Florence and her friend Edna Raymond share a life buoy. It is probable this photo was taken when Florence was touring the East with the musical comedy troupe, The Globetrotters, in the mid-twenties.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
Florence in Poona, India, in the mid-twenties. When she was a member of The Globetrotters.The group travelled to and performed in many countries in Asia—India, Burma, Siam, Malaya and Japan among them.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
Florence Broadhurst and Wallingford Tate share a tourer in Malaysia. Wallingford was a fellow Globetrotter member and special friend of Florence’s.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
Florence (seated, bottom left) on a weekend away with friends in Malaysia, in the mid-twenties. Harry Reynolds kneels beside her. Standing from left to right are Alfred Dicks, Edna Raymond and Wallingford Tate.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
Florence (bottom right) on ship deck, in the mid-twenties, with members of the comedy musical troupe, The Globetrotters, and other friends. Wallingford Tate stands behind Florence at top right. Harry Reynolds and Edna Raymond sit beside Florence.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
On 15 February 1926, Florence launched the ‘Broadhurst Academy Incorporated School of the Arts’ in Shanghai. To attract students to the academy, which provided tuition in all forms of dance, music and elocutionary studies, Florence hosted frequent dance demonstrations. She is seen here with her assistant, Mr Gleron, demonstrating the dance steps of the Charleston.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
A 27-year-old Florence, as she appeared in the Shanghai Sunday Times on 27 February 1927, after organising a concert at the British Women’s Association headquarters in Shanghai. This concert was one of many performances Florence organised around the city in the twenties, including a number of soirees for Major General John Duncan and his British troupes.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
This image of Dick Norton’s Globetrotters appeared alongside a performance review in the Manchuria Daily News on 28 March 1924. The troupe vacillated between six and nine members—depending on which review you read—and included Dick Crichton, Florence ‘Bobby’ Broadhurst, Charles Holt, Wallingford Tate, Kitty Farrell, Leila Forbes, Dorothy Drew, Ralph Sawyer and Dick Norton. Florence is seated on the piano.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
Florence masquerading as her alter ego ‘Bobby’ Broadhurst. This image appeared in the Shanghai Sunday Times in the mid-twenties. The caption read: ‘Miss Broadhurst added zest to Carlton’s Xmas Programme. She is the possessor of a rich soprano voice, and holds all the characteristics of a smart musical comedy artist.’
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
An advertisement for The Broadcasters, a musical comedy group that Florence joined in 1924. Other members included Wallingford Tate, Jack Crighton and Beryl Lucina. The Broadcasters toured the East and performed at Shanghai-based venues including the Star Theatre, the French Club and the Carlton Club. Florence appears as ‘Bobby’ Broadhurst in the bottom right hand corner.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
Florence the stage siren appears centre stage in this dramatic image from the Lloyd’s Weekly, Shanghai. This photograph, of the Carlton Sparklers, was taken during Florence’s final week with the troupe after a successful season as the singing lead.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
Florence masquerading as Madame Pellier—the identity she adopted while living in London. The origins of the name remain a mystery, as in 1933—when this article appeared in London’s Town and Country News—Florence was married to her first husband, Percy Kann. The article, ‘For the Woman of Refinement’, features details of Florence’s Mayfair dress salon, Pellier Ltd.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
Florence atop a camel on one of her many adventures through the East in the twenties.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
On 22 June 1929, Florence married Percy Walter Gladstone Kann at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of St Mary in South Kensington, London. It is probable that this photograph was taken at the nearby Kensington Gardens.
