VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR:
Over summer i once again got to channel John Laws, Allan Jones and Kyle Sandilands when i appeared on the ‘Let it be .. Beatles’ radio show, it’s always such a tread when the boys let me on, i close my eyes and for just the shortest second i can imagine i’m ‘Murray the K’ .. We’re what’s happnin’ babe!
FROM THE CRADLE:
How weird, when i scanned these photo’s and saw the embroidery on my baby pillow it was instantly familiar, i wonder if it’s possible to actually remember something, or respond to something from when you were that young?.
FESTIVE ROAST:
The festive season brought along with it some of my favorite things, ie family, food and presents but not always in that order. One of the photo’s above is of a vegetarian festive roast which bless her little brynylon sox my sister went totally emo on and diced and sliced up just like your normal basted roast.
Present of the day for me was ‘Delores the rampantly gay cat’ which was flown back to me all the way from a Las Vegas souvineer shop, the last photo is of the delicate detail you can see in it’s plastic contours.
SOCK IT TOO ME:
Yes it’s true, i actually have a ‘thing’ for sock puppets, dont ask me why i could’nt explain.
THERE’S GOT TO BE A MORNING AFTER:
Thanks to the kindness of my sister in filth and depravity Miss Beryl i was lucky enough to land an invite to the Sydney Lord Mayors New Years eve party, to describe this as over the top glam and excess would be a gross understatement, never before have i seen so much free alcohol flowing, it was truely eye boggling, line after line of champagne and wine was lined up along the many bars. I texted a friend later in the night ‘Money and status does not bring class’, it was a sobering and valuable lesson to see so many pillars of society drunk and tripping over, exiting the toilets with their skirts tucked into their panties, slurring and being vulgar and racist .. i commented to a Govt minister friend who was also there ‘I may be a shit kicker from Wollongong, but at least i know how to carry myself’, it was a fantastic night tho, i’m certain there was no better place on the planet to spend New Years Eve, a perfect warm summer evening on the forecourt of the Opera house.
ROUGH NUT:
More pics from the old photo album, i look like such a little rough nut in this photo, i’m sure my inner queen was weeping at being forced to wear a flanno, nice reminder tho at how stuck together like glue Michelle and i were (still are, tho from a distance now alas)
ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS:
In December as is tradition a group of us gathered to listen to Paul McCartney’s new album (are they still called albums?) ‘Electric Arguments’. Each time Paul releases a new cd we all make a pact not to sneak any listens before we can all gather and sit down and listen for the first time together, these have been some of the best nights ever, probably the best was hearing ‘Chaos and creation’ for the first time, we were all left dumbstruck at how awesome it was, as usual Janelle spoilt the boys by organising a huge feast for us all to gobble and masticate over .. i wonder if Nana Mouskuri fans have gatherings like this.
TABLE OF KNOWLEDGE:
One of the drawbacks of living so close to North Beach is everyone that visits me wants to be taken to be photographed at the table of knowledge, the old Kebab guy is gonna come out with his knife one day and go me as i seat another person for a quick photo op, if you need to Google ‘The table of knowledge’.
B/W:
I remember as a kid this path seemed so long, weird how perceptions change, size, distance, now we fly around the world without a blink, sometimes i miss the days when the paths was as far as you could imagine.
9150:
This summer was all about travel, some modes a little less glam than others.
MISS MARILYN’S WHEEL:
While in Melbourne i got to spend some quality time with my friend Matt, we became pen pals years and years ago and now we’re older we’ve taken the friendship from the pen into real life. While i was with Matt he had to one up me by producing a photo of him as a kid at Moomba in the presence of Daryl Sommers and the one and only ‘Miss Marilyn, oh course Matt also lets me know each and EVERY time i see him that he saw ABBA at the Myer Music Bowl in 1977 .. not that i’m bitter.
RANDOM MOBILE PIC 2:
Here we see Dee Dee making her return in the Xanadu show at the Beaton park tennis club, fantastic, the crowd had tears in it’s eyes with emotion .. or it may have been from the Amyl being passed around.
