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Observer SCRUMPTIOUS STATE EDITION Vol 45 No 1501 SERVING VICTORIA SINCE 1969
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2013
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PHILOSOPHER’S SCRAPBOOK HISTORIC REPRINT OF THE 1950s BOOK BY 3DB’S MONTY BLANDFORD
Introduction
PART ONE: 4-PAGE LIFTOUT
■ For the past 18 years I have been broadcasting my Philosopher's Scrap Book to listeners in Victoria. It is a selection of writings from hundreds of sources compiled originally with one aim in view- to entertain. Over the years, through the medium of thousands of letters, and hundreds of personal meetings, I have been encouraged to believe that the Philosopher's Scrap Book has been, and still is, a source of spiritual and philosophical comfort to a large number of listeners, and gradually I have been endowed with the character of a homely philosopher, welcomed in thousands of homes every Sunday morning. Few of the words I broadcast are mine, but I accept the responsibility of choosing them, and that, combined with a desire to do their meaning justice -allows me to accept the spirit at least, of the vast number of encouraging and laudatory letters I have received. Many of them contain requests for copies of excerpts from the Scrap Book. Because of circumstances beyond my control, I am not always able to supply these - so I have chosen this method of making available to a very kind public a selection of the most sought after items. I acknowledge my deep debt of gratitude to all those people who, over the years, have supplied me with original compositions. Many of them have found their way into this book. It has been no easy task to make the selection, but it has been a labour of love, and if in these pages you find words which will bring a smile to your lips, happiness to your heart, and understanding to your mind, then I shall indeed be richly rewarded. - Monty Blandford "I shall pass through this world but once; Any good therefore, that I can do, Or any kindness I can show To any human being, Let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."
2013 THEATRE LATEST Pages 68-69
Anthology of prose and verse ■ Philosopher's Scrap Book is an anthology of prose and verse compiled by Monty Blandford after repeated re quests from radio listeners over the 18 years. The reading of these everlasting gems kept his listeners enthralled - thousands of letters were received for copies of certain articles. These were not available and the idea was born in Monty Blandford's mind to publish this book so that his listeners could obtain the most appreciated works. Certain articles influenced the lives of many people and they will continue to do so. The reader will find that its influence will be transferred to their life - it will lead them along the road to better understanding of their fellow men. Its sincerity of purpose, and its blending of charm and pathos will compel you to think and reflect over the meanings so admirably expressed by writers recognised as great by literary people throughout the world. During your leisure moments gather your family and friends around you and read aloud a few pages - you will hold their enthusiasm and will find yourself becoming a philosopher-living accord ing to the rules of practical wisdom. As an anthology alone, it will be found of immense value to those who like to keep by them quotations and accounts from works known and loved. "
● Monty Blandford
Father forgets
Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside. These are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor. At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on you bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Good-bye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!" Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were
holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boy friends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive - and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!. Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in, timidly, with a sort of a hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped. You said nothing but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affec tion that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, patter ing up the stairs. Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth.
It was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me goodnight. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed ! It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy ... a little boy!" I am afraid I have visualised you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much. - W. Livingston Larned
LIFTOUT INSIDE
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■ Rachael Beck stars as “Truly Scrumptious’ in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which opened this week at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Julie Houghton gives a glowing review for the show (Page 5). Opening night photos are on Page 11.
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THE FARNHAM WEDDING: DENIALS AND DRAMAS
■ When Melbourne-based pop magazine Go-Set lodged its advertising copy with radio station 3AK on February 1, 1973, it unleashed one of Australia’s biggest showbiz stories of the year. Go-Set columnist Ian Meldrum, now known universally as ‘Molly’, was breaking the story that ‘King of Pop’ Johnny Farnham was to marry his 17-year-old sweetheart Jillian Billman, a dancer. The 3AK newsroom got onto the story ... which was promptly denied
See inside
by bride-to-be Jill, and the pop star’s manager Darryl Sambell. Then followed a week of further denials and name-calling ... until GoSet Editor Ed Nimmervoll went to press with a copy of the wedding invitation, and Meldrum’s breathless 1000-word explanation, proving his claim. Meldrum, then 30, was making his name in the music industry as a producer, critic and journalist. It was long before the days of the familiar Stetson hat and Countdown.
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A star’s wedding that made headlines, 40 years ago
■ In 1973, Johnny Farnham was at his peak as a teen pop idol in Melbourne. Long before he became an adult contemporary singer, Farnham’s days in the spotlight started in 1964 as a singer with The Mavericks and Strings Unlimited. When he performed at Cohuna in 1967 with Bev Harrell, her boyfriend Darryl Sambell offered to become his manager. Farnham recorded an advertising jingle Susan Jones for Ansett ANA and was offered a solo record contract with EMI. His first commercially successful recording was a novelty song entitled Sadie (The Cleaning Lady). Pop magazine Go-Set ran a poll to determine the 'King of Pop' which was first won by Normie Rowe for 1967–1968. When TV Week sponsored the 'King of Pop' awards, readers forwarded their votes from coupons, and Farnham won the most popular male award and was crowned 'King of Pop' five consecutive times from 1969–1973. So when Ian Meldrum broke the story in Go-Set of the Farnham wedding, it was huge news ... especially when it was denied by Sambell and the bride-to-be.
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● Johnny Farnham, as he was then known, and Jillian Billman tie the knot at St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Glenroy, on April 18, 1973. When the couple arrived they were confronted by thousands of fans. Most of the adoring female fans hated Jillian and even tried to rip her dress when she walked past. After the wedding the Farnhams enjoyed their honeymoon on Brampton Island.
Most of his Go-Set work was typed up by his secretary, Glenys Long (no relation), with Meldrum pacing the office as he dictated. Meldrum explained that he had tried to contact Farnham six times before publishing the story. “I rang Jillian at her home in Glenroy nad asked if she had any objection to the story going into the paper. Jillian’s reply was that she didn’t ● Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum went to press with a copy of his invitation mind at all.” Meldrum went to air on 3AK that to Johnny Farnham’s wedding, after it was denied by his manager he would stake his whole career on Darryl Sambell. Go Set’s original story was carried in the February 3 edition in 1973, 40 years ago. the accuracy of the story. A “rather fierce argument” erupted with Sambell who accused Molly of betraying a confidence. Later, Sambell “congratulated me on the story and then said he would made the story look ridiculous because he and John would deny any knowledge of any wedding”. “He also said that if there was any wedding, then it was off, because the Billman and Farnham families (were) feuding.” Meldrum’s report went on to say that he believed Sambell feared that any wedding reports might kill Farnham’s popularity with his female fans. He revealed that Jill had received death threats from some “twisted people”. Meldrum, in his trade-mark style, detailed the to-and-fro of arguments, confusion, drama and denials surrounding the story. Go-Set Editor Ed Nimmervoll wrote: “We have proved in this instance we are a responsible magazine ... always first and authoritative.” The wedding, originally scheduled as a double wedding with sister Judy and her fiancé Vincent Grech on March 29, finally went ahead on April 18. In 2011, Farnham told the Sydney Daily Telegraph of the day he first saw Jill: “The first time I saw Jill, I just knew. She was coming out of rehearsals at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne. She had long hair and big eyes. I just thought, oh! And that was it.” He said it took him three months to get a kiss: “She thought I was gay, as ● Jillian and John Farnham have only one photograph of their own most of the country did back then. I from their wedding at St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Glenroy, in had a lot of gay fans. I was very lucky; 1973. The photographer that was hired disappeared after the certhey loved me to death.” emony ... negatives and all.
● Turn To Page 67
MARK RICHARDSON’S PORCH THOUGHTS: PAGE 22
Page 2 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Kiss Me Like You Mean It
■ Robert Gaetano and Carly Shaw join as Marc Up Productions to present Kiss Me Like You Mean It at The Owl And The Pussycat in Richmond from February 13-23. It is written by Chris Chibnall, and directed by Kate Shearman.
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Golden Days
Illapu to perform in Melb.
● Publicist Julie Cavanagh says Illapu, an ensemble founded by four brothers from Antofagasta in northern Chile, will perform at Dallas Brooks Hall, East Melbourne on Saturday, March 2. Bookings ($89) can be made through Ticketek.
● Pagna Helav met 3AW’s Philip Brady this week at Beejans Cafe, Walpole St, Kew.
Jersey Boys returns
● Desi Leary
■ Desi Leary, producer of the Denis Walter afternoon radio program on 3AW, was pictured at the opening night of Jersey Boys at the Princess Theatre. The return season features the performances of Jeff Madden as Frankie Valli, Declan Egan as Bob Gaudio,Anthony Harkin as Tommy DeVito, and Glaston Toft as Nick Massi. The opening night crowd included Denise Scott, Stefan Dennis, Stephanie Alexander, Blair McDonough and Kristi Townley, Brian Mannix, Patti Newton, Julia Zemiro, Renee Geyer, Alannah Hill, Ryan Moloney, Kate Langbroek and Em Rusciano. ● More photos, Page 11
● Geoff Phillips ■ Geoff Phillips is making a return to Golden Days Radio 95.7 after several years away with business activities and other community radio stations. He will be presenting 5pm-8pm Thursdays, commencing February 14.Geoff developed the GDR logo and the station jingle .
At Crown Melbourne
Donna blitzes Tinsel Town PHOTO: FACEBOOK
● 3AW reporter Donna Demaio was one of the recipients of hospitality from Swisse and Qantas for the ‘G’day LA’ junkets in West Hollywood last month. Donna is pictured with Hugh Jackman.
Mark given the Third Degree
● Bob Richardson and Freemasons Victoria Grand Master Bob Jones were at Mount Waverley for Observer columnist Mark Richardson’s third degree ceremony in January. So too was Past Grand Master Vaughan Werner.
PHOTO: SUE DEENIM
● Showbiz reporter Peter Ford and Observer columnist Di Rolle were spotted at Crown Melbourne.
Angels visit Father Bob ■ Fr Bob Maguire was in Cabrini Hospital early last month for treatment for CIDP (Chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy) which involves nerve swelling and irritation that leads to a loss of strength or sensation. Fr Bob had a number of visits including one from friends Suzanne Carbone and Natalie Grosby, before being transferred to Hopetoun House. Fr Bob has been calling for Melburnians to donate blood to help people with this and other conditions. ● Suzanne Carbone with Fr Bob Maguire at Cabrini Hospital. Photo: Sue Deenim
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 3
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The hottest news about Melbourne’s A-listers
The Buzz
Honour for Ted Hamilton
4000 Miles
● Ted Hamilton
● Julia Blake ■ Actress Julia Blake will join Red Stitch ensemble members Tim Ross and Ngaire Dawn Fair in the Australian premiere of Amy Herzog's critically acclaimed 4000 Miles, a tale that explores the relationship between a grandson who can’t face his life and a grandmother who struggles to remember hers. It plays from Friday (Feb. 8) until March 9 at rear 2 Chapel St, St Kilda.
■ Entertainer Ted Hamilton has been recognised in the Australia Day Honours for services to the performing arts. Ted, 75, was one of the pioneers of the Australian TV industry, involved in the early days of In Melbourne Tonight, and as part of the Division Four team. His OAM follows his career which included Revue 61/62, The Ted Hamilton Show and The Pirate Movie. Ted was Founder of the TV Make It Australian campaign. ● Turn To Page 5
Under The Clocks Arlene’s book: ‘Love, Lust and Lies’
GOODBYE MISS PAT
Doc is on air
● Dr David Dammery ■ Dr David Dammery is presenting a health and wellness program at 10.15am each Wednesday on Golden Days Radio 95.7. David is covering a wide variety of health issues. Listeners are encourage our listeners to send in new topics either by email to mail@goldendaysradio.com or by phone to 9572 1466.
● ‘Mr Squiggle’ with TV-radio identity Patricia Lovell ■ Past and present Victorian employees of the ABC are amongst those mourning the passing of Patricia Lovell at the age of 83, after a battle with cancer. Known best as producer of the Victorian-based film, Picnic At Hanging Rock, Pat started work at the ABC, first as a librarian, and then as a radio actor for children’s radio shows including The Argonauts. Later she also presented regular shifts on ABC Radio. Soon after TV was introduced to Australia, Lovell was asked to partner a puppet named Mr Squiggle in what would become one of Australia’s longest running children’s TV shows, working for 15 years, between 1960 to 1975. She went on to produce other highly successful Australian films including Gallipolli, Break Of Day and Monkeygrip. Pat Lovell was awarded an MBE and an Order of Australia and also received the Raymond Longford Award from the Australian Film Institute in 2004. She is survived by her two children Simon and Jenny, who were with her when she died, on Australia Day. Arts Centre Melbourne’s Morning Melodies concert series returns in ★ 2013 to Hamer Hall with 10 concerts by some of Australia’s favourite musicians, include songstress Katie Noonan, David Hobson, and trumpeter James Morrison (who opens this month with Hetty Kate).
Melbourne Moments Cat Empire plays
KZ radio reunion
■ Cat Empire will play this Sunday (Feb. 10), the final day of the St Kilda Festival,. It is Australia’s largest free music festival, a nine-day celebration of arts and music. The Cat Empire plays a mash of jazz-funk and hip-hop jams. The band has garnered a massive international following. Festival Producer Adele Denison said the announcement highlights Festival Sunday as one of the premier all-Australian music festivals. where Beloved acts appear alongside established and up-and-coming musicians from around the country.
■ Melbourne radio man Mike Menner advises that there will be a reunion for former 3KZ, KZ-FM and Gold 104.3 FM staff at the Glenferrie Hotel, 324 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn, from 12 Noon on Sunday, February 24. The invitation is strictly for ex-staff and partners. Cost is $20 per person which includes finger food. Pub lunch is available at the hotel. Those wishing to attend are asked to respond by 10pm, Sunday, February 17. Contact Marilyn Rouhard, 0414 873 988 or radio3kz@hotmail.com
● Mike Menner
● Singer Guy Mitchell with Arlene Andrewartha ■ Melbourne's former bombshell model, Arlene Andrewartha, is putting the final touches to her tell-all book revealing the famous, the lecherous and the behind-the scenes characters in her industry. In a book being edited by Desmond Zwar, she talks of her long romance with Collingwood's Murray Weideman and the Hollywood directors who tried to 'pass her around'.
Opening Day ■ Louise Barling of the Old Post Office Seymour says Opening Day of the 2013 Wild Art exhibition takes place from 11am-4pm on Sunday (Feb. 10).
At Abbotsford ■ Andrew Evans of the C3 Contemporary Art Space at the Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St, says the exhibition will run until February 17.
Tubular Bells ■ Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells for Two, arranged and performed by Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts, will play a second performance at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, 7pm and 9.15pm on Friday, February 15. Publicist Di Rolle says tickets may be booked through www.melbournerecital.com.au or phone 9699 3333.
What’s On In Melbourne
Lynsey Poore, voluntary guide with the Royal Botanic Gardens, ★ Melbourne, will give a talk on ‘Gardens Of Paris’, at the Mueller Hall, National Herbatorium, Birdwood Ave, at 6pm for 6pm on Wednesday next week (Feb. 13). Cost for non-members is $25. Phone: 9650 6398. Triple M panel operator Dylan Leach helped organise the two-day celebration broadcast for SYN 90.7 FM at its new studios last week. The community youth station involved 40 former broadcasters in the celebrations. Local artist Pamela Irving will open her presentation at 12.30pm today (Wed.) at the Glen Eira City Council Gallery. It includes her most recent public art commission for the Luna Park centenary.
★ ★
Page 4 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
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G P O
GOSSIP CENTRAL
Other People’s Gossip
● Melbourne photographer Jim Lee was on duty at the ACTAA Awards in Sydney on Wednesday.
Back home
New centre at Chadstone PHOTO: FACEBOOK
● Keira Scott ■ Thousands followed the news of this young lady’s birth, in the days of the old Overnighters radio program hosted by Keith McGowan. Keira Scott, daughter of entertainer Brendan Scott and wife Christine, last week had her first day at school.
● Jamie Redfern with Wendy Clair in 1979 ■ Jamie Redfern is to open a new centre in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Jim sent a Facebook message to friends: “We will be opening a terrific performing arts centre later this year in the Chadstone area or thereabouts (looking for a suitable venue at the moment) - along with this beautiful little girl (who is just a tiny bit grown up nowadays). Wendy has always been like a real little sister to me - and it will be great working with her. Both Judy and myself are really looking forward to creating more schools, with Wendy as our second (or is that third) in command.”
At ‘Jersey Boys’
Movers and Shakers ■ Actors Rohan Browne and Christie Whelan-Browne have been holidaying in Noosa, Queensland. Despite the storm weather on the Sunshine Coast, they have been having a fabulous time.