COLLECTION: POWERHOUSE MUSEUM, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
Florence at her Australian (Hand Printed) Wallpaper company headquarters in Sydney’s Crows Nest with her assistant, John Lang, in the early-sixties.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
An interior shot of the Crows Nest wallpaper business that was launched in 1959.Florence peruses her design at the head of one of the many 14-metre-long printing tables.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
The artist Florence Broadhurst painting at her easel in her Manly flat in 1954. Florence was confident enough with her talent to remark that Australia had ‘never before been properly shown on canvas. My oil paintings give a new angle on Australia.’ This image featured in an article aptly titled ‘Ambassadress with a paintbrush’, in the mid-fifties.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
Florence chats to one of the many truck drivers in her employ at L. Lewis and Son, a Crows Nest based trucking company that she and her second husband, Leonard Lloyd Lewis, launched in 1959. Taking Florence seriously would have been a minor feat for some of the staff in her employ; their boss turned up to the truck yard in lurex mini-skirts, beehives and mink coats.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
A spread from Australian Home Journal.
Main photo: Florence at the entrance of her Australian (Hand Printed) Wallpaper studio in Crows Nest with her chief assistant, Cathy Isimus.
Small photos (left to right):
1. Cathy copies the prototype of a wallpaper design onto a silk screen.
2. Next, Cathy colours the pattern onto a screen.
3. The pattern is printed onto wallpaper by brushing the upper surface of the screen (it is probable that this staff member is David Bond, Florence’s head printer).
4. The air is fanned above the final product to help it dry.
5. One of Florence’s workers scrubs the silk screen clean.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
A striking image of Florence in the upstairs showroom of her studio-factory on Royalston Street in Paddington. When she moved to these new premises in 1969, she also changed the name of the company from Australian (Hand Printed) Wallpapers to Florence Broadhurst Wallpapers. It hailed a new era of success for the flamboyant redhead.
COURTESY MAX DUPAIN & ASSOCIATES. PHOTOGRAPH: KERRY DUNDAS.
Florence, with a friend, at one of the lavish parties she frequently held at her Paddington studio-factory. Florence’s parties were often themed, with dancers, bands and a glittering disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
In the late-sixties, Florence launched a new advertising campaign in a variety of magazines including Vogue Living, Australian House and Garden and the Australian Home Journal. The advertisements claimed that Florence Broadhurst Wallpapers was ‘the only studio of its kind in the world’. It also highlighted her prestigious international connections.
MITCHELL LIBRARY, SLNSW.
The Lotus Bar in Sydney features a display of Florence Broadhurst wallpaper, providing a stylish backdrop to its modern interior.
COURTESY THE LOTUS BAR.
The Tank Bar in Sydney also features a plethora of Florence Broadhurst wallpapers, in intimate booths that are reminiscent of thirties style.
COURTESY THE TANK BAR. PHOTOGRAPH: JEREMY SOMERS.
Fashion designer Leona Edmiston’s Sydney store has feature walls of Florence Broadhurst wallpaper in stunning metallics.
COURTESY LEONA EDMISTON (AUST).
A handbag from the Funkis range of Florence Broadhurst paraphernalia that includes lampshades, cushion covers, fabric screens, upholstery fabric and bags.
COURTESY FUNKIS.
New Zealand-based fashion designer, Ka
ren Walker, incorporated Florence’s work into her 2001 and 2003 collections. This image features a trench coat from her 2001 ‘Pups’ range which also included hoodies, T-shirts, singlets, jewellery, mini-skirts, buttons and bags.
COURTESY KAREN WALKER.
In 2001, and every year since, Sydney-based fashion design company, Zimmerman, have used Florence Broadhurst prints (blossoms, hibiscus flowers, lilies and the like) in their swimwear and clothing collections.
COURTESY ZIMMERMAN.
Sydney-based company Customweave Carpets and Rugs, gave Florence Broadhurst’s work a new twist: in 2003, they launched a collection of rugs embossed with her bamboo, butterfly and Japanese-inspired floral work. The rugs are woven with a tactile mix of beads, leather, felt and wool.
COURTESY CUSTOMWEAVE CARPETS AND RUGS.
In 2002, Melbourne-based designer Matthew Butler, of Bluesquare, came up with the novel concept of covering his angular Polar chairs with filmy lengths of Florence Broadhurst fabric. Matthew says the idea came after he saw Akira Isogawa dresses and he wanted to ‘fuse fashion and furniture’.
