Frank Hodgkinson Mr Edmond Samuels, FCSJP

The subject of this portrait by Frank Hodgkinson is pharmacist, writer and composer Edmond ‘Eddie’ Samuels (1895–1973), who owned a well-known and popular Sydney ‘headache bar’ – a chemist shop offering a five-minute cure for a sore head, mainly to hangover sufferers.

Samuels wrote several books – including poetry, memoir and a novel – as well as popular songs and musicals. At the time this portrait was painted, he was working on The highwayman, a musical comedy that would eventually be staged in Melbourne and Sydney in 1950–51.