AustLit

English-born variety comedian, patterologist, revue company leader, writer, and director.

Ross first came to Australia in 1921 with Australian dancer/comedienne Clara Keating. The pair had teamed up in the USA sometime after the death of Keating's former partner and husband, Claude Golding, in 1919. With Keating as the comic and Ross as the straightman, they toured the US variety circuits before being offered a contract by Fullers Theatres. Over the next seven years the pair also played engagements with other major Australian firms, including Harry Clay's Sydney circuit. While under contract with the latter organisation Ross became involved in the creation and staging of revusicals, and between 1926 and 1927 he and Keating toured the Harry Ross Revue Company (aka The Joybringers) on that circuit and elsewhere around Australia. Ross was also briefly a member of the Stiffy and Mo Revue Company (ca. 1927). He and Keating, who are known to have been married as early as 1921, appear to have separated in late 1927.

It has been established that Harry Ross was still involved in the Australian variety industry during the early to mid-1930s. He appeared, for example, at Melbourne's Temperance Hall in February 1933 and in O'Donnell and Ray's Jack and the Beanstalk (Garrick Theatre, Melbourne) at the end of 1934.