Artist Profile Nellie Small

Nellie Small, born Ellen E. Small, was an Australian singer, entertainer, comedian and celebrated male impersonator whose career spanned more than four decades. Born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1900, she was of Australian and West Indian heritage and became one of the most distinctive performers on the Australian vaudeville, cabaret and nightclub circuit.

Small began her theatrical career in the 1920s, appearing in major stage productions before establishing herself as a singer and variety performer. During the 1930s she developed the distinctive male stage persona for which she became famous, performing in men’s suits, top hat and tails and presenting jazz, blues, comedy and popular songs.

Her career took her through some of Australia’s most important theatres, nightclubs and variety circuits, including the Theatre Royal in Sydney, the Tivoli Theatre in Melbourne, the Tivoli circuit, Clay’s Variety, Stones’ Cabaret and Sammy Lee’s. She also toured throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Ellen E. Small was born in Sydney in 1900.

She attended Roman Catholic convent schools in Sydney before leaving school at approximately 16. She subsequently worked as a domestic servant and factory worker before entering professional entertainment.

Her entry into theatre came during the 1920s, when she was offered an opportunity to appear in Chu Chin Chow at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney.

During the Great Depression, theatrical opportunities became scarce and Small worked outside entertainment, including as a cleaner, floor-washer and laundress. She returned to the stage around 1930, initially as a singer.

At first, wearing men’s clothing was used partly as a theatrical novelty. It soon developed into the defining feature of her professional identity.

Small performed in men’s suits and formal male evening dress, eventually becoming widely known as a male impersonator. Her act became sufficiently recognisable that the phrase“Send for Nellie” was reportedly used in Australian show-business circles when a performance needed an additional attraction.

Her masculine appearance was not confined to the stage. She also adopted men’s clothing in everyday life, a highly unconventional public presentation in Australia at the time.

Timeline of masculine performances

Year: 1930
Location: Sydney

Small returned to professional performance as a singer after a period away from theatre.

Performance: Singing and variety
Style: Increasing use of masculine clothing
Development: Her stage appearance began evolving into male impersonation.
Repertoire: Popular songs, blues and character numbers.

This marked the beginning of the stage career for which she would become famous.

Venue: Clay’s Variety, Oxford Street, Sydney
Year: 1931
Role: Singer and male-character performer

Small later recalled winning an amateur trial at a small Oxford Street theatre known as Clay’s Variety.

Her breakthrough came during the Christmas entertainment period of 1931.

Organisation: Connors and Paul
Location: Sydney
Performance: Singing and character entertainment
Song: “Am I Blue”
Costume: Initially appeared in a dress for this production.
Character presentation: Queenie Paul devised a comic character costume for her.

Although this particular appearance was not yet the fully developed male-impersonation act, it was an important turning point in her professional career.

City: Melbourne
Year: 1932
Organisation: Connors and Paul

In Melbourne, Small began appearing publicly in her now-famous male attire.

Performance: Singer
Costume: Men’s clothing
Stage persona: Masculine character
Off-stage appearance: She increasingly wore men’s clothing in public as well.
Significance: The costume evolved from a theatrical novelty into her permanent professional identity.

Small later recalled that audiences had difficulty reconciling her appearance on stage and in the street until she began wearing male clothing consistently off stage.

From this point, Nellie Small became closely identified with the male-impersonator tradition.

Year: 1932
Location: Melbourne and Sydney

Small’s male persona developed into a complete performance style.

She appeared in:

Tailored men’s suits
Male evening wear
Top hat and tails
Short hair
Masculine mannerisms
Jazz and blues repertoire

Her act combined singing with physical presence and comic timing rather than relying solely on imitation.

Film: Strike Me Lucky
Year: 1935
Role: Minor acting appearance

Small made a screen appearance in the Australian comedy film Strike Me Lucky.

Although primarily known for live performance, the film provides evidence of her expanding profile as an entertainer during the 1930s.

Her principal reputation remained as a live singer and male impersonator.

Venue: Theatre Royal, Sydney
Period: 1930s

Small performed jazz, blues and popular songs at the Theatre Royal.

Role: Featured singer and entertainer
Presentation: Male attire
Repertoire: Jazz, blues and popular standards
Performance style: Deep, distinctive vocal delivery combined with masculine stage presentation.

Her act increasingly moved away from conventional theatrical impersonation toward a sophisticated cabaret and jazz performance.

