Rand Daily Mail, Monday 29 November 1965 — “Pop Star’s Opera Aim,” by Hugh Carruthers

By the mid-1960s Aubrey Ellis had become a genuine teen idol on the Rand, playing pleasure resorts most weekends to crowds of screaming bobbysoxers. Carruthers noted the contrast: offstage, Aubrey favoured quiet clothes, a reserved manner and a conventional haircut, a world away from the flamboyant pop image of the day.

The article credits his rise to veteran song-and-dance man Wally Petersen, who by this account “discovered” the 23-year-old a few months earlier after overhearing him singing in the bathroom of a Hillbrow flat.

In his own words, Aubrey left school at 14 and qualified as a cinema projectionist by 21, also trying his hand at window-dressing and sign-writing while attending art classes at the Witwatersrand Technical College. It was while running the spotlights for Tommy Trinder’s touring revue “You Lucky People” at the Empire that he first thought seriously about a stage career; he auditioned for a singing role and was accepted, though the arrangement fell through when the touring company couldn’t release him from his projectionist post.

His love of opera runs deep: he has seen The Great Caruso 68 times, and owns roughly 175 Caruso recordings and 20 complete operas. He also served more than five years as a tank gunner in the Imperial Light Horse regiment.