George Coppin
| George Selth Coppin | |
|---|---|
George Coppin, ca. 1890
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| Born |
8 April 1819 Steyning, Sussex, England |
| Died | 14 March 1906 (aged 86) Richmond, Victoria, Australia |
| Known for | comic actor, entrepreneur and politician |
George Selth Coppin (8 April 1819 – 14 March 1906) was a comic actor, entrepreneur and politician, active in Australia.
Coppin was born at Steyning, Sussex, England, son of George Selth Coppin (1794–1854) ( a Norwich surgeon) and Elizabeth Jane, née Jackson. His grandfather had been a well-known clergyman at Norwich. George Selth Coppin Senior, studied for the medical profession but abandoned this to go join a group of travelling actors. George Coppin Junior (he rarely used his middle name, Selth) became an assistant in his father's company, George and his sister performed their own act by 1826. At the age of 18 Coppin had an engagement at the Woolwich theatre, and soon afterwards was playing at Richmond, where he became low comedian at a salary of twenty-five shillings a week. He next obtained an engagement at the Queen's Theatre, London, and in subsequent years played as first low comedian in the provinces and at Abbey Street theatre, Dublin, where he had a long acting engagement. There Coppin met Maria Watkins Burroughs, nine years older than Coppin. They lived together from 1842 to 1848.
Coppin decided to leave England in search of other opportunities; a coin toss meant he sailed for Australia, not America, towards the end of 1842, arriving in Sydney on 10 March 1843. Coppin negotiated with Joseph Wyatt and had a successful season at the Royal Victoria Theatre. Coppin bought a hotel but, being quite inexperienced, lost his money and went to Hobart, Tasmania in January 1845. At Launceston he formed a company, recruited George Herbert Rogers, and in June 1845 took it to Melbourne and opened at the Queen's Theatre, recently built by John Thomas Smith. In August 1846, Coppin went to Adelaide, converted a billiard room into the New Queen's Theatre with a 700-seat capacity, and on 2 November 1846 began his season with The King and the Comedian, Coppin playing the part of Stolbach (the comedian). Coppin subsequently played a variety of parts including Sir Peter Teazle, Jacques Strop in Robert Macaire, Jemmy Twitcher in The Golden Farmer, Don Caesar in Don Caesar de Bazan and many others in forgotten plays. In 1848 Coppin transferred the management of the theatre to John Lazar. Coppin and Lazar refurbished the old Queen's Theatre which, renamed "Royal Victoria Theatre", opened on 23 December 1850 and enjoyed great popularity, which lasted until the Theatre Royal opened in 1868. Around 1850 Coppin built Semaphore Hotel (and thereby gave that suburb its name) and the "White Horse Cellars", an hotel and theatre in Port Adelaide, later owned by William Knapman. Coppin suffered losses in his copper-mining investments and with the exodus of his hotel and playhouse patrons to the Victorian diggings, he became insolvent. He left Adelaide for Victoria in December 1851, tried his fortunes briefly as a gold-digger without success, began playing at Geelong, then returned to Adelaide in 1853 to pay his creditors "20 shillings in the pound" (i.e. in full). Still in 1853, Coppin visited England where he acted in the provinces. There he met Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, engaged a company, and returned to Australia bringing with them an iron theatre in sections which was erected in Melbourne as the Princess Theatre. Brooke was to establish a great reputation in Australia. In July 1855 Coppin was playing Colonel Damas with him in The Lady of Lyons, and about this time they became partners. They purchased Melbourne's Theatre Royal and the Cremorne Gardens and spent £60,000 on them. In 1859 Coppin imported six camels from Aden as exhibits for the Cremorne Gardens menagerie and in 1860 he sold them for £300 to the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria who used them on the Burke and Wills expedition.
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