Abreast of it ■ There was no thanks to a social photographer when she discreetly told a Mebourne glamour girl that she had a nipple showing. It all happened on the red carpet at the Aussie Millions welcome party at Crown Melbourne.
SHOWBIZ CONFIDENTIAL ‘Ridiculous’
First day at school
‘Clark Kent’
● Julia Gillard ■ Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that the Federal Election will be held on Saturday, September 14. She was sporting a new pair of spectacles when making the announcement. One Internet wit said it was the ‘Clark Kent’ effect: “put on a pair of glasses, and hope that noone recognises you”.
News aggregated from Facebook, Twitter and other online media
● Helen Kapalos ■ Former Channel 10 newsreader Helen Kapalos has attacked an article by Michael Sheather in Australian Women’s Weekly. “Please ignore the ridiculous headline on an article about me in the Women's Weekly. #tabloidcrap #setup,” Helen said on Twitter. The feature was headlined on the NineMSN website as: “Helen Kapolos on divorce, TV and taking on Tracy.” Their spelling.
33 Things ● Glaston Toft, appearing in Jersey Boys at the Princess Theatre, met with the Melbourne Observer’s Kevin Trask. The show continues until March 24.
Hitch’s 40 years at 9
Ring of confidence ■ LK Jewellery has been named as Official Jewellery Supplier of the 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship. The partnership involves LK Jewellery supplying the 26 championship rings and the widely-cherished diamond-encrusted ‘Main Event’ champion’s bracelet, representing the game’s ultimate achievement.
● Megan Castran and Hugh Jackman ■ Megan Castran has returned home to Toorak after a January in America where she met with actor Hugh Jackman, Eric Stonestreet from Modern Family, Anthony Hopkins and Richard Simmons. Megan was accompanied on her trip by husband Paul and daughter Zoe.
● Rohan Browne and Christie Whelan-Browne ■ Former Victorian radio identity Ric Melbourne jetted into Brisbane during last week’s wild weather, after an overseas holiday. “Try landing in THAT,” he told friends. The former 3DB-3KZ-3AK personality said that he was using an old camp stove during the cyclonic weather. ■ Melbourne social scene identities Natalie Grosby, Nicki Wendt and Christian Wagstaff will be holidaying in Hawaii at Easter, just eight weeks away. Christian took a break at a Queensland Gold Coast hinterland retreat in early January.
● Dave O’Neil ■ Comedian Dave O’Neil is staging a new stand-up show, 33 Things I Should Have Said NO To at the Comedy Festival. The show will be at the Hairy Little Sista Upstairs Lounge, 240 Lt Collins St, from March 28-April 21.
‘My players’
To France ■ 3AW night-time personality Philip Brady is planning a trip to holy spots in France later this year. Brady, and companion Gill Andrew, and fellow members of a Kew congregation are planning the trip with their parish priest. Brady also has plans for a trip to Vietnam in 2013. Nightline producer Simon Owens has been on vacation in Queensland.
PHOTO: FACEBOOK
● Peter Hitchener with Luke Dennehy ■ Nine newsreader Peter Hitchener celebrated his 40-year anniversary at Channel 9 with a special dinner on Wednesday at Vue Du Monde. The function was hosted by Tracy Grimshaw and Tony Jones. Special congratulatory messages were taped by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Nine legend Bert Newton.
● Observer Editor Ash Long with Natalie Grosby at the Aussie Millions welcome party at Crown last week.
● Eddie McGuire ■ Colingwood Football Club President Eddie McGuire took to referring to Magpies as “my players” last week. McGuire used the phrase on his Triple M Hot Breakfast radio show, and also in a special Herald Sun column. Let’s hope his ego allows him to share his players with club supporters.
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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 5
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VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS WIN Observer IN CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG In This 76-Page Edition
Photos: Jersey Boys opening night ........ Page 6 News: Magistrate to face Court ............ Page 7 Di Rolle: Fiona Byrne joins Sofitel ......... Page 8 Melb. Confidential: 3AW’s Aust. Day link . Page 9 Court Rounds: $100m damages case ... Page 10 Photos: Chitty Chitty opening night ...... Page 11 Long Shots: The Editor’s column .......... Page 12 Yvonne Lawrence: Life and style ........... Page 13 Crime: Life and crimes of ‘Cooka’ ........ Page 14 Readers’ Club: Birthdays, fun .............. Page 15 Extra: Ray Milland, by Kevin Trask ........ Page 16 Celebrity Photos Jim Sherlock Aaron Rourke Cheryl Threadgold
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Latest News Flashes Around Victoria
Stole client’s money ● David Hobson and Roger Hodgman ■ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang hits the spot where a fantasy musical is called for - the Mary Poppins team of Richard and Robert Sherman were also behind this musical, so it's no surprise that it works. Many adults will remember the Dick Van Dyke film, and wonder if the story will still have its magic several decades on, or whether you have to be a child to enjoy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the musical? The short answer is an emphatic no - a polished cast brings life and heart to an oldfashioned story that has its goodies and baddies, and while there is some darkness, virtue and happiness triumph in the end. Along the way we are swept into the hilarious evil of Vulgaria with its Nazi connotations, and at times I was reminded of bits of Dad's Army! To enjoy Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you don't have to be young, but you do need a sense of fun and a readiness to go along with the fantasy and believe that this car really does have magical properties - thanks to the brilliance of the stage technicians, this is very easy to believe. A flying car in a theatre? Well, why not?
● Simon Owens and son Ethan, 6
By Julie Houghton at Her Majesty’s Theatre Costumes are a visual feast, a true riot of colour, except in the few dark scenes where they are appropriately muted. Performances were uniformly excellent. Opera star David Hobson proved his versatility with a lovely tone to his singing, and real warmth to his acting as the widowed, fond father and inventor, Caractacus Potts. Hobson also proved that he's no slouch when it comes to dance moves, so could a new career as a triple threat be opening up for him? Rachael Beck as Truly Scrumptious is well named - she is a modern day sassy version of Julie Andrews, with a strong stage charisma, beautiful singing voice and the ability to make everyone simply love her. This lady is a star. Beau Woodbridge and Lucille le Meledo as Jeremy and Jemima proved that while they both have famous parents (Beau is tennis champ Todd Woodbridge's son while Lucille's mother is music theatre star Debra Byrne),
OAM HONOUR FOR TED
● Ted Hamilton on the TV Week front cover in 1962
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● Mike Larkan with Suzanne Carbone they are quite capable of making their own marks as stage performers, with a natural charm that was most endearing. Veteran stage actor Peter Carroll as daffy Grandfather Potts was another lovable character, while former Young Talent Timer of the 1970s, Philip Gould, made a charming and believable toymaker. Of the baddies, duo Todd Goddard and George Kapiniaris as Boris and Goran were the irresistible comic relief, while Alan Brough and Jennifer Vuletic put in stylish turns as the powerful Baron and Baroness they combined evil with a sense of the ridiculous that was enchanting. The serious baddie of the piece was the always wonderful Tyler Coppin as the Child Catcher. A chilling character who created a true sense of evil whenever he appears - a masterly characterisation from this fine actor. Director Roger Hodgman and musical director Peter Casey have done a fine job, and it would be a hardhearted theatregoer indeed who doesn't enjoy this sweet, traditional musical. - Julie Houghton
■ Ted Hamilton was awarded the OAM in the 2013 Australia Day honours list. for his contribution to the performing arts and to the community. Ted has been a singer, composer, playwright, international sportsman, actor and entrepreneur in a career that has spanned more than 50 years. His television acting credits included Senior Constable Kevin Dwyer in Division Four, the Captain in the pilot of the American television series The Love Boat, guest roles in many television shows such as M*A*S*H, The Six Million Dollar Man and Hawaii Five-O. He was more recently seen as Merlin in Guinevere Jones. In the early 1970s Ted Hamilton was founder and chairman of the: ‘TV-Make it Australian Committee’, a group that pushed to have Australian culture represented by local productions on Australian TV stations, and a mandated quota for Australian drama. In 1981 Ted starred in the The Pirate Movie with Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNicol. Ted and his partner David Joseph produced The Pirate Movie, which was the first Australian film to receive a general release in the US. Ted has composed songs that have been recorded by famous artists such as Dean Martin. In 2007 Ted Hamilton was appointed as an Australia Day Ambassador and has worked in this role for the past six years. Ted has written a new children's musical which is titled SOS Earth and is currently working on bringing this new Australian musical to - Kevin Trask the stage.
Weather Forecast ■ Today (Wed.) Fine. Mon. 17. Max. 35.. ■ Thurs. Partly cloudy. 18. 33. ■ Fri. Fine. 18. 31. ■ Sat. Fine. 16. 30 ■ Sun. Few showers. 17. 22. ■ Mon. Partly cloudy. 15. 24. ■ Tue. Few showers. 16. 23.
■ Frankston insurance broker Bruce Wickett this week pleaded guilty to stealing more than $660,000 of clients’ money over a seven-month period. He appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with three counts of theft totalling $662,198.39 between August 2010 and March 2011. He is to appear in the County Court on April 18 for a plea hearing.
Profit up to $42 mil. ■ Etihad Airways, led by Coburg-bred James Hogan, this week reported a net profit of US$42 million in 2012, up 200 per cent on 2011 (US$14 million) in a year which saw strong improvements in revenues and passenger numbers
Cost cuts at Nine ■ Nine Network staff have until February 15 to take voluntary redundancies, after CEO David Gyngell announced cost cutting.
To be sentenced ■ Former secondary school teacher Dennis Stewart, 50, will be sentenced on Monday for committing sex acts against students as young as 12. The Court heard Stewart invited a number of boys to his home over a two-year period, asking some of them about the size of their genitals and whether they were gay.
Women vs women ■ Schoolyard fights and blues in bars are driving Geelong's increase in violence against women, Police told the Geelong Advertiser.
Mike McColl Jones
Top 5 THE TOP 5 REAL REASONS THE PRIME MINISTER CALLED THE ELECTION SO EARLY 5. She needs that long to count all the Pink Batts that are left over. 4. She wants to avoid any more natural disasters (that is ... members of her government). 3. She pressed the wrong button on her iPhone. 2. She thought Tony Abbott was Jewish. 1. She has signed a deal with Spec-Savers.
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Page 6 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Melbourne People
Jersey Boys Opening Night The Princess Theatre
● Denise Scott with Sally-Anne Upton
● Heidi Victoria with daughter Charlie, 9
● Christine Carbone with Fleur Long
● Simon Parris with Coral Drouyn
● Linda Freedman, Bruce Pollack with socialite Angela Ceberano
● Lillian and Richard Frank at Jersey Boys
● Frances and Dean Felton at the Princess Theatre
● John Foreman, Michelle Van Raay, Billy Baxter
● Helen and Lawrence Money arrive at the theatre
● Cate and Kevin Trask
● Simon and Elizabeth Plant
● David and Annie Mann at opening night
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 7
www.MelbourneObserver.com.au Melbourne
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Breaking News
MAGISTRATE TO FACE COURT Jimmy and Sally
Briefs
Listen to the Melbourne Observer on your radio WEDNESDAYS 1.15AM. Jim Sherlock discusses movies/ DVDs with Andrew McLaren. www.3aw.com.au
Closing
10AM. Editor Ash Long talks with Denis Scanlan on The Pulse 94.7 www.947thepulse.com 10PM. Rob Foenander presents Country Crossroads on Casey 97.7 FM www.3ser.org.au ■ The Sunday Herald Sun is killing its Sunday magazine on February 24. It will be replaced by Sunday Style, under Editor-in-Chief Kerrie McCallum of News Life Media. It will feature Melbourne’s Jane Kennedy as a columnist.
● Jane Kennedy
Honour
● Ray Hazen ■ The work of Ray Hazen, volunteer CEO of the Southern Community Media Association, was recognised in the Australia Day Honours with the award of an OAM. Hazen has been involved in broadcasting for 18 years, beginning with 2 State FM at Barham.
THURSDAYS
PHOTO COURTESY: HERALD & WEEKLY TIMES
● Simon Cooper ■ Victorian magistrate Simon Mitchell Cooper, 55, of Brighton, is due to face Court on April 5 for a committal mention after being charged with attempted rape and indecent assault. Police last month laid 12 charges, and executed search warrants at Cooper’s home and his office at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Cooper was too ill to face Court on January 17, his defence counsel Paul Galbally told Chief Magistrate Peter Lauritsen. Cooper’s bail was extended. The offences allegedly occurred in 1984 and 1986. There are two male complainants. Cooper was appointed as a Magistrate in February last year. He was admitted as a lawyer in 1980.
9.15AM. Editor Ash Long talks with Bob and Judy Phillips on 3RPP. www.rppfm.com.au 10PM. Kevin Trask presents The Time Tunnel with Walter Williams www.4bc.com.au
FRIDAYS AM. Ted Ryan talks racing with Denis Scanlan on The Pulse 94.7 www.947thepulse.com ● Pictured: Jimmy Barnes with Sally Freud
‘NOT FIT TO TEACH’
■ Victorian school teacher Ms Tuyet Bach Pham has been declared “not fit to teach” by the State’s Victorian Institute of Teaching. Ms Pham has had her teacher registration suspended, and conditions have been composed on her returning to the classroom, says Anne Sarros, Chair of the VIT’s Disciplinary Proceedings Committee. The suspension is effective from December 17 last year until June 30. Ms Pham has been ordered to have a “minimum of six monthly counselling sessions with a registered psychologist of her choice and at her expense”, as a condition of being registered.. Ms Pham must supply a psychologist’s letter that says Ms Pham “accepts and understands her guilt for the offence”. Ms Pham must understand how her behaviour breached the
Melbourne Observations with Matt Bissett-Johnson
JACKI TO STAR IN MTC PRODUCTION
2.30PM. Jim Sherlock talks movies/DVDs with Denis Walter on 3AW www.3aw.com.au
SUNDAYS 9AM. Mike McColl Jones talks the Top 5 with Bob Phillips on 3RPP. www.rppfm.com.au 12 NOON. Kevin Trask presents That’s Entertainment on 96.5FM. www.innerfm.org.au 8.20PM. Kevin Trask presents The Time Tunnel on Remember When. www.3aw.com.au
Victorian Teaching Institute Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct, “and in particular her legal obligations as a teacher and the conduct and behaviour required of a teacher”. Ms Pham must give the Institute a detailed explanation of the circumstances of the offence. Ms Pham must detail “what strategies she will implement to ensure she does not repeat the offence”. The report is to be submitted by Ms Pham “no later than two weeks after June 30”, Ms Sarros states.
