more louise homfrey

This episode of Division 4 is a bit fragmented but I just wanted to mention it has Louise Homfrey in it again. Once again she is playing a self-possessed, self-reliant woman with even a touch of the feminist about her (Marg Stewart persuades Mrs Innes to consider going into a home because she says she needs to persuade her superiors of the value of policewomen). 

Oh and the amazing Pamela Stephenson, playing a woman with two boyfriends. 

...and the ever-incredible John Stanton. 

The episode is The Empty Hand, first shown 13 February 1973. 

It also, by the way, has a slight subtext about demolition (presumably by the HCV, though not stated) as Mrs Innes wants to stay in her house which is going to be bulldozed, and doesn't want to go into public housing because she can't keep her dog (Bob) there. 

louise homfrey in division 4 episode 'hide and seek' 20 september 1972

A lot of interesting things going on in this episode of Division 4 which only goes to show - scratch the surface, you'll find a whole treasure trove of people and places and things. This is the episode where Marg tells Vickers she's not going to make his coffee for him (apparently women police have laid down the law on making of tea and coffee for their male counterparts because they feel it takes them away from proper police work!). His response, incidentally, is to give her some actual police work to do. 

Lionel Long is in this episode, three years after his departure from Homicide, and weirdly his character's name is 'Alan Hunt'. I say 'weirdly' because that was the name of the recently-appointed Minister for Local Government in Victoria. Wikipedia won't tell me precisely when Hunt was given this role (his first after a long time as a Liberal politician in part, rumour has it, because he objected to the planning rules being bent on behalf of Reg Ansett in the 1960s) but he was certainly a Minister by mid-1971. The shooting on this episode was under way by 8 October 1971 - there's a scene in which Vickers brandishes a newspaper with that date - but presumably Hunt wasn't particularly famous when the script was written by ex-policeman Monte Miller; Hunt rose to a certain degree of prominence in the Hamer government and I thought/think he was opposition leader for a short time in the 1980s but Wikipedia (once again: not always our friend) doesn't say anything about that and I cbf looking into Liberal history if they're not going to do it for themselves.* Anyway, weird to have a criminal called Alan Hunt here. 

It's not weird but nice to see Louise Homfrey in a minor role as the plucky, betrousered, belligerent Mrs Malton (IMDB doesn't list her as a cast member, btw). 

God only knows how old Homfrey was by this stage but presumably mid-70s. She had a long career as a radio presenter and was one of those media personalities who had no problem acting but it was probably just a thing you needed to be able to do to keep working in amongst the things you were remarkably good at and notable for. Note the extreme similarity between the second 'still' above and the image below, which you'd have to admit even in 1929 must have been a super-weird publicity shot. 

World's News 23 October 1920 p. 19

* And yes, he was the father of the awful Federal Liberal politician Greg Hunt, Minister for Health during the pandemic.

the ritz

The link Wayne gave to the Aaron Chen guide to the Fisk set made me appreciate that the Lithuanian Club auditorium was almost certainly the Ritz Cinema, briefly I suppose, in the late 1970s. I don't know if this was my first exposure to Errol St North Melbourne, not far from where I currently live, but it was an early exposure. The Ritz was in the vein of the Valhalla which I saw as the original template for these kinds of 'revival houses' or as this article from the Age 'Weekender' section for 11 November 1977 p. 7 calls them, '"alternative" cinemas'. I wonder who the 80-year-old star of Australian silent screen was, and how she could afford a chauffeur-driven Rolls. 

more joan letch (division 4, 'one more war' 30 aug 1972)

Another classic Joan Letch minor supporting character ('Nell')* in Division 4. She gives it her all. She's a total gem. 

A note to self: one of the crims in this ep, who I think has come from Sydney, says 'well I didn't come to visit your cultural centre'. Rare example of a 'you Melbourne people think you're so special' line in a Crawfords show. 

*OK IMDB just calls her 'Nell' but the actual show credits call her Nell Hudson. I wonder where IMDB got its information from. 

eggy at the curtin

I suppose the reason I was thinking about how I used to be in bands was that I was thinking sort of about going to see Eggy at the Curtin this evening, and I did, though I basically just saw the last skerrick of their show and it was too crowded and hot and so on. It was easy to see them from the side of the stage though and wow, that snare. I mean it sounded amazing from where I was standing here. From the back of the room, not that noticeable. Anyway I would like to see them again soon and do it properly. 

BTW Lygon St on a Friday night in Summer is fuckin' mental. That thing of like eight boys in their late teens, some of them look 12, some of them look 17 going on 47, at least one has a moustache that looks like it was pencilled on... hilarious. But you know the gelati is amazeballs. 

losing it

It's amazing to me now to think that 15 years ago (that's a random time but probably true - let's say 20 to be safe) I was still active in the live music scene* and would have a part of my brain dedicated to whatever songs whatever band I was in had going at the time and we might be offered shows or seek a show and put together a lineup with others and sort out the equipment and playing times and advertising (draw or otherwise create a handbill etc) and it'd be this thing that would happen. Rehearsals on a reasonably regular schedule and no grand plans for anything big in the future (except, also, recording, for record releases - in the golden late 90s when tangible music media was the only way and you'd just have people ready to invest money in your things - amazing to think about that now) but just maintaining that. It is pretty incredible. I feel like that capacity, or tendency or whatever you want to call it, has just broken off and floated away, it absolutely no longer exists.

Of course I have new abilities now which I didn't have then, so I'm not saying it's diminished returns but I hadn't really thought about this until now and now I'm thinking about it I'm like, wow, oh man. 

*Not with ambitions or pretensions to being a star or even a local hero but part of the community - it really was a situation of I go and see your band, you go and see mine, 'hey you were great tonight' etc. Supportive. I got very philosophical about the transitional nature of it at some point but really it's just in the realm of any hobby. I have no idea what the 2025 versions of that are, but I know there are undoubtedly many. 

division 4 'a waste of time' 12 july 1972

Keith Eden is Arthur Morrison, recently released from prison and hoping to go straight and/or meet his estranged son. There are lots of extremely interesting elements to this episode, starting with the opening sequence presumably shot from upstairs at Flinders St station. This is the intersection of Elizabeth and Flinders st and the tram terminus which is very drab and sparse compared to the glories of today. 

Irritatingly we are led to believe (I suppose it isn't outright stated) that the central character in this episode has come from Pentridge. But the 57 doesn't go past Pentridge, it just doesn't. Imagine thinking it did. 

The priest who was travelling with him goes to the tram stop in Flinders St which suggests to me that he lives in the eastern suburbs but actually we see his home later and it's in Yarra Central so who knows what he was up to, going places he shouldn't. 

Morrison tries to buy a second class ticket on the train and he's told they don't have those anymore. He was in prison for five years (which means he went in in 1967) and they stopped second class tickets (switched to 'economy') in March 1970.*

He goes to where he used to live, apparently it's Risley St, Richmond - that's not a guess. They're building something there, unclear what it is in the show, but it's clear now, it's a car park. 

Keith Eden, 1917-2003. I always like it when people born early in the 20th century get into the 21st. He is a great character actor, Crawfords had so many! I wonder if this was him... (Age 4 September 2000 p. 11). By the way, Bolte was dead 13 years by this time. 

 * 'No more second class: no it's economy' Melbourne Age 25 October 1969 p. 3