Henry Maas - The Night Cat

March 1997

In show biz parlance, to say to a performer “break a leg” on opening night is considered the best of luck.

In the 1970’s Henry Maas (founder Busby Berkeleys, The Black Cat, the Bachelors from Prague and The Night Cat) made this wish a reality.

A broken leg, suffered at John Pinder’s TF Much Ballroom in Fitzroy, started his performing career.

“As I couldn’t stand I had to change to a phone job in Fitzroy and there saw The Flying Trapeze, HOORAY, and that’s when it all changed.

The Flying Trapeze, also John Pinder’s and the birthplace of the Melbourne comedy scene was where Henry decided he too would be a performer. “We can do that,”he told his partner, Noel, and the Busby Berkeleys were created.

The Busbys soon became stars of the comedy circuit and having conquered this world set off for Amsterdam in 1976 where they worked for four and a half years. During that time John Pinder summonsed them back to Melbourne for a 4 month season at The Last Laugh. “ It was a whole dream time. It was great. We stayed in Amsterdam till 1980 and came back as the Busby Berkeleys, did one show in Adelaide and split up.”

Henry came back to Melbourne and took an apartment in Brunswick St. He found Melbourne a very depressing place at that time, “it really felt dead after living in Europe a long time, we’d got used to all the cafes and all that and we really missed the interaction.”

So The Black Cat was started in 1982 by Henry and his partners Toni and Bruce Edwards on the ground floor below his apartment . “Melbourne really needed a place to hang out, so that’s what we did, we sort of brought back a bit of Europe.” The “cat” soon became and remains an institution in Fitzroy. It was the birthplace of The Bachelors from Prague a band in which Henry was lead singer. The band became hugely successful, touring the world, until deciding to break up in 1992. So Henry needed a new challenge and after looking round Fitzroy and Collingwood found a Greek function centre in Johnston St which provided just that. “We wanted a big relaxed space, we wanted a large music lounge”. In July 1994 The Night Cat started and, where the original cat was about conversation, this cat is about dancing. “Every night they dance. We always leave an open area and keep the lighting low, so they’re not scared to get up and dance”.

Henry Maas has always had an amazing ability to create a scene, as a performer, as a café owner, as a band leader and now as a CD producer of The Velvet Quiet which he and Toni Edwards have recently released.

This must have come from watching the scene his parents had created at the Maas Cabaret in St Kilda. Originally a very successful cafe (the Victory Cafe) it developed into a large cabaret complete with resident Latin American band in 1956. Johnny Mathis performed there, brought out by Henry’s father. But changes in the local population and the spread of the television habit closed the business in the mid 60’s. For Henry it was a tragedy. He loved the place -- its style, the music, the charm of his tuxedo clad father greeting guests, “a true Viennese host”, he recalls.

Henry had originally hoped The Night Cat would be a bit more sophisticated, a bit more mature. But the “Night” in Melbourne is very much for the young, except perhaps on Sundays,when the crowd is older. However watch how and where Henry Maas matures and where he takes Melbourne in that process.