MONDAYS 2PM. Yvonne Lawrence presents Life And Style on 3WBC 94.1FM www.3wbc.org.au 8PM. Len Baker presents Harness Review on 97.9FM www.979fm.net ● Jacki Weaver and Donna Demaio at ‘G’day LA’ ■ Academy Award-nominee Jacki Weaver will make a stage appearance in June for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Solomon and Marion. “We’re thrilled for Jacki that she’s received her second Oscar nomination in just three years, and we’re absolutely delighted to welcome her back to the Australian stage for Solomon and Marion,” said MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy. “In programming our 2013 Season I asked Jacki what role she was most passionate about performing, and after seeing Solomon and Marion in Cape Town she chose it, saying that the play was ‘very close to her heart’.” Solomon and Marion is an awardwinning South African play by Lara Foot. This Australian premiere is directed by Pamela Rabe and also stars Pacharo Mzembe. Venue: Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio Season dates: June 7-July 20 Opening night: Wednesday, June 12 at 8pm Bookings: Southbank Theatre Box Office 8688 0800 or mtc.com.au; Arts Centre Melbourne 1300 182 183 or artscentremelbourne.com.au
10PM. Kevin Trask presents Memories Are Made Of This on 4BC www.4bc.com.au
TUESDAYS 6AM. Rob Foenander presents The Big Breakfast on 88.3 Southern FM www.southernfm.com.au
ALSO BE LISTENING FOR Julie Houghton discusses the arts on 3MBS-FM, 3MBS Digital, Online www.3mbs.org.au
AND WATCH FOR Country Crossroads TV show on Aurora Channel 183, Foxtel www.aurora.tv
✔ IN PRINT: Your weekly newspaper, across Victoria ✔ ONLINE: Available worldwide ✔ ON RADIO: Online ✔ ON TV: On Foxtel
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Page 8 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Difference in a day
● Simon Palomares ■ Happy New Year to everyone! What a difference a Christmas makes! It reminds me of the classic song written by songwriters Maria Grever and Stanley Adams and performed superbly by Dinah Washington: “What A Difference A Day Makes”. What a difference a day makes: 24 little hours, brought the sun and the flowers where there used to be rain! Christmas came and went. What a festive and loving Christmas it was too, my first one without my parents. It went beautifully lots of laughter and a few tears! New Year’s Eve came and went. What a great New Year’s Eve it was, thanks to the Arts Centre and the stunning production of War Horse, followed by Melbourne magnificent fireworks seen by the thousand or so guests from the balcony of the Arts Centre with champagne in hand! And so came January 1 and the year began. dDys just bought more and more news, changes and surprises. Ricky Ponting retired, Roger Federer lost a game of tennis, prank calls on radio ceased forever, Hugh Jackman won a Golden Globe, and heart breaking bushfires came to the people of Carngham Victoria. Serena Williams came to Melbourne and was seen everywhere out and about, Lance Armstrong spun his way through an interview with Oprah as she peddled 120 questions to him about being a drug cheat. Oh where are our heroes? Craig Thompson was strip searched, Julia Gillard announced an election just after her boyfriend made a huge gaffe about Asian doctors, Beyoncé didn’t really sing at the American inauguration ... oh pleeeeze there is so much more in the world to get upset about, and so it continues it seems life changes on a daily basis and here as we enter into February 2013. I wonder what is in store for this year. For me it’s about my family, my three siblings and my friends, and of course my work. I must say it feels like June already as these days come and go so frantically, Melbourne is a buzz with festivals on the horizon and, of course, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2013 is just around the corner. Once again we will have superb comedians in town to make us laugh. I will be telling you about some of them up to and including the Comedy Festival. Simon Palomares is one of the comedians who returns to the Melbourne Comedy Festival 2013 in a brand new show exploring life, travel and relationships after touring around the world and the high seas for the last few years. I find him very funny, always have, a master storyteller, he brings an insight and maturity to his comedy as few performers do. Still Crazy looks at the insanity of love and life. The passions and the perils. The peaks and the pitfalls. All with insight, warmth, sidesplitting laughter and Spanish pizazz. On March 17, Simon has been asked to host the Oz Australia Gala in Perth in front of an audience of 6000 and televised on SBS. Catch him before he sets off again touring Spain and Argentina later in the year. Simon will perform at a lovely venue at QV Building, Three Degrees. Tickets are available through www.trybooking.com or ring venue direct 0417 65 15 38. All tickets $25 Talking of heroes, I must say one of my heroes is Ita Buttrose. I was so pleased to see her win The Australian Of The Year. Great choice! I must say it’s fun back writing my column! It’s heaven when you find romance on your menu, what a difference a day made, and the difference is you my readers!
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To
Must see
Di
I love my job!
■ The acclaimed Soweto Gospel Choir returns to Australia to celebrate their 10th anniversary Since their first ever paid performance in Frankston in 2003, this extraordinary choir has travelled the world, won an Emmy, two Grammys plus an Oscar nomination and hasjust completed its sixth album! I will be celebrating with the Soweto Gospel Choir. two shows: Melbourne Recital Centre. Saturday, March 9. Two performances : at 3pm and 8pm Produced by Andrew Kay. booking melbournerecital. com.au or phone 9699 3333 or visit ticketmaster.com.au 136 100.
For WONDERFUL NEWS AT SOFITEL
■ The tables have turned for fabulous journalist and friend Fiona Byrne. For so many years Fiona was the face of all things current, gossipy and what was going on in this town in the world of showbiz for the Herald Sun. She knows this town so well. The great news for Fiona is she has now taken on a wonderful new role at the luxurious and chic Sofitel Melbourne On Collins. What a great asset she will be to Clive Scott, surely the most popular GM of hotels in Melbourne. Fiona has taken on the position of Public Relations and Sponsorship Manager at the hotel and will in time be welcoming the very celebrities she once wrote about . Every one of them is thrilled on her new appointment. It’s great news. It’s a wonderful buzz for the hotel and a very popular appointment. Fiona said: “I am thrilled to have been given this wonderful opportunity at Sofitel Melbourne On Collins, following in the footsteps of the marvellous Annie Dawson who held the position with aplomb for 12 years. “I had a wonderful career at the Herald Sun, writing about entertainment, TV, celebrities and society as well as writing plenty of gossip. “It was an amazing 11 years and I was incredibly lucky to have had such extraordinary opportunities to experience the very best of Melbourne. “It is now very exciting to be charting a new direction working as public relations and
with leading Melbourne publicist DI ROLLE
● Di Rolle with Billy (left) and David at the real Vegas Chippendales Lunch is another step in diversifying her brand. From gummy fish ■ Another fabulous to yummy tennis event I attended was gumballs Sharapova the soiree that publiisn’t apologising. She cist Greta Donaldson likes candy, and whilst put on at Breezes at candy might not be Crown for two of the healthy, the industry real Chippendales, sure is. Billy Jeffrey and David She started from Abrams on their visit scratch on this candy to Melbourne in addeal saying that the vance of their tour to development from Australia. concept to launch, They were fun guys took her 18 months. and lovely company. It She was quoted as was great to see all saying jokingly, “It’s the Melbourne busilike I have been preg- ness and PR girls at the nant twice,” she luncheon giving the laughed. guys a terrific The four-time Melbourne welcome. Grand Slam title winAmong the girls atner and most popular tending it was so great Maria called the to catch up with Dee project the most excit- Dee Dunleavy who is ing project she has loving her radio stint at ever done. Smart! 3AW at the weekends, she looked so happy and relaxed, Tara Bishop from Crown, who is such a doll, and Adrianne Sarkozy who I hadn’t seen for some time, Adrianne Sarkozy is the Sponsorship and Alliance Manager for Inglis – Australia’s leading thoroughbred auctioneer. Oaklands Melbourne.
Fun guys
● Fiona Byrne with Di Rolle sponsorship manager The Australian money. Roger Federer for the Sofitel Mel- Open IMG Tennis has his ice-cream and bourne On Collins, a Party was fabulous at now the beautiful five star luxury hotel Crown. Maria Sharapova has located at the ‘Paris I did enjoy catching a her own candy comEnd’ of Collins St. up with Derryn Hinch, pany. “It embodies producer Liza With 12 varieties of French style and el- McLean, Peter Ford, Sugapova candy this egance and is re- Antony Calea, Tim nowned as Mel- Campbell, Natalie bourne’s hotel for the Grosby and all the arts. beautiful people at the “The hotel offers function, so much to guests – its Maria Sharapova signature restaurant looked stunning and it No 35, the intimate was fun to sample Atrium cocktail some of her delicious lounge on level 35 candy! and, of course Sofi’s I have to say Shane Lounge where high Warne and Elizabeth tea is a must. Hurley walked into the “It’s a pleasure to party and stole the be part of the Sofitel show, they really are team,” said Fiona. sporting royalty! Congratulations Back to Maria Fiona. Well deserved. Sharapova and her candy. These tennis players are smart cookies, ■ I went to some all have business interstunning events over ests outside of tennis ● Chris Isaak to earn some pocket the break.
Loving life
For more news from Di Rolle, turn to Page 76
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 9
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Confidential Melbourne
Talk is cheap, gossip is priceless
Drugs probe on the cards
FILE PHOTO
Bitch Melbourne’s Secrets
Byrne starts hotel work
● Fiona Byrne, Derryn Hinch, Di Rolle at the IGA/Crown tennis launch party ■ Di Rolle (Page 8) reports that Melbourne journalist Fiona Byrne has been appointed as Public Relations and Sponsorship Manager for the Sofitel On Collins. Manager Clive Scott was looking for an experienced Victorian scribe to take over from Annie Dawson, who retired just prior to Christmas. Byrne has been concentrating on radio work since she accepted a redundancy package from the Herald Sun. She has been working on Brisbane station 4BC, Adelaide’s 5AA, as well as appearing on 3AW’s Nightline and Weekend Break programs. Fiona posed for this photo (bottom left) whilst appearing with Grubby (Peter Stubbs) and Dee Dee (Diane Dunleavy) on 3AW. It reminded ‘Bitch’of ‘Olive’ (Anna Karen) from On The Buses.
SEPARATED AT BIRTH?
● Fiona Byrne
● Olive (Anna Karen)
3AW DOMINATES AUST. DAY
■ Does Melbourne radio station 3AW have too much influence over Australia Day celebrations in Victoria? The Australia Day Committee (Victoria) continues its policy of appointing people with 3AW connections as Australia Day Ambassadors. There are few representatives of other media outlets. This year’s Ambassadors include 3AW Promotions Manager David Mann at Cohuna; Tony Beddison (Neil Mitchell’s manager) at Avenel; John Blackman at Lang Lang; Philip Brady at Berwick; Mike Brady at Williamstown; Dr Sally Cockburn at Tooradin; Jane Edmanson at Moonee Ponds; Bruce Mansfield (no public appearance); and football commentator Leigh Matthews at Seabrook. Other ambassadors include Dr Noel Alpins (3AW advertiser) at Rye; Dr Larry Benge (3AW advertiser); Doug Christie (Variety representative, connected through the Bikeathon) at Edenhope; afternoon program guest
● David Mann, 3AW Promotions Manager Mark Grover; and Nick Theodossi (3AW advertiser) at Mansfield and Tolmie Friends of 3AW appointed as Australia Day Ambassadors include entertainer Lisa Edwards at Balnarring Beach; former Good Friday Appeal fundraiser Keith King; Variety Club personalities Dr David Marsh and Clair Marsh at Charlton; businessman Craig Opie at Tongala; ambulance
SHE’LL BE RIGHT ■ Melbourne radio man Denis Walter was listed as ‘Doris Walter’on his Arts Centre dressing room for his New Year concert appearance with the Australian Pops Orchestra. But it wasn’t a sign of mistaken identity. Co-star Anthony Callea was listed as ‘Casey Donovan’; and other performers were sign-posted as ‘Dame Joan’, ‘Delta Goodrem’ and ‘Boof Head’.
spokesman Greg Sassella at Morn-ngton; and regular 3AW program guest Sue Stanley at Traralgon and Morwell. The Australia Day Ambassadors program now has a corporate sponsor, 3AW advertiser Wool worths. The Ambassadors went to more than 150 Victorian communities across the state, to spread a message of national pride. All Ambassadors work in an honorary capacity. The announcement of the positions is made by the Victorian State Government. A function for the Ambassadors is held at Government House.
Rumour Mill
Hear It Here First
Marco wins media heart ■ Which Melbourne media woman fell for MasterChef Professionals identity Marco Pierre White (Channel 10) during his stay in the Victorian capital last month? Veritas has the media lady’s name in the Observer Showbiz section in this week’s edition. Turn to Page 69. ● Marco Pierre White
Book for busy Donna? ● Denis Walter at the tennis
More jobs to go at ‘Age’? ■ The media tom-toms are reporting that there were will be editorial redundancies at The Age newspaper after it converts to tabloid presentation next month (Monday, March 4). Advertising agencies are reportedly being asked to pay the same price for a half-size tabloid page as they currently do for a broadsheet full-page. To confuse the matter, The Age may stay as a broadsheet at weekends.
■ Bosses and councillors at a suburban council in Melbourne face the dilemma of ‘what to do?’ about one of their executives reportedly attending marathon cocaine parties at Toorak ... and handing out their municipal business card. The executive’s private life became increasingly erratic over the summer holidays, causing great concern to friends and family.
● Denis Walter’s dressing room sign
Whispers
Leaving
● Alan Armsden ■ AlanArmsden is leaving the Herald Sun. The Managing Editor has resigned and is due to leave The Herald & Weekly Times on March 29. He is a former Editor of the Observer, and CEO of PANPA.
● Suzanne Carbone ■ Twitter is reported to be opening an ofice in Australia. It may be related to increased traffic generated since a prominent Melbourne journalist joined this past month at @Suzanne Carbone
TV ads for radio ■ The start of the ratings year sees some Melbourne radio stations using expensive TV promotions in a bid to win audiences. 3AW has been sharing a campaign of commercials with its sister stations on the UKTV and History cable channels. 3AW has also been using outdoor billboards to promote Tom Elliott’s 3pm6pm drive program.
■ Could a coffee table book be on the cards for ultra-busy 3AW entertainment and travel reporter Donna Demaio? The Rumour Mill hears Donna is considering the book, filled with photos of her encounters with the stars, inclduing ● Donna Demaio her recent trip to the with Hugh Jackman G’Day USA showcase.
E-Mail: Confidential@MelbourneObserver.com.au
● Tom Elliott
Page 10 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
City loses pokies restriction bid ■ The City of Whittlesea has lost its bid to have a decision reviewed about pokie machines at the Whittlesea Bowls Club rooms. The Council wanted to appeal against the decision to increase the number of machines allowed at the Club, by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation. Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Senior Member Noreen Tingay heard that the municipality objected to the increase of 40 machines to 50. Evidence was given that Whittlesea Bowls Club was established in 1955, was the only gaming venue in town. There are 1400 members, of whom 178 are bowls members. The town has a population of 4826, as at the 2011 Census. The Club can accommodate 300 people at one time, has two professional standard lawn bowls greens; has couch greens; and ofers a function or community room. The Commssion had taken the view that the granting of the application would allow the Club to redevelop its facilities, contributing to the community “in kind”. The Commission acknowledged that problem gamblers made up 0.5 to 1.0 per cent of adults. Lower levels of harm afected 1.4 to 2.1 per cent of adults. Around 15 per cent of regular players are ‘problem gamblers’. Their total spending on machines ranges around 40 per cent, survey figures stated.
Melbourne
Observer
In The Courts
$100M DAMAGES CASE LOST
■ Zlatko Jovancevski’s $100 million damages case against United Voice (formerly LMHU) has been dismissed by Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Member Genevieve Nihill. Jovancevski said he had been discriminated against because of his disability, physical features and religious belief. Ms Nihill said the alleged incidents were 12 and 7½-years old, and there had been a long delay in bringing the complaints. Jovancevski said he had been ill. Ms Nihill noted that he was well enough to engage in lengthy correspondence with LMHU in 2003. Complaints should be brought within 12 months.
Fight over racing syndicate fees ■ Arguments over a horse racing syndicate have made their way to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Tanya Maree Fullarton and Karen Leanne Bytel took their claim for restitution to VCAT Senior Member Alan Vassie, asking for restitution from Jonathan Holmes, Kay Sullivan and Jessica Holmes. Sullivan was ordered to pay $585 to Fullartin and Bytel. Jessica Holmes must also pay $585. Twenty people had been in the syndicate to race a horse, Pixie Stick. The syndicate was named G Gees Pink Ribbon Syndicate (Four). The horse was to be leased, with each syndicate member entitled to 5 per cent of the net proceeds of any prize money won by the horse.
This distribution was after the horse’s owner had taken a 25 per cent share of the prize money. Each of the syndicate members was to pay $195 per month towards the cost of maintaining the horse. Fullarton and Bytel were to be syndicate managers and in return were to be excused from making any contribution to maintenance and running costs. The two-year-old filly, trained by Robbie Grifiths Racing, was injured, and unable to resume racing. The lease was brought to an end. The action was brought in a bid to recover alleged unpaid lease monies. Sullivan and Holmes were ordered to pay amounts representing three months’ fees. Legal argument centred around the deregistration of G Gees Pty Ltd, that the company did not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence, and that disclosure statements had not been probided.
Zamel’s fined $250,000 ■ The Federal Court has imposed a penalty of $250,000 on The Jewellery Group Pty Ltd, trading as Zamel’s, for misleading consumers regarding savings made on jewellery, following
★ WIN ★ WIN ★ WIN ★
WIN TICKETS TO SEE TUBULAR BELLS ‘FOR TWO’ We have five sets of double tickets to give away for the 9.15pm performance of Tubular Bells ‘For Two’ on Friday, February 15 at the Melbourne Recital Centre. But you’ll have to be quick to enter this Melbourne Observer competition. To enter this comeptition, send the completed coupon to Tubular Bells Competition, PO Box 1278, Research, 3095, to reach us by first mail on Friday, February 8. Our usual comp. rules apply. Melbourne
Observer
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READER COMPETITION
Send to Tubular Bells, Melbourne Observer PO Box 1278, Research, Vic 3095 - to reach us by first mail Friday, February 8, 2013. Winners’ names will be published in the February 13 edition. Tickets will be mailed to winners.
Name: ............................................................................... Address: ............................................................................ ..................................... Postcode: ................................................
