Fellow Frockery

Showcasing treasures and stories about what people wear and why, originally using objects and pictures from the State Library of Victoria collection, Melbourne, chosen by author/cartoonist Kaz Cooke. Now updated with anything that tickles m'fancy.

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Spotted these rather trumpetty Mary Jane shoes on a chorus girl in a publicity photo for Town Topics, a 1915 Broadway show. The photo was clipped and pasted into an album by an Australian stage fan just over 100 years ago. The scrapbook, now with stiff, crinkly yellowing page, is now held at @national_library_of_australia. It is a truism that we should remember to look up from our phones - sometimes it’s worth looking down, too. IMBD says performers in the 68 performances of Town Topics included Hazel Frisbie, Ethel Tennis, Fannie Kidston and Ethel Bletterman but frankly I like to think these shoes belonged to Trixie Friganza.

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Does this reveal a shadowy cabal of Bronwyn Bishop, Daryl Somers of TV show Hey, Hey It’s Saturday and ‘ex-Demtel man Tim Shaw’ - found in 1996 correspondence and a fuzzy photocopy of a Financial Review paragraph explaining that Ms Bishop was not invisible, all in files at @national_library_of_australia? I shouldn’t think so. It’s just Mr Somers’ fulsome thank you note on Hey Hey stationery to Ms Bishop for appearing on his show, and a snippet from a snarky journalist denying her magical powers. Mr Shaw, should you need reminding, sold Demtel steak knives on 1980s TV infomercials with the slogan ‘But wait, there’s more’. Mr Shaw has a star on Caloundra’s walk of fame and a breakfast show on Canberra radio. The whereabouts of the steak knives is unknown. It’s funny how even the most banal bit of ephemera can conjure memories and bygone eras, even if the bygones should be bygones. #australianhistory #auspol #bronwynbishop #darylsomers #heyheyitssaturday #financialreview #1990s #etiquette #hardsell #marketing #invisibility #bygones

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The New Darren highchair (and get a load of the Wayne). A kid equipment brochure from the early 1960s in the ephemera collection of the @national_library_of_australia illustrates how far we’ve come with safety and engineering and plastics - but also just how much fashion changes in baby names. Not to mention now SOME things are named after girls. Even if its only cyclones. In 1960 the most popular names were repeat-on-a-loop “British” ones like Mark, Peter, David, Susan, Karen (I ask you) and Leanne. And just a couple in the top 100 such as Maria and Guiseppe. Who calls a baby Algernon or Earnest now? I’ve heard of a Year 5 teacher with 4 Jacks and 3 Rubies in the class. (Victorian names for girls have come round, full circle, to be common again). While consulting medical and other experts on the latest info for a new book for parents, Babies and Toddlers, it has been by turns fascinating, funny or horrifying to see “old” advice and equipment for parents in the archives. More to come! #specialcollections #ephemera #baby #toddler #children #equipment #highchairs #darren #karen #sharon #warren #wayne #formica #chrome #babynames #babiesandtoddlers #babies #toddlers

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This is the kitchen-table-sized, solid, cast-iron, floor-standing Schimanek guillotine machine in the @national_library_of_australia conservation studio. It’s surrounded by clever, deft, patient people preserving photos, coddling costumes, and using teensy brushes to paint on flour solutions to mend rips on fragile pieces of paper. (Swipe to see the giant handle.) When you lean down on the handle and the blade cuts a perfectly straight, long slice off a length of cardboard or paper, it makes the most satisfying, sharp, snickery sound. It looks and feels like Serious Engineering and is a delightful shade of creamy olive green. Had they let me, I might still be there slicing thousands of sheets of paper into ribbons, just listening. #snick #snick #snickery #snick #schimanek #guillotine #timeless #machinery #wheel #equipment #savingpublicpapers #buildingarchiveboxes #protecting #publictreasures #engineering #specialcollections #custodians #preservation #conservation

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Good to know our ancestors also ran out of steam curating the family photos, too. Carte de visite album at @national_library_of_australia with empty ovals allows an old chappie to peek through some pages. Actually, he’s probably 42. No names were kept so we don’t know who’s in the album. #secrethistory #peekaboo #cartedevisite #19thcentury #portaraits #photography #hiddenstories

