The Canadian Kings of Repertoire: The Story of the Marks Brothers

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. She is the
author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

They were born in the 19th century near Perth, Ontario, into a family of
seven boys and two girls. Six of the brothers grew up to become a famous
group of vaudeville performers and company managers known as The Marks
Brothers. Robert William (known as R.W.), the oldest, and Tom, the
comedian, started by working together with two female performers in
1882, but Tom formed his own company in 1894. The other brothers
followed suit, and at different times and for almost half a century five
different Marks Brothers companies were “on the road” across Canada
and the States, reportedly “[making] a profit of over half a million
dollars out of melodrama.”

In the summers they gathered around Christie Lake, where the family at
one time owned 16 cottages, and prepared for their upcoming seasons.
Along the way, three of the brothers married their leading ladies. The
most prominent of these actresses was May A. Bell, who was born in New
York City. May first performed in Ottawa in 1894; she went on to earn
the title of “Canada’s Leading Lady” and to marry R.W.

As we learn about this extraordinary family, we also learn much about
the time of vaudeville, when performers routinely endured one-night
stands, rough-and-tumble venues, and arduous travel arrangements. When
R.W. and Tom started out they even had to leap off the stage at times to
eject rowdy audience members. The reader’s head may reel over who
played what, where, and when, but these details are part of our
theatrical history and we should be grateful to Perth Courier editor
Michael V. Taylor, who tells the tale, and to the publisher, Barry L.
Penhale, who uncovered the story while working for CBC Radio. Taylor has
been meticulous about separating fact from conjecture when dealing with
chaotic or nonexistent records of the past, and his text is attractively
supported with a family tree, photographs, and playbills, many from the
collection of the Perth Museum.