MOOBS:
In January before my annual Melbourne holiday i went to Qld to visit my family and to see my sister for her ##th birthday, while there i caught up with my brothers family and this was long overdue, i hadnt seen my nephews since June 2006, my littlest nephew Danny is now a towering man, i also had some uncle things to teach them, as you can see in the 2nd photo i have past on the ancient secret of arm folding across the chest to hide, flatten and disguise man boobs in photo’s, not saying any of them have a set of jugs on them .. but as i have learnt it may come in handy for them in the future.
RANDOM PROJECTIONS:
For Phillips birthday party i put together a slideshow projection that took up most of one of his huge white walls, i love some of the images i selected to be shown, some really cool graphics.
RAIL ROAD KILL:
I was telling Tyson how on the way to Qld i saw a discarded kiddies puppet thrown on the rail tracks at the airport, i took a snap and showed him, when we flew back weeks later from Melbourne Tyson stopped me as we walked over the bridge to look down upon the still visible but trauma evolving and disolving puppet .. gee, and poor Woody felt hard done by after being left under the bed.
RANDOM MOBILE PIC 1:
I love shit like this, i came home one day to find this megalon head in my carport.
ARSTO BOI:
I’ve been rooting around looking through some old photo’s for peoples birthdays of late and in the process have come across a heap of me as a ‘wee one’. I remember Adam saying to me once that he thought in the baby and little photos of me that i looked like Astro boy, i’m not sure about the rockets out of my shoes, i do kind of have round, tho not manga eyes .. i guess maybe in the first photo i could pass for ‘Astro-esque’, at least he didnt say i looked like ‘Lippy the lion’.
A COOGEE MOMENT:
I spent the weekend looking for units with Phillip, while we were checking out the pool in one complex i could’nt help but be drawn to point 4 on this poolside sign, at least i now know how to spell feacal.
BY DAY PERCY PANDA, BY NIGHT SHIRTY THE SLIGHTLY AGRESSIVE BEAR:
I MUST HAVE THESE ALBUMS:
These albums are not a matter of want, i need these for my collection, i have seen them and i know they must exist, now i just have to find them, donning pith helmet and monicle and letting the search begin.
WEEKEND SHOPPING:
The things you see out shopping, this past weekend i noticed a bit of a theme forming, it was a mash of Allan Jones and sweet potato’s. I was transfixed to see a new cd released under the banner of Allan Jones ‘Song’s of love and inspiration’ i didn’t have the nerve to pick it up and flip it over to see what tracks Allan selected to represent his idea and perception of love and inspiration, tho I’d hazard The Shaggs ‘My pal foot foot’ would have been on there, Them’s ‘Gloria’ perhaps?, later as i was flicking through the dvd’s at HUM i was cock o’ hoop to see that the ‘Tasty bust’ documentary had an ‘Allan Jones recommends’ sticker on it, i was this close to purchasing it but grabbed a pic instead, of course the ‘Tasty bust’ documentary tells the story of the Melbourne night club bust where gay and Lesbian patrons were violated and harassed by police officers .. hmmmm, nice touch seeing Allan sticker on the cover next to pictures of pills and a bottle of Amyl nitrite, it’s the thought that maybe during the day these random things will cross my path is what gets me up and going in the morning.
ADVENTURE ISLAND:
Hi ho, Hi ho
It’s far away we go
To a land that’s far across the sea
Hey hey, Hey hey
For a little while we’ll stay
And be home in time for tea
Set sail, set sail
In sunshine or in gale
The fun we’ll have will be really grand
Hurrah, hurrah
Follow the shining star
And come with us to Adventure Island!
Adventure Island was a popular Australian television series for children which screened on the ABC from September 11, 1967 to December 22, 1972 (repeats of the 1969-1972 episodes ran from 1973-1976). The show typically aired from Monday to Friday and each story would stretch across a full week, reaching a resolution on Friday.
Adventure Island was a joint production of Godfrey Productions and the Australian Broadcasting Commission, pre-recorded on videotape at the ABC’s studios in Ripponlea, Melbourne. Production was usually five weeks ahead of broadcast. It was a pantomime-style series set in the kingdom of Diddley-Dum-Diddley. Hostesses were Nancy Cato (not the noted author) from 1967 to 1968 (her final pre-recorded episodes aired at the beginning of 1969) and Sue Donovan from 1969 to 1972.
Characters
Regular characters included:
Liza (Liz Harris)
Clown (John-Michael Howson),
Mrs Flower Potts (Brian Crossley),
Percy Panda (Jack Manuel),
Dodo Panda (1967-1969) (Marion Edward),
Betty Bruin (Carole Walker),
Jim (James Smilie).