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action brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Justice Lander found that Zamel’s had misrepresented the savings consumers would make from purchasing items during sale periods for 44 jewellery items featured in one or more Zamel’s catalogues and a flyer distributed nationally by letter box drop, in-store and on Zamel’s website
Conspiracy to murder case ■ Sean Sonnet has lost his appeal against his sentence on a charge of conspiracy to murder. Sonnet took his appeal to Supreme Court Judges Maxwell and Whelan, sitting as the Court of Appeal. Sonnet was refused leave to appeal. He had earlier pleaded guilty, and was jaikled for 10½-years by Judge Lex Lasry. Sonnet was on the verge of shooting a person he thought to be target near Brighton Cemetery when he was arrested by the Special Operations Group.
Due in Court ■ Secure Funding Pty Ltd is due to apply today (Wed.) to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for what it claims are “monies due” from Scott Graeme Blundell. An arbitration hearing is scheduled for 9.30am. ■ St Catherine’s School is scheduled to take civil action against AnneMarie Clemenger over what it alleges are “monies due”. A pre-hearing conference is due toi take place at 2.15pm on Tuesday (Feb. 12).
News Briefs Famous Lunches ■ ‘The Famous Piano Lunches’ at the Rosstown Hotel, Carnegie, are now entering their 22nd year. The next event will be held 12 Noon-4pm on the last Thursday of March (March 28). Top jazz pianists play. These include Jo Abbott, John Adams, Ron Anderson, Jeff Bartrum, Kathy Connor, Graham Coyle, Kim Harris, Michael Llewellyn, Keith Stevens and Neville Turner. Enquiries may be made with Marina Pollard, 9781 4972.
Opera great back ■ Internationally acclaimed opera star Lisa Gasteen returns this month after four years out of the performing spotlight due to injury. Victorian Opera's Gala Opera on a White Night will be held at Hamer Hall on Saturday, February 23. It welcomes the arrival of new Artistic Director, Richard Mills, with an exciting repertoire that includes excerpts from Die Fledermaus, Il Trovatore, Lakmé, Lohengrin, Norma, Peter Grimes and more, celebrating the anniversaries of Verdi, Wagner and Britten.
Sir Cliff Richard ■ Entertainer Sir Cliff Richard will perform four concerts in Mebourne at Hamer Hall. The Still Reelin’ And A-Rockin Tour will be staged on Friday-Saturday-Monday-Tuesday, February 15-16 and 18-19. He is celebrating his 54th anniversary in the music industry.
Topical Taps
CONMAN FINED $8000
★
Rye builder Stuart Ritchie Mitchell, who scammed Black Saturday survivors, has been fined $8000 plus $1000 costs, for failing to provide products for which he had been paid.
✩
’Dear Abby’ problem columnist Abigail Van Buren (real name: Pauline Friedman Phillips, has died at age 94, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.
■ Once-proud website provider Melbourne IT has cut its technical support operations to just 9am-5pm weekdays. This means that the service is shut for 128 hours out of 168 hours each week. Users with problems cannot get technical support for more than 76 per cent of the week.
Disgraced churchman Mal Garvin, who presided over the milliondollar collapse of Melbourne radio station 3AK, has been holidaying in the United Kingdom. He has told Facebook friends that he has been reading a book on US President Abraham Lincoln: “An interesting take on leadership.”
★
Melbourne writer Frank Howson has been in Hong Kong, where he has secured funding for a new musical. One of the backers is Mr Wu.
★
Blackburnbased Leader Newspapers is of-loading its ‘True Local’ service to the Telstraowned Sensis directory group. The deal has to be approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
✩
Entertainer John Blackman is offering his D Class Corporate share at The National Golf Club at CapeSchanck.‘Blackers’ can be contacted through blackman. com.au
✩
The G’day USA event, which seduced a number of Aussie reporters (who received free trips and accommodation), is “completely ignorede by local Los Angeles media, says Crikey critic Andrew Crook.
✩
★ ● Melbourne performers Tim Campbell and Anthony Callea have been making “their own kind of beautiful” in West Hollywood.
A special Facebook page has been established for fans of the Go-Set newspaper and other Phillip Frazer publications from the 1970s.
www.MelbourneObserver.com.au
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 11
Melbourne People
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Opening Night Her Majesty’s Theatre
● Debra Byrne with John Foreman
● Marina Prior and husband Grant Piro
● Simon Gleeson with Anne Wood
● Daughter Hannah with 3AW’s Justin Smith
● Christine Carbone with Philip Brady
● Mark Wilson, Michael Wilson, Anne-Marie Wilson
● Shane Jacobson and partner Felicity
● Brian Cadd with Amanda Pelman
● Libbi Gorr and Abigail Bannister with Ché Gorr-Birchmore and Hudson Hedley
● Pamela Rabe with Roger Hodgman
● Judy Banks-Phillips and Bob Phillips
● Kess Higgins with Craig Huggins (Gold 104.3)
www.MelbourneObserver.com.au
Page 12 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Melbourne
Observer
Ash On Wednesday
TEDDY BEARS’ PICNIC We Are Family
Our Doors are Open!
Freemasons Victoria takes to the Streets
■ For the 23rd year in a row, Rippon Lea House and Gardens will host the popular Teddy Bears Picnic from 11am-4pmon Sunday, February 24. National Trust Victoria aims to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest teddy bears picnic ever held. The record currently stands at 33,573 and was set at Dublin Zoo in 1995. The annual event attracts more than 4000 visitors each year. Rippon Lea House and Gardens is located at 192 Hotham St, Elsternwick.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang This year, for only the second time in history, members of Freemasons Victoria's Grand Ceremonial Team were joined by other members from around Melbourne, for the 2013 Australia Day March. Jim Puohotaua, a member of this year's team and the incoming Grand Pursuivant, says that the march is a great way for Freemasons to share their fraternity with members of the public. He says that this year's theme for the Australia Day March, We Are Family, is one that echoes the true nature of Freemasonry. “For Freemasons, the other members of our Lodge, and Freemasons from around the world, are our Brothers,' he said. 'Our immediate families become family to our Masonic Brothers and we take care of each other.” This rare opportunity for members of the public to see Freemasons, outside of the Lodge Room, in full ceremonial dress is one of the many ways that Freemasons Victoria is working to make Freemasonry more accessible. Freemasons Victoria was joined by more than 2000 participants from over 80 groups as they marched along Swanston Street to the Kings Domain Gardens. The march celebrates the diverse cultures that make up Australia; a diversity that is echoed by Freemasonry. With an estimated 5 million members worldwide and over 12,000 in Victoria, Freemasonry recognises the richness of all cultural beliefs and excludes no individual from membership on the grounds of culture or politics. Freemasonry demands of its members that they live a principled life, supporting their local community through benevolent works. Freemasons Victoria has been active in the community for over 170 years. It established the Freemasons hospital in 1937 and the Royal Freemasons Homes of Victoria in 1867 for the care of the elderly in our community. The organisation continues to support a range of community organisations and initiatives, including Melbourne Youth Music, Guide Dogs Victoria, Variety the Children’s Charity and many local organisations. Freemasons Victoria continues it support of Kinglake and Strathewen, following 2009’s Black Saturday tragedy, with annual scholarships for local schools. Photos of Freemasons Victoria’s Grand Ceremonial Team and other members in the 2013 Australia Day March can be viewed via Freemasons Victoria’s Flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/ freemasonsvic
To find out more about Freemasonry, how to become a member, attend upcoming public events, or to take a tour of the Masonic Centre, please visit www.freemasonsvic.net.au or 'Like' our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ freemasonsvic for the most up to date information.
People ★
Many happy returns
Melbourne publi cist Michael Wilkie enjoyed TWO trips to America over the summer break. The first involved theatre attendances in New York and Los Angeles, including a view of Al Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross, and Kathleen Turner in The Killing Of Sister George. Michael was also in Hollywood last week for the Screen Actors awards ● Teddy Bears’ Picnic on February 24
Long Shots
● Michael Wilkie
First fair in 40 years ■ Bev Matthey advises that the Melbourne Playing Card Collectors will be holding their first fair in 40 years, from 11am-3pm on Saturday, March 2 at the Alkira Centre, Thurston St, Box Hill. There will be thousands of swap and playing cards from the 1900s to current time. For more details, phone Hilda, 9898 5701.
At the Recital Centre
★
● David Hobson ■ Melbourne ad one of its great opening nights on Saturday at Her Majesty’s Theatre with the premiere of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Cast includes David Hobson, Rachael Beck, Alan Brough, Jennifer Vuletic, George Kapiniaris, Peter Carroll, Todd Goddard, Tyler Coppin, and Philip Gould. The ensemble includes Quinn Cameron, Kade Hughes, Lucille Le Meledo, Kurtis Papadinis, Caitlin Vippond, Beau Woodbridge, Lucinda ArmstrongHall, Belinda Barichello, Remy Bednarski, Jack Bergin, Xavier Bruggeman; Eliza Carlin, Jordan Cleary, Lucy Coyne, Cameron Davey, Alexandra De Groot, Oliver Evans, Mackenzie Farran, Jared Gabriel, Jordan Giannis, Jasmine Goldberg, Molly Haringsma, Monique Heath, Peter Lejins, Jack Lyall, Paris Mahar, Alice McDonald, Isabella Meilak, Marcus Mohr, Ethan O'Donovan, Maddison Padula, Tara Parker, Amalia Stramotas, Luke Tieri,Angelo Vasilakakos, and Nicholas Vasilakakos.
editor@melbourneobserver.com.au
with Ash Long, Editor “For the cause that lacks assistance, ‘Gainst the wrongs that need resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do”
One of the world’s most sought-after pianists, Alexander Gavrylyuk, returns to the Melbourne Recital Centre for a recital featuring some of the most popular works for piano, at 8pm on Saturday, February 16. In the two years since his last performance in Melbourne, he has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. ● Alexander Gavrylyuk
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‘Grease’ is the word
’Frosty The Showman’ - theatre entrepreneur John Frost is bringing back Grease The Musical in 2013. We hear the modernised stage show will be set on a reality TV series. Announcements about auditions will be made soon. Meanwhile, Sir Cameron Mackintosh has announced he will stage Les Miserables in Australia.
● Your Editor and wife Fleur celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary on Sunday ... we were married in 1978 at St John’s Anglican Church, Epping - which was also the bride’s 21st birthday. The Melbourne Observer is printed by Streamline Press, 155 Johnston St, Fitzroy, for the publisher, Ash Long, for Local Media Pty Ltd, ABN 67 096 680 063, of the registered office, 30 Glen Gully Road, Eltham, Distributed by All Day Distribution. Responsibility for election and referendum comment is accepted by the Editor, Ash Long. Copyright © 2013, Local Media Pty Ltd (ACN 096 680 063).
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT COURT REPORTS Contents of Court Lists are intended for information purposes only. The lists are extracted from Court Lists, as supplied to the public, by the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, often one week prior to publication date; for current Court lists, please contact the Court. Further details of cases are available at www.magistratescourt.vic.gov.au The Melbourne Observer shall in no event accept any liability for loss or damage suffered by any person or body due to information provided. The information is provided on the basis that persons accessing it undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content. No inference of a party’s guilt or innocence should be made by publication of their name as a defendant. Court schedules may be changed at any time for any reason, including withdrawal of the action by the Plaintiff/Applicant. E&OE.
● John Frost
Observer Treasury Thought For The Week ■ “Business know-how is when a fellow knows his business and what’s none of his business.”
Observer Curmudgeon ■ “Prosperity is something that business creates for which politicians can take credit.”
Text For The Week ■ “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” - Proverbs 3:5-6
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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 13
Melbourne
Observer Life & Style
HAPPY NEW (CHINESE) YEAR ■ Happy New Year and to our Asian friends, Kong Hee Fat Choi. May this new year be a new beginning and bring you all you wish. It hasn’t been the best start for the year. Floods and fires have devastated communities throughout the country. It’s been heartbreaking to watch the news and see what is happening to our neighbours. I seem to remember as a little kid, living in a street where items of household goods, toys and even tinned food were collected for distribution to the afflicted areas. The collection grew and grew. People were very generous with what they gave. That’s the Aussie tradition.
Yvonne’s Column
Greeted on every corner
Collecting for needy ■ Beds and wardrobes were being left out for collection, in fact I recall hearing mum talking to a neighbour and wondering if fruit cakes sealed in tins would be suitable. Something like they used to send to England during the war. I don’t know if they actually did make cakes, but the thing is that the women were prepared to help their unknown countrymen in their hour of need. Perhaps we should start collecting again for those people who need our help. I imagine toys will be needed and I’m sure many toddlers will have lost their ‘Linus blankets’ in the floods and fires. I have friends who tell me their child won’t go to sleep unless they have their blanket to cuddle. Sometimes, of course, their ‘Linus’ is not just a piece of blanket, but an old rag or a torn nappy.
Absolute heartbreak ■ At the shopping centre we knew when a child had lost their 'Linus Blanket' because we could hear the screaming before mum pushed open the door. We’d put a message out over the loud speakers and ask shoppers to look around, and many, many times a youngster would be reunited with a dirty old piece of blanket. Tears would stop and the child would clutch their ‘Linus’ blanket like their very best and most precious friend. We didn’t have to go into details over the P.A because mothers knew what that piece of rag meant to a child and would join in the hunt. Can you imagine what it must be like to have your house submerged in swirling flood waters, not knowing if you will see it again and in what condition? And the absolute heartbreak of leaving your animals behind is something that will be indelibly printed on your mind. One elderly gentleman was ordered to board Melbourne
Observer
They are usually financially secure, and have tremendous sympathy for others and like to take action to help their fellow human beings. Although they look calm on the surface they are intense and passionate. You do have a few weaknesses however. You are likely to be jealous and suspicious and therefore cautious about what you discuss with others which is not a bad trait actually. You tend to overdo things. Women under the sign of the Snake do well in housework but are irritable (I’d be irritable too doing housework every day.) But according to the chart for this year, Snakes will have a good year.
with Yvonne Lawrence yvonne.lawrence@bigpond.com
a helicopter that was hovering overhead in an endevour to save him. When he was told that he couldn’t bring his dog with him he refused to go. A Jet Ski rescued him and his pooch later, but I dips me lid to that old man for loving his canine friend.
Finding a cool spot ■ The summer’s sales have come to an end and most people are back at work. How people could go shopping for clothes in the dreadful summer heat I can’t imagine. How people still have any money left over after Christmas I find a mystery. February is usually the hot month, but that week in January was straight from hell with temperatures above 40 degrees. Even Moosh my cat found a cool spot under a bush and refused to come out until well after dark. But there is some joy around if we look for it, and that is the Chinese New Year, with preparations almost complete. My suburb has a big Chinese community and I’m looking forward to not missing any of the festivities.
Are you a Snake? ■ According to the Chinese zodiac 2013 is the year of the Black Water Snake. If you were born in any of the following years you are a Snake: 1917, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1989, 2001 and 2013 and what a year you are going to have. Is this you? The strength of the Snake is having a good temper and a skill at communicating but saying little. They possess gracious morality and great wisdom.
■ On a trip to China we landed without realising that it was New Year. When we arrived nothing seemed to be happening. We expected to see the streets teeming with traffic and the shops doing a thriving business. I had my shopping list and was ready to go, but when I queried the receptionist at the hotel about the lack of activity we were told that that shops were shut for a couple of days because everyone was celebrating the New Year. We were disappointed, but gosh, it wasn’t long before we were invited to join the celebrations, given little red envelopes and cookies and greeted on every corner by the wakening of a colourful, energetic, smoke breathing lion dog writhing its way to the sound of a drum to the delight of onlookers. We could not have had a better time on our introduction to China. The generosity of people we had never met and even the hotel staff was overwhelming. Imagine opening your hotel door and finding oranges and delicious cookies with a message to join the Manager for dinner.
Don’t miss out ■ It was a magnificent night with sumptuous food and we made a lot of friends. We still receive cards from the hotel management and a couple of fellow guests who shared this happy night. The Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It’s not only the delicious food, which is prepared, but the tradition of buying new clothes, paying any outstanding bills, the red envelopes, and a making up with friends you may have fallen out with during the year. It’s a happy time for young and old. It’s sort of starting afresh in the New Year. If you haven’t celebrated the Chinese New Year at an Asian restaurant you will miss out on this most important of the traditional Chinese celebrations.
Opposition dine there
■ Peter and I are celebrating at the Old Kingdom Restaurant, which is famous for their Peking duck, and look forward to a terrific night. If you live in the eastern suburbs you are bound to see your Asian neighbours sitting at one of the tables. Last time we ate at the Old Kingdom, we waved to our local newsagent and his family, and we smiled at a local Asian restaurant owner whose restaurant is in the heart of Box Hill. This says a lot for the Old Kingdom when the opposition dines there. We’ve come a long way since we took our saucepans and billy’s to the one local Chinese restaurant in our suburb for scrumptious food that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. We used to wonder how they could possibly sell such terrific food for a mere pittance. And I still salivate when I think of the big fat chicken rolls and steamed dim sims that we always bought.
