[MELBOURNE] Wesley Church Hall, Lonsdale St. : Entertainment by the members of the Princess Mary Club in aid of the Tally Ho Boys’ Farm. May 23rd, 1929.

Miss Suzanne Abbott, Hon. Sec. and Treas. [Melbourne : Wesley Central Mission], 1929. Single sheet, 220 x 136 mm, lithographed printed on both sides in orange and brown ink on thickish textured paper; verso with programme of music and dance pieces, including performers’ names; in fine condition.

The Princess Mary Club, housed in a grand neo-gothic style four-storey building next door to Lonsdale Street’s Wesley Church, was founded in 1926. According to journalist John Elder, ‘The Wesley Church built the Princess Mary Club not simply as a hostel for young women, but as a virtual lock-up to keep them from slipping into prostitution. This is why the city’s leading businessmen threw their money into the project – for fear that their own vulnerable employees might fall into whoring if they weren’t being supervised at night, being away from the guardianship of their fathers.’ (SMH, 2 January 2016)

This programme for one of the Club’s early charity events, which raised funds for the Wesleyan Tally Ho Boys’ Farm, appears unrecorded.