Caroline Frances Pugliese

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 suburb of Five Dock 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. These were the Alhambra in the Haymarket (formerly Sydney's first music hall), the Star Theatre in Bondi, and the Broadway in Leichhardt.

Film distribution was a competitive business and the Pugliese experienced problems in accessing the films they wanted, so in 1917 they decided to make their own. Raymond Longford created a script and directed The Church and the Woman, about a marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant. The film had been a major commercial success but this spoilt when the courts ruled in Edward Finn's favour and awarded him a share of the profits and the prints of the film. Longford had infringed the copyright but Caroline's son Herbert was charged with enabling the breach and the Puglieses lost the case.

Personal life and death In 1883 Pugliese married an Italian-born labourer named Antonio Pugliese at St John's, Ashfield in Sydney. She was his second wife and he already had two children.

Antonio died in 1916 and their eldest child Umberto (a.k.a. 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.

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