Grand Years Topics >
GRAND YEARS.
Human interest and entertaining tales of yesteryear with respected journalist Frank Morris
30 May 24
The Great Aussie Firsts!
Errol Flynn! As they say, the rest is history Errol Flynn’s lead role as the rambunctious Captain Blood of 1936 is a distinct credit to the young actor who has earned world-wide attention and praise. Flynn and Basil Rathbone, his co-star, will go down in screen history for the many stirring ...
30 May 24
Film Great: War winner - and three Logies to boot!
The authentic gut-wrenching war movie, Platoon, I’ve seen three times, and discovered one important thing: that time hadn’t changed it. Just remember, it was made in the1980s and the dialogue was always spot on; and so was the acting, the scenery and the background noise of soldiers dying. One of ...
15 May 24
Dogs, Dogs, Dingoes! Everybody loves a dog. But what about dingoes!
Most people skirt around me. They worry that I am going to bite. After all, I am a native dog. How’s that for a laugh! I was bred by a fellow who loved dingoes. My mother and father were bred by the same fellow. So was grand-dad and gramma too. In ...
15 May 24
The Big Fight: Film shows how Darcy becomes champion!
Les Darcy pulled out all the stops. He was now Australia’s Middleweight Champion. The Star Theatre, at Bondi Junction, Sydney, supplied the “only action” with an advertisement for the filmed fight between Les Darcy and Eddie McGoorty that promised 15 rounds of excitement. Les Darcy later became middleweight champion of the world, ...
01 May 24
NZ Scene: World War 2 - He was decorated with double VCs
The bold and the brave! He became the first New Zealander in World War 2 to be awarded two Victoria Crosses – 1941 and 1943; he also was the world’s only double VC winner. His name? Captain Charles Upham. Born in Christchurch, Upham, wounded and seriously ill, won his first VC in Crete ...
01 May 24
World War 2: “Dear Daddy …”
Anne Kemp was only twelve-years-old. With letters from home, she was old enough to keep soldier father entertained. In this special “secret” letter, Anne asked him to send her some money so she can buy her mother a Christmas present. << From Australia Today magazine’s Letters of a Nation, Dec / ...
15 April 24
Past Olympics! Snowy Baker – sporting champ who became a film star
The greatest sportsman in the world! After the 1908 Olympic Games, he became an international celebrity. His name is Reginald Leslie “Snowy” Baker and he is the greatest sportsman in the world. Baker proved his class in world competition as a champion boxer, footballer, swimmer, sculler, diver, gymnast and horseman. He won Australian ...
15 April 24
Flashback: The “king” of Australian rock is dead
“You had the feeling that he was writing his own parts.” There is a subtle similarity between the late American actor Humphrey Bogart and Australia’s “Mr Showbiz”, Johnny O’Keefe, who died suddenly in 1978 aged 43, of a massive heart attack in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. When Bogart started on the road ...
20 March 24
Short Story: Lennie Lower was the Prince of storytellers!
I pride myself on my looks, said the Professor. Double trouble made its way into the conversation. “I’m not old,” Professor Gudgeon said. “I pride myself on my looks, so, there!” In one of his quirky essays (Arthur) Bryant opined that “one of the advantages of growing old is that one has ...
