Person - Hughla Hurley
HUGHLA JOSEPHINE HURLEY
Hughla played Florence in the original Waiting for Lefty 1936, followed by the first hire purchase collector in Where’s That Bomb? 1937, Behind the Scenes 1937, a repeat of Where’s That Bomb? 1938, The Sword Sung 1938, Florence in So It Didn’t Work 1938, a repeat of Where’s That Bomb? 1940, the striker’s wife in Colony 1940 and Private Hicks 1941. In 1941 she alternated the female lead with Freda Lewis in Till the Day I Die after its ban was lifted. She was involved in agit-prop, worked in the NT office and on committee, and was one of the female trio who sang "There’s a man for every woman” at the 1940 Naughty Nineties Labor Jubilee Ball at the Trocadero. Hughla was said to be always well-groomed and well-dressed.
After her marriage in 1943 to Grant William Davidson at Waverley she ceased involvement with NT. The Davidsons lived at Cremorne before settling in New Zealand where they went into business with Music Makers NZ, Twenty-First Snooker and Auckland Jukebox Hire. Taught to knit by a traditional Scotswoman and as a teenager the proud owner of a real Fair Isle sweater, Hughla published articles on the history of the craft and curated exhibitions of counterpanes. (In 1932 she had won a first prize in a Farmers Hobbies school children’s competition.)
Her son Grant Davidson, a Greenpeace activist, was one of three aboard a ketch seized by French officials in 1972 during a protest against nuclear testing in the Pacific. (See the Age 29 June 1972).
Hughla was an adopted niece of Hugh D McIntosh and was probably named after him.
Hughla Hurley and Freda Lewis holding "V" for victory, May Day 1942
