One of the first houses—if not the first house—designed by Arthur William Purnell is currently for sale for just under $AUS1,000,000. ‘Tarina’ in Newcombe Street, Portalington, was designed and constructed by Purnell & Sons, Arthur’s father’s firm, for Mr. P.M. Browne, in 1896. Arthur began working for Purnell & Sons only the year before. The Bellarine Herald praised the house’s ‘very wide verandah, with its deep roof in Queensland style, which must so greatly add to the comfort of the inmates during the worst days of our too intense summer’. Because ‘Tarina’ was so unlike any of Purnell & Sons’ previous houses, it may very well have been designed by the firm’s ‘new blood’—Arthur. Following are images of the house in 1896 (top) and today:
A.G. Barlow, the proprietor of Barlow Motors, was one of A.W. Purnell’s best and most interesting clients. In 1926 Barlow Motors sponsored Francis Birtles, an Australian adventurer, and Barlow’s son Alec (a.k.a. Alex), an adventurer in his own right, to drive from Darwin to Melbourne. They did the journey in eight days and 13 hours, a record. Purnell designed houses, showrooms and stables for Barlow, which reflected the businessman’s spectacular rise and tragic fall.
Recently we saw the compelling Australian documentary Celebrity: Dominick Dunne. What an amazing life he’s had! Besides experiencing more than his fair share of personal tragedies, knowing ‘everybody’ in Hollywood and covering celebrity trials for Vanity Fair, Dunne also produced the late 1950s-early 1960s TV show Adventures in Paradise starring Gardner McKay as dashing Adam Troy, captain of the schooner ‘Tikki’. It was one of my favourite TV shows as a kid.
Australia has many fine mid-20th century hard boiled detective fiction writers: Carter Brown (Alan Yates), Marc Brody (Bill Williams), Larry Kent (various), Eric North (Bernard Cronin), Otto Beeby, and Ian Hamilton, to name just a few. But my favourite is Bant Singer (Charles Shaw). His detective, Denis Aloysius ‘Del’ Delaney, is not only the coolest, but also the most typically Australian.
Above: James Drury, star of the popular US TV Western series The Virginian, visited Australia in the 1960s (although I’m not sure exactly what year). When he arrived at Essendon Airport in Melbourne he was greeted by TV personality Panda (left) and TV singer Val Ruff (wife of Geoff Corke, a.k.a. ‘King Corky, King of the Kids’). You couldn’t tote a handgun at an airport like that these days! Below: Mum and me watching The Virginian on Foxtel last Sunday.
Grand Final post script: What a disappointing game for Geelong. Where were our forwards? Where were our goal sneaks? What really hurt us was scoring only one goal nine behinds in the second quarter. It should have been nine goals one behind! Oh well, never mind. Gary Ablett, you’re still a star. Tom Harley, you’re still captain courageous. David Wojcinski, you were very unlucky to miss out. But let’s not forget, there’s always NEXT YEAR! Go Cats!
A very handsome large format book titled The Architectural Arts of A.W. Purnell and the Modern Society of Lingnan has just been published (ISBN 978-7-218-05804-7). It contains essays on Purnell’s architecture by Shi Hongping, Li Suimei, myself, Peng Changxin, Tang Guohua, Lu Qi, Zheng Lipeng, and Ma Wei. It is liberally illustrated with photographs of Purnell’s buildings in China, the majority of which were taken by the architect himself. The book was published in response to last year’s symposium on Purnell in Guangzhou.
This spectacular art deco backdrop was designed by Arthur Purnell for the Big Business Ball at the Melbourne Town Hall. So far I haven’t been able to find out anything about this event, but judging by Purnell’s design it presumably took place in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
ADDENDUM
Since first posting this item I have discovered that A.W. Purnell’s backdrop design for the Big Business Ball could have been done in 1928 (when the ball moved from the Wattle Path Palais de Danse (coincidentally designed by Purnell) to the Melbourne Town Hall) or 1929 or 1930. My guess is 1930, only because I know for certain that Purnell was on the Big Business Ball Committee in that year (he is pictured fourth from the left).