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One of the pics in the big book Underworld: Mugshots From the Roaring Twenties, this is Barbara Turner Taylor (among other aliases). The book is full of photos of Sydneysiders arrested in the 1920s. As soon as I read in the caption Barbara had written a book about her cons and scams, I looked at the National Library of Australia catalogue online to see if it had a copy - and within within a few minutes had downloaded it in full from the website and printed it out at home. I can see by a formal photo portrait of the fresh-faced, younger author in the book it’s the same Barbara, with those pale eyes and dark lashes. What amazing cornucopias our public museums and libraries are. The extraordinary ‘Specials’ photos survived as glass plate negatives and have been reprinted by Sydney Living Museums for books and exhibitions. Candid photos of people in the lock-up were done this way only for about 10 years, with added, full-length shots like ‘street photography’ showing hats, even veils, holey shoes, sagging stockings, and arrestee-chosen poses, instead of the boring mug shots we know today. The style was chosen and applied by the police photographer, George Howard who left the job in 1929. #roaring20s #1920s #1920smugshots #barbaraturnertaylor #conwomen #grifters #courtstories #crimestories #australianhistory #truecrime #sydneypolicemuseum #sydneylivingmuseums @sydlivmus @national_library_of_australia

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Here’s Lizzie Mackie, contortionist and bareback rider in the lion’s cage with animal trainer Herr Hohenade from Munich, Bavaria, c1905, somewhere in Australia. He was described in the Press of the day as “a fine specimen of manhood”, “of a kindly disposition”, who “takes matters coolly” and was a favorite with those who knew him. The lion seems to agree. Photo from the Agnes Greenwood papers, @national_library_of_australia (see previous posts). Detail of photo taken by “F. Lee”. #circus #liontamer #theatrehistory #lions #captivity

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The poignant caption handwritten on the back says “Lizzie Mackie: Killed in Wirth’s Circus. Horse crashed on her”. Such a poignant object in the papers of vaudeville agent and trainer Agnes Greenwood held at @national_library_of_australia . Her mother was a Mackie so Lizzie may have been Agnes’s aunt. Lizzie was a circus bareback rider and contortionist in the 1910s and 1920s for Perry’s and Wirth ‘s circuses. In those days daring equestrian acts were well understood and appreciated by a public familiar with horse riding and training - especially in rural areas such as Mildura where Lizzie performed in 1913 (info from Trove). It’s rather lovely that somebody has hand-coloured the picture with such care. #circus #workers #horses #equestrians #healthandsafety #vaudeville #austraianhistory #theatrehistory

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The whole shebang, complete with streamers (see previous posts). Photo from Agnes Greenwood papers, @national_library_of_australia #party #1920s.

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Another detail from the Agnes Greenwood papers photo (see previous post). It definitely feels #1920s. I love the way real photos of crowds show a range of hair styles and clothes from the era you don’t get with a family or friends group, which tend to be more homogenous. @national_library_of_australia

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1920s or 1930s Party (possibly Fitzroy Town Hall); detail of photo in the papers of Agnes Greenwood, vaudeville agent, held at the National Library of Australia. on the back of the photo it says “auditions”! @national_library_of_australia #fitzroy #nationaltreasures #1920s #marvellousparty #hats #auditions #1920s fashion #1930s #1930sfashion

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From the vault: ‘Gorgeous’, my 1994 animated film with Hermoine the Modern Girl and Deirdre the Feral Lack of Self Esteem Fairy, with the voices of Judith Lucy, Lynda Gibson, Kris McQuade, @mickmolloy, @little_anthony_morgan, a little @Lorinimus & many more. 10 minutes long. Now up on the cartoons page of my website. Produced by clever Sharon Connolly for Film Australia. There are some things I’d do differently now, but it’s nice to feel like you’ve been part of something with the best of intentions and a lot of assembled talent. Right up to Andrew the sound guy. http://www.kazcooke.com.au/cartoons #bodyimage #beautyindustry #cosmeticsurgery #selfesteem #eatingbehaviours #HermoinetheModernGirl #cartoons #AFIaward #comedy #animatedfilm #animation #cartoon #comedians #animators #moderngirl

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Page 23 of The Feminique Method of Developing the Bust. Though this looks from the 1970s I’m sure the method is just as effective today, especially if you stuff the raw chicken with Bitcoin. #bust #improvement #rawchicken #feminique #exercises #bosommuscles #usualbollocks #timelesspiffle From a book bound with a plastic spiral found at @grub_street_bookshop.

