The demise of family gatherings around pianos and pianolas singing Waltzing Matilda, Rule Britannia, Up the Workers ! and Australia Girt By Sea really accelerated with this 1962 advertisement in the program for the musical comedy version of The Sentimental Bloke , based on the poems of C. J. Dennis ,
at the
Tivoli Theatre, Adelaide .
Star of the musical , Edwin Ride, who
played The Bloke, was born in Hong Kong in 1931, educated at
Scotch College , Melbourne , extended
his studies in Hong Kong, where he also
was a radio station disc jockey, and Oxford, earning Bachelor of Art degrees . During undergraduate days he
took up acting , appearing in comedy and
singing roles in revues.
In 1956 he returned to Australia and joined the
diplomatic staff of the Department of
External Affairs in Canberra, later serving as Third Secretary with the
Australian High Commission in New Delhi .
In Canberra he acted and sang with the Canberra Repertory Society. The Sentimental Bloke composer, Albert Arlen , spotted him in
Canberra and the show had
its world premiere there in 1961.