Near the end of the ABC’s two part TV series PAPER GIANTS –the Cleo magazine story-this viewer nearly fell out of his recliner . The cause of the shock was the announcement by Ita Buttrose’s secretary, the good Catholic girl who got tangled up with that married intercourse intent interlocutor,that she was off to London to work for a struggling publication,Time Out.
It just so happens that I am in the midst of researching that very publication in its early years in the swinging British capital on which the redoubtable journalist /politician/ speeding ticket collector , Pete Steedman ,subject of the ongoing Little Darwin special series, PETE’S (SERIOUS )PARTY ,was business manager .
Cleo was tame compared with the radical Time Out, a guide to London with a strong political content, in the late 1960s and 70s. When Steedman worked there he was questioned by British security about a story it ran dealing with the assassination of a Royal Marines commando in Vietnam. Not in his time , Time Out caused an uproar when it ran the names of 60 alleged CIA operatives in England.
The Packer company, Australian Consolidated Press, a right wing outfit which aided and abetted PM Robert Menzies thunder on about reds under the beds, making the most of the Petrov Affair and the rescue of Mrs Petrov at Darwin airport, helped the Tories to hang on to power for nearly a quarter of a century .
The Cleo show revealed Fanta- swilling , gruff Kerry Packer’s strong dislike for ALP leader , Gough Whitlam. The idea that Ita’s secretary, skilled at writing the stars page and handy with white out ,which Kerry thought was nail polish , was off to work for a subversive publication like Time Out added an unexpected , quirky Darwin twist to the story.
It was interesting to note that PAPER GIANTS part where Sir Frank Packer exposed his knowledge of sexual foreplay –that nonsense Cleo wanted to run about sheilas biting you in the armpit did not catch on until Vampires recently became all the rage in Hollywood . And, I am sure, one of Sir Frank’s racehorses or Dame Pattie (the yacht, not Ming's gracious wife ) would have made a better cover photo than Dame Edna . Incidently, Time Out, changed its ways , became straight, and has been parlayed into a global success bigger than Cleo .
