Category: My Diary

It has been a cloudy day. After noon Mike Walsh and Toni Lammond’s son, Tony, talked to Toni in the United States. She has been there for a year and two weeks and the viewer was shown a recent programme from the series, “Starsky And Hutch”, in which she appears as an older woman. Toni is singer, Helen Reddy’s sister.

From three o’clock I watched a really entertaining edition of “Mannix”, in which the private detective of this name homes in on the person, or persons, who is trying to kill him.

“Flashez”, at half past five, is compered, as per usual, by the Australian singer, Ray Burgess. On “Willesee”, at seven o’clock, one is treated to the sight of a builder of swimming pools, Ian Daley, running down the street at a breakneck speed and jumping a fence, in order to evade an interviewer and his cameraman. Talk about laugh!

“Decade Of Change”, a documentary, follows from half past seven. It traces the paths of soccer in England and West Germany, since the former defeated the latter to win the World Cup, in 1966.

“Policewoman” is followed by the final of the Scottish F.A. Cup — won by Celtic over Rangers by the solitary goal — and the movie, “The Secret Life Of An American Wife”, from 1968, whose cast includes Anne Jackson, Walter Matthau, Patrick O’Neal and Edy Williams.

It has been a pleasantly sunny day. On “Mannix”, an old friend fakes his own death, in the explosion of his personal jet, in an attempt to make off with an attache case that contains one and a half million dollars.

Lorne Greene’s “Last Of The Wild”, from 6.00 p.m., concentrates on the arboreal leaping lemurs of Madagascar, with their lengthy prehensile tails. From half past seven and eight o’clock respectively, we viewed programmes of the British comedy series, “Doctor At Sea”, which stars Robin Nedwell, Geoffrey Davies and Ernest Clark, and “Mother Makes Three”, with Wendy Craig, Robin Davies and David Parfitt.

“After The Fox”, a film from 1966, followed from half past eight. It features Peter Sellers, the Swedish actress Britt Ekland, and Victor Mature — whom Tiki insists on referring to as “Victor Immature”. Anyhow, we thought it was pretty terrible and so we turned off the television.

The Australian tourists have suffered the first defeat of their tour of England. Somerset emerged victorious by seven wickets, in spite of Greg Chappell having scored one hundred and thirteen in one innings and David Hookes one hundred and eight in the other.

This morning we voted in the Referendum that is being held to choose Australia’s National Song.

Donnie Sutherland has returned as the host of “Sounds Unlimited”, on Channel Seven. He is interviewing Bill Collins, questioning him as to whom is his favourite movie star. Bill has had little hesitation in naming Alan Ladd, ahead of Jeanette MacDonald and Gary Cooper. Interestingly, all three are deceased.

Actor, Ricardo Montalban, is a guest on “Sonny And Cher”, from noon.

“Jeopardy”, at five o’clock, is followed by “It’s Academic”, half an hour later. John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” concert runs for an hour from half past six, and is followed by “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. Barry Newman plays the New Mexican lawyer, Petrocelli, in the series of this name, at half past eight. Singer and actor, Rick Nelson, is a guest star and sings “One Night Stand”, which I used to hear played quite often on 2″KY Country” a year or two ago.

When I was in Third Year at high school I was a fan of Ricky/Rick Nelson, while my mates at that time, Max and Richard, were each fans of Roy Orbison and Bobby Vinton, respectively. Being an inane teenager, I used to stir Max by stating, “Is it Roy or is it a bison?”

If I may digress a little further? One day at lunchtime I espied Max emerging from a cubicle and as we walked from the toilet block I questioned him, “Aren’t you going to wash your hands?” to which he replied, in all seriousness, ‘I only wash my hands when my fingers go through the toilet paper’.

I stayed up to watch the western movie, “Whispering Smith”, from 1948. It stars Alan Ladd, Donald Crisp, Brenda Marshall and Robert Preston, who plays Alan Ladd’s character’s erstwhile best mate who has turned bad.

From a quarter past eleven I watched the final of the F.A. Cup, live, on Channel Seven. Manchester United defeated Liverpool by two goals to one, after the teams had been locked at nil all at half-time. Stuart Pearson and Lou Macari scored for the victors, and Jimmy Case netted for Liverpool. It was 2.00 a.m. before I retired to bed.

It hasn’t been my day! We voted for the national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, in the referendum and I barracked for Liverpool to defeat Manchester United. “Advance Australia Fair”, which was firstly performed in 1878, has clearly won the vote as the preferred national song, in advance of “Waltzing Matilda”, “God Save The Queen” and “Song Of Australia”.

I began to pull up the old carpet in the bedrooms of our new house while Tiki ‘Baygoned’ the kitchen cupboards. We folded up the old carpet on the back lawn and left it, along with its underlay of felt, on the floor of the sunroom.

