The Christmas Pageant is the last vestige of the benevolent culture that was John Martin’s Department Store.
By David Sly

ANTHONY COLES RECENTLY questioned modern business attitudes as he began to feel disconnected from his own burgeoning small business. He compared his situation to the way his father Geoff had steered John Martin’s department store as a managing director and chairman through its halcyon years from the 1960s – and he realised that the “soul” of Johnnies that Geoff Coles took pains to nurture was something unique and fundamental to its success.

Anthony has started writing a book to examine the essence of that old-fashioned business culture. The Lost Soul of Johnnies will primarily explore a business theme but also reach much further into the social realm. Its sub-title, Searching for the lost soul of the company, reflects Anthony’s efforts to understand the humanity of the company through the stories of former employees – many which point to the annual Christmas Pageant as a legacy of the strength of that soul.

Even though John Martin’s has been swallowed by the David Jones company and its trading name has disappeared, the store’s Christmas Pageant initiative has endured since 1933 and remains a state institution. Now owned by the state government through its Australian Major Events division and sponsored by CPS Credit Union since 1996, the pageant was built around a spirit that embodied the philosophy of the John Martin’s Department Store and was reflected through the staff, who all participated in staging the event.

As managing director of John Martin’s, Geoff Coles was particularly proud of his role at the head of the pageant in the blue chief marshall’s uniform. “I got to see the pure joy that the pageant brought to so many faces – and every single year there were tears in my eyes.”

Company commitment to this annual event was exemplified by the pageant marshals – store officials charged with maintaining order in various sections of the procession on pageant day. Within 24 hours they had lodged a review of how everything had functioned. Six weeks later came a full review of the floats, where changes would be suggested and ideas for new floats discussed. Staff artists has prepared paintings of proposed new floats; successful candidates had scale models prepared nine months out from the pageant to ensure ample time for construction.

It was joked that infrastructure of John Martin’s stores took second place to pageant duties and there is a ring of truth to the tale; stores knew that shop modifications had little change of proceeding in the months leading to the pageant. “The pageant was the public face of the store, so there was great pride and dedication in preparing for it,” says Geoff Coles. “It grew into a statement of what Johnnies represented to South Australians. It echoed the lines of an old company document: Loyalty in the matter of business begins at home...”

The pageant idea was introduced by store owner Sir Edward Hayward after having seen a similar Christmas pageant in Toronto and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. Decades later, when the pageant coincided with the first Formula One Grand Prix in Adelaide, a visiting Toronto journalist was amazed by what he saw and contacted Geoff Coles. “In Toronto, he said the people in the parade only ever smiled and performed when they went past a designated area in front of television cameras, yet our parade was full of life from start to finish. He asked where we got such great actors from. He couldn’t believe that they were store employees volunteering their time. And he couldn’t believe there were no barricades to control the crowd, that everyone just stayed behind a painted blue line.”

The blue line was a suggestion of Syd Schebella, the first John Martin’s employee entrusted as pageant manager, succeeded by Harold Giles, Sam Rose and Ian Carter (who finally retired from pageant duties in 2002). After World War II, Schebella met with Adelaide City Council and police officials to discuss alternatives to wooden barricades to keep crowds at bay; he suggested a simple blue line painted on the bitumen along the route. Incredibly, excited children obeyed this simple code to ensure that the pageant passed and they got to see Father Christmas at the end of the procession.

Such stories sustained a rich oral culture of pageant lore among the John Martin’s administration and staff, though Geoff Coles fears much of this information will soon be lost, especially as efforts a decade ago by Lee Emery to write a book on the history of the pageant did not reach fruition. Still, bonds formed among Johnnies participants hold firm; several former employees still have key roles in pageant organisation, original maintenance crew still meet each month at a suburban hotel. And memories resonate in Anthony Coles as he compiles his book.

“Being a part of the pageant was incredible, like a fairyland. We had privileged access, like being able to go to the Lockleys warehouse to see the floats being built, though the excitement still wasn’t any less for us. It was still a question of who’s on Nipper and Nimble (children selected to ride the two famous rocking horses on floats in the parade). I have a vague memory of being aged three or four, being nursed on a bus in the pageant and waving out of the window. I remember being so excited that I was made to feel so special being a part of it – and all the former Johnnies people I’ve talked to about their involvement share the same feeling.”

Anthony compares this empathy with the modern malaise of people not responding favourably to company functions. “Most feel that they are giving more to the employer than they receive, and events held by a company are viewed rather cynically.”
While the pageant produced obvious retail benefits – crowds of 200,000 coming to the city and many following the procession to its end at John Martin’s store – the seed of the original philanthropic idea always set the pageant agenda.

“I never forgot why the pageant was started,” says Geoff Coles. “It was during the Great Depression. John Martins had always honoured a tradition of giving in times of crisis, and Sir Edward Hayward said that in such hard times it was a duty to help make people smile again. The pageant grew into a statement of what John Martins represented. That’s why we all cared about it.”

In talking with former employees, especially in the lead-up to the annual Christmas Pageant, Anthony Coles recognises that there has been a lack of closure to the Johnnies story. He says people talk about the death of the company with anger, a sense of betrayal and denial. While he has uncovered only part of the John Martins’ story, a complex picture emerges of lost corporate values.

“The team was driven, yet there was recognition of work well done, and subsequently even more efforts were made. We need to be reminded of this again.”

Anthony Coles can be contacted at colesy@colesy.com or PO Box 2083 Kent Town 5071.