Article contentThe new Savoy was now both a movie theatre and vaudeville house. Newsreels were shown before movies. Many travelling acts played the Savoy, including juggler and all-around comedian, the legendary W.C. Fields, ventriloquist, The Great Lester, and singer Sammy Davis Jr. as a youngster.Article contentBoxing continued to be a large part of the Savoy’s events.Article contentA FEW ROUNDS WITH A KANGAROOArticle contentIn 1929, vaudeville and boxing collided on stage at the Savoy when William Ferguson, an electrician in the Caledonia Mines, who had the moniker “Billy the Kid,” was asked if he’d consider going a few rounds with a travelling roadshow kangaroo.Article contentAn early image of a boxing kangaroo is from an 1891 cartoon titled “Jack, the fighting Kangaroo with Professor Lendermann” in the magazine Melbourne Punch. In the late 19th century, Australian outback travelling shows featured men fighting kangaroos wearing boxing gloves.Article contentArticle content Jack the Fighting Kangaroo and Professor Lendermann. In the late 19th century, Australian outback travelling shows featured men fighting kangaroos wearing boxing gloves. (Melbourne Punch 1891)Article contentThe notion of actually boxing a kangaroo is, of course, ludicrous. A hundred years ago, the kangaroo’s defensive posture, using its smaller forelegs to grasp an attacker while kicking or slashing it with its hind legs, gave the appearance of boxing, and it gained acceptance in Australia and the U.S. as an oddball spectacle of marsupial-human combat sport.Article contentAccording to Ferguson’s stepson, Fred MacLeod, Ferguson “never got one punch in.” The kangaroo knocked him out cold with one punch. He ended up in the hospital for two days.” Ferguson was fortunate the kangaroo from parts down under didn’t put the electrician’s lights out for good.Article contentYears later, an artist commemorated the auspicious pugilistic dual-species fight with a painting he gave to Ferguson. After Ferguson died, the painting came to Fred MacLeod by way of his mother, Florence, Ferguson’s wife.Article content A painting of William Ferguson and the kangaroo he fought in 1929. (Courtesy of Savoy Theatre)Article contentIn 2007, MacLeod donated the painting to the Savoy, where it remains today. It’s unlikely another kangaroo has graced the Savoy’s stage since William Ferguson went down in the first round in 1929. Australia has since embraced the imagery of a boxing kangaroo, but not the reality, though.Article contentPaul MacDougall is a local area writer. ‘Donair, the Musical,’ written by himself and Duncan Wells will grace the Savoy Theatre stage in August 2026. Article content
PAUL MACDOUGALL: Looking back at the Savoy Theatres early vaudeville days
