Grace Palotta, Minnie Tittell Brune and Nellie Stewart

‘Greetings from Australia’, Rotary postcard 5330B, with photographs of
Grace Palotta, Minnie Tittell Brune and Nellie Stewart
(photos: various, the majority London, 1905 and circa)

This real photograph postcard, no. 5330B in the Rotary Photographic Series by the Rotary Photographic Co Ltd of London, was produced for export to Australia about 1907. This example has been decorated with tinsel and is hand tinted. The three main portraits are of actresses well known to Australian audiences: Grace Palotta (daughter of Charles Palotta and his wife Emma, née Kleinhenn; 1867?-1959), Australian by birth but of Viennese ancestry, who became popular in musical comedy in the 1890s and early 20th Century in London and on tour in Australia; Minnie Tittell Brune (b.1883), American actress who toured Australasia between 1904 and 1909 and was also active in the United States and the United Kingdom; and Nellie Stewart (1858-1931), the most popular of all native born Australian actresses, who also appeared in the United States and the United Kingdom. The other photographs are stock images of various actresses, singers and dancers, including Lily Elsie, Vesta Tilley, Marie Studholme, Dorothy Frostick, Phyllis and Zena Dare, Gertie Millar, Gabrielle Ray, Daisy Jerome, Mabel Love, Billie Burke and Camille Clifford. Other examples of this card are to be found in the National Library of Australia ( 1) and (2).

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