Baddies including Fester Fumble (Ernie Bourne), Miser Meanie (Colin McEwan (1967-1968), Robert Essex (1969-1972), Captain Crook (Ernie Bourne), Giggles Goblin (Peter Homewood) and Squire Squeezum (Burt Cooper).
Other characters were played by guest artists such as Vivean Gray (playing Mother Sparkle, who became Mother Tinkle – more famously Mrs Jessup in The Sullivans and Mrs Mangle in Neighbours), Patsy King, Brian Hannan, Frank Rich, Mary Hardy, Angela O’Toole and Lindsay Edwards.
Production
Executive producer Godfrey Philipp had studied television abroad and his main influence in the format of Adventure Island had been The Mickey Mouse Club, with its part-ad lib, part-scripted presentation. Godfrey, together with Nancy Cato, John-Michael Howson and Liz Harris were involved in a similar fantasy-drama program called The Magic Circle Club which screened on ATV0 from 1965 to 1967. When the channel axed the show after 555 episodes for cost reasons in July 1967, the ABC expressed interest in continuing production of the show, however this was nixed by Austarama Television’s refusal to relinquish the rights, so a lookalike programme was devised. Creation of Adventure Island was credited to Howson and Philipp, although it is believed Howson invented the entire setting and characters during a short aeroplane trip in mid-1967. He certainly wrote most of the scripts, with others contributed by Peter Homewood. Howson also wrote four storybooks based on the show.
During the Nancy Cato era, Nancy would open the show from an enchanted wood where she would first banter with puppets Gussie Galah (Colin McEwan), Crispian Cockatoo (Ernie Bourne) and Matilda Mouse (Marion Edward). Nancy would then start reading from the Adventure Island book – the story then being played out for viewers by the actual characters. At the conclusion of the chapter, Nancy would talk to a cat puppet (Ernie Bourne) which was named Samson in a viewer competition early in the show’s run. All the show’s puppets were superbly constructed by Axel Axelrad.
When Sue Donovan took over the hosting role, the structure remained the same but each episode began with a conversation with a house (Mister House, later named Serendipity House in a viewer competition – voiced by Jack Manuel and sometimes Ernie Bourne). Sue would walk into the house where she would ad lib with Crispian Cockatoo (Ernie Bourne) and Gracie Galah (Brian Crossley) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and with Maxie Mouse (Ernie Bourne) and a vertical waveform called Chi on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each show would close with Sue talking to Samson the cat, but on Fridays she would click her fingers and magically transport herself to Diddley-Dum-Diddley for a sitdown chat and a cup of tea with all the characters.
The scripted part of the show – the serialised story – usually involved the inhabitants of Diddley-Dum-Diddley being set upon or tricked in some way by one or more of the “baddies”. On many occasions the dimwitted Clown (with sawdust for a brain and an appalling memory) would save the day with his uncanny ability to see through disguises. The show was highly moralistic with a strong “good over evil” motif in every story.
A notable feature of the show was the music. Nearly every moment of the show was accompanied by instrumental improvisation. Each episode also contained two original songs (generally prerecorded and mimed by the actors), written by musical director Bruce Rowland with lyrics usually by Howson. Rowland later found great fame and respect in the field of movie soundtracks. When he left the show in 1971 many of his songs were reused in later episodes.
As colour television was not introduced in Australia until 1975 no episodes of Adventure Island were made in colour. Many viewers believe they saw the show in colour, but this was mainly due to Paul Cleveland’s brilliantly designed sets and the fact that colour photographs of the show have been published since. In 1971 an American network expressed strong interest in the show, so Howson engineered a method by which the show could be simultaneously videotaped in black-and-white and filmed in colour. However his proposal was met with total disinterest by the ABC and never went ahead.
Cancellation
The show’s axing, announced in mid-1972, was highly controversial and an unprecedented flood of public protest ensued. A group of MPs headed by David Kennedy formed a “Save Adventure Island” campaign during which questions were asked in Parliament. However the campaign was unsuccessful and the final episode, number 1175aired on December 22, 1972. Godfrey Philipp had been the mastermind behind the Australian Labor Party’s successful “It’s Time” campaign, which in 1972 brought about a change in government in Australia for the first time in 22 years, so the decision to cancel Adventure Island may have been politically rather than economically motivated.
