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Percy and Chimp on same flights .
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By Peter Simon
Burton had an eye for the unusual
commercial opportunity. When
the Russians shot a dog, Laika , into orbit in a Sputnik
satellite he proposed taking out
a patent for a space dog toy.
Because the dog did not survive the flight , manufacturers were reluctant to take up the
idea , canine lovers saddened that it died in the historic voyage.
Never deterred, he had the same
bright idea when the Americans
fired a chimp , Enos, into the heavens in 1961. A cartoon at the time showed a
monkey in a US Air Force
officer’s uniform smoking a
cigar and telling
future astronauts they would
experience an uncontrollable urge for a banana once their
rocket got to a
certain height . Again no toy maker was interested.
However his
space toy ideas caused much jocularity in the News
and Darwin pubs. Percy was clearly ahead
of his time in the toy
industry and could have been a consultant to the lucrative , mega-hit series ,Toy Story. Another money making scheme
he outlined was taking photographs of Darwin houses and selling copies to the surprised
occupants who , the theory went, would send them to relatives and friends
down south and overseas.
Before he left the ABC , Burton
had been involved in a scrap with a Cypriot born
tailor who had a shop in the
Hotel Darwin building . The tailor was making a pair of white
sharkskin shorts for Percy who used to
drop in frequently to see how they were coming along. During one of many
fittings , Burton spotted a stain
in what he described as a "disadvantageous position" -
the fly - and refused to
have anything further to do with the
shorts.
An altercation took place and Burton
was hit in the ear . The tailor
was charged with assaulting Burton who appeared in court wearing a
monogrammed shirt and a
cravat. In answer to
a question from defence lawyer , George Cridland , Burton denied
being used to " grovelling oriental tailors". The tailor was not fined
and in a magnanimous gesture,
Burton paid the puzzled tailor for the shorts
outside the court .
The News ran a report about the hearing
under the Keith Willey heading , THE CASE OF THE SHARKSKIN
SHORTS.
Before driving down the track
for a weekend, Burton borrowed a rifle from a
gun enthusiast who was reluctant
to hand over the weapon .
However , Burton assured him he knew how to handle firearms.
While driving along the
highway he came upon an unfortunate kangaroo which had been hit by a car .
The injured
animal was flopping about on the
road, so Burton got out with the rifle
intending to put it out of its misery.
Instead of shooting the roo, he
used the rifle as a club and
began to hit it on the head.
Naturally , the creature objected
and frantically bounced around . Intending to finish
the the kangaroo with one
almighty blow, Percy missed and hit the
bitumen , which caused the stock of the rifle to split . Not only that , he actually bent the barrel .
The owner of the rifle was
furious when Burton returned the now
useless shooter.
When Burton left Darwin he obtained
a job
as advance publicity man for a
road show . In this role , he lobbed at
the Sydney Morning Herald one
day while this writer
was on duty . He calmly walked up to the sub editors’ table and placed a lengthy , racy story about
his experiences in Sydney's King’s
Cross in the basket . It read like
the radio serial Night
Beat . Nobody
but staff should place copy in the subs basket . A copy
taster pulled the bulky
story out and began to read it , then called
out : " Who is this person Burton ?" By that stage Burton was
making free calls to Brisbane from a phone in the interstate room and
soon after hit the road again. NEXT : Darwin calling surprised US captains of commerce .
