English-born variety performer.
A specialist singer/male impersonator (including principal boy roles in pantomime), pianist, and descriptive vocalist, Nellie Kolle first toured Australia in 1912 for the Brennan-Fuller organisation and returned on several occasions over the next few years before settling in the country on a more permanent basis.
Kolle was associated with a number of other managements during her early tours of Australia, including J. C. Bain, Dix-Baker (Newcastle), Holland and St John (Brisbane), and Graham and Howard (Sydney). Between 1916 and the early 1920s, she worked almost exclusively for Fullers' Theatres Ltd in Australia and New Zealand, establishing herself as not only one of that firm's leading pantomime principal boys, but also as one of the most popular female performers working on the Australian variety stage.
From 1922 onwards, Kolle secured regular engagements with other leading variety companies, including Harry Clay's Sydney and NSW operations. During the mid-1920s, she toured her own vaudeville show around Australia, playing many country centres, including those of Western Australia. In 1927, she toured Queensland as headline act for Clay's Bridge Theatre Ltd, and remained on that circuit over the next year or so. Kolle continued performing in pantomimes over this period, including the 1928-1929 O'Donnell and Ray production of Beauty and the Beast, and in revue, including the Bert Ray Revue Company (ca. 1929). She is also believed to have maintained her presence on the variety stage in Australia up until at least the 1940s.
