Saturday, May 16, 2015

IDIOT BOX ENDS AUSTRALIAN FAMILY MUSICAL EVENINGS

The demise of  family gatherings around  pianos and  pianolas singing Waltzing Matilda, Rule BritanniaUp 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.