National Film and Sound Archive > The Collection > Collection Spotlights

Photo Play Artiste Miss Lottie Lyell (1890-1925)

Compiled and Written by
Marilyn Dooley, Access Special Programs, National Film and Sound Archive

Research Contributors
J.B. Naughton, Alan Duke, Mervyn J. Wasson, Philip Dutchak, Phil Grace, Sam Edwards, Clive Sowry

This publication is made possible through the generous donation of Mr Ron Moore O.A.M., Campbelltown Cinemas and Minto Hardware.

© Copyright National Film and Sound Archive (formerly ScreenSound Australia) 2000
Not to be reproduced in any form without permission of the National Film and Sound Archive.
Email: enquiries@nfsa.gov.au

Photo Play Artiste - Miss Lottie Lyell, and its author, Marilyn Dooley, received an 'Honourable Mention' in the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies Awards 2000.

Lottie Edith (Lyell) Cox 1890-1925 was probably the most significant woman in the first 100 years of Australian feature film making. Together with her professional and personal partner Raymond Longford, Lottie Lyell's pioneering work in Australia's silent era encompassed all aspects of film making on screen and behind the camera.

She was Australia's first real 'film star', beginning her acting career with touring theatre companies in 1909 and 1910. Becoming a featured player and principal by her late teens, she starred in the film versions of two of her early stage successes The Fatal Wedding (1911) and The Midnight Wedding (1912). Both features, (directed by Longford), are now lost, as are the majority of her screen roles.

The incomplete surviving features, The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole (1911) and The Woman Suffers (1918) show an intelligent actress coming to terms with the new medium of film. While playing Doreen in The Sentimental Bloke (1919), she probably also assisted with production, editing, directing, art direction and screen writing. The film was the pinnacle of Miss Lyell's all too brief career.

She died of Tuberculosis at the age of thirty-five and her headstone proclaims her a 'photo play artiste'. An obituary in the trade paper Everyones of December 1925 referred to her death as 'a distinct blow to the motion picture industry of this country, and the loss of one who has left the mark of her genius on Australia's screen progress'.

This publication is essentially a scrapbook for a film pioneer: a history that can be regarded as a documentary biography of one so significant, yet so elusive. Previously unpublished scripts and personal documentation, as well as stills and original scenarios from lost films, are reproduced.

This publication is also available from the NFSA. Search the catalogue online at http://shop.nfsa.gov.au/

Contents - 'In The Can'

Introduction [ PDF - 202 KB]
Reel 1 - Photo Play Artiste [ PDF - 2,756 KB]
Includes scenario, chronology of the life and times of Lottie Lyell 'and it came to pass' compiled and written by Marilyn Dooley, Academic Outreach, National Film and Sound Archive
Reel 2 - The Mutiny of the Bounty 1916 [ PDF - 1,118 KB]
Includes original script, reviews, advertisements, letters
Reel 3 - The Church and the Woman 1917 [ PDF - 1,615 KB]
Includes original scenario, stills, essay 'The Church, the Woman and the Law'
by Mervyn J. Wasson
Reel 4 - The Woman Suffers 1918 [ PDF - 2,469 KB]
Includes original scenario, letters, advertisements, reviews, programme, stills,
conference paper on the film's video and reconstruction by Marilyn Dooley
Reel 5 - The Sentimental Bloke 1919 [ PDF - 2,933 KB]
Includes Longford's letters, stills, reviews, programme
Reel 6 - The Dinkum Bloke 1923 [ PDF - 1,583 KB]
Includes original screenplay, copyright letters, stills, reviews
Reel 7 - Full Frame [ PDF - 553 KB]
Includes Select Filmography Lottie Lyell, Traditions of Silent Film, On Stage
(select dates and places of stage tours), Longford list of his films, Longford Royal Commission Evidence (extracts), End Credits

Photo Play Artiste - Whole Publication [ Adobe Acrobat PDF Document PDF - 12,572 KB]