Caroline Frances Pugliese (17 February 1865 – 4 May 1940) was an Australian theatre proprietor. She was involved in creating three early Australian films.
Early life
Caroline Frances Donaldson was born on 17 February 1865 in the
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
suburb of
Five Dock
Five Dock is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Five Dock is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay.
Location
Fi ...
in 1865. Her parents were both immigrants, her mother Mary (born Vidler) was English and her father James Donaldson was a gardener who was born in Ireland.
Career
After her marriage to Antonio Pugliese in 1883, she acquired two step-children from his first marriage. In 1909 the family owned three cinemas in
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. These were the Alhambra in the
Haymarket (formerly Sydney's first
music hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...
), the
Star Theatre in
Bondi, and the Broadway in
Leichhardt.
[
It was Caroline Pugliese who decided what the business should do, and she controlled the money. Other members of the Pugliese made the cinemas projectors work and operated front of house.]Raymond Longford
Raymond Longford (born John Walter Hollis Longford; 23 September 18782 April 1959) was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer, and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australia ...
created a script and directed ''The Church and the Woman
''The Church and the Woman'' is a 1917 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford set against the background of sectarianism in Australia. It is considered a lost film.
Synopsis
Eileen Shannon falls in love with Dr Burton. However he i ...
'', about a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant.[ The film faced legal challenges. The first which was suspected to be a publicity stunt was an objection that the title was too similar to another film. The second challenge had more weight. It became apparent that Longford had borrowed the story from Edward Finn's book][ ''A Priest's Secret under seal of confession'', published in the 1880s.][
]
Personal life and death
In 1883 Pugliese married an Italian-born labourer named Antonio Pugliese at St John's, Ashfield
St John the Baptist Anglican Church is an active Anglican church located between Alt and Bland Streets, Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1840, on land donated by Elizabeth Underwood, the church building is ...
in Sydney. She was his second wife and he already had two children.[
Antonio died in 1916 and their eldest child Umberto (aka Herbert) was described as "a charmer". In 1920 Herbert/Umberto went to court to demand that his wife should return to their home. His wife refused, blaming him for being so dependant on his mother.][
Pugliese died in the Sydney suburb of Coogee on 4 May 1940.][
]
Footnotes
References
External links
Biography at ADB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pugliese, Caroline Frances
1865 births
1940 deaths
People from Sydney
Australian film producers