COURTESY BLUESQUARE.
Fashion designer, Akira Isogawa, was one of the first modern designers to spot the potential of the Florence Broadhurst collection of prints. In his 2000 and 2002 collections, Akira featured jackets, skirts and dresses printed with Florence’s designs in his Paris shows.
COURTESY AKIRA ISOGAWA.
Sydney-based designer, Greg Natale, created this tribute to Florence Broadhurst in 2002. Later that year, the design won a ‘Wild Card’ award in the ‘Belle/Space Apartment of the Year’ competition. Judges were so impressed—and bemused—they were forced to create a made-to fit category especially for the project. The apartment features an ‘uber’ matched look, dictated by Florence Broadhurst wallpaper in a palette of navy blue, beige and white.
COURTESY GREG NATALE INTERIOR DESIGN.
Epilogue
People’s legacies are strange. A lifetime is a long time—with countless phases, changes and upheavals, but in the end a person is remembered (if they are remembered at all) for a mere handful of things. Though we know that the sum of Florence Broadhurst’s life was much more than her wallpaper designs or her unfortunate murder—these are the things for which she is remembered.
Since I penned the articles about Florence in 1999, contemporary designers have had their own love affair with Florence Broadhurst. Fashion designer Akira Isogawa was the first to spot the potential of her collection. In 2000 and 2002 Akira featured a jacket, skirt and dress printed with Florence’s designs in his Paris shows. According to Akira:
When I worked with her prints, I didn’t feel like I was making such a great leap away from what I was already doing and designing. In a strange way, I felt like Florence and I were totally in synch.
The following year (and every season since) Zimmerman have used her prints (blossoms, hibiscus flowers, lilies and the like) in their swimwear and clothing collections. And New Zealand-based designer Karen Walker incorporated Florence’s work into her 2001 and 2003 collections that included the quirky ‘Pups’ and ‘Horses’ prints. As Karen explained:
For Pups we designed hoodies, t-shirts, singlets, jewellery, mini-skirts, buttons and bags. And for Horses we also did shirts, dresses, t-shirts, singlets, while the wallpaper featured in our stores. They’re very beautiful—all of them. Florence was a great designer. I love how her work is emotive and figurative. The two that I chose were quite grand in an art deco kind of way.
The press (i-D, US Vogue and In Style UK magazines among them) responded just as effusively Karen.
Australian interior designers were the next in line to catch the Broadhurst bug. Funkis, a Sydney-based homewares store, launched a range that included lampshades, cushion covers, fabric screens, upholstery fabric and bags based on Florence’s designs. Next, Customweave Carpets and Rugs gave her work a new twist when they launched a collection of rugs embossed with her bamboo, butterfly and Japanese-inspired floral work. Then Melbourne-based designer Matthew Butler of Bluesquare came up with the novel concept of covering his angular Polar chairs with filmy lengths of her fabric. As Matthew said:
The idea with the chairs was to fuse fashion and furniture. I’d seen Akira Isogawa use Florence’s designs with his dresses and I loved it. But I wanted to take the idea one step further and cover something more solid and lasting with her designs. I love her graphics and the strength of her designs.
So Florence Broadhurst’s name is again on everyone’s lips and her designs appear everywhere: on the walls of exclusive nightclubs, bars and cafes such as Will and Toby’s in Darlinghurst, Omega on King Street, the Lotus Bar in Potts Point, the Tank nightclub in Sydney’s cental business district and the exclusive club Soho House in New York. They are splashed across the walls of sleek retail outlets such as Oroton, Leona Edmiston, Allanah Hill and Mimco, and in homes designed by interior designers such as Greg Natale and Tina de Salis. Florence’s designs are available across the globe in Sydney, Wales, Scotland and the United States and in England at the exclusive Self-ridge’s store.
