Women played an important role during Australia’s early years of radio broadcasting. We look at the contributions of several pioneering women, starting with Queenie Ashton.
Queenie Ashton was born in England in 1903. Ashton studied dancing from the age of four. From the age of 16 she studied voice production, drama and sight reading. Her first professional appearance was at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, where she sang a duet with Noël Coward in a production of Happy Family.
Ashton began her radio career in 1924 at Radio 2LO in London singing brackets of classical songs. Her ability to both act and sing led her into musical comedy. She performed in several London productions which earned her recognition abroad and in 1927 she was offered work in the musical Sunny at the new Empire Theatre in Sydney (which later became Her Majesty’s Theatre).
She returned to England but soon came back to Australia to perform again in a number of musical comedies. In 1931 Ashton married Lionel Lawson, leader of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. They had two children, though they later divorced.
During the 1930s Queenie Ashton worked on a number of ABC radio musical comedies. She appeared regularly with Dick Bentley on 2GB’s program Oh, Quaite! In 1939, Ashton was cast in her first role as an actress in a radio drama, when she was cast as the lead in the serial Marie Antoinette:
Queenie Ashton (as the titular queen) and Harvey Adams (as Louis XVI) in the 1939 radio serial Marie Antoinette. NFSA title: 509367
In the same year she also played the female lead in the serial East Lynne, and after these roles her destiny as one of Australia’s most loved radio performers was sealed and Ashton was in constant demand for roles in radio productions.
Excerpt from East Lynne radio serial featuring Queenie Ashton (as Lady Isabel) and Ronald Morse (as Francis Levison), 1939. Courtesy: Grace Gibson Productions. NFSA title: 332146
As well as performing in radio drama, Ashton continued her singing career through the 1940s and performed in ABC musicals with singers Gladys Moncrieff and Strella Wilson.
It was for her roles in the long-running Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) serial The Lawsons, and later Blue Hills, that Ashton became most famous. The series ran for 28 years. Ashton was cast as Mrs Gordon, the country doctor’s wife in the first episode and later, towards the end of the series, she was cast as Grannie Bishop, a character 40 years Ashton’s senior, who became a much-loved national figure.
ABC 'Blue Hills' publicity photograph from 1949 featuring Queenie Ashton (seated) with Nellie Lamport, Max Osbiston and Gordon Grimsdale. NFSA title: 398657. Click image to open
Advertisement for Marie Antoinette, produced by Grace Gibson’s BAP and broadcast on radio 2UE. From Radio Pictorial Australia, February 1939, Vol. 4, No. 8. Click image to open
Advertisement for East Lynne, produced by Grace Gibson’s BAP and broadcast on 2CH and 2HD. From Radio Pictorial Australia, May 1939. Click image to open
Lane, Richard and National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, 1994, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama 1923-1960: A History Through Biography, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic
This article was first published in 2013. The text was updated in 2023.
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