Venue: Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne
Period: 1930s

Small became associated with the Tivoli entertainment circuit.

Venue: Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne
Performance: Jazz and blues singing
Presentation: Male stage attire
Role: Featured variety and cabaret performer.

The Tivoli circuit was one of Australia’s most important entertainment networks, and Small’s appearance there helped establish her as a nationally recognised performer.

Circuit: Tivoli
Period: 1930s–1940s

Small became a recurring attraction on the Tivoli circuit.

Her act incorporated:

Jazz
Blues
Popular songs
Male impersonation
Comedy
Character performance

Her ability to combine music with a striking masculine stage image made her readily identifiable to Australian audiences.

Venue: Booker T. Washington Club, Albion Street, Surry Hills, Sydney
Year: 1942

During the Second World War, Small performed at the Booker T. Washington Club.

Location: Surry Hills, Sydney
Year: 1942
Performance: Jazz and blues
Presentation: Male attire
Audience: The club was associated with African-American servicemen and First Nations Australians.
Significance: Small’s performance connected her with a culturally diverse wartime entertainment scene in Sydney.

During the 1940s Small performed extensively around Australia.

She appeared with Sorlie’s travelling tent shows, where she was presented as a headline entertainer.

Circuit: Sorlie’s
Territory: Australian regional centres
Performance: Singing and male impersonation
Costume: Characteristic men’s suit and formal male attire
Repertoire: Jazz, blues and popular songs.

Her regional touring career helped make her known well beyond Sydney and Melbourne.

Venue: Stones’ Cabaret, Sydney
Period: 1940s

Small became one of the performers associated with Stones’, a prominent Sydney entertainment venue.

Performance: Jazz and blues
Style: Male impersonation
Costume: Men’s clothing
Role: Featured vocalist and entertainer.

Stones was particularly important during the wartime years, when it attracted Australian and visiting Allied servicemen.

Venue: Sammy Lee’s, Woollahra, Sydney
Period: 1940s

Small later headlined at Sammy Lee’s in Woollahra.

Role: Headline entertainer
Performance: Jazz, blues and popular songs
Presentation: Male attire
Style: Cabaret and male impersonation.

Her appearances at prestigious clubs demonstrated that she had moved beyond novelty entertainment and become an established cabaret singer.

Year: 1950
Circuit: Tivoli

Small remained an active performer on the Tivoli circuit. Her appearance in major Tivoli programmes demonstrated her continuing popularity after more than a decade as a male impersonator.

She continued to combine:

Jazz singing
Blues
Male costume
Comedy
Variety entertainment

Year: 1952
Location: Sydney

Small was photographed extensively in her characteristic male attire, including top hat and tails. Her public image by this period was firmly established as that of a masculine-presenting jazz and cabaret performer. She was recognised as a distinctive Sydney entertainment personality and remained a familiar figure in the city’s nightlife.

Year: 1953
Location: Sydney

By the early 1950s Small had become a veteran of the Australian entertainment industry.

Age: Approximately 53
Performance: Jazz, blues and male impersonation
Venues: Sydney clubs, hotels and theatres
Costume: Formal male attire and tailored suits.

Her continued public appearances demonstrated the longevity of her male stage persona.

Venue: Castlereagh Hotel, Sydney
Year: 1954

One of the most famous surviving images of Small shows her performing on a small stage at the Castlereagh Hotel in Sydney. She is dressed in:

Black formal suit
Bow tie
Top hat-style masculine presentation
Short hair

She performed before an audience in the hotel’s public bar. This performance is an important visual record of Small’s male-impersonator persona during the height of her later career.

Sydney controversy

Small became involved in the wider controversy surrounding restrictions on live entertainment in Sydney pubs during 1954. Her presence as a professional entertainer was particularly notable because women were subject to restrictions on entering or performing in some public-bar environments at the time. Small nevertheless continued to appear before audiences in her masculine stage attire.

Year: 1955
Performance: Recording artist

Small recorded “The End of the Affair” in 1955.

The recording demonstrated the continuing development of her career from traditional vaudeville and male impersonation toward modern jazz, popular music and early rock-and-roll styles.

Throughout the 1950s Small continued performing standards including songs associated with jazz and blues.

Her repertoire included:

“On the Sunny Side of the Street”
“Dinah”
“Stormy Weather”
Other popular jazz and blues standards.

Her vocal style and masculine appearance became the defining elements of her mature act.

