Leonard and Anne Bullen papers

MLMSS 11848/Boxes 1-3
MLMSS 11848/Box 4X

fonds

1930s-1960s

9668347

0.85 metres of textual material (3 boxes, 1 outsize box)

Leonard Bullen was born in England in 1910. He left England in the late 1920s and from 1930 to 1931 trained as a teacher at Sydney Teachers College. He taught at various schools in NSW and also acted in amateur productions at the Sydney Players Club. In 1943 he resigned as a teacher to take up a year’s contract with Whitehall Productions at the Minerva Theatre, Sydney. His career as a professional stage actor began in 1943 with Smilin’ Thru’ at the Theatre Royal, Sydney. He was particularly known for his roles in the television series Autumn Affair (1958), Homicide (1966-70), and Hunter (1968). He died in 1980 in Sydney. 
Anne Bullen (nee Helen McColl) was born in Stanmore, NSW in 1917.She commenced acting at the age of 15 in amateur productions at the Little Theatre and the Sydney Players Club where she met Leonard Bullen. They married in 1940. She got her first professional part around the same time as Leonard and went on to play in numerous productions at theatres such as the Independent, the New Theatre and the Theatre Royal. She also acted in many radio plays, serials and schools broadcasts for the ABC and commercial stations and also worked as a model. She died in 2004.
This collection documents the acting careers of Leonard and Anne Bullen mainly through correspondence, scripts, programs and newspaper cuttings as well as acting notes compiled by Anne. It helps illuminate the Sydney theatrical scene during the 1930s through to the early 1960s when both were well-known actors of stage, radio and television.

By descent to daughter.

Leonard and Jane Bullen papers, 1930s-1960s, including correspondence, manuscript notes, play scripts, photographs, newspaper cuttings and other ephemera.

BOX 1 - Leonard Bullen
Correspondence – fan mail, copies of letters sent, 1942-1950s
Documents regarding teaching career, 1942-1943
Various notes – mainly manuscript
Scrapbook – newspaper cuttings, ephemera
Play scripts
‘Professional biography’ – professional and amateur, 1936-1950
Photographs from productions, ca. 1950-1961
Promotional photographs
Newspaper cuttings (2 vols) – critiques, reviews etc., 1936-1947

BOX 2 - Leonard Bullen cont.
Programs, photographs, newspaper cuttings for stage, radio and television, 1930s-1959
Leonard and Anne Bullen
Play script and program for A Victorian Marriage by Warwick Fairfax, 1950
Newspaper cuttings and programs, 1941-1950
Material regarding other actors including Doris Fitton
Photographs, newspaper cuttings, programs, scripts
Anne Bullen - Newspaper cuttings re radio performances, 1940s-1950s

BOX 3 - Anne Bullen cont.
‘Professional Biography’
Photographs from stage productions
Photographs mainly relating to radio – includes photographs of Anne with Jack Davey, Roy ‘Mo’ Rene, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Dinah Shearing, Willie Fennell, Bob Dyer.
Radio and television scripts - annotated (3 folders)
Handwritten notes (2 vols)
Programs and newspaper cuttings
Script for ‘A pretty girl is like a melody’ with related material

BOX 4X - Anne Bullen cont.
Photographs and newspaper cuttings mainly relating to her modelling career.

In copyright