Festivities galore
■ But back to our New Year celebration at the Old Kingdom. Of course there will be fireworks (so lock up your pets if you live in the vicinity) and the ‘lion’ will wake up to entertain the diners. Red lanterns will abound, and restaurateur, Alan Lim tells me that there will be a nine-course banquet. I shouldn’t leave out the very able chefs who will be slaving in the kitchen to ensure that you start the New Year with happy thoughts and a delicious nine-course banquet. The Old Kingdom Restaurant will welcome the Year of the Snake with a weeklong celebration on February 9-10-11. It doesn’t have to be a very late night because the Chinese festivities for young and old begin at 5.30 pm. It does my heart good when I see how the elderly members of the Chinese family are revered. It’s lovely to see how an entire family from the baby to grandparents interacts at the celebrations. The Old Kingdom is located at 683 Canterbury Rd, Surrey Hills, between Elgar Rd and the Uniting Church. Look for the big grey building on the corner of Valonia Ave. Booking is essential and the telephone number 9898 3343. Just remember to take cash. Credit cards are not accepted. There is plenty of parking. You will be greeted by Alan Lim himself and be sure you wish him Kong Hee Fat Choi – a Happy New Year. - Yvonne P.O Box 1278, Research 3095
Melbourne Gossip
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★ ★
Sally Quinn says the Austra lian Youth Orechestra will celebrate its 65th anniversary with a special performance at Melbourne Town Hall February 19m with the world premiere concert performance of Australian composer Nigel Westlake’s The Glass Soldier.
Observer arts columnist Julie Houghton looked stunning in a Linda Britten gown as she was compere/narrator for La Traviata at Victoria Gardens in Prahran on Saturday night.
★
The two-man orchestra of Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts will bring Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells to life at the Melbourne Recital Centre at 7pm on Friday, February 15. The show is being presented by Andrew Kay, Liza McLean and Places + Spaces.
★
Yarra Valley identity Myra Healey, 95, has handed in the keys to her Rover and has stood aside from driving after a last motor along the Warburton Hwy, which was featured on Seven News.
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The Treasury Gardens is the venue for the World’s Largest Yum Cha on Sunday, March 3, says Celeste Oehme of Spice and Soul. The event is a Guinness Book of Records contender.
★
Andi Lew and Natalie Kringoudis launched their new book, Eat Fat Be Thin, at events organised by publicist Helen Reizer just prior to Christmas. Adrian De Brock of Noiseworks Media is now promoting the book which examines sugar-free, dairy-free and wheat-free recipes.
A celebration was held on Monday night (Feb. 4) at Circa Bar, St Kilda, to mark the 30th anniversary of Serge Thomann arriving in Australia from France. The popular photographer serves as Deputy Mayor of the City of Port Phillip.
● Cr Serge Thomann
Angela Ceberano of Floruish PR has announced that Guns N' Roses will return to Australia with special guests ZZ Top and Rose Tattoo, with a Myer Music Bowl performance on Sunday, March 17.
● Andi Lew
Publicist Michelle Buxton says Reservoir will hold its first arts festival under the ‘True North’ banner from March 1-3. Events include the Darebin Community and Kite Festival, Laneway Cinema and The Lounge Room Project.
Page 14 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
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CRIME
By Ash Long, Editor
THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF STEPHEN COOKSON
Former Victorian criminal Stephen Cookson has been found dead in Western Australia. An 11-year-old girl found his severed head in a plastic bag. Editor ASH LONG looks back at the violent life of a school colleague. ■ Straight-laced school teacher Richard Stowell should have seen it coming when he tried to teach the Nicene Creed to 11-year-old ‘Divinity’ pupils in 1968. “Sir, what’s a virgin? And would I find one in Reservoir?” The questioner was Stephen Ramon Cookson, newly enrolled student at Ivanhoe Grammar’s Junior School. Fresh from the working-class suburb of Reservoir, he brought a rough-and-tumble approach to his new “posh” school. ‘Cooka’s’ questions flustered the Junior Headmaster, even though the schoolboy humour would have gone over the heads of most of the pre-pubescent lads. ‘Cooka’ showed no fear, whether it be in the classroom, as a wicketkeeper in cricket, or as a tough junior footballer. Before he became a teenager, he became proficient in using fear against his opponents - whether they be teachers or students. So it came as no surprise to his Ivanhoe school mates from 40 years ago when news came that his severed head had been found in a plastic bag at Rottnest Island in Western Australia. He was full of contrasts. Stephen Cookson opted for a life of violence from an early age. Many/most of his classmates had copped a bashing at some time early in their association with him. Yet he was Equal Dux in his first year at Ivanhoe, winner of the prizes for Composition, Literature and Sport, and a member of the Chess Club. (The other Equal Dux was me.) Clever ... yet some 40 years on, Cookson had served serious jail time in Germany and Western Australia, for serious drug offences. Also known as ‘Cookie’, he had been described in the press as “the baddest man in WA racing”, had been warned off Perth racecourses, was reported for bashing racing identities, had been a heroin user, and was about to face court for possession of enough methylamphetamines with intent to sell or supply. He was said to be involved in the Perth brothel scene. But let’s rewind to 1968.
● Stephen Cookson, school footballer, 1973
● Stephen Cookson, cricketer Steve Cookson, to my knowledge, was the eldest child in a family from Reservoir. His father , in overalls, would often drive his son to school in a battered old Holden. Both dad and son had a passion for punting. By the time he was just a teenager, ‘Cooka’ was wagging school days to attend midweek race meetings at Moonee Valley and Caulfield. He would bet on anything. Stephen Cookson would quickly show that his fists would solve an argument, if reason could not. In Form 4 (Year 10), we were both working on a community service project during a week in the Spring school holidays: painting a pensioner lady’s house in West Heidelberg. There was an argument about something incidental, probably paint, so he held me down on the ground, sitting atop me, delivering a round of damaging punches to the head. That was 1972, I still reckon I don’t breathe properly because of that bashing. But ‘Cooka’ could also be engaging. We walked home together that night to Reservoir. School friends remember that at a school dance featuring flamboyant entertainer Jeff Duff and his group Kush, the school came under assault by ‘the Heidelberg Boys’. He fought them off single-handedly, they recall. In 1973, Stephen Cookson violently assaulted one of the school’s most-able athletes. In the language of the times, he was asked not to return to Ivanhoe Grammar. The last time I spoke to ‘Cooka’ was in 1973 - 40 years ago. He finished his final secondary school year at Carey Baptist Grammar School, boasting later that one of his contemporaries there - and at Monash University - was Peter Costello, later to be Federal Treasurer.
● ‘Cooka’, age 11, 1968 ‘Cooka’ reportedly increased his interest in the ponies and punting. It is unsure whether he completed his law studies at Monash. Gossip has it that he was involved with a hold-up at his Victorian workplace, but staff recognised the familiar waddle of the accused. The need for cash to fund his gambling saw Stephen Cookson become involved in the drug industry. He was jailed in Germany, and later Western Australia. Police sources told me that there were outstanding warrants in Victoria for him that would prevent his return to his home state. Ahead of our school reunion (1989, I think), I phoned the WA jail where ‘Cooka’ was an inmate. Guard: “Mr Cookson will be an apology. When is your next reunion?” Me: Five years.
● Stephen Cookson in Perth. Photo: 7 News Upon his release, he returned to Guard: “Mr Cookson will also be whale-size gambling. He pumped so an apology for that reunion.” Whilst in jail in WA, ‘Cooka’ be- much cash through the East Perth came part of some very heavy prison TAB that a Federal Police check was conducted at the branch. life. ‘Cooka’ was a magnificent storyHis ex-prison colleague Trevor told me: “Steve Cookson was well feared teller. He told of being a winning trainer in jail and he had good connections in of a horse in the Melbourne Cup. He had defended himself in a High the drug world, “He and I nearly came to blows Court appeal, albeit unsuccessfully. Former classmates laugh as they though. I didn't like him. They were getting my allocation of ice cream in recall him delivering an assignment, jail and I was getting none so I took giving a speech written on a roll of toilet paper.. Steve's. He boasted of being a member of “He was well pissed off and a delegation was formed to stop me taking Mensa. On the other hand, locals in Perth say he was a character that "their" ice cream. “It was comical but quite serious, rarely showered or changed clothes. After an argument about ownerthese blokes would kill you for an ice ship of a horse, the owner returned cream.” several days later to find the horse dead in the yard. That owner also received a broken nose for his troubles. Another horse racing identity complained about injuries after a Cookson bashing. ‘Cooka’ replied that the man had “brittle bones”. Police say that another person involved in similar ‘meth’ drug trafficking had also been found dead. Stephen Cookson was a brilliantlyable man who was “off the hinges”. He charmed us with his words, and terrorised us as a thug. But no-one deserves to die like this.
● Schoolboy debaters: Ash Long (now Editor of the Melbourne Observer), the late Peter Huxley (coach), Terry Bramham (now a solicitor), and Stephen Cookson in 1973
● Stephen Cookson, schoolboy swimmer, 1970
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - Page 15
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Observer Readers’ Club The Way We Were
Melbourne Photo Flashback
100 Years Ago
100 Years Ago West Gippsland Gazette, Warragul Tuesday, February 11, 1913 WARRAGULBRASS BAND. AN EFFORT TO RE ORGANISE. That Warragul should possess its own brass band is a fact which will be gener ally conceded, and an attempt to infuse new life into the institution was made on Friday evening, when a public meeting was held in the Shire Hall. In the unavoidable absence of the shire president (Cr Copeland), by whom the meeting was convened, Mr Devine was voted to the chair. Mr Rogers was appointed secre tary to the meeting, and he read a report on the condition of the band instruments, music, &c., prepared by Mr E. I. Wheare last year. This showed that a certain number of instruments and uniforms were still in the possession of members, while the remainder were locked up in the band room. The report, which was very carefu;ly compiled, contained several excellent suggestions relative to the finan cial management of the band. A resolution was carried affirming the desirability of re-establishing ithe band, and a provisional committee, comprising Messrs Devine, Rogers, Copeland, Rintel and Smith was appointed to interview the businessmen of tie town and ascertain what funds would be donated for the support of the band. It was thought necessary to ask for a contribution, if possible, and the promise of a certain sum per weck afterward. The requisition caling the meeting contained over forty signatures, and it was considered that these and many more, having signalled their desire to see the band reorganisc, would contribute to its funds.
● ‘Aboriginal Enterprises’, Belgrave. Circa 1950s
Life’s Lessons
Reader Recipes
■ He who boasts of being self-made relieves the Lord of a lot of responsibility.
Word Of The Week
Trivia Challenge
Your Stars with Christina La Cross ARIES (MAR 21 - APR 20) You seem to be frightened of upsetting those close to you by admitting what you really want. What you have to realise though Aries is that they'll be more upset by you making unnecessary sacrifices. TAURUS (APR 21 - MAY 21) News of a new partnership could unnerve you as it forces you to question where you are in your life. If everyone moved at the same pace then surely life would be boring. Enjoy being you. GEMINI (MAY 22 - JUNE 21) You must try to work as part of a team today no matter how tempting it will be to work as a solo artist. What you want to achieve can only be achieved as a group. CANCER (JUNE 22 - JULY 23) Things which you buy for yourself at the moment should be a clear indication of where your mental status is at. I'm happy as events last year have made you who you are this year. LEO (JULY 24 - AUG 23) Today, the rest of the zodiac will listen when you speak so try to choose your words carefully please Leo. You can do much for friends and family, especially concerning recent dramatic forced changes. VIRGO (AUG 24 - SEPT 23) Try to have more faith in your abilities. You have spent far too long trying to keep up with the competition when you're not in a race with anybody but yourself. Calm down and slow down. LIBRA (SEPT 24 - OCT 23) If you know what you've got to lay out, then try doubling it for a more realistic view of what everything will cost you. Quality rather than quantity is the way forward for you this week Libra. SCORPIO (OCT 24 - NOV 22) Be nice to all new faces you meet this week. You may not realise it but those who you don't think hold the power can in fact boost every area of your life my friend. SAGITTARIUS (NOV 23 - DEC 21) A touch of fame beckons and you may have to come to terms with the fact that you're destined for bigger things than you'd expected. Enjoy this ride my friend, it's one you've worked hard for. CAPRICORN (DEC 22 - JAN 20) You seem to be getting stuck with a certain person more and more as this month wears on and today you need to stop and ask yourself why this could be? Is someone playing matchmaker? AQUARIUS (JAN 21 - FEB 19) Although friends say they want the best for you, many of their actions of late seem to be purely about what is best for them. You don't always have to follow the crowd though, do you? PISCES (FEB 20 - MARCH 20) You could find yourself having to choose between two friends who can't seem to get along without clashing. Don't be forced to choose sides. Their problem is for them to sort out not you.
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Observer Mailbag
■ Bellhop. a hotel or club employee who escorts guests to rooms, assists them with luggage, and runs errands
■ What were the first names of the winning couple from The Block? Fiona and Adam ■ What is the highest grossing Australian movie? Crocodile Dundee
Join in our chat
● Lunchbox idea Vegie meatball sandwiches Thanks to taste.com.au Ingredients 500g lean beef mince 1 small carrot, peeled, finely grated 1 small zucchini, finely grated 1 tbs tomato sauce 12 slices multigrain bread 2 avocados, halved, stone removed, peeled, mashed 2 ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced 1 butter lettuce, leaves separated 135g (½ cup) hummus Method Notes Step 1 Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Place the mince, carrot, zucchini and tomato sauce in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix until well combined. Roll 1 heaped tablespoonful of mince mixture into a ball. Place on the lined tray. Repeat with the remaining mince mixture. Step 2 Place a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add meatballs and cook, turning, for 4-5 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate to cool slightly. Cut the meatballs in half. Step 3 Spread half the bread with avocado. Top with meatball, tomato and lettuce. Spread the remaining bread with the hummus and sandwich together. Cut sandwiches in half. Wrap in plastic wrap.
Observer Mailbag ■ Happy New Year to all Observer readers. ■ The sad news reached us over the holiday break of the passing last year of Observer subscriber Florence Dann of Narre Warren North, at age 91. ■ Observer reader Jessie Lynch of Clifton Hill has written after winning tickets to Jersey Boys which is being staged at the Princess Theatre: “It was a fabulous show. My granddaughter Laura was on holidays at Rye and she came up by bus and train to go with me and went back to Rye the next day. She thoroughly enjoyed it and, of course, so did I. The music was so bright, and the harmonies were wonderful.” ■ Ventriloquist Ron Blaskett sent us a handwritten ‘thank you’ letter after our front-page coverage of his final charity performance just prior to Christmas.
■ We don’t normally take heed of anonymous correspondence, but we did receive a message from ‘John Smith’ (from a Facebook account that was just one hour old) who saw an internet preview of our feature article about criminal Stephen Cookson. ‘Smith’ said our report was "inpart (sic) inaccurate, exaggerated and unsubstantiated" but offerred no refuting evidence. ‘John Smith’ also asked us to remove the post, with the claim that it is causing "hurt and anger". The correspondent obviously misunderstands the role of the press; we do not offer a 'code of silence' service for convicted violent criminals/drug dealers. ‘John Smith’ stated: "One day you too may suffer a tragedy in your family and you might understand what people are going through." We will give ‘John Smith’ the benefit of the doubt, and not take their comments as a personal threat. ‘John Smith’ is the one who might be best advised to take care of their language. We report all threats immediately to Police,
Birthdays/Celebrations
■ Wednesday, February 6. Observer reader Warren Koglin celebrates his birthday today. Aussie actress Victoria Nicholls was born in Malta, 58 years ago. ■ Thursday, February 7. Allan Pennant, formerly one of the 3AW Antiques and Collectables Show panel, celebrates his birthday today. Prominent Nightline caller Peter ‘Pom Pom’ Gordon of Camberwell is 55 today. We remember the 2009 Victorian bushfires on this day. ■ Friday, February 8. Footballer Jobe Watson is 28; he won the 2012 Brownlow Medal. ■ Saturday, February 9. Observer reader Marjory Seeley of Eassendon North is 89. Media man Derryn Hinch is 69. ■ Sunday, February 10. Sunrise co-host Melissa Doyle is 43. ■ Monday, February 11. Observer reader Clive Mawson of Deepdene is 71. Cricketer Bill Lawry is 76. ■ Tuesday, February 12. Actress Sigrid Thornton is 54.
