Mabel Gibson

Mabel Wennstrom Gibson (1901–1951) was an Australian singer and actor who built a career across musical theatre and operetta, performing in Australia, London, the United States, and on Broadway between 1903 and 1915. Born in Perth, Western Australia, she was the daughter of Sydney Gibson, a builder and Perth councillor, and his wife Catherine Charlotte Gibson, née Wennstrom (1879–2 May 1931). The family resided in the Mount Lawley suburb of Perth before relocating to Northcote, a suburb of Melbourne, around 1925.

Gibson's early training was extensive. As a child she studied piano under Richard Bastian and dancing under Flora Lewin and Alice Patten, and she performed in juvenile pantomime. She passed the L.A.B. examinations in pianoforte and was awarded a Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship to study at the Albert Street Conservatorium. Before turning professional she performed with several amateur theatre groups.

Her professional career advanced through engagements with J.C. Williamson's, where her initial roles included understudying Clarice Hardwicke in Sybil and appearing as one of a trio of sisters in Lilac Time. She went on to take supporting parts across a range of productions: Therese in Ma Mie Rosette, Margot Spreckles in Sybil, Natalie in The Merry Widow, Juanita in A Southern Maid, Estelle in The Street Singer, Annetta in The Lady of the Rose by Jean Gilbert and Harry Graham, Dora in Funny Face, and Vittoria in The Maid of the Mountains. In Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire she performed soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto roles, including Phoebe in The Yeomen of the Guard, and appeared in trios alongside sopranos Strella Wilson and Patti Russell. Her Broadway credits included the musicals The Girl from Utah and The Little Princess. She also appeared on screen, playing a hospital nurse in the film Diggers, produced at Efftee Studios by Pat Hanna.

In 1933 Gibson traveled to London, where she adopted the stage name Catherine Vennstrom — drawn from her mother's birth surname — to distinguish herself from another performer with a similar name. Under that name she starred in Lawrence Wright's revue On With the Show at the Prince's Theatre in the West End. She subsequently traveled to the United States, where she played Adelina von Hagen in Edward Locke's The Climax opposite Guy Bates Post at the Hollywood Playhouse and appeared in James B. Fagan's And So To Bed at the Music Box Theatre. She auditioned for film roles during this period but was told she was an inch or two too tall. Gibson returned to Sydney in June 1935 and joined the cast of Ball at the Savoy, which opened at the Theatre Royal on 6 July 1935.

On 29 October 1938, Gibson married American Paul Hebrick Long at St Mark's Church, Darling Point, and subsequently moved to Ohio. She died there in 1951. Her sister Jean Gibson, also a performer with J.C. Williamson's, had departed for Germany in 1936.