ABSTRACT
The Dalrays were an acrobatic comedy duo from Adelaide, who first appeared at Melbourne’s Tivoli Theatre in the pantomime Goody Two Shoes in 1956. That engagement marks the beginning of an ongoing association, recorded in correspondence over the last decade of the Tivoli’s operation. The Dalrays returned to the Tivoli to perform in 1957 and 1958. Their correspondence is most notable, however, as a record of extensive international touring to engagements in Asia, Europe, and North America from December 1958 to June 1966. Part of the Tivoli collection at the State Library of Victoria, this correspondence offers a detailed record of two jet-setting entertainers, juggling opportunities on the hop with the logistics of international travel, booking agents, contracts, and costs. It also reveals the success of a new breed of entrepreneurs in weaving regional agents and touring entertainers into business networks spanning Asia and the Pacific. This chapter applies methods of data visualization to analyse the entrepreneurial networks that propelled The Dalrays into global circulation and integrated entertainment from Australia into the Asia–Pacific region.