Cheerios ■ Cheerio to Laura Musial of Albury who celebrates her 33rd birthday on Wednesday, February 13. ■ Suzanne of Docklands sends a cheerio to Marco, who has a lot on his plate. ■ A reminder that Valentine’s Day is Thursday next week (Feb. 14). It is also the birthday of ‘Harmonica’ Mavis Ellis of Preston.
Page 16 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
■ I had the great pleasure of actually seeing Ray Milland onstage in a play titled Hostile Witness at the Princess Theatre in 1967. I had watched Ray Milland in his many films over the years and it was a big thrill to see him ‘in the flesh’. Alfred Reginald Jones was born in Neath, Wales in 1907 and only spoke Welsh until the age of five. Alfred was a very keen sportsman in his teenage years and became an accomplished horseman. At the age of 21 he went to London to become a member of the elite Household Cavalry (guard for the Royal Family). To supplement his income he worked as an actor in films, firstly as an extra and then was gradually promoted to small roles. In 1929 he was cast as a character in a film titled The Flying Scotsman where he used the stage name of Raymond Milland. This led to a nine month contract with the MGM studios and Ray moved to Hollywood to try his luck. He married Muriel Weber in 1932 and they were together throughout his life. In 1934 Ray was cast in We're Not Dressing for Paramount Studios and worked with Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard. His role in Beau Geste in 1939 was a turning point in his career. Ray Milland became a big box office star and was in demand for leading
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Whatever Happened To ... Ray Milland By Kevin Trask of 3AW and 96.5 Inner FM roles. He was a licensed pilot and tried to enlist in the Army when the Second World War began but was rejected due to a hand injury. Ray volunteered as a civilian flight instructor and continued to make films throughout the war years. In 1942 he made a film titled Reap The Wild Wind with John Wayne and in later years stated that his premature baldness was due to the curling of his straight hair during that production. In 1945, Ray Milland became the first Welshman to win a Best Actor Academy Award for his brilliant portrayal of an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend. His notable films included, I Wanted Wings, The Uninvited and The Big Clock.
● Ray Milland
He had his own television series, The Ray Milland Show, in 1953 and played a university professor. Ray Milland is best remembered for the classic film Dial M For Murder. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock and his co-stars included Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings. Another Ray Milland film that has gained ‘cult status’ was titled X but is also known as The Man With The X- Ray Eyes. He starred in many television shows during his career and discarded his toupee in his later years. He played small roles in two classic films, Love Story and Rosemary's Baby. Ray Milland was in more than 126 feature films which must be some sort of a record. He preferred to stay at home with his wife rather than attend Hollywood parties. The couple had two children. Ray Milland passed away from cancer in 1986 at the age of 81. I am so pleased that I got to see him onstage all those years ago - I thought Ray Milland was a wonderful actor. - Kevin Trask The Time Tunnel - with Bruce & PhilSundays at 8.20pm on 3AW That's Entertainment - 96.5FM Sundays at 12 Noon 96.5FM is streaming on the internet. To listen, go to www.innerfm.org.au and follow the prompts.
STORM BREWS OVER WEATHER STATION
■ With protests the world over, one often expects at the worst bloodshed, murder and mayhem; at the best, at least inflamed emotions and harsh words. Not in Tennant Creek. For two days, 30 protesters vented a quiet show of support for their current chosen issue - the Tennant Creek Weather Radar Station. It becamedue for demolition, and locals were up in arms, with tourist operators and politicians from all sides, and even public servants, indignant at the plans, claiming that lives would be endangered. The station has provided information on local storms and rainfall about every 10 minutes, and this, they claim, is vital for the safety of everyone in this desolate region, not the least being the Flying Doctor. The demolition, thanks to the little protest, has been temporarily postponed, whilst more backroom deals are worked upon. Reminds me of when I was Alice I would, as I do here, call the Weather Bureau and talk to a person, rather than a recording. I would be told, by the lone meteorologist on duty at the Airport, what to expect, and when, and where it was coming from. One afternoon, after a mis-forecast by the local media, he blurted out to me in frustration: "People just don't understand clouds!" ■ In 2011, as happens every year along the Stuart Highway, there was the World's Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide. These odd vehicles snake their way down the road at about 50kmh, but can reach up to 100. They get plenty of attention along the way, and attract crowds at every overnight stop. The design winner that particular year was the Solar World Grand Turismo from Germany, and has now just been driven around the world, not just across Australia. It travels about 30 kms each day, having started its global circumnavigation just after the finish of the last race in Adelaide. It then wound up travelling through New Zealand, and across the US, Europe, Eurasia and Russia. Now it's back and Australia, set to shortly finish its journey in Hahndorf. It will be seeking inclusion in the
The Outback Legend
with Nick Le Souef Lightning Ridge Opals 175 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Phone 9654 4444 www.opals.net.au Guinness Book of Records for the longest route driven by a solar car. It's powered by the same amount of energy required to run a hairdryer, Mareike Bautsch, a team member, noted. I know the brief distraction these cars cause as they trundle down the highway, particularly to road trains, but I can just imagine some of the traumas they must have endured and encountered in other, less welcoming, parts of the world. Freeways in the US would have been a nightmare, not to mention the bureaucracy and suspicion as they bounced across Russia. ■ The Alice Springs Women's Shelter has been celebrating its 35th anniversary, and there were a series of events around town to spread the word of opposing violence against women. "Levels of violence in Central Australia are diabolical in comparison to other parts of Australia,"says co-ordinator Dale Wakefield. In fact, Alice Springs has recently kept its title as the place with the most assaults in the NT, according to re-
cent statistics. It also has the highest number of alcohol-fuelled violent and domestic assaults in the NT, both of which I assume mean Australia as a whole. In a recent three month period there were 435 recorded assaults - about five each day. This is indeed diabolical. One just needs to wander the streets of Alice at any time to see who are the most common victims of this violence. So there was an art exhibition to draw attention to this violence issue, displaying works by women and children. There was also White Ribbon Day, which is a male-led campaign to help promote this prevention of violence against women. Russell Goldplan, an ambassador for White Ribbon, said: "If you hear someone screaming for help in the middle of the night, don't roll over and go back to sleep - call the cops!" ■ The owner of three Pitbulls which were put down by the local council late last year has complained that she didn't get the chance to challenge the decision. The dogs had been free roaming off their leads in a local park, and wandered over to a group of kids in a sandpit, who began to throw things at them. Then their shouts apparently unnerved the dogs, and they attacked a six-year-old girl. The council said the attack caused serious injury - the dog's owner said she only saw "two small nips". Two small nips too many, I reckon! Then there are packs of dingoes roaming the outskirts of town, stalking children and killing pet dogs and cats. Linda Rive was ambushed by a pack of six whilst out walking her small black dog. They attacked him, and ate him in seconds, she reported. Pretty gruesome. And Deb Rankin's Steel Point Burmese cat was also killed near her home. And there were further reports of two more pet dogs being mauled to death in front their owners in the same area. Not a good time for walkies around Alice at the moment. ■ I never thought much about salt mines until a visitor to Coober Pedy saw a picture of the local underground Catholic church, which I had labelled
● Tennant Creek Weather Radar Station as the only underground church in the year, generating $4m in tourist revworld. enue. "Wrong!" said this visitor, "there's There are marathons and mounone in Poland!" So I Googled this up tain bike races through the mine; a - quite a place is this Kracow salt ten-pin bowling alley, and a 300 seat mine! music amphitheatre. Now there's to be a salt mine in Salt is carved into fixtures and fitCentral Australia which will turn into tings and furniture underground - salt the region's largest tourist attraction, according to Duncan van der Merwe, lanterns and lights and candlestick of Tellus Holdings, who are about to holders. All this for Alice Springs. excavate. I can hardly wait. He's just come back from Europe, - Nick Le Souef and visited one such mine in Ger‘The Outback Legend’ many, which attracts 20,000 visitors a
From The Outer
Melbourne
Observer
kojak@ mmnet.com.au
With John Pasquarelli
■ The 'silly season' is behind us and we are headed towards the most important federal election since WWII. The Gillard Government has survived with the help of the treacherous 'independents' and has grimly run its agenda of lies and vote buying with hardly a flinch. The media maggots have increased in number, Seven's Sunrise show has become a clone of the ABC and the political polls surge back and forth, making one doubt their authenticity. All sides of politics have their problems - the Coalition continually inflicted Peter Slipper on the electorate while Labor has weirdos like Steve Gibbons from Bendigo performing his swan song. Meanwhile, mainstream Australia suffers on the sidelines and small business, workers sick and tired of the rorting of their union masters, farmers and many others are waiting for polling day. The Coalition must sit down with these people and listen, a task made harder by the fact that too many politicians have never employed another person out of their own pocket and are out of touch. An Abbott Government will be faced by an army of Labor sponsored bureaucrats who will have to be dealt with quickly and firmly. I think the bookies who have Abbott firm favorite are on the money. - John Pasquarelli: kojak@mmnet.com.au
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 17
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PHILOSOPHER’S SCRAPBOOK HISTORIC REPRINT OF THE 1950s BOOK BY 3DB’S MONTY BLANDFORD Introduction ■ For the past 18 years I have been broadcasting my Philosopher's Scrap Book to listeners in Victoria. It is a selection of writings from hundreds of sources compiled originally with one aim in view- to entertain. Over the years, through the medium of thousands of letters, and hundreds of personal meetings, I have been encouraged to believe that the Philosopher's Scrap Book has been, and still is, a source of spiritual and philosophical comfort to a large number of listeners, and gradually I have been endowed with the character of a homely philosopher, welcomed in thousands of homes every Sunday morning. Few of the words I broadcast are mine, but I accept the responsibility of choosing them, and that, combined with a desire to do their meaning justice -allows me to accept the spirit at least, of the vast number of encouraging and laudatory letters I have received. Many of them contain requests for copies of excerpts from the Scrap Book. Because of circumstances beyond my control, I am not always able to supply these - so I have chosen this method of making available to a very kind public a selection of the most sought after items. I acknowledge my deep debt of gratitude to all those people who, over the years, have supplied me with original compositions. Many of them have found their way into this book. It has been no easy task to make the selection, but it has been a labour of love, and if in these pages you find words which will bring a smile to your lips, happiness to your heart, and understanding to your mind, then I shall indeed be richly rewarded. - Monty Blandford "I shall pass through this world but once; Any good therefore, that I can do, Or any kindness I can show To any human being, Let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."
Father forgets
PART ONE: 4-PAGE LIFTOUT Anthology of prose and verse
● Monty Blandford Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside. These are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor. At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on you bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Good-bye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!" Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were
holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boy friends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive - and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!. Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in, timidly, with a sort of a hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped. You said nothing but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affec tion that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, patter ing up the stairs. Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth.
■ Philosopher's Scrap Book is an anthology of prose and verse compiled by Monty Blandford after repeated re quests from radio listeners over the 18 years. The reading of these everlasting gems kept his listeners enthralled - thousands of letters were received for copies of certain articles. These were not available and the idea was born in Monty Blandford's mind to publish this book so that his listeners could obtain the most appreciated works. Certain articles influenced the lives of many people and they will continue to do so. The reader will find that its influence will be transferred to their life - it will lead them along the road to better understanding of their fellow men. Its sincerity of purpose, and its blending of charm and pathos will compel you to think and reflect over the meanings so admirably expressed by writers recognised as great by literary people throughout the world. During your leisure moments gather your family and friends around you and read aloud a few pages - you will hold their enthusiasm and will find yourself becoming a philosopher-living accord ing to the rules of practical wisdom. As an anthology alone, it will be found of immense value to those who like to keep by them quotations and accounts from works known and loved. "
It was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me goodnight. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed ! It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy ... a little boy!" I am afraid I have visualised you as a man Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much. - W. Livingston Larned
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Page 18 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
PHILOSOPHER’S SCRAPBOOK
A tribute to the memory of C J Dennis He came in the Spring when the whole world was stirred With new life, and new beauty and power; At his coming they threw their mantle o'er him, Made him heir to their richness and dower. The secret things he learned from the spring Gave him powers he could use at his will, Which all through the years - from boyhood to age Surged like tides that never were still. In the arms of Nature he found a repose, When weary its voice made him whole, The song of the bird and the sigh of the wind
Caged Bird I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass. When the first bird sings and the first bud opens. I know what the caged bird feels! I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would be on the bough a-swing; And a pain throbs in the old, old scars And they pulse again with a keener stingI know why he beats his wing! I know why the caged bird sings, ah me. When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he send from his deep heart's core But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flingsI know why the caged bird sings!
Forget-Me-Not
Forget-me-nots out in the garden to-day, Are flowering along our old pathway, Looked at me with their eyes of blue Just the way that you used to do. Forget-me-not why did you go away? Was life too simple lived this way? Love and a garden sweet with dew All I had-I gave to you. Forget-me-not what has time done to you, Have you been, happy long years through ; Are you as gay, are your eyes as blue Do you still laugh as you used to do? Forget-me-not, you'll grow weary one day Of life's glitter and its foolish play Of friends who never would be true Remember the garden - still waits for you. ‘Mops’
Were music that strengthened his soul. A MAN -yet bound by mysterious chains To all primitive things of the earth, Which gave him the key and the entrance at will To the secrets of men and their worth. He was strangely akin to the coster and King, To the soldier and girl at the mill, He spoke to them all in their own native tongue For his language was that of goodwill. Through many dark days he invaded their gloom With his lamps of laughter and cheer And every sad heart forgot for a time The demon that dwelt in their fear.
His Pen was a baton that wielded a charm Over choirs in hamlet and hill. We watched as he swayed it, and ever anon We sang - or we wept - at his will. The Conductor steps down and we in our turn Are mute with deep sorrow and pain; But we silently vow as in silence we stand We will practise his life's sweet refrain. The Pen is now rusted - The Inkwell is dry, But the score that he wrote we still play, As we toast his memory a vision comes For in spirit he is with us today. - J.M.D.
● C J Dennis at his desk in 1890s
Advice: In A Chinese Garden In the past few years the aphorism which is the inspiration for this little story has been widely used. It was, in part, the theme of a poem written years ago by Robert Service. It was used in 1938 as the title of a book by Max Lerner on the perils of democracy. If Robert Service coined the expression, if others saw and read it in a Chinese garden, or if, like other Chinese sayings, it made its way into our lives by other means, I do not know. I have told many times the story of a certain letter which I received years ago, because the impression it made on me was very deep ; and I have never told it, on ships in distant seas or by quiet fire sides nearer home, without a reflective thoughtful response from those around me. The letter Peking, China. Dear Doctor, Please don't be too surprised in getting a letter from me. I am signing only my first name. My surname is the same as yours. You won't even remember me. Two years ago I was in your hospital under the care of another, doctor. I lost my baby the day it was born. That same day my doctor came in to see me, and as he left he said, "Oh, by the way, there is a doctor here with the same name as yours who noticed your name on the board, and asked me about you. He said he would like to come in to see you, because you might be a relative. I told him you had lost your baby and I didn't think you would want to see anybody, but it was all right with me." And then in a little while you came in. You put your hand on my arm and sat down for a moment beside my bed. You didn't say much of anything but your eyes and your voice were kind and pretty soon I felt better. As you sat there I noticed that you looked tired and that the lines in your face were very deep. I never saw you again but the nurses told me you were in hospital practically night and day. This afternoon I was a guest in a beautiful Chinese home here in Peking. The garden was enclosed by a high wall, and on one side, surrounded by twining red and white flowers, was a brass plate about two feet long. I asked someone to translate the Chinese characters for me. They said: ENJOY YOURSELF IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK I began to think about it for myself. I had not wanted another baby because I was still grieving for the one I lost. But I decided that moment that I should not wait any longer. Perhaps it may be later than I think too.
And then, because I was thinking of my baby, I thought of you and the tired lines in your face, and the moment of sympathy you gave me when I so needed it. I don't know how old you are but I am quite sure you are old enough to be my father ; and I know that those few minutes you spent with me meant little or nothing to you of course -but they meant a great deal to a woman who was desperately unhappy. So I am so presumptuous as to think that in turn I can do something for you, too. Perhaps for you it is later than you think. Please forgive me, but when your work is over, on the day you get my letter, please sit down very quietly, all by yourself, and think about it. - Margeurite Usually I sleep very well when I am not disturbed by the telephone, but that night I woke a dozen times seeing the brass plate in the Chinese wall. I called myself a silly old fool for being disturbed by a letter from a woman I couldn't even remember, and dismissed the thing from my mind; and before I knew it I found myself saying again to myself, "Well, maybe it is later than you think ; why don't you do something about it ?" I went to my office next morning and told them I was going away for three months. It is a wholesome experience for any man who thinks he is important in his own organisation to step out for a few months. The first time I went away on a long trip, some years before this letter came, I felt sure that everything would go to pieces. When I returned I found there were just as many patients as when I left, every one had recovered just as fast or faster, and most of my patients did not even know I had been away. It is humiliating to find how quickly and competently one's place is filled, but it is a very good lesson. I telephoned to Shorty, a retired colonel who was perhaps my closest friend, and asked him to come to my office. week. It is later than you think On his arrival I told him that I wanted him to go home and pack a grip and come on down to South America with me. He replied that he would like to but that he had so much to attend to in the next few months that it was out of the question to be away even for a I read him the letter.
