Vaudeville artist, pianist, organist, composer, accompanist, international performer, part of the famous Marvellous Corricks troupe of entertainers and discoverer of world-renowned talent, Christopher Reid Young, was a Glen Innes resident for about 15 years in the 1940s and ‘50s and gave unstintingly of his time and talents.
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It was said that his principal aim in life was to bring enjoyment to his fellow beings.
An earlier performance with the Corricks in Adelaide caused reporter C. J. Dennis of Sentimental Bloke fame to write “Chris Young, the comic relief unlike most of his ilk, succeeded in being distinctly comic”.
At the same time, another publication pointedly remarked: “Mr Young’s comic songs are of unusual merit. He is refined in his humour. There is nothing approaching vulgarity in his selection, and they are all the more entertaining.”
Chris Young, the comic relief unlike most of his ilk, succeeded in being distinctly comic.
- C. J. Dennis
After he died in Sydney, the Examiner mentioned in his obituary on June 2, 1954, that an indication of his brilliance was the fact that he had been an accompanist for Australia’s most famous prima donna, Dame Nellie Melba.
As well, he played a large part in fostering the talents of another famous Australian.
“While on a tour of Queensland in 1911, Mr Young was stopped in the street at Maryborough by a man who asked him to go with him and hear his daughter sing.
“He accompanied the stranger the hotel where he heard a girl of 15 or 16 who had a most beautiful voice. Mr Young was so impressed with the girl’s voice that he advised the father to take her to Sydney and approach somebody connected with the J. C. Williamson Company. This the father did.
“That teenage daughter was Gladys Moncrieff….”
When the Glen Innes Rotary Club appealed for a song of New England to typify “this great northern area” and a Mrs Erskine Smith composed the words, Chris Young set them to music.
Baritone George Kerr recorded the song at 2NZ and it was played on that station on Sunday morning, August 6, 1950.
The program of musical and variety entertainment in his days was likely to include such local luminaries as Dr Fred Buddee, Bessie Hutton, Ollie Doust, George Kerr, Noella Cornish, Fay Fuller, Muriel Warlters, Eric, Abe and Nancy Keating, Peter O’Brien, Jim Cotsell, Marjorie Schmidt, Norman Sligo, Jim Fraser and Harry Havyatt.