It was particularly dusty work, raising the carpets, but the worst task of all was the removal of those tacks that remained. The majority of which were surrounded by fibrous felt and the obvious thing to do was to flatten them as much as possible, for obtaining leverage with the claw hammer at my disposal had proven to be a futile exercise. The floorboards seem to be in a pretty good condition although plenty of knots jumped out of them as I hammered away.

At 2.30 p.m., we watched the motion picture, “Rhino”, from 1964, which stars Robert “Trackdown”/”I Spy” Culp and the British actress, Shirley Eaton. It was followed at four o’clock by another from that same year, in the form of “633 Squadron”, with Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Australian John Meillon, and John Bonney.

I had one eye on the television and one ear to my circa 1965 ‘Panasonic 8′ trannie as I listened to New South Wales just scrape home against Queensland, by fourteen points to thirteen, in the second game of the interstate series, which was also played at Lang Park, in Brisbane. The visitors trailed by two points to eight at half-time and two to thirteen at one stage. Queensland scored three tries to two.

Manly-Warringah was unimpressive in its victory over the wooden spooner’s Newtown, by ten points to five. “Seven’s Big League”, from half past six, features a delayed, edited replay of this afternoon’s match between Parramatta and Eastern Suburbs. The former won by twenty-one points to fourteen.

“This Is Your Life” follows, at half-past seven, and looks at that of actress and entertainer, Carol “The Mavis Bramston Show”/”Number 96” Raye. Born in Britain, in 1923, Carol emigrated to Australia in 1964. She has stated that she was once offered a seven years’ contract with M.G.M., but turned the offer down to have a family. Special guests on this evening’s programme include English actor, Stanley “Our Man Higgins” Holloway, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

“Nightwatch”, a motion picture, that bears the copyright of 1973, screens on Channel Nine from half past eight. It stars Elizabeth Taylor and the late British actor, Laurence Harvey.

 

I left St. Peters at ten past nine to walk to Sydenham Station in the cold, and light rain. I had missed the earlier train and had to wait until ten o’clock for the one that was to transport me to Caringbah. Seated in the waiting room, I had passed the time by listening to two elderly women talk about their late husbands and what they, themselves, were wearing to keep out the cold.

As I walked home along Taren Road, an Alsatian was in two minds as to whether he would attack me; not once but twice! I arrived just as “11 A.M.”, presented by Steve Liebmann, was commencing.

At noon, “The Mike Walsh Show” proved to be most entertaining. A bloke demonstrated his own ‘Marshall’s Portable Music Machine’, complete with flashing lights. He takes it around to schools. It flushes its own “loo”, and even ‘washed’ Mike Walsh’s sock so thoroughly that it came out white!

The controversial sport presenter, Ron Casey, was on the programme and told Judy Ann Stewart that violence in sport was “bullshit”. The fact that George Harris required fourteen stitches to the wound above his right eye was mentioned.

Swearing on Australian television has, to a degree, become acceptable in the four years since American actor, Michael Cole — then a member of “The Mod Squad” — appeared at the Logie Awards, which are distributed for excellence in television, and, obviously affected by alcohol, dropped the ‘ess-word’  live for the nation to hear.

The appearance by a really humorous young comedian restored levity to “The Mike Walsh Show”. He commenced with his ‘News’ report which included a gag about how a truck driver, who had been trapped in his vehicle as a consequence of an accident, had the fortune to be pulled from the wreck by the Smiths and not the Balls.

In his parody ‘TV’s Weak’, a title based upon the weekly magazine, when talking about nudity he alluded to ‘Starkers And Crutch’.

“Medical Center”, from two o’clock has Bradford Dillman cast as a doctor who is prone to consuming alcohol and indulging in the pursuit of gambling. Stefanie “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.” Powers plays the role of his wife.

From six o’clock, on ABC-TV’s Channel Two, the wildlife documentary, “Last Of The Wild”, centres upon the lion. “Willesee” and the American comedy “Good Times” follow, on Channel Seven, at seven o’clock and half past seven respectively.

Australian singer, Robin Jolley, took the ditty about “Marshall’s Portable Music Machine” to No.9 on the Australian pop chart in the middle of 1972.

 

 

En route to Tiki’s place of work, in glorious sunshine, we observed a severely dented 1963 Volkswagen ‘Beetle’ with bandaids strategically placed on those areas which were affected most prominently.

On platform No.4, at Sydenham, an elderly lady castigated the unions and workers employed on the railway, as I spoke with her.

Channel Seven’s ‘Midday Movie’, “Go Naked In The World”, that bears the copyright of 1961 and includes Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Franciosa in its cast, appeared to be uninspiring and so I turned the dial to “The Mike Walsh Show”, on Channel Nine. Expatriate New Zealander, Dinah Lee, was singing. When another guest was asked about his sexual performance, he stated that it had much to do with inspiration. “More thoughties than naughties?” Mike Walsh retorted.

