In 1959, seven members of Walt Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club — Jimmie Dodd, Doreen Tracey, Bobby Burgess, Sharon Baird, Tommy Cole, Karen Pendleton, and Cubby O’Brien — toured Australia along with the pop group, The Diamonds. Many people were very surprised that ‘dorky’ Doreen, as seen on the early episodes of the TV programme, had developed into such a ‘bomb shell’ (pictured). ‘I had a mad, torrid affair going at the time with Dave Summerville, the lead singer of The Diamonds, and I used to get drunk in the lounge with Dave and that got into the [Australian] papers and was bad,’ Doreen later told Jerry Bowles, author of Forever Hold Your Banner High (1976). The death of innocence!
His Wunderkammer
On the Road — 1959
Recently I purchased Peter E. Sayers’ travel diary on ebay for five dollars. In 1959, Sayers of East St. Kilda and nine other ‘boys’ — Peter M. Scott of Mosman, E. Phillip Brandt of Wahroonga, Richard Blaiklock of Castlecrag, James Trigg of Lake Cargelligo, Trevor Combe of Largo Bay, John Hammond of Darling Point, Ross Hooker of Mosman, Bob Foster of St. Ives, and Jim Black of Pokataroo — went on a 5-month business/study tour of the USA and Canada. It appears this was an official tour of some kind, because in Sydney the group met the Premier of New South Wales, Mr J.J. Cahill, and the US Consul-General, Frank A. Waring. The group looked around Sydney before departing for the US. They toured the Dunkerley Hat Mills at Waterloo, and each received a Stetson hat. They were also given boomerang throwing lessons by the world champion, Frank Donnellan, in the Domain, and each received two boomerangs — one to keep and one to give away overseas. Sayers, Combe and two members of the group from New South Wales even appeared on the children’s TV programme, The Channel 9 Pins. Whatever this tour was about (and I hope to find out when I get some time), it was clearly something special. Sayers left Melbourne on 8 February and visited Sydney, Nandi (Fiji), San Francisco, Davis, Sacramento, Monterey, Salinas, San Louis Obisbo, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Kingman, Flagstaff, Gallup, Albuquerue, Roswell, El Paso, Jaurez (Mexico), Pecos, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Houston, New Orleans, Birmingham, Louisville, Charleston, Richmond, Washington D.C., Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Boston, Montreal, Ottowa, Toronto, Niagara, Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, Vancover, Seattle, Spokane, Calgary, Bamff, Butte, Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Dayton, and Orsova. Sayers’ diary contains a very detailed record of the group’s travels and activities. He even notes, for example, buying a jar opener for 69 cents on 10 June for his Mum. Pictured is Sayers’ account of his trip to Disneyland.