esp

I guess I just wanted to say that I got very temporarily interested in the Eastern Suburbs Permanent Building Society after seeing that Sunny Bear was at Boronia Mall in 1973 with his free giveaways and that the kids will love him and his free giveaways. I don't know what his free giveaways were but I would really like to know. But in the meantime I just wanted to mention that the ESPBS started in the mid-1950s and grew big and then in the early 80s merged with another BS to become merely The Permanent Building Society which might have helped with the embarrassment of having branches in other places, such as the western suburbs or Frankston for that matter where they were victims of a major fraud by an employee who the judge decided not to give a custodial sentence to as her life had been awful. This ad is from the Age 14 September 1976 p. 23
 

happy fiftieth anniversary boronia mall

 

Laura and I spent a while there on 27 May and noticed it was soon to have a significant birthday. 

It was much less rundown and drab than we had been led to believe, though it's true some shops were empty. Nevertheless - it's a really amazing place and needs more care and appreciation. May it live on.

Oh, and I (who titled a post on this blog with a reference to a 'right-off' about fifteen years ago and only noticed last week) always like to poke fun at others' typos/poor English/ whatever you want to call it: 

This isn't even an example of that, it's just, I don't know, funny emphasis I suppose. 

It was a Buchan, Laird and Buchan design (they've been featuring a lot in my research lately, though conversely I wouldn't know any of them if they stood up in my cornflakes). The building apparently once had a large sculpture in the foyer which I don't think it does anymore. No mention in the advertising material of who made the tiles or how. I will contact Sunny Bear and see what he has to say and/or whether he has any more of those free giveaways. Btw I didn't know, or had forgotten, Rosemary Morgan had died, shame, she seemed nice. 

11 September 1973 p. 17 passim