Year: 1959
Production: Alabama Jubilee

Small appeared in the film Alabama Jubilee during the later part of her career.

This added another screen credit to a career otherwise dominated by live theatre, cabaret and nightclub performance.

Year: 1960
Location: Australia

Small was still being described publicly as a male impersonator in 1960.

By this period she had been performing in masculine attire for approximately three decades.

Her stage identity had therefore developed from an unusual theatrical costume into a permanent and highly recognisable performance persona.

Final professional performance

Year: 1964

Small gave her final known professional performance in 1964.

By then she had enjoyed a career of approximately forty years, including more than three decades as one of Australia’s best-known female male impersonators.

Performance Style

Nellie Small’s male impersonation was distinctive because it combined gender presentation with serious musical performance. Rather than relying solely on comic imitation, she developed a sophisticated cabaret persona.

Her performance incorporated:

Tailored men’s suits
Top hat and tails
Short hair
Masculine gestures
Jazz vocals
Blues singing
Comic timing
Audience interaction
Strong stage presence

She was equally comfortable in theatres, variety programmes, nightclubs, hotels and public entertainment venues.

Small’s career also reflected the social realities of twentieth-century Australia.

As a performer of West Indian heritage, she encountered racial discrimination throughout her career. Despite this, she established herself as a successful headline entertainer and maintained a highly visible public persona.

Her choice to wear men’s clothing both on stage and in everyday life made her particularly distinctive. She became known not simply as a woman playing a male character for a few minutes on stage, but as a performer whose public identity was consistently masculine.

Nellie Small died in 1968, aged approximately 68. Today she is remembered as a pioneering Australian entertainer whose career brought together male impersonation, jazz, blues, cabaret and popular entertainment. Her distinctive stage presence and refusal to conform to conventional expectations of feminine dress made her one of the most memorable performers of Australia’s twentieth-century entertainment history.

References

The Labor Daily. (1936, December 16). Wage claim against club withdrawn (p. 6). National Library of Australia/Trove. Trove newspaper record

The Telegraph (Brisbane). (1938, June 4). Nellie Small Theatre Royal’s new success (p. 18). National Library of Australia/Trove. Trove newspaper record

Hull, J. (1932, January 15). She may be Black but she’s no one’s Slave. Arrow, p. 2. National Library of Australia/Trove. Trove newspaper record

Truth. (1936, December 13). Male or Female? (p. 19). National Library of Australia/Trove. Trove newspaper record

Crouch, W. (1953, September 13). The color of her skin often brings a rebuff. The Daily Telegraph, p. 46. National Library of Australia/Trove. Trove newspaper record

Dunstan, R. (1953, November 28). She’s proud to be 53. The Mail, p. 55. National Library of Australia/Trove. Trove newspaper record

Sullivan, R. (1954). Interview with Nellie Small [5AD radio interview]. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Title 148414. NFSA catalogue record

National Library of Australia. (n.d.). Australian ephemera collection finding aid: Tivoli vaudeville circuit.

State Library of New South Wales. (n.d.). Nellie Small / Send for Nellie. State Library of NSW: Send for Nellie

(1952). Photographs of Nellie Small from People magazine, ON 388/Box 070/Item 169.

State Library of Queensland. (n.d.). Claude Carnell archive, collection record 32795. SLQ Collections

Chesser, L. (2008). More playful than anxious: Cross-dressing, sex-impersonation and the colonial stage. Australasian Drama Studies, (52), 148–164. Queer as Fact

Chesser, L. (2008). Parting with my sex: Cross-dressing, inversion and sexuality in Australian cultural life. University of New South Wales Press. Queer as Fact

Walker, J. (2012). The girl I left behind me: The disjunction between vocal and visual performance in male impersonation. Studies in Musical Theatre, 6(1), 99–113. Queer as Fact

Bisset, A. (1979). Black roots, white flowers: A history of jazz in Australia. Angus & Robertson. Queer as Fact

Valentine, A. (2022). Send for Nellie. State Library of New South Wales

Valentine, A. (2024, January 5). Nellie Small: The trailblazing, cross-dressing cabaret star who Australia forgot. The Guardian.

Xiao, A. (2024, January 9). Sydney Festival show traces untold story of pioneering cross-dressing entertainer Nellie Small. ABC News.

Queer as Fact. (2024). Nellie Small: Sources. Source bibliography PDF

Walker, C. (n.d.). Bodgie boogie. Clinton Walker’s essay