It was 1952 that I first met Elaine, the lone female, when she came to work at the Royal Insurance Company in Collins Street, Melbourne. She got dumped in what they termed the ‘Accident Dept’ , I, too, was having a quiet time there before getting shifted to the ‘Accounts Dept’ .
Elaine was a sweet young Catholic girl (The Royal seemed to employ mostly sweet young Catholic girls to do the grinding dull work) of 15, always had a big ready smile; and, as far as I can recall, was stuck in the same dept,
doing the same dull work; an endorsement clerk, right up until the time I left the Royal, and probably until she eventually chucked it in!
A new dancing craze was to hit Australia in ’52, straight from the good ol’ U.S. of A,. Square dancing, and Melbourne became the home of the craze.
Naturally, me being a dance mad teenager, I got stuck right into the swing of it. My mate Doyley and I, started off at the Orama Ballroom, in Footscray, and it wasn’t long before we’d joined up with a half dozen like minded square dance fanatics, sashaying here, allemande there, with a Do Si Do thrown in for good measure. Really great fun, and we became very good at it! So much so that we went for the big time.
The big time Square Dance was held over in Prahran, (not far from where the bloke who started me on this rant lives now) at Leggett’s Ballroom. At that time it was the largest ballroom in the Southern Hemisphere; and had Australia’s number one Square Dance Caller. Jim Vickers Willis.
He was a Pommy bloke who’d climbed onto the bandwagon, he wasn’t the best as far as I was concerned but he had the biggest following and the dance was always broadcast on the wireless/ radio on a Saturday night. These were the good ol’ days before TV!
Some one suggested that it’d be fun to go to Leggett’s on a Saturday night, and enter the ‘competition’; they had an elimination round, and the last set of 8, got to meet and shake hands with the caller, Jim! So over we went
We didn’t win the first night, we got knocked out pretty early, indeed it took us a few weeks, before we got to be declared the winners, and got to go on stage, be congratulated by Jim and shake his hand, to great applause mind you! 😀
If you’ve got this far, and have been paying attention, you will recall that I said that the Saturday night dance, was broadcast on the radio/wireless. There wasn’t much to do if we weren’t actually dancing, and Doyley and I had managed to work our way, kind of, backstage.
There was a cyclorama, of sorts, and stuck behind this was a young bloke who’s job it was to read the ads during the break in dances and then announce the next set.
His name was Graham, he was the same age as Doyley, 18 years. He was glad of a bit of company which wasn’t surprising stuck where he was; still he went onto bigger and better things, as did Elaine.
It was some years before I met Elaine again, I bumped into her in Melbourne one day and we stopped to have a chat, I asked how she was going and she said fine, I asked how things were at the Royal, and she laughed, and said she’d given that away long ago; I asked what she was doing now.
And she told me that she was a singer and appeared as a regular on the ‘In Melbourne Tonight’ show on TV. I admitted that I had never watched that program and had no idea what it was, she took great delight in bringing me into the latter half of the 20th century.
Elaine apparently was Australia’s answer to Debbie Reynolds, she didn’t tell me, I did some sleuthing, seems she used to warble a song called ‘Tammy’ quite well. She did win a ‘Logie’ award as the best singer on TV.
I never saw Elaine again. She met and married a Texan and moved to Texas where she died very young aged 54 in 1992.
Graham, of Leggett’s Ballroom Square Dancing fame, went on to become the host of ‘In Melbourne Tonight, and even greater heights in Australian TV and folklore. Graham won 5 or 6 Gold TV Logies. I believe.
It was he that gave the Logie’s their name. Named for John Logie Baird the inventor of television.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Logie_Baird.
Who will be in the next link when I move from the 50’s to the sixties? You’ll just have to wait and see, one thing you can be sure of, there will be a similar link with the next three
🐻
LordBeariOfBow 
dem der were the days.
I spent the 60s in Melbourne, and recall those Saturday dances. There was a large venue on Albert Park Lake where Jazz was mainly played. At the entrance one was met by a tyranical middle aged dragon whose sole job seemed to be to measure the length of our skirts. And should the length be shorter than that prescribed in her manual, no entry through those portals m’dear, at all!
As I said, dem der were the days!
ira
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The 60’s were a very turbulent time for me Ira, some very very good times and some plummeting the depths
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Elaine McKenna. She was quite a girl. She not only sang but was in many of Grahame Kennedy’s skits.
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I didn’t watch the show that often never really appealed to me
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Fascinating insight! That sent me off to the internet to learn more about Elaine McKenna. I found an article on her in the Australian Women’s Weekly of 18th September 1963 which starts with the tagline “I’m not mad about folk-singing,” admitted Elaine McKenna. But she is mad about folk-singer Tim Evans, a tall, rangy Texan belonging
to The Wanderers Three, one of America’s top folk groups.” Includes a couple of nice photos. I can send you a link if you are interested. Looking forward to the next segment.
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Yes please Gwen
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Let me know if this link doesn’t work
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46239114?searchTerm=%22elaine%20mckenna%22&searchLimits=l-decade=196|||l-title=112|||l-year=1963
there are plenty more articles about her in the Womens Weekly. Have you used Trove? Great resource.
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Thanks Gwen got it! 😀
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I cannot believe people in other places- other countries did square dancing. How funny – always thought it was a regional thing. My dad was a caller for weekly square dances that Shell put each week in their cafeteria. The women had quite a completion among them to see who had the most full fluffy skirt with the prettiest braid and rickrack on it. Those were call squaw skirts then. Good exercise and and lively music?
Elaine does look like a star. What a smile
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Yes she was a lovely sweet girl when I knew her, and apparently never changed. She as I said married a Texan who was a country singer, You may have heard of him heres a link that tells you about them in Texas you may even recall him http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46239114?searchTerm=“elaine%20mckenna”&searchLimits=l-decade=196
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I actually do remember her husband and the Wanderers Three. I had a folk song type guitar- not a honky tonk western one HAHA
(That’s a cool site. Thanks for the link)
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Happy to be of some service Phil 😀
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Great memories. Much more exciting than my experience of the 1950s!
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The were exciting times for me Elouise, I’m just happy that I’ve kept all my marbles, and can remember and recall so much that went on and the people invoved
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It’s a pleasure to read all about it! 😊
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Thank you Elouise 😀
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It is amazing how fascinating codswallop can be
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I’ve never thought or regarded it as fascinating, I’ve always thought of my life it as very pedestrian. 🙂
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The ordinary is fascinating enough, and you do spice it up a bit
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I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad, just try to tell the truth
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