He shook his head, "I can't go," he said. "Of course I'd like to, but for weeks now I've been waiting to close a deal. I'm sorry old man, but maybe sometime - sometime" - his words came more slowly. "What was that thing again that woman said?? - well -" He sat quietly for a moment. Neither of us spoke. I could almost see the balance swaying as he weighed the apparent demands of the present against the relatively few years each of us still had to live, exactly as I had the night before. At last he spoke. "I waited for three months for those people to make up their minds, I am not going to wait any longer. They can wait for me now. When would you like to go ?" We went to South America. We spent day after day at sea on a comfortable freighter, feeling our burdens slip off with the miles and our tired bodies being made over by the winds that swept across the Pacific from China. In the course of time we found ourselves in one of the great cities of South America. By good fortune we were entertained by one of the prominent men of the country, a man who had built enormous steel plants and whose industries were growing rapidly. During the visit Shorty asked our host if he played golf. He replied, "Senor, I play a little, I would like to play more. My wife is on vacation in the United States with our children. I would like to join her. I have beautiful horses here which I would love to ride, but I can do none of these things because I am too busy. I am 55 years old, and in five years more I shall stop. It is true
I said the same thing five years ago, but I did not know how much we should be growing. We are building a new plant ; we are making steel such as South America has never known. I cannot let go even for an afternoon of golf. My office boy has better leisure." "Senor," I said, "Do you know why I am in South America ?" "Because," he said, "because perhaps you had not too much to do and had the necessary time and money to permit it." "No," I replied. "I had a great deal to do and I did not have too much of either time or money. We are sitting here on your lovely terrace because a few weeks ago a girl whom I wouldn't know if I saw her looked at a brass plate in a Chinese wall in the City of Peking in the heart of China." I told him the story. Like Shorty, he made me repeat the words, "Enjoy yourself, it is later than you think." During the rest of the afternoon he seemed a bit preoccupied. The next morning I met him in the corridor of our hotel. "Doctor," he said, "please wait a moment. I have not slept well. It is strange, is it not, that a casual acquaintance, which you would say yourself you are, could change the current of a very busy life? I have thought long and hard since I saw you yesterday and I have cabled my wife that I am coming." He put his hand on my shoulder. "It was a very long finger indeed," he said, "that wrote those words on the garden wall in China." Many years have been added to the average expectation of life, but each individual's fate is still a hazard. The most valuable people around us have lived largely for others. This seems the time to remind them that they will have more years, and happier ones, to do good for others if they start right now to do some thing for themselves, to go places and to do things which they have looked for ward to for years ; to give those who love them the happiness of seeing them enjoy some of the rewards which they have earned ; to replace competition with a bit of contemplation. The ‘Shorty’ in this story, strong and well a few weeks ago, has gone to his reward. I spent the last hours at his bedside. Over and over again he said, " Fred. I am happy that we went to South America together. I thank God we did not wait too long." - Dr Frederic Loomis
A Morning Prayer The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonoured ; and grant us in the end the gift of sleep. Amen - R L Stevenson
Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 19
Observer Classic Books
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo VOLUME II COSETTE BOOK SIXTH.— LE PETIT-PICPUS CHAPTER III AUSTERITIES Continued From Last Week One is a postulant for two years at least, often for four; a novice for four. It is rare that the definitive vows can be pronounced earlier than the age of twenty-three or twenty-four years. The Bernardines–Benedictines of Martin Verga do not admit widows to their order. In their cells, they deliver themselves up to many unknown macerations, of which they must never speak. On the day when a novice makes her profession, she is dressed in her handsomest attire, she is crowned with white roses, her hair is brushed until it shines, and curled. Then she prostrates herself; a great black veil is thrown over her, and the office for the dead is sung. Then the nuns separate into two files; one file passes close to her, saying in plaintive accents, “Our sister is dead”; and the other file responds in a voice of ecstasy, “Our sister is alive in Jesus Christ!” At the epoch when this story takes place, a boarding-school was attached to the convent — a boarding-school for young girls of noble and mostly wealthy families, among whom could be remarked Mademoiselle de Saint–Aulaire and de Belissen, and an English girl bearing the illustrious Catholic name of Talbot. These young girls, reared by these nuns between four walls, grew up with a horror of the world and of the age. One of them said to us one day, “The sight of the street pavement made me shudder from head to foot.” They were dressed in blue, with a white cap and a Holy Spirit of silver gilt or of copper on their breast. On certain grand festival days, particularly Saint Martha’s day, they were permitted, as a high favor and a supreme happiness, to dress themselves as nuns and to carry out the offices and practice of Saint–Benoit for a whole day. In the early days the nuns were in the habit of lending them their black garments. This seemed profane, and the prioress forbade it. Only the novices were permitted to lend. It is remarkable that these performances, tolerated and encouraged, no doubt, in the convent out of a secret spirit of proselytism and in order to give these children a foretaste of the holy habit, were a genuine happiness and a real recreation for the scholars. They simply amused themselves with it. It was new; it gave them a change. Candid reasons of childhood, which do not, however, succeed in making us worldlings comprehend the felicity of holding a holy water sprinkler in one’s hand and standing for hours together singing hard enough for four in front of a reading-desk. The pupils conformed, with the exception of the austerities, to all the practices of the convent. There was a certain young woman who entered the world, and who after many years of married life had not succeeded in breaking herself of the habit of saying in great haste whenever any one knocked at her door, “forever!” Like the nuns, the pupils saw their relatives only in the parlor. Their very mothers did not obtain permission to embrace them. The following illustrates to what a degree severity on that point was carried. One day a young girl received a visit from her mother, who was accompanied by a little sister three years of age. The young girl wept, for she wished greatly to embrace her sister. Impossible. She begged that, at least, the child might be permitted to pass her little hand through the bars so that she could kiss it. This was almost indignantly refused.
CHAPTER IV GAYETIES
None the less, these young girls filled this grave house with charming souvenirs. At certain hours childhood sparkled in that cloister. The recreation hour struck. A door swung on its hinges. The birds said, “Good; here come the children!” An irruption of youth inundated that garden intersected with a cross like a shroud. Radiant faces, white foreheads, innocent eyes,
● Victor Hugo full of merry light, all sorts of auroras, were scattered about amid these shadows. After the psalmodies, the bells, the peals, and knells and offices, the sound of these little girls burst forth on a sudden more sweetly than the noise of bees. The hive of joy was opened, and each one brought her honey. They played, they called to each other, they formed into groups, they ran about; pretty little white teeth chattered in the corners; the veils superintended the laughs from a distance, shades kept watch of the sunbeams, but what mattered it? Still they beamed and laughed. Those four lugubrious walls had their moment of dazzling brilliancy. They looked on, vaguely blanched with the reflection of so much joy at this sweet swarming of the hives. It was like a shower of roses falling athwart this house of mourning. The young girls frolicked beneath the eyes of the nuns; the gaze of impeccability does not embarrass innocence. Thanks to these children, there was, among so many austere hours, one hour of ingenuousness. The little ones skipped about; the elder ones danced. In this cloister play was mingled with heaven. Nothing is so delightful and so august as all these fresh, expanding young souls. Homer would have come thither to laugh with Perrault; and there was in that black garden, youth, health, noise, cries, giddiness, pleasure, happiness enough to smooth out the wrinkles of all their ancestresses, those of the epic as well as those of the fairytale, those of the throne as well as those of the thatched cottage from Hecuba to la Mere– Grand. In that house more than anywhere else, perhaps, arise those children’s sayings which are so graceful and which evoke a smile that is full of thoughtfulness. It was between those four gloomy walls that a child of five years exclaimed one day: “Mother! one of the big girls has just told me that I have only nine years and ten months longer to remain here. What happiness!” It was here, too, that this memorable dialogue took place:—
A Vocal Mother. Why are you weeping, my child? The child (aged six). I told Alix that I knew my French history. She says that I do not know it, but I do. Alix, the big girl (aged nine). No; she does not know it. The Mother. How is that, my child? Alix. She told me to open the book at random and to ask her any question in the book, and she would answer it. “Well?” “She did not answer it.” “Let us see about it. What did you ask her?” “I opened the book at random, as she proposed, and I put the first question that I came across.” “And what was the question?” “It was, ‘What happened after that?’” It was there that that profound remark was made anent a rather greedy paroquet which belonged to a lady boarder:— “How well bred! it eats the top of the slice of bread and butter just like a person!” It was on one of the flagstones of this cloister that there was once picked up a confession which had been written out in advance, in order that she might not forget it, by a sinner of seven years:— “Father, I accuse myself of having been avaricious. “Father, I accuse myself of having been an adulteress. “Father, I accuse myself of having raised my eyes to the gentlemen.” It was on one of the turf benches of this garden that a rosy mouth six years of age improvised the following tale, which was listened to by blue eyes aged four and five years:— “There were three little cocks who owned a country where there were a great many flowers. They plucked the flowers and put them in their pockets. After that they plucked the leaves and put them in their playthings. There was a wolf in that country; there was a great deal of forest; and the wolf was in the forest; and he ate
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the little cocks.” And this other poem:— “There came a blow with a stick. “It was Punchinello who bestowed it on the cat. “It was not good for her; it hurt her. “Then a lady put Punchinello in prison.” It was there that a little abandoned child, a foundling whom the convent was bringing up out of charity, uttered this sweet and heart-breaking saying. She heard the others talking of their mothers, and she murmured in her corner:— “As for me, my mother was not there when I was born!” There was a stout portress who could always be seen hurrying through the corridors with her bunch of keys, and whose name was Sister Agatha. The big big girls — those over ten years of age — called her Agathocles. The refectory, a large apartment of an oblong square form, which received no light except through a vaulted cloister on a level with the garden, was dark and damp, and, as the children say, full of beasts. All the places round about furnished their contingent of insects. Each of its four corners had received, in the language of the pupils, a special and expressive name. There was Spider corner, Caterpillar corner, Wood-louse corner, and Cricket corner. Cricket corner was near the kitchen and was highly esteemed. It was not so cold there as elsewhere. From the refectory the names had passed to the boarding-school, and there served as in the old College Mazarin to distinguish four nations. Every pupil belonged to one of these four nations according to the corner of the refectory in which she sat at meals. One day Monseigneur the Archbishop while making his pastoral visit saw a pretty little rosy girl with beautiful golden hair enter the class-room through which he was passing. He inquired of another pupil, a charming brunette with rosy cheeks, who stood near him:— “Who is that?” “She is a spider, Monseigneur.” “Bah! And that one yonder?” “She is a cricket.” “And that one?” “She is a caterpillar.” “Really! and yourself?” “I am a wood-louse, Monseigneur.” Every house of this sort has its own peculiarities. At the beginning of this century Ecouen was one of those strict and graceful places where young girls pass their childhood in a shadow that is almost august. At Ecouen, in order to take rank in the procession of the Holy Sacrament, a distinction was made between virgins and florists. There were also the “dais” and the “censors,”— the first who held the cords of the dais, and the others who carried incense before the Holy Sacrament. The flowers belonged by right to the florists. Four “virgins” walked in advance. On the morning of that great day it was no rare thing to hear the question put in the dormitory, “Who is a virgin?” Madame Campan used to quote this saying of a “little one” of seven years, to a “big girl” of sixteen, who took the head of the procession, while she, the little one, remained at the rear, “You are a virgin, but I am not.”
CHAPTER V THE LITTLE CONVENT
In this enclosure of the Petit–Picpus there were three perfectly distinct buildings,— the Great Convent, inhabited by the nuns, the Boardingschool, where the scholars were lodged; and lastly, what was called the Little Convent. It was a building with a garden, in which lived all sorts of aged nuns of various orders, the relics of cloisters destroyed in the Revolution; a reunion of all the black, gray, and white medleys of all communities and all possible varieties; what might be called, if such a coupling of words is permissible, a sort of harlequin convent. When the Empire was established, all these poor old dispersed and exiled women had been accorded permission to come and take shelter under the wings of the Bernardines–Benedictines. The government paid them a small pension, the ladies of the Petit–Picpus received them cor
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From Page 19 dially. It was a singular pell-mell. Each followed her own rule, Sometimes the pupils of the boarding-school were allowed, as a great recreation, to pay them a visit; the result is, that all those young memories have retained among other souvenirs that of Mother Sainte–Bazile, Mother Sainte–Scolastique, and Mother Jacob. One of these refugees found herself almost at home. She was a nun of Sainte–Aure, the only one of her order who had survived. The ancient convent of the ladies of Sainte–Aure occupied, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, this very house of the Petit–Picpus, which belonged later to the Benedictines of Martin Verga. This holy woman, too poor to wear the magnificent habit of her order, which was a white robe with a scarlet scapulary, had piously put it on a little manikin, which she exhibited with complacency and which she bequeathed to the house at her death. In 1824, only one nun of this order remained; today, there remains only a doll. In addition to these worthy mothers, some old society women had obtained permission of the prioress, like Madame Albertine, to retire into the Little Convent. Among the number were Madame Beaufort d’Hautpoul and Marquise Dufresne. Another was never known in the convent except by the formidable noise which she made when she blew her nose. The pupils called her Madame Vacarmini (hubbub). About 1820 or 1821, Madame de Genlis, who was at that time editing a little periodical publication called l’Intrepide, asked to be allowed to enter the convent of the Petit–Picpus as lady resident. The Duc d’Orleans recommended her. Uproar in the hive; the vocal-mothers were all in a flutter; Madame de Genlis had made romances. But she declared that she was the first to detest them, and then, she had reached her fierce stage of devotion. With the aid of God, and of the Prince, she entered. She departed at the end of six or eight months, alleging as a reason, that there was no shade in the garden. The nuns were delighted. Although very old, she still played the harp, and did it very well. When she went away she left her mark in her cell. Madame de Genlis was superstitious and a Latinist. These two words furnish a tolerably good profile of her. A few years ago, there were still to be seen, pasted in the inside of a little cupboard in her cell in which she locked up her silverware and her jewels, these five lines in Latin, written with her own hand in red ink on yellow paper, and which, in her opinion, possessed the property of frightening away robbers:— Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis:15 Dismas et Gesmas, media est divina potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix, infima, Gesmas; Nos et res nostras conservet summa potestas. Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas. On the boughs hang three bodies of unequal merits: Dismas and Gesmas, between is the divine power. Dismas seeks the heights, Gesmas, unhappy man, the lowest regions; the highest power will preserve us and our effects. If you repeat this verse, you will not lose your things by theft. These verses in sixth century Latin raise the question whether the two thieves of Calvary were named, as is commonly believed, Dismas and Gestas, or Dismas and Gesmas. This orthography might have confounded the pretensions put forward in the last century by the Vicomte de Gestas, of a descent from the wicked thief. However, the useful virtue attached to these verses forms an article of faith in the order of the Hospitallers. The church of the house, constructed in such a manner as to separate the Great Convent from the Boarding-school like a veritable intrenchment, was, of course, common to the Boarding-school, the Great Convent, and the Little Convent. The public was even admitted by a sort of lazaretto entrance on the street. But all was so arranged, that none of the inhabitants of the cloister could see a face from the outside world. Suppose a church whose choir is grasped in a gigantic hand, and folded in such a manner as to form, not, as in ordinary churches, a prolongation behind the altar, but a sort of hall, or obscure cellar, to the right of the officiating priest; suppose this hall to be shut off by a curtain seven feet in height, of which we have already spoken; in the shadow of that curtain, pile up on wooden stalls the nuns in the choir on the left, the school-girls on the right, the lay-sisters and the novices at the bottom, and you will have some idea of the nuns of the Petit–Picpus assist-
Observer Classic Books ing at divine service. That cavern, which was called the choir, communicated with the cloister by a lobby. The church was lighted from the garden. When the nuns were present at services where their rule enjoined silence, the public was warned of their presence only by the folding seats of the stalls noisily rising and falling.
