Hawkes Bay Herald 5 Oct. (1984), 2.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-
bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=HBH18941005.2.6
1895
Foxton
Manawatu Herald (NZ) 11 May 1895, 3.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-
bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=MH18950511.2.12
Christchurch
Press (NZ) 13 Aug. (1895), 4.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-
bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP18950813.2.19
1896
• After the completion of his Tivoli engagement [in 1896, Charles] Godfrey put together [a] troupe headed by Bain,
the Bovis Bros, Ada Baker, and the Lingard Sisters. [Billed as Charles Godfrey's Vaudeville Company it] made
its debut in Geelong before playing seasons in Sydney, Melbourne and from September, New Zealand. That tour,
which began in Dunedin on 7 September is now considered significant in terms of the country's cinematic history.
In this respect Godfrey arranged with two showman, Professors Housman and [John] Gow to present a
programme of films projected by Edison's Kineotagraph during his Auckland season.1 As Clive Sowry records,
"this was the first public screening of motion pictures in New Zealand" (n. pag.). The company toured with
Hausmann and Gow Godfrey through several centres on the North Island, including Thames, Paeroa, Gisborne,
and Wanganui before parting ways at Wellington ("J. C. Bain." Australian Variety Theatre Archive).
Auckland Star 13 Oct. (1896), 8.
New Zealand Herald (Auckland) 14 Oct. (1896), 5.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-
bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH18961014.2.29
1 Godfrey's 1896 Auckland season at Abbott's Opera House began on 10 October. The Kinematograph exhibition began on
Tuesday 13 October.
1898
Hawera and Normanby Star 1 Feb. (1898), 2.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=HNS18980201.2.15
"The Stage." Otago Witness 31 Mar. (1898), 47.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=OW18980331.2.125
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/12827401
cont...
Otago Witness (NZ) 7 July (1898), 39.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-
bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18980707.2.150.4
1899
Auckland Star 7 Feb. (1899), 8.
Hastings Standard 5 Jan. (1899), 3.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-
bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=HAST18990105.2.28
Australia
Adelaide
Barrier Miner 27 Dec. (1899), 2.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3374416
Broken Hill
◄
►
1900
Some examples of the numerous reports published around Australia regarding Verto's daring feat aboard
the Broken Hill Express.
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 4 Jan. (1900), 4.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/3352856
Maitland Daily Mercury 4 Jan. (1900), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/12647532
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/17395735
Otago Witness 3 May (1900), 57.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=OW19000503.2.145.5
South Australian Register 9 May (1900), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/4104544
South Australian Register 13 June (1900), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/4104476
1901
Broken Hill (NSW)
Barrier Miner 25 Feb. (1901), 3.
Barrier Miner 27 Feb. (1901), 2.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/334673
9
Quorn (SA)
"Quorn Corporation: Correspondence"
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/10672813
Melbourne
Argus 6 July (1901), 16.
"New Opera House"
Perth /Western Australia
West Australian Sunday Times
15 Sept. (1900), 14.
West Australian 16 Sept. (1901), 6.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/254
5031
Great Southern Herald (Katanning, WA)
9 Nov. (1901), 3.
Great Southern Herald (Katanning, WA)
9 Nov. (1901), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1806
0882
1903
cont...
Daily Commercial News and Shipping List (Sydney)
27 Feb. (1903), 2.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/17076805
Shoalhaven News and South Coast Districts Advertiser
19 Sept. (1903), 2.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/11637706
Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser 30 Sept (1903), 888.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/16809788
Bathurst (NSW)
National Advocate 28 Nov. (1903), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/17031480
Hobart
cont...
Tasmanian News 21 Dec. (1903), 2.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/20132936
1904
► See also Mutoscope Biotint Co
Melbourne
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/20476558
Watchman (Sydney) 12 Mar. (1904), 8.
Sydney
Queensland
Morning Post (Cairns) 17 June (1904), 7. ◄
►
1905
Northern NSW
Northern Star (Lismore) 25 Feb. (1905), 4.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/5679800
Clarence River Advocate 24 Mar. (1905), 4.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/12266685
1906
Manning River Times and Advocate for the Northern
Coast Districts of New South Wales 28 Apr. (1906), 5.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate
19 July (1906), 6.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/15123763
1907
Queensland
cont...
Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-
Western Districts 6 Jan. (1907), 7.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/7511344
Grafton (NSW)
Clarence and Richmond Examiner 4 May (1907), 2.
1910
Queensland
Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Toowoomba) 7 Mar.
(1910), 2.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/10223845
Daily Mercury (Mackay) 16 Nov. (1910), 2.
1911
Cairns Post 14 Aug. (1911), 4.
1912
Darwin (Northern Territory)
Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT) 24 Oct. (1912), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/829509
1914
Western Australia
Pilbarra Goldfield News (Marble Bar, WA) 10 Feb. (1914), 2.
Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA) 28 Feb. (1914), 4.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/7364974
Mount Magnet Miner and Lennonville Leader (WA)
10 Apr. (1914), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/18625817
►
1915
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate 16 Aug. (1915), 8.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/15528030
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/12752302
1920-1922
1920
1922
North-Eastern Advertiser (Scottsdale, Tas) 17 Oct.
(1922), 3.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/18401300
1922
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/1774930
1924
Tasmania
Advocate (Burnie) 15 Aug. (1924), 5.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/5824037
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/18402181
1925/1926
1926
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/51368374
Other Practitioners Named Verto (ca. 1899-1900)
Verto (of Verto and Irene)
cont…
Launceston Examiner 25 Feb. (1899), 4.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/2958242
West Australian 6 Dec. (1899), 6.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/781382
Verto the Chamption Bone Soloist.
Telegraph (Bris) 18 Dec. (1899), 1.
Australian Variety Theatre Archive: Research Notes
Published by Clay Djubal: 18/06/2015
NB: The URL for this PDF will change each time it is updated. If you wish to link to this record please use the following:
Australian Variety Theatre Archive • http://ozvta.com/http://ozvta.com/practitioners-u-v/
The information within these pages should be considered a snapshot only. Its purpose is to serve as both a basis for further
investigation and as a repository for online references that may eventually disappear.
Any works snagged or transcribed from other sources remain the copyright of their respective authors/publishers.
The authorship and/or original publication details are provided and these should be cited (not the AVTA).*
New information is continuously being made available as more newspapers are digitised by Trove (Australian National Library
Digitised Newspapers resource)
* Materials published in this entry will be removed if requested by the copyright owner. Please contact the AVTA.
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