At five minutes to three I listened to the broadcast of the Lord Mayor’s Cup, from Southport, on Queensland’s Gold Coast. “Ngawyni”, trained by Bart Cummings, and the winner of this year’s Australian Cup, carried sixty kilogrammes to victory. Later, “Blue’s Finito” won the Flying Handicap there and paid $3.10, for a unit of twenty-five cents, placed on the tote for the win on the N.S.W. T.A.B.

On “Mannix”, from three o’clock, on Channel Seven, the private investigator assists an American Indian friend — whom he first met during the Korean War — whose mate is killed, and sister raped, by a young rich thug in Albuquerque.

This evening’s edition of “Last Of The Wild”, narrated by Lorne Greene, traces how animals are rescued from an area, in Venezuela, which has been stricken by drought.

“The Red Tent”, a motion picture from 1969, is shown from half past seven. It centres upon General Nobile whose airship crashes on the ice of the Arctic. The accident results in the death of Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the first man to have reached the South Pole, when he goes in search of survivors. The film stars the late Peter Finch, Sean Connery, Hardy Kruger and Claudia Cardinale.

This morning is gloriously sunny. It cost us $81.25 to have the telephone connected to our new house.

Guests on “The Mike Walsh Show” from noon, on Channel Nine, included an obese toothless prostitute; as well as actor, John Waters and entertainer, Ross Dunbar, and the latter’s wife, talking about how their marriages have survived their careers in show business.

On “Mannix”, from three o’clock, on Channel Seven, a fellow, played by Paul “The Naked City”/”Twelve O’Clock High” Burke, survives the crash of an aeroplane in which the other three hundred and thirty-nine passengers and crew are killed. When he is released from hospital, after facial surgery, his wife believes that he is not her husband.

We turned the television off, at eight o’clock, half of the way through the premiere of Australian satirical comedy series, “The Naked Vicar Show”, on Channel Seven. It is a Seventies’ version of the Sixties’ “The Mavis Bramston Show”. It features Noeline Brown — who was also in “The Mavis Bramston Show” — Kevin Goldsby and Ross Higgins.

I talked to a gentleman who once worked in Emmaville, in the north of New South Wales. Having briefly visited it, in 1974, I quipped that to visit that particular town was like going back twenty years in time. Without so much as a hint of a smile he retorted, “More like seventy years!”

An easygoing, happy gent, who had not had a holiday in seven years, laid our carpet for us. He was called upon to lay it hurriedly in the second bedroom because dusk was approaching rapidly and we had discovered that the light bulb was inoperative. The carpet is “short” near the door to the bathroom and, next week, he is going to obtain a special metal strip and cover the gap.

He told us of how his knee “blew up” as a result of him constantly hitting the stretcher. His doctor stuck a needle into it and since then he had experienced no further problems.

One carpet-layer, he had heard of, had filed the metal studs on a pair of football boots until each one possessed an extremely fine point, whereby he could move about the room stretching the carpet by kicking at it. This supposedly minimised the need to knee the stretcher, but, as our layer added, “It wouldn’t do the carpet much good!”

This evening we remained watching Channel Seven. The British comedies, “Doctor At Sea” (featuring Robin Nedwell, Geoffrey Davies and Ernest Clark) and “Mother Makes Three” (Wendy Craig), followed “Willesee”, and from half past eight, the film, “Fitzwilly”, from 1967, stars Dick “The Dick Van Dyke Show” Van Dyke and Barbara “Get Smart” Feldon.

Between ten o’clock and noon I watched the pop music programme, “Sounds Unlimited”, hosted by Donnie Sutherland. This was followed by “Sonny And Cher” and, from one o’clock, “Survival” in which this afternoon’s edition focuses on the fauna of the English county of Norfolk.

It is really teeming down outside and so I continued to watch Channel Seven, as Collingwood outclassed Hawthorn in the Australian Rules match telecast live from Melbourne.

The quiz programmes, “Jeopardy” and “It’s Academic”, were followed by a pretty disappointing ‘Special’ on British singer, Brian Ferry, from half past six. “Baa Baa Black Sheep” followed that, on Channel Nine, and, from half past eight, this evening’s serving of “Petrocelli” has as a guest star Rory “The Texan” Calhoun.

“The Texan” was a western series, made for television, which ran from 1958-1960. Other series of this genre included: “Rawhide”, “Gunsmoke”, “Wagon Train”, “The Roy Rogers Show”, “Maverick”, “Bonanza”, “Laramie”, “Cheyenne”, “Bat Masterson”, “The Lone Ranger”, “The Cisco Kid”, “Have Gun Will Travel”, “Tales Of The Texas Rangers”, “Bronco”, “The Rifleman”, “Lawman”, “Sugarfoot”, “Wanted Dead Or Alive”, “Johnny Ringo”, “Tales Of Wells Fargo”, “Trackdown” and “Tombstone Territory”.