CHAPTER VII SOME SILHOUETTES OF THIS DARKNESS During the six years which separate 1819 from 1825, the prioress of the Petit–Picpus was Mademoiselle de Blemeur, whose name, in religion, was Mother Innocente. She came of the family of Marguerite de Blemeur, author of Lives of the Saints of the Order of Saint–Benoit. She had been re-elected. She was a woman about sixty years of age, short, thick, “singing like a cracked pot,” says the letter which we have already quoted; an excellent woman, moreover, and the only merry one in the whole convent, and for that reason adored. She was learned, erudite, wise, competent, curiously proficient in history, crammed with Latin, stuffed with Greek, full of Hebrew, and more of a Benedictine monk than a Benedictine nun. The sub-prioress was an old Spanish nun, Mother Cineres, who was almost blind. The most esteemed among the vocal mothers were Mother Sainte–Honorine; the treasurer, Mother Sainte–Gertrude, the chief mistress of the novices; Mother–Saint-Ange, the assistant mistress; Mother Annonciation, the sacristan; Mother Saint–Augustin, the nurse, the only one in the convent who was malicious; then Mother Sainte–Mechtilde (Mademoiselle Gauvain), very young and with a beautiful voice; Mother des Anges (Mademoiselle Drouet), who had been in the convent of the Filles–Dieu, and in the convent du Tresor, between Gisors and Magny; Mother Saint–Joseph (Mademoiselle de Cogolludo), Mother Sainte–Adelaide (Mademoiselle d’Auverney), Mother Misericorde (Mademoiselle de Cifuentes, who could not resist austerities), Mother Compassion (Mademoiselle de la Miltiere, received at the age of sixty in defiance of the rule, and very wealthy); Mother Providence (Mademoiselle de Laudiniere), Mother Presentation (Mademoiselle de Siguenza), who was prioress in 1847; and finally, Mother Sainte–Celigne (sister of the sculptor Ceracchi), who went mad; Mother Sainte– Chantal (Mademoiselle de Suzon), who went mad. There was also, among the prettiest of them, a charming girl of three and twenty, who was from the Isle de Bourbon, a descendant of the Chevalier Roze, whose name had been Mademoiselle Roze, and who was called Mother Assumption. Mother Sainte–Mechtilde, intrusted with the singing and the choir, was fond of making use of the pupils in this quarter. She usually took a complete scale of them, that is to say, seven, from ten to sixteen years of age, inclusive, of assorted voices and sizes, whom she made sing standing, drawn up in a line, side by side, according to age, from the smallest to the largest. This presented to the eye, something in the nature of a reed-pipe of young girls, a sort of living Panpipe made of angels. Those of the lay-sisters whom the scholars loved most were Sister Euphrasie, Sister Sainte–Marguerite, Sister Sainte–Marthe, who was in her dotage, and Sister Sainte–Michel, whose long nose made them laugh. All these women were gentle with the children. The nuns were severe only towards themselves. No fire was lighted except in the school, and the food was choice compared to that in the convent. Moreover, they lavished a thousand cares on their scholars. Only, when a child passed near a nun and addressed her, the nun never replied. This rule of silence had had this effect, that throughout the whole convent, speech had been withdrawn from human creatures, and bestowed on inanimate objects. Now it was the churchbell which spoke, now it was the gardener’s bell. A very sonorous bell, placed beside the portress, and which was audible throughout the house, indicated by its varied peals, which formed a sort of acoustic telegraph, all the actions of material life which were to be performed, and summoned to the parlor, in case of need, such or such an inhabitant of the house. Each person and each thing had its own peal. The prioress had one and one, the sub-prioress one and two. Six-five announced lessons, so that the pupils never said “to go to lessons,” but “to go to six-
five.” Four-four was Madame de Genlis’s signal. It was very often heard. “C’est le diable a quatre,— it’s the very deuce — said the uncharitable. Tennine strokes announced a great event. It was the opening of the door of seclusion, a frightful sheet of iron bristling with bolts which only turned on its hinges in the presence of the archbishop. With the exception of the archbishop and the gardener, no man entered the convent, as we have already said. The schoolgirls saw two others: one, the chaplain, the Abbe Banes, old and ugly, whom they were permitted to contemplate in the choir, through a grating; the other the drawing-master, M. Ansiaux, whom the letter, of which we have perused a few lines, calls M. Anciot, and describes as a frightful old hunchback. It will be seen that all these men were carefully chosen. Such was this curious house.
CHAPTER VIII POST CORDA LAPIDES After having sketched its moral face, it will not prove unprofitable to point out, in a few words, its material configuration. The reader already has some idea of it. The convent of the Petit–Picpus-Sainte–Antoine filled almost the whole of the vast trapezium which resulted from the intersection of the Rue Polonceau, the Rue Droit–Mur, the Rue Petit– Picpus, and the unused lane, called Rue Aumarais on old plans. These four streets surrounded this trapezium like a moat. The convent was composed of several buildings and a garden. The principal building, taken in its entirety, was a juxtaposition of hybrid constructions which, viewed from a bird’s-eye view, outlined, with considerable exactness, a gibbet laid flat on the ground. The main arm of the gibbet occupied the whole of the fragment of the Rue Droit–Mur comprised between the Rue Petit– Picpus and the Rue Polonceau; the lesser arm was a lofty, gray, severe grated facade which faced the Rue Petit–Picpus; the carriage entrance No. 62 marked its extremity. Towards the centre of this facade was a low, arched door, whitened with dust and ashes, where the spiders wove their webs, and which was open only for an hour or two on Sundays, and on rare occasions, when the coffin of a nun left the convent. This was the public entrance of the church. The elbow of the gibbet was a square hall which was used as the servants’ hall, and which the nuns called the buttery. In the main arm were the cells of the mothers, the sisters, and the novices. In the lesser arm lay the kitchens, the refectory, backed up by the cloisters and the church. Between the door No. 62 and the corner of the closed lane Aumarais, was the school, which was not visible from without. The remainder of the trapezium formed the garden, which was much lower than the level of the Rue Polonceau, which caused the walls to be very much higher on the inside than on the outside. The garden, which was slightly arched, had in its centre, on the summit of a hillock, a fine pointed and conical fir-tree, whence ran, as from the peaked boss of a shield, four grand alleys, and, ranged by twos in between the branchings of these, eight small ones, so that, if the enclosure had been circular, the geometrical plan of the alleys would have resembled a cross superposed on a wheel. As the alleys all ended in the very irregular walls of the garden, they were of unequal length. They were bordered with currant bushes. At the bottom, an alley of tall poplars ran from the ruins of the old convent, which was at the angle of the Rue Droit–Mur to the house of the Little Convent, which was at the angle of the Aumarais lane. In front of the Little Convent was what was called the little garden. To this whole, let the reader add a courtyard, all sorts of varied angles formed by the interior buildings, prison walls, the long black line of roofs which bordered the other side of the Rue Polonceau for its sole perspective and neighborhood, and he will be able to form for himself a complete image of what the house of the Bernardines of the Petit–Picpus was forty years ago. This holy house had been built on the precise site of a famous tennis-ground of the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, which was called the “tennis-ground of the eleven thousand devils.” All these streets, moreover, were more ancient than Paris. These names, Droit–Mur and Aumarais, are very ancient; the streets which bear them are very much more ancient still.
Aumarais Lane was called Maugout Lane; the Rue Droit–Mur was called the Rue des Eglantiers, for God opened flowers before man cut stones.
CHAPTER IX A CENTURY UNDER A GUIMPE Since we are engaged in giving details as to what the convent of the Petit–Picpus was in former times, and since we have ventured to open a window on that discreet retreat, the reader will permit us one other little digression, utterly foreign to this book, but characteristic and useful, since it shows that the cloister even has its original figures. In the Little Convent there was a centenarian who came from the Abbey of Fontevrault. She had even been in society before the Revolution. She talked a great deal of M. de Miromesnil, Keeper of the Seals under Louis XVI. and of a Presidentess Duplat, with whom she had been very intimate. It was her pleasure and her vanity to drag in these names on every pretext. She told wonders of the Abbey of Fontevrault,— that it was like a city, and that there were streets in the monastery. She talked with a Picard accent which amused the pupils. Every year, she solemnly renewed her vows, and at the moment of taking the oath, she said to the priest, “Monseigneur Saint– Francois gave it to Monseigneur Saint–Julien, Monseigneur Saint–Julien gave it to Monseigneur Saint–Eusebius, Monseigneur Saint–Eusebius gave it to Monseigneur Saint– Procopius, etc., etc.; and thus I give it to you, father.” And the school-girls would begin to laugh, not in their sleeves, but under their veils; charming little stifled laughs which made the vocal mothers frown. On another occasion, the centenarian was telling stories. She said that in her youth the Bernardine monks were every whit as good as the mousquetaires. It was a century which spoke through her, but it was the eighteenth century. She told about the custom of the four wines, which existed before the Revolution in Champagne and Bourgogne. When a great personage, a marshal of France, a prince, a duke, and a peer, traversed a town in Burgundy or Champagne, the city fathers came out to harangue him and presented him with four silver gondolas into which they had poured four different sorts of wine. On the first goblet this inscription could be read, monkey wine; on the second, lion wine; on the third, sheep wine; on the fourth, hog wine. These four legends express the four stages descended by the drunkard; the first, intoxication, which enlivens; the second, that which irritates; the third, that which dulls; and the fourth, that which brutalizes. In a cupboard, under lock and key, she kept a mysterious object of which she thought a great deal. The rule of Fontevrault did not forbid this. She would not show this object to anyone. She shut herself up, which her rule allowed her to do, and hid herself, every time that she desired to contemplate it. If she heard a footstep in the corridor, she closed the cupboard again as hastily as it was possible with her aged hands. As soon as it was mentioned to her, she became silent, she who was so fond of talking. The most curious were baffled by her silence and the most tenacious by her obstinacy. Thus it furnished a subject of comment for all those who were unoccupied or bored in the convent. What could that treasure of the centenarian be, which was so precious and so secret? Some holy book, no doubt? Some unique chaplet? Some authentic relic? They lost themselves in conjectures. When the poor old woman died, they rushed to her cupboard more hastily than was fitting, perhaps, and opened it. They found the object beneath a triple linen cloth, like some consecrated paten. It was a Faenza platter representing little Loves flitting away pursued by apothecary lads armed with enormous syringes. The chase abounds in grimaces and in comical postures. One of the charming little Loves is already fairly spitted. He is resisting, fluttering his tiny wings, and still making an effort to fly, but the dancer is laughing with a satanical air. Moral: Love conquered by the colic. This platter, which is very curious, and which had, possibly, the honor of furnishing Moliere with an idea, was still in existence in September, 1845; it was for sale by a bric-a-brac merchant in the Boulevard Beaumarchais. This good old woman would not receive any visits from outside because, said she, the parlor is too gloom - Continued on Page 57
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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - Page 21
Victoria Pictorial
Historic Photo Collection
● Main street, Portsea. 1914.
● View at Sorrento. 1914.
● ‘Australian aboriginals, Lake Tyers’.
● The Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell
● The Monbulk road, Belgrave.
● Bourke Street, Melbourne. 1948.
● Princes Bridge, Melbourne. Approx. 1940.
● Swanston Street, Melbourne. Early 1930s.
Page 22 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, February 6, 2013
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Mark Richardson PHOTO: IKON IMAGES
♥ Straight from the heart
E-Mail: mark@localmedia.com.au
Plunge for youth homelessness
■ Idioms, phrases or expressions such as, 'it's raining cats and dogs', 'kick the bucket' and 'drive me up the wall' often make their way into our conversations, although we cannot take them literally. As it turned out on my Porch before Christmas last year, it was suggested I 'take a flying jump' during a light-hearted debate. I took the 'bull by the horns' to become involved in raising funds and awareness for Lighthouse Foundation based in Melbourne. Being an avid Porch Thinker, regularly writing columns, short stories and song lyrics, I often find inspiration in nature and with the flying jump firmly in mind, I simply looked to the sky and created a mini fundraising campaign, 'Mark's Porch Plunge for Lighthouse Foundation.’. A simple Porch Thought, yet I would still have to muster the courage to actually take that flying jump with a tandem skydive. I learned that my plunge with Skydive the Beach Melbourne would take place from an altitude of 14,000ft and I would free-fall at 200km per hour for 60 seconds (gulp!) and canopy directly over St Kilda Beach for around seven minutes to safely land in Moran Reserve (Elwood) in order to complete my plunge and hoping to raise $1000. I was somewhat suprised by the prompt generosity of family, friends, businesses and organisations whom wanted me to jump out of a plane, and raised over $1200 in a few days all thanks to Skydive the Beach Melbourne who accommodated my jump and support Lighthouse Foundation's vision of ending youth homelessness in Australia. The Skydive the Beach Melbourne team couldn't wait to welcome me aboard their tiny plane and have me strapped to their professional tandem instructor Cody Bekkerus to help me complete my mission that was completely out of my comfort zone. Having completed more than 5000 jumps in his career, as we took to the sky from the Moorabbin Airport, Cody assured me that I had nothing to fear as long as he remembered to connect me to his harness before we jumped. Yeah, funny guy! With just one mile to reach before plunge time, we shuffled to the side of the door and my numbing legs were suddenly beneath the plane; my arms crossed, head back, heart racing and somewhere between feeling the heaviness of Cody on my back, the screeching of the wind and the roar of the engine, upon reflection, I entered a moment of 'nothing’, a few seconds without sight, sound, thought, weight or any emotion that I can remember.
1400ft Porch Thoughts
● Mark Richardson and Cody Bekkerus
● Mark and Cody over Melbourne
Skydive photos courtesy of Skydive the Beach Melbourne. Perhaps it was a jolt of adrenaline vided us time to discuss our Porch that hit me. Cody's sudden Plunge for Lighthouse Foundation "Wooohooo" snapped light into my and trying to fathom how, that on a eyes, ripped the wind into my face given day in Australia, approxiand sound forces through my ears, mately 150,000 people, half of them inducing recall, a place of being and under 24, are homeless. On a day jubilation. I was alert, flying and free. of putting many things into perspecWith plenty of screams, smiles and tive, I realised that is more than the waving at Cody's camera strapped to seating capacity at the MCG. his arm during the free- fall, he reAs my feet dangled metres leased the canopy and it was time to above the thousands of nearing relax and enjoy the amazing views Porches, rooftops, swimming pools, of Melbourne's CBD, Port Phillip roads, trees, cars and the boats Bay and the Mornington Peninsula. moored at the St Kilda Marina, it We slowly swirled, twisted and was time to swing my pre jump turned on our way down that pro- training into action by holding my
● Kane Bowden Porch Thought of The Day Kane Bowden, CEO Lighthouse Foundation "People like Mark are the epitome of what Lighthouse is all about seeing a segment of our community that needs support and then taking it upon himself to get involved to raise both awareness and funds. “If everyone took it upon themselves to get involved and support worthy causes like Lighthouse then, together, we really could end youth homelessness and probably do it within a generation. “Every dollar raised to support the Lighthouse Model of Care enables us to give homeless young people a home, a family and therapeutic care that is individually tailored, trauma informed and proven to work. “It means that our young people can regain their childhood and take their rightful place in the community. “I would say to everyone that you can do what Mark did. Find a cause, take on a challenge and get involved because regardless of where that might take you the act of getting involved is, in itself, incredibly valuable." legs up to ensure we landed with ease on the grass. With a deep breath, a few highfives and more happy snaps, Cody and I celebrated the success of our Porch Plunge. The eagle had landed. $1235.00 raised from the generosity of the following supporters of Lighthouse Foundation: Victoria St John, Creighton Dickie, Mark Powers, Pat Eklom, Paige, Jude and Jack Richardson, Lyndall, Jay and Alannah Tennant, WayneBanks Smith, Deb Davis, Julie Hyne, Moira and Murray HowardBrooks, David Holden, Mia De Rose,
Rob Richardson, Hans Langender, Robert Kaldor, Ig Ridis, Peter Jago, Chris McDonald, Les Pamensky, Deegan Jolly, Smilka Jakobi, Peter Clarke, Bastien Treptel, Control IT, Andy Devic, Degen Agnew, Helen Russell, Evan Christopolous, Tim McPherson, Peter Lake, Peter Marcus, Franoise Leconte, Brian Jones, Peter Philip, Lauren Berry, Hunter Dean, Anatole Petrovich Kononewsky, Eric Giamarrio, QA Software Pty Ltd, ChillRoom Studios, Mag Media, Peninsula Paving Pty Ltd, IKON Images, Freemasons Victoria Monash Lodge No. 938 and Rowland Pinder Public Relations.