THE MAGIC CIRCLE CLUB:
Another memory from the recesses of my mind, at dinner on Tuesday night we got to talking about Adventure Island and The Magic Circle Club.
Thanks to “Have phaser, will travel” for the images.
The Magic Circle Club was a childrens show produced at the ATV0 studios in the 60’s.
Bobby & Laurie was Twoddle & Boddle in The Magic Circle Club.
Living in the Magic Forest were…. Nancy Cato, Fredd & Feefee Bear, Twoddle & Boddle, Marlena DeWitch, Max, Mother Hubbard, Cassius Cuckoo, Leonardo De Funbird.Liz (Liz Harris), Sir Jasper Crookly, Bo Bo the Clown, Hep Cat.
Also Featuring: Max Bartlett, Bunny Brooke, Ernie Bourne, Colin McEwan, Fred Tupper, and John Howson.
The Magic Circle Club was a children’s television show, which aired in Australia on ATV Channel 0 (now ATV-10), from 23 January 1965 to 1967. There were 550 thirty minute episodes. Its roots were those of live pantomime and classic fairy tales, and the show often featured music, original songs and dance routines. Some older female characters were performed by males, in pantomime dame style. Godfrey Philipp was the producer and director, with many scripts and song lyrics by John-Michael Howson. Max Bartlett became a regular script writer in addition to his on-screen roles. Music was by Bruce Rowland and scenery designs by Brian Thomson.
Characters were denizens of the Magic Forest: Fredd Bear (Tedd Dunn, also the costume designer); Fee Fee Bear (John-Michael Howson, billed as John Howson); Mother Matilda Hubbard (Fred Tupper); Max (Max Bartlett); a young Shirley Temple analog, Curley Dimples (Gael Dixon, also the show’s choreographer); enchantress Crystal Ball (Gabrielle Hartley) and her pet, Hep Cat (Nola Finn); Marlena DeWitch (Marion Weir); and villainous Sir Jasper Crookly (Ernie Bourne) and his henchman Gaspar Goblin (Colin McEwan). The show was hosted by Nancy Cato, cousin of author Nancy Cato. A later addition to the cast was Liz (Liz Harris), who also took over as hostess when Nancy Cato suffered temporary paralysis and was confined to a wheelchair.
Episodes were serialized across five days, with the Friday program usually wrapping up the week’s storyline. Each episode finished up with the hostess sitting on a large mushroom, with Fredd crouched beside her (usually after dusting off the stool with a handkerchief), while the pair shared viewers’ letters and artwork. Another regular feature included viewers’ riddles with Cassius Cuckoo, during “Cassius Cuckoo’s Corn Corner”, and limericks with Leonardo de Funbird. These characters were wood and felt bird puppets (created by Axel Axelrad; voiced by Colin McEwan). Cassius inhabited a longcase cuckoo clock next to Mother Hubbard’s cupboard in The Magic Cottage, and Leonardo lived inside the IKAN (Instantaneous Knowledge Accumulation Network) computer.
Recurring guest characters included BoBo the clown, Montmorency James Rabbit, Sebastian Bear, and Aunty Vale (Bunney Brooke). Twoddle & Boddle (Laurie Allen and Bobby Bright, aka Bobby & Laurie of The Go!! Show) were analogs of Tweedledee & Tweedledum, characters the pair had played previously in a pantomime. Max Bartlett often played additional guest characters, including King Size of nearby Enchantmentland, wicked innkeeper Simon Sneak, of the Cross and Bones, or Mother Hubbard’s accident-prone great-nephew, Claude Clumsy. Ernie Bourne and Colin McEwan often doubled up roles to play guest villains. Even Nancy Cato played a chambermaid, Sweet Nelly, in a Barbary Coast pirate storyline.
