Nellie Small

Ellen E. Small (19001968), who performed as Nellie Small, was an Australian nightclub entertainer, jazz and blues singer, male impersonator and comic.

Career

Born as Ellen E. Small in Sydney, Nellie Small said in radio interviews that her heritage was as an Australian/West Indian. Small attended Roman Catholic convent schools, including Sisters of the Good Samaritan, until leaving at the age of 16 to become a domestic servant and factory worker. For the Melbourne production of Chu Chin Chow in March 1923, Small received praise as the "wife's attendant". She continued with the production in Perth in April and Sydney in May.

During the Great Depression, Small worked as a cleaner, floor-washer and laundress. As an actress she took a minor role in the comedy feature film Strike Me Lucky (1935). She sang blues and jazz standards at Sydney's Theatre Royal and the Tivoli in Melbourne, and later performed with The Port Jackson Jazz Band.

In the 1950s she toured New Zealand and recorded the song "The End of the Affair" (1955), which Clinton Walker described as a contender for Australia's first rock 'n' roll single. A painting of her by the artist Tibor Binder (born 1923) was shown in 1954 as the Picture of the Month at the Commonwealth Immigration Offices in Sydney Small was embroiled in an embargo against live entertainment in Sydney's pubs in 1954. The United Licensed Victuallers' Association, representing breweries, sought to ban live entertainers from performing as a distraction from customers drinking. and continued to perform in clubs until 1964.