Paul Keating became the subject of a musical, so why not our double-breasted PM, Sir Robert Menzies ? An apt title for the toe tapping show would surely be Pig Iron Bob, the name the wharfies gave him when he insisted on shipping pig iron to the Japanese while they were raping China in readiness for the extended tour of Pearl Harbour , the Pacific, Darwin and other venues.Little Darwin would be happy to help Andrew Lloyd Webber or any local entrepreneurs put this Aussie show on the road by making available from our files the rare March 1934 program for PIG IRONY, a musical revue, which includes the score for catchy songs inspired, in part, by Gilbert and Sullivan .
This unusual entertainment was staged by the BHP Younger Set ,a theatrical group, in the once great smelting town of Newcastle, NSW . A perusal of the program seems to indicate that all the “girls ” in the show were actually males. The jaunty opening song admits to the fact that all actors were male.
There is an indirect Territory link to the show in an act billed as an Eccentric Dance (Tondeleyo) , performed by a male . Sultry Tondeleyo featured in plays and movies about white men in topees going to seed in tropical climes. Author Xavier Herbert got the idea to write a book about such a situation in Australia and out of it eventually developed Capricornia.
Artwork for the cover of the program was done by Jim Cowie who was in charge of the show’s scenery. All writs resulting from the show were to be served on the BHP boss, Essington Lewis.
The 1938 Pig Iron Bob episode was recently subject of a short film clip by Wollongong film maker Sandra Pires. According to the Maritime Union of Australia it could be a prelude to a full length docodrama covering the event. On November 15, 1938 the steamship Dalfram berthed at Port Kembla to load pig iron ore for Kobe,Japan. Waterside worker branch secretary ,Ted Roach, addressed the labour pick up and told them the iron ore would obviously be made into bombs against the Chinese and eventually Australia.
As a result the men walked off which resulted in a nine week lock out .The men were subjected to government pressure and threats, the attorney general and future PM Menzies branded Pig Iron Bob.