A specially written Magic Circle Club episode, “The Stolen Smile”, was performed live on stage at the Tivoli Theatre (Melbourne) from December 27, 1965. In this adventure, Sir Jasper and Gaspar had banished Clocko the chief clown (Max Bartlett, again playing a dual role), and Spangles the trapeze artist (Gael Dixon), from their circus, and taken away Clocko’s smile. Appearing on stage with Max, Curley and Nancy were Fredd, Fee Fee, Mother Hubbard, Crystal, Hep Cat, Montmorency, Cassius and Leonardo, all played by the regular TV cast. This production was stage managed by Sue Nattras, Simon Wincer and Jim McElroy.[1]
The TV series won the first Logie Award presented to a children’s show. When ATV axed the show for cost reasons, ABC TV wanted to buy it, but ATV refused. This led to the start up of the program Adventure Island on the ABC, with some of the cast and writers from the Magic Circle Club.
TV director and costume designer Tedd Dunn stayed with Channel 0. He played the Fredd Bear character (Channel 0’s answer to the Nine Network’s more enduring Humphrey B. Bear) two years after the Magic Circle Club’s demise, as co-host of Fredd Bear’s Breakfast-A-Go-Go.
OOOOOOOH, I’LL GEH YU BUH-LAH:
Vale Reg Varney, this guy made me laugh so much when i was little, i totally got off on the camp value of ‘On the buses’, of course my favorite character was Olive who was always trying to make sexy time with her impotent husband ‘Arfar’, any time Olive got spikey Arfar would baulk and say ‘Not tonight my love, otherwise i’ll have to have another operation’.
PURE GOLD:
Now you all know the secret on how i keep my figure such as i do, i follow Patti Newton’s excersice guide to the letter, right down to the leotard and leg warmers.
LITTLE BRITAIN OUTTAKE:
You have to be a hair trigger finger to get a screen capture like this, ‘Pleased to meet you .. ‘
WORK AND STUDY:
Greg and Phillip at work and study on a freezing Sunday afternoon.
This past weekend i had Phillip staying with me, it was a bit of a packed two days, Friday brought a welcome visitor and ALMOST a visit to Tingle Manor by Davey Lane, Saturday i was up bright and early to get to Newtown by 9.00am to continue training for my Certificate III in Phone Counselling, after that it was a stroll up King St and running into buddy, friend and pal Viv who led me astray into the arms of the worlds best Gelato then a call from Barb’s had me racing over to Alexandria for pizza with herself and Lynne, then Phillip called and it was time for me to head back down the foggy mountain where i stopped in at Franks in Bulli and gathered Phillip to come back to Tingle Manor for a visit and sleep over, Sunday was breakfast at the beach at
Diggies then shopping in town where i hoped to lock horns with the cute, and bulgingly packaged and shaved of body hair but ultimately bad of service guy in General Pants who i know has not ordered the shorts he told me he was going to, alas he was not working this day so my anger and emotion had to be channeled elsewhere so it was a command to Phillip ‘Off to JB Hi Fi we must go!’ but alas i was left unsated there as well with the dvd i was after not released yet, so off home we went with Phillip settling to do some work from home and me settling down to my first homework since ..oh, the early eighties?.
PAT MULLINS:
The Tingle archive trawl continues to cough up gems, here is a pic of my fave charactor from ‘We can be heroe’s’, i remember watching the first episode of this show and being totally sucked in for the first ten minutes or so, then i woke up to what was going on, this show was the best and when Pat shockingly died at the end i actually shed a tear, love the above photo of Pat, you even get to see a tantalising hint of Pat’s raised ‘Herman Munster’ shoe to accomodate her uneven leg lengths.
MOZZA:
I’m saving my coins, i just found out Morrissey is coming back to Aussie in 2009, cant believe how hot this photo is, he is such an astoundingly handsome man.
BUT IT HER-ETTS:
Over the past few weeks i’ve been having a few oral ‘iss-eew’s’ i went back to the dentist on Thursday and the dentist told me they would be cleaning UNDER my gums with an ultrasonic machine that would have given Dr Evil a stiffy, she asked if i was good with pain and i thought (i think silently) ‘Hmmmmm, well they say it’s a fine line between pleasure and pain’ so i said i should be right, i was trying to be cool but it became surreal, the pain, the noise and the fact that she was wearing a top that had a pattern of little teeth printed all over it, tho some of these blouse teeth must have been naughty as they had frowns and most others had smiles, i have no idea what that was supposed to mean, but mixed with the industrial instruments hovering over me and the top spun obviously not of material from Spotlight, i was left slightly dazed by the whole experience. I’ve made another appointment for four weeks time, like they say ‘It’s a fine line .. ‘