The Florence Broadhurst revival was also recorded in the press. In 2000, Wallpaper* magazine featured a six-page spread of her designs. In October 2002, Casa Vogue in Italy published an article called ‘Silvering the Wall’, a triple double-page tribute to Florence Broadhurst. It was printed on silver foil with black and purple inks. The following year (August 19, 2003) the International Herald Tribune in Paris also paid tribute to Florence in their article, ‘From the outback, a pioneer of design’. This prompted New York-based fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg to contact Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum to enquire after Florence and her work. Then, in February 2003 (not long after the Florence Broadhurst Collection took out a prestigious Gold Award at the 2002 Decorex Design show in London), Florence’s Peacocks design, the one I had so adoringly looked up to as a child, was featured on the cover of indesign, an Australian interior, architecture and product magazine.
But more importantly than the revival of Florence’s work, is finding the person responsible for her death. In June 2004, the New South Wales Police launched the Unsolved Homicide Unit, a team of detectives who will investigate 400 unsolved murder cases committed between 1970 and the year 2000—Florence Broadhurst’s case is among these. As Detective Superintendent Paul Jones said:
For years now, while murder has been investigated by police, there has not been a consistent method for the review of old cases. For the families involved in these cases there has been no closure. This new homicide unit offers the opportunity for these families to have their cases reviewed and examined through fresh eyes. It is our wish that with this system of review, combined with the advances in technology, the NSW Police can exhaust every possibility in each individual murder case.
More than wallpaper stuck to walls and dresses on catwalks it is my sincere hope that the new unit of nine investigators will uncover a few more mysteries in the life of Florence Broadhurst…
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Gregory, my husband, for putting up with my Broadhurst obsession and for being so wonderfully supportive; Fitzroy Boulting, my literary agent, for your impeccable housekeeping; Jo Paul, my publisher at Allen & Unwin, for putting up with all the twists and turns of the journey; Colette Vella for your scrupulous editing; and Joanne Holliman, Jeanmarie Morosin and all the other staff members at Allen & Unwin who have worked with me on this book.
Also thanks to Anne Marie Van de Ven for your invaluable suggestions, time and the foreword; Dad for chauffeuring Evie and me half way around Queensland; Pat ‘I told you I was sick’ Smith and Jim ‘the quiet one’ Smith for the fish cakes and the grand tour of Mount Perry; and Marlene Wilson, Anne O’Loughlin and Bonnie Stacey for the history on the Broadhurst family. As well, thanks to Ted Bettiens; Anne McGoverne; Kate, Sally and Ben Fitzpatrick; David and Cherie Miles; Barry and Jeannie Little; Maggie and Brooke Tabberer; Akira Isogawa (and Penny, his assistant); Karen Walker; Leona Edmi
ston; Nicky and Simone Zimmerman; Matthew Butler from Bluesquare; Carina Enstrom Gibb from Funkis; Neil Power from Customweave; Bryan Fitzgerald and Casey Khik from Chee Soon & Fitzgerald; Robert Garrick, Greg Natale, Paul Jones, Mike Hagan from the NSW Police Force; John Lang; Peter Leis; Leenne Rose; Leslie Walford; Janet Moseley; Annie Georgeson and Judy Korner.
Bibliography
Note: Many of the quotes in this book came from magazine and newspaper clippings in the Broadhurst personal papers held at the New South Wales State Library. As the articles did not always have full publication details that information was not available when compiling this bibliography.
Australia Magazine, 18 May 1954, ‘Ambassadress with a Paintbrush’, Broadhurst, personal papers, New South Wales State Library MLMSS41 45
Australian Cinematographers Society, A Brief History, 2001, www.acs.asn.au
Australian Women’s Weekly, 25 August 1965, ‘Export Success Stories’, Broadhurst, personal papers, New South Wales State Library MLMSS41 45
Australian Women’s Weekly, 1971, Broadhurst, personal papers, New South Wales State Library MLMSS41 45
Australian Women’s Weekly, 16 November 1977, ‘A Man Remembers the Woman He Loved’, pp 28–29
Australian, 16 October 1968, ‘Artist Wants to Cure People of Timid Syndrome’, Broadhurst, personal papers, New South Wales State Library MLMSS41 45
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