Noel Coward In Australia

Believe it or not Noel Coward visited Australia and New Zealand once and here's the proof of that visit. This double sided card was issued as a souvenir of Coward's appearance in Melbourne on the 28th November, 1940. I have no idea how many of these exist these days, nor it's worth but I expect that the numbers aren't very high in both departments.

As a souvenir it's a nice little item, postcard size and I'd expect somewhat desirable to Coward collectors - and yes, I expect that those people are out there. I've always said that people collect anything, including barbed wire.

Once Coward left Australia he wrote a book, collecting his broadcasts. Titled 'Australia Visited' and published by Heinemann (London) 1940. Before anyone asks, nope I don't have it, yet, but considering that Coward's speeches still amuse me, I'll be looking for a copy very shortly.

Marie Ney and Noel Coward, in Australia, 1940. An acclaimed at the time, but now largely forgotten, actress, Ney toured the country in late 1940/early 1941 and performed Coward's play 'Private Lives' in Sydney in February 1941.

Hal Thompson, Marie Ney and Noel Coward.

Alec Coppel, Marie Ney and Noel Coward. Coppel wrote several films and worked with Hitchcock, notably as the screenwriter of the classic Vertigo.

From 350,000 To Zero: The 'Lost' Beatle - Jimmy Nicol

Amazing isn't it? When the Beatles played Australia for the only time in 1964 Ringo was out with an illness, so in stepped drummer Jimmy Nicol. Jimmy was with the band when they touched down in Sydney to a torrential downpour, not that it stopped an estimated 1,000 fans plus a handful of journos from coming out to see them as they did a lap of the airport in the teeming rain.

From there the band flew to Adelaide where an estimated 350,000 people wagged school, skipped work and generally took the day off just to see them - that was around 1/3 of the total population of South Australia at the time. It remains probably THE largest, crowd to turn out to see the band. George Harrison and Paul McCartney always commented on the size of the crowd, even thirty years after the event. Jimmy was there...amongst the adulation and was turned out to greet the masses of Lunchtime O'Boozes all of whom wanted a quick soundbite.

In Adelaide Jimmy played four concerts, one of which was filmed and is proof that he was a fairly decent drummer.

This was the scene the day after the band arrived in Melbourne. Ringo was back on board, Jimmy was given a gold watch, a cheque and a lift to the airport and dumped there with a ticket, forever destined to become another question in Beatles Trivial Pursuit.

From 350,000 people to one lone photo-journo who probably was there on a fluke. No wonder Jimmy became a recluse - for ten days he was part of what's generally remembered as being the biggest act on the planet to being...

This Weeks' Reading List: 1st August

It's been a very busy week. Fights with the workplace, some pressures, stresses and an on-going battle with depression has seen my reading limited but on the upside I have completely emptied the storage unit and thrown out reams of useless crap and, best of all, unpacked several hundred books and placed them upon the shelves. Excellent!

What did I finish this week?
King Of Comedy: The Life & Art Of Jerry Lewis by Shawn Levy. I like Levy's style of writing, his book on the Rat Pack is one of my all time favourites and this book is greatly assisted by the same informative, yet entertaining style of reporting. There's stuff in here that I never knew about Lewis, and to be honest, he's never been one of my favourite comedians (Marx Brothers boy that I always was) yet this has caused me to reconsider my appraisals of the man. Levy shows that Lewis, like most comedians, has a definite dark side, which erupted during the writing of the book, as the postscript shows, as Lewis began to attack Levy for slights that were, for the most part, totally imagined.

First Photographs by Gail Buckland. Pretty much what the title says the book delivers. Piles of early and interesting photographs of all kinds of topics. The photo of Ruth Synder's execution is still a chilling image, even after eighty years.

The World Of Mitchell by Phil Birnbaum. An overview of the career of editorial cartoonist Bill Mitchell. This book will mean absolutely nothing to:
1] anyone under the age of 40 and
2] anyone who's never lived in Australia. Thus this book has limited appeal. Like the bulk of such books, the editorial cartoons presented make no sense unless you're aware of the situation surrounding them, and some, in hindsight, appear to be either silly or mean spirited. Damned good artist though.

Rockwell On Rockwell: How I Make A Picture by Norman Rockwell. I got this book, and the next one listed, for peanuts from a local market. Colour me happy. Brilliant book by Rockwell showing the techniques that the artist used to create some of his most memorable images. I expect that artists of today could do worse than to try and track a copy of this sucker down.

Norman Rockwell & The Saturday Evening Post: The Early Years by Norman Rockwell. See the recurring pattern here? A beautifully presented book, large in format and as such able to showcase of the earlier Rockwell covers. I know a lot of art aficionados look down on Rockwell, but I like the stuff. Reading it I couldn't help but wonder if there's a book out there showcasing my other favourite painter: Norman Mingo...

The Draft by Emma Quayle. As mentioned last week, this was finished an hour after I finished my entry. See last week's entry for an more in-depth report.

READING AT THE MOMENT
S.P. Mackenzie: The Colditz Myth. Holy crap!! Not your usual WWII POW book, not that light and breezy, but it is showing, by use of detailed research, that a lot of what we've been lead to believe about WWII POW life might not be all that it appears. Not an easy book to read, but rich in detail and scope. Halfway through it, ETA of finishing is sometime Monday.

ON THE READING LIST THIS WEEK
Bruce Beresford: Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This...
Kevin Brownlow: Behind The Mask Of Innocence - Sex, Violence, Prejudice, Crime: Films Of Social Conscience In The Silent Era
Paul Buhle & Dave Wagner: Hide In Plain Sight - The Hollywood Blacklistees In Film & Television 1950 - 2002

I'm also doing some serious research into a potential new book that I want to write. This has also seen a lot of reading time taken up with other subjects. As such if I wasn't researching I'd have finished another two books or so, but if Project #5 (as I'm calling it) takes off it'll all be worth it. Watch this space.