When I started as Editorial Coordinator with ASO, my knowledge of Australian film prior to the 1970s revival was sketchy. I knew about Ken G Hall, and I even had an idea that the father of actor Frank Thring, FW Thring, also made movies in the 1930s. But I knew nothing of the comedian who starred in their movies.

It was Poppy de Souza, curator for the National Film and Sound Archive, who put me onto Wallace. ‘I’ve watched this clip over and over’, she confided of ‘The Dance of the Startled Fowl’ in George Wallace: Australia’s Premier Comedian. It’s one of several titles examined by feature films curator Paul Byrnes in his new Portrait of George Wallace.

Wallace’s is a life worth uncovering as he was a pioneer in many ways. He made the tricky transition from two very different mediums, achieving success on the vaudeville stage and then the big screen (arguably the only comedian to do so), and he did it with Australian accent and vernacular intact. The comedies he headlined throughout the 1930s were all popular hits, a track record most movie comedians can only envy. Wallace’s short but remarkable Screenography [link to Screenography] accompanies the Portrait. Under the Extras [link to Extras] tab you’ll also find a selection of stills of Wallace and his movies.

George Wallace is the second in a series of in-depth Portraits of notable characters from Australia’s screen history and industry, past and present. See also Chips Rafferty, now expanded to include Screenography, Extras stills gallery, and citations and links to other sites for further reading. Subjects of forthcoming Portraits include Ken G Hall, Charles Chauvel, Antony I Ginnane and Chris Haywood.