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Sending a thank you copy of Ada to NZ Archives staff in Auckland who located the cad Monty’s divorce papers from 1912 including exhibit B, his publicity photo and Exhibit A, maudlin letters he wrote in water soluble purple ink smudged by tears or whiskey, which we all took turns trying to decipher. It proved a turning point in knowing what Ada’s story might have been. Bless all those dedicated souls in important public institutions! #newzealand #auckland #aucklandarchives #adabook #courtrecords #cad

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Come & join us at an evening event at the State Library of Victoria to hear cabaret sensation Meow Meow and me talking about research and conjuring theatrical women, including Ada Delroy, dancer & comedian who was household name in 1900, and the heroine of my novel Ada. (That’s Ada, with parrot, in the photo of her travelling vaudeville company in India in 1897.) After the event, which starts at 6 pm on Thursday 22 March, lovely Library staff will display relevant treasures from its stored collections, possibly including theatrical scrapbooks, jewellery and costumes, theatre ephemera and original photos of marvellous Melbourne and its Ada-related characters and sites c1888-1910. Tickets are free, but bookings are essential! Phone [phone] during working hours or email [email protected]. https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/finding-ada-friends-with-kaz-cooke

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Meet Irving Sayles, beloved star acrobat-comedian and gospel singer from Chicago, or thereabouts. 120 yrs ago this week he won £60 in a Perth footrace against an Aboriginal champ named in the newspapers only as ‘Smith’. Irving’s in my new book, Ada. As theatre history maven Frank van Straten points out, Irving used to have special hand signals from the stage to tell Tivoli theatre co-owner Kate Rickards how much he needed to borrow to pay off his gambling debts. He was known as a dandy who could do NINE backward somersaults form a standing start. He played in the first game of baseball in Victoria which inaugurated the St Kilda Baseball Club in the late 1870s. And playing baseball for that club is how I met my common law husband, 23 years ago. Thanks, Irv. This very rare pic of him is probably c1910. After then he couldn’t travel further than NZ from Australia as racist laws would have prevented him coming home. #irvingsayles #musichall #minstrelshows #gospelsinging #acrobat #circus #tambo #bones #tivoli #theatre #edwardian #dandy #victorian #boater #whiteaustraliapolicy #history #racism #backflip #highkick #athlete #comedian #singer

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Please help me get the word out. The latest edition of Up the Duff always has the date on the imprint (copyright) page near the front. The latest version says 2017, so you can be sure you have or give the latest edition, which has up-to-date medical info on tests & the newest advice on keeping you & your baby safe, checked by experts. (Along with all the funny, reassuring stuff & cartoons.) Please, if you have an older edition ESPECIALLY with the lime green cover, throw it away or keep it for a souvenir - but don’t lend it to a friend, or borrow it from a library, or buy/sell it second hand. Old editions have advice and info that is no longer “best practice”. I have asked second-hand sites/shops not to sell it but they ignore me. Up the Duff was first published in 1999, reissued in 2009 and has been updated, overhauled, or revised in consultation with doctors and latest guidelines times at least once a year since. It’s a real worry that some people are relying on a version of the book that is almost 20 years old. Please help me get the best info out there by telling friends not to use a second hand copy unless it’s the latest version. If you are a librarian, please take the old editions out of lending circulation. And a huuuge thank you to everyone who has bought and consulted Up the Duff over so many years and made it such an enduring, trusted source of advice. xxx #uptheduff #medicalinfo #bestpractice #australianlibraries #librarians #libraries #pregnancy #babies #parenting #reprint #revisededition #